Legal document management software can play a critical role in  good legal document management systems.

Legal Document Management Systems

Legal document management systems are critical for the smooth running of the modern legal practice and law office. The need to ensure an avoidance of professional negligence claims from clients and the need to comply with the various regulatory requirements of the relevant professional body in your state. Legal document management is vital if you are ever facing an inspection or a claim from a disgruntled client and your ability to run your defense will depend very much on the quality of your legal document management.

Law offices are still very reliant on paper documents, pleadings, case notes, attendance notes and so on but there has been a move towards a paperless office which should provide greater efficiencies and cost reduction to legal practices.

Electronic Document Management Software

It is critical for legal practices to manage their legal documents efficiently and they are required by law to retain documents and records for predefined periods of time to ensure that they can meet any professional lawsuits that they may face down the road. Electronic document management software can play a vital role in driving down costs and running a more efficient law office.

Any document management system should also have regard for the use of electronically stored documents in evidence in subsequent legal proceedings and the increasing use of electronic signatures in emails etc. mean that the requirements for safe custody of your legal documents is vital.

The critical role of legal document management software arises when hard copies of legal documents are required for court. The ease with which the lawyer and his legal team can put their hands on hard copies of their legal documents for an impending legal battle is vital and a good document management software system is critical and time efficient.

The right legal document management software is critical to make provision for the different ways that different law practices number and label their legal files. Some smaller legal practices are using hosted online document management systems.

Knowledge Tree

Knowledge tree is an open source document management software that allows the safe custody and retrieval of legal documents. The legal document management software provided by Knowledge tree is in compliance with the Sarbanes Oxley Act and allows the freezing of documents to ensure that there is no subsequent editing. This ensures greater evidential weight of your electronic legal documents at trial.

You also have access to document audit trails and this legal document management software allows remote collaboration between legal professionals. It allows the scanning and storage of all your documents with a search facility for each document.

It also is adaptable to the method by which an individual law firm has historically numbered and labelled it’s files.

Any legal document management software should enable you to organize and easily access all electronically stored documents by scanning, imaging and merging in a database which is easily searchable and makes provision for transcription management.

Some of the leading legal document management software providers include Amicus Attorney.

Amicus Attorney

Amicus Attorney was designed by lawyers for lawyers and allows archiving and retention of documents and all of your legal firm’s information into an automated system which should increase efficiency and lower costs.

It provides workflow management, mobile access, document indexing, tagging, data import/export and customizable functionality.

Elnfotree

Elnfotree is another serious player in the legal document management market and it’s electronic document management provides for audit trails, electronic signatures, email management, file management and many other features.

The elnfotree document management system allows content distribution across a complete organization through the use of a highly graphical web based interface. It allows for file management, database management, organization of data, spreadsheet management, security, standardization in file naming, electronic records audit trail and so on.

It enables the reduction of the need for physical storage, eliminates photocopying, allows simultaneous access and a complete document life cycle management.

A progressive legal practice should be looking seriously at the options provided by legal document management software as we move closer towards the paperless office. The benefits of reduced costs in storage and document management together with the efficiencies to be gained make this type of software essential for a progressive law office.