Document management is an integral part of doing business in any industry or service organization. For legal teams, the need for law practice management software is emphasized by the importance of:
- Availability of accurate information on a timely basis
- Confidentiality
- Collaboration among firm partners and clients
Implementing a document management solution enables legal firms to organize and share critical information securely and efficiently.
Why Legal Firms Need Document Management
Printing and manually distributing legal documents and case correspondence takes time, costs money, and adds to the burdens of case management for attorneys, paralegals, and administrative teams. There is potential for misplaced or lost documents, or information being visible to unauthorized parties.
Using the technology provided by law practice management software to control and distribute documents throughout the firm improves efficiency and provides better service to clients in many critical ways.
1. Communication
Attorneys and support staff are often away from the office when information is needed, or when they get new information. With web-based document management, all parties have access to information at their fingertips, whenever they need it, and wherever they are.
Having information available to consult with clients and collaborate with the legal team is a tremendous advantage over returning to the office or making calls to get the information needed.
With the proper authority, documents can be reviewed, added, edited, or printed as needed.
2. Productivity
The efficiency of a legal team is essential to provide the best service to clients. With document management, you can create and use standard templates to streamline creation of legal forms, document case-related discussions, and simplify many other day-to-day business functions.
Storing information in your cloud-based document management system permits ease of access and facilitates client file sharing. You can store any document in the system – court records, emails, plea documents, police reports, and more. All are indexed for fast search and reference capability.
A document management system will also integrate with familiar office tools such as Word, Excel, and Outlook, to connect multiple types of documents and formats into legal matters for a comprehensive view of all data related to a case.
3. Security
Legal firms deal with a large variety of confidential documents. Access to much of this information is governed by practice policies, legal requirements, or compliance mandates.
Document management provides complete control over who has access to information. This is customizable to meet the needs of your firm, giving you control over who can create, modify, view, or delete information or entire documents.
Only parties with the proper authority have access to information in the system. Security includes storing documents in encrypted form to protect information and meet all industry standards and requirements for privacy.
Paper documents can be lost, misfiled, or buried in a stack of papers on a partner’s desk. Document management solves the problem by electronically indexing it to the applicable case or client – available at a moment’s notice.
4. Organization
Document management systems do much more than store documents for legal firms. With the proper use of such systems, you can organize and track every element of a case to make case management easier and more consistent for administrative staff and attorneys.
Interviews, complaints, court documents, emails, and any related information are easily referenced and searched for content efficiently and securely. As documents are edited, version control can track changes to retain the integrity and allow the discovery of original content. This can be invaluable for case management and dealing with clients or witnesses.
Documents retain tracking details that reveal who created the documents, when they were created, and more. This can be extremely useful for future reference and to ensure transparency for client billing purposes.
Managing legal content in the cloud is an efficient way to provide content that is up-to-date immediately and available to everyone on your legal team from anywhere – even while meeting with clients or conducting investigations.
5. Client Service
Fast access to information is a critical asset in optimizing service to your clients. There is no need to get back to the office to look up information or to refer to case documents. Every document, form, email, and discussion note are available online, with searchable content to find what you need quickly and efficiently.
Both clients and your legal team benefit from fast, secure access to critical information and the potential for client file sharing with other members of the team.
Let Doing Better Business Help Your Legal Team
Doing Better Business (DBB) works with our legal firm customers to achieve the many benefits of implementing a complete document management solution. Storing critical documents securely in the cloud for instant retrieval and collaboration with clients and legal teams provides many other benefits over the use of paper documents.
Contact DBB document management professionals for more details on how a full-featured document management system can give your legal firm a strategic advantage.