Legal Solutions

 

It can be convincingly argued that no other profession has more at stake with accurate document management than the legal profession. Entire lives and the future of entire companies, even countries can be adversely affected by improper management of the millions of documents, images and forms from a lengthy court case. Perhaps this is why document management for the legal profession is in a relatively advanced state when compared to other complex professions. This, however, does not mean such solutions have always been implemented for optimal performance or taken advantage of new technology.

 

Ricoh Alliances can offer large and mid-size law firms either an entire document management system or an a la carte solution that will make your firm faster, demonstrate better quality control and more profitable. Your partners will be able to spend more time working profitably and your paralegals will work more effectively.

 

A changing landscape

The Electronic Court Filing (ECF) revolution is forever changing the nature of storage and retrieval of legal evidence, documents and images. In fact, the Supreme Court may very soon mandate this new method. While the transition to paperless storage of typed documents is not a stretch of the imagination for most firms, almost all cases include exhibits in wildly varying formats – drawings, photos, signed documents and handwritten notes. Using a solution from Ricoh Alliances, all of these can be efficiently captured, stored and retrieved saving thousands of man-hours.

 

Some things change, some stay the same

The legal profession has many processes that have proven very effective and should, therefore, be adapted for continued use in this new paradigm. The Bates numbering system, for instance, is a tried and true method for referring to evidentiary documents. However, the current method of overworked paralegals staying up at all hours of the night peeling and applying stickers to documents is out. Ricoh Alliance solutions are in.

 

Other basic functions of a law practice can be made more efficient. Often, attorneys need a simple and convenient way to scan documents repeatedly. Ricoh Alliance solutions allow a one-button interface for scanning and automatic distribution to a pre-set list or right into a database.

 

One law firm has a staff of 165 employees, including 80 attorneys, in five offices across the United States. A Ricoh Alliance solution for this firm might include an instant connection between our multi-function product (MFP) and a document workflow application from one of our Alliance Members. Couple that with an Alliance Member’s document management application and employees anywhere in the company can scan, store, distribute and retrieve documents – from an office, from home or from the courthouse. Now, the firm’s employees can bridge the gap between the paper-oriented world of the legal profession and the court systems’ requirements for immediate access to information.

 

Is your firm right for a Ricoh Alliance solution?

Your firm had certainly better have a proper documents management solution. If you have one in place now, consider if it’s optimized. We can talk to you about instances in which companies thought they were going in the right direction, yet had unknowingly installed needlessly complex systems requiring nearly as much labor as they were promised to alleviate. If you’re looking to upgrade, you can do no better than to ally yourself with the proven team from Ricoh Alliances. We are industry-leading software companies, content management systems integrators, consulting and technology companies brought together by Ricoh to provide innovative digital imaging, content/document management and print solutions to companies that seek a competitive edge.

 

For a copy of our Legal Solutions brochure, please click here.