Law firms have to cope with issues that range from communicating between departments and parties to managing the never-ending flow of paper making its way in and out of the office.

The Evidence
With areas of practice which include civil litigation, personal injury, medical malpractice, mortgage foreclosures, estates, corporations and mediation, the law firm of Hutchens, Senter & Britton, P.A., a practice with 178 staff and 3 North Carolina offices, had two recent matters that it needed to address.

The firm’s medical malpractice and personal injury department needed an in-house solution for color photos and graphics. Outsourcing the work was expensive and time-consuming. In addition, the bankruptcy court system began requiring all law firms to file paperwork digitally as PDFs. The rule implemented, documents had to be scanned to a computer, which converted the file into a PDF, and attached to an email message. Although, with high workloads and deadlines, this process was not a significant improvement over paper filing.

The Verdict
Sometimes the answer, however, can be as simple as implementing new multifunctional systems that have the capability to copy, print in color, fax, and scan-to-email.

The firm purchased color printers recommended by its office equipment provider. These devices scan and send detailed photos in a matter of minutes, print color images for use in court, and attach an image to its correct document and file it electronically. A MFP was also adopted that, with the push of a button, could quickly create a PDF and email the scanned documents directly to the federal bankruptcy court. The law firm is now capable of efficiently sending documents between its multiple locations.

Now, instead of long distance faxes or courier services, documents are scanned to email and arrive as attachments almost instantly. The multifunctional systems scan documents directly into the firm’s existing document management system for storage. Therfore, they can be scanned from branch offices, which allows staff throughout the firm to immediately access documents and assorted files.