TechnoLawyer: Copiers/Scanners/Printers

Coming July 2, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Corey Rich reviews the Samsung SyncMaster 226BW, and Ken Laska offers some tips on how to select your next scanner. Don't miss this issue.

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Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming July 1, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Michael Sheppeard shares several tips that will make you a happier Windows user and spare you the expense of switching to Mac, and William Lloyd reviews HP's LaserJet M4345 MFP printer. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 30, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Paul Easton reviews PaperPort and Nuance's technical support (plus shares his thoughts on paid support in general), and Philip Franckel reviews Canon's ScanFront 220P and LexisNexis CaseMap. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 24, 2008 to TechnoFeature: The paperless trend has almost every law firm looking for the perfect scanner. Here to help, attorney Bryan Sims reviews the ScanFront 220P — a network scanner from Canon. Bryan describes the different features, explains how he tested it in his practice, and offers some buying advice for large and small firms. Could the ScanFront 220P take your firm from papermore to paperless? Read Bryan's review to find out.

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Coming May 29, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Wendy Parker reviews ExpressScribe and ExpressDictate from NCH, Michael Campbell reviews LexisNexis and Westlaw (and shares an insider's tip regarding Lexis' adhesion contract), Kurt Schoettler explains how to copy and paste from Word to WordPerfect without any formatting, Lawrence King reviews Ergotron's dual monitor stands, and Morris Tabush explains how to set up a wireless scanner. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming May 22, 2008 to Answers to Questions: John Starkweather reviews MasterFile litigation support software, Miriam Jacobson explains how she set up her scanner on a wireless network, Kendra Kleber shares the details of her office furniture setup and why it works for her, Douglas Folk provides a simple solution to keep power fluctuations from affecting legal software (and damaging hardware), and Andrew Willinger reviews Yahoo Calendar for law firms. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming May 14, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Jason Havens clarifies his position regarding practice management software installation and consultants, Robert McNeill shares several ways to research practice management solutions plus he reviews the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510, and Dean Birch reviews Xerox's DocuMate 262 scanner. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming May 8, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Ed Detlie suggests a few case management software options for a workers compensation practice plus he reviews the ScanSnap s510, David Adamski reviews Loislaw for legal research and comments on adhesion contracts, Edward Zohn explains how his firm archives its Exchange/Outlook-based email, Harry Steinmetz reviews Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition and Amicus Accounting, and Thomas Hutto reviews Backpack and Google calendar for shared calendaring. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

TechShow board members Paul Unger of HMU Consulting and Debbie Foster of inTouch Legal spoke to a capacity crowd of small-office and solo lawyers, many of them refugees from large firms who needed to unlearn then relearn a host of practice skills.

Using a short but informative PowerPoint presentation, the speakers explored the following paperless office topics:

Return on Investment
Eliminate the need to retype pleadings. Scan all your incoming documents, and scan and store existing documents. Pay attention to storage and security for all your files. Searching for files versus finding them.

Formats: PDF (Portable Document Format) Versus TIF (Tagged Image Format)
PDF for office use, TIF for trial presentations. Use JPG for photographs and graphics. TWAIN functionality in your scanner ensures interoperability.

Hardware Options
Fujitsu ScanSnap ($350-$500) — entry-level model.
Fujitsu 6140C ($1,500-$2,000) — fastest, quietest.
Canon ScanFront 220 ($1,800-$2,200) — new kid on the block, no computer needed.

Paul prefers scanners connected to a computer because of increased functionality. He listed the Canon ScanFront 220 to solicit feedback from the audience, but typically uses the Fujitsu line with his clientele.

Examples
1. Typical Workflow: Begin with a Fujitsu ScanSnap or any good sheet-fed scanner (200-300 dpi). Convert to PDF and recognize text via OCR (e.g. Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 or OmniPage). Send output to a document management tool (e.g. Worldox) or search for what you  need later using Google Desktop Search or Copernic.

2. Scan for Efficiency: Start with all incoming mail on a given day and scan/OCR it into a dedicated, dated mail folder for each firm member. The folder should reside centrally or be available online so it can be accessed anytime by the firm member who can  then review and distribute mail to those who need to process it. Do the same with phone message slips, sticky-notes, etc. to render them  electronic and searchable.

As an aside and as someone whose small law firm uses such a system, I suggest tagging each scanned document to organize and search later via Google Desktop or Copernic.

Conclusion
Savings: Less on-site storage space can save thousands per year.

Low Cost: Convert documents to searchable PDF for as little as 3 cents/page if outsourced, and much less if you do the scanning yourself.

Software: Acrobat Professional, ABBYY FineReader, OmniPage

Search: Entry-level search choices include Google Desktop and Copernic Desktop Search.

Storage/Backup: Swappable hard drives onsite plus an online backup service for offsite protection in the event of a fire, natural disaster, etc.

Document Management System: Worldox or Interwoven WorkSite, etc.

Read more firsthand reports from ABA TechShow 2008.

About TechnoLawyer Trade Show Reports
Even in today's wired world, trade shows continue to play an important role. But not everyone can attend trade shows. Hence, our trade show reports, which bring trade shows to you. You can find our trade show reports here in TechnoLawyer Blog, and also in TechnoGuide, a free newsletter that also contains exclusive content. Learn more about TechnoGuide.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a new visual mapping technology for reviewing email and other discovery documents (see article below), a multifunction printer with special legal-specific features, and a software application with a new twist on backups. Don't miss the next issue.

See Discovery Documents in a Whole New Way
By Neil J. Squillante

You need to get from Point A to Point B, the only problem being that you haven't made this journey before. So you ask a couple of friends. One scribbles down some instructions for you. The other hands you a GPS device, which combines turn-by-turn instructions with a map that shows you the way. Bingo!

Litigators already know from trial exhibits that visuals used in conjunction with verbal and written testimony can dramatically enhance comprehension. So why limit visuals to the end of the litigation process? So asks InterLegis, which has added a new component called "Visual Analytics" to Discovery360, its soup-to-nuts Web-based discovery tool.

Visual Analytics essentially maps the data within a collection of discovery documents (including email). In doing so, it can show you clusters of related documents as well as spikes in activity related to a key issue or term. As a result, you can focus your attention on the documents most likely to contain important evidence, thus making the review process faster.

Visual Analytics also shows you relationships among documents that might otherwise remain hidden. For example, reviewers can map out all of a custodian's documents, cluster them by file type and link those documents to all recipients in order to uncover unique patterns of activity. Also, the mapping that Visual Analytics generates can serve as the basis for a timeline and improve your understanding of the case, especially in the early going.

Let's face it — few lawyers enjoy document review. It's both difficult and tedious, a rare combination that results in a vicious cycle. InterLegis claims that Visual Analytics can make document review more enjoyable not only by speeding it up, but by enabling you to focus more on the facts and issues (the difficult component) and less on administration and logistics (the tedious component).

The new Visual Analytics component is built into the core of Discovery360 so you can use it throughout the discovery lifecycle. As we reported last year, Discovery360 includes tools for all stages of electronic discovery, including collection, processing, review, analysis, and production.  Learn more about Discovery360 and its new Visual Analytics component.

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