IT and the lawyer
03 April 2008

Article taken from GhostDigest 27 March 2008, the "Assistant-at-Law" has identified the five biggest wasters of a law firm's time and resources. Have a look what they are?

E-mail: a tree's worst nightmare
Printed e-mails are a stunning waste of time, trees, money and space. It's time legal secretaries, paralegals and, yes, even lawyers started using the built-in archiving function that comes with e-mail software.

Correspondence deja vu
Multiple sending of emails, letters and faxes is a waste of time and resources.

E-file, then refile
Not only a link to the filed document is sent, but the document itself is then sent by mail. Lawyers who persist in this practice should have their computers confiscated

The $2,000 typewriter
Firms must acknowledge the time and money they waste by not providing adequate training to everyone who creates documents. It's time to stop this haemorrhaging of profits and make good word processing practices mandatory for all personnel.

The paper chase
When will the bean counters realize shared printers are more costly, not less? Aside from the reams of wasted paper, the gallons of toner and the needless wear on printer components, there are the hours staff and lawyers spend printing everything multiple times and sifting through stacks of unclaimed pages.

Original article on www.law.com

www.ghostdigest.co.za