With the advent of information technology (IT), offices are moving away from paper documentation. Using computers is now commonplace when it comes to storing information, more so if it is valuable. Documents in digital format last much longer than those stored in paper format.
The legal community has benefited the most from electronic storage solutions. Most established practices have legal document management systems in place. These systems reduce office storage space requirements since large amounts of legal data can be compressed and stored safely on a hard drive. In addition, legal data can be accessed worldwide with web-based document management systems.
Setting up a legal document management system involves the following steps:
- The documents are scanned to JPEG or TIFF format and run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The resultant image files can be copied into a Microsoft Word document and edited if necessary.
- The documents are bate-numbered, uploaded to the document management system repositories, and saved after indexing and coding.
- Processed legal document are coded using two methods: objective coding and subjective coding. Objective coding involves coding of data with information such as sender, receiver, date, and so on. Subjective coding involves preparation of the review and summary of whole document to meet specific requirements.
- Documents uploaded to the legal document management system can be located and accessed whenever necessary using the legal codes, thereby saving lot of time and effort.
If you want to focus on your legal activities and run your practice efficiently, it’s best to allow professionals to set up your legal document management system. A reliable business process outsourcing (BPO) company specialized in offering quality document management solutions can help you.
