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Pamela DeNeuve

Lawyer & Law Firm Peak Performance Strategist

Conquer Document Review: Reduce Costs and Take on More Cases

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This week I am pleased to share a post about reducing the costs of Document Review by friends over at Legal Workplace. By Joe Kelly, CEO of Legal Workspace

Document review

Document review: It’s not glamorous, but it is important. Smart attorneys know that better document review leads to the discovery of better evidence.

Because document review can be such an overwhelming task, it’s crucial to have software in place that assists your team. Document management software can automate, organize, and classify documents properly. It saves time, and it boosts accuracy.

How much of your document review software’s functionality do you use?

Your firm may already use document management or practice management applications—but most law firms use only 40 percent of the functionality [link to: https://legal-workspace.com/workflow-workspace-become-productive-efficient/] of their legal software.

What are you missing? Most document review software indexes, searches, and extracts text and metadata. But, there are other features that you might not be aware of—or might not know how to utilize.

For example, some software instantly recognizes duplicates, which allows you to act on those documents simultaneously. Others offer early assessment tools that can help you focus on strategy sooner. Still others provide instant translation.

Not using those kinds of features costs law firms money and time.

Reduce costs, meet deadlines

Understanding what your document management application makes possible—and then taking advantage of those features—is key to efficiency and productivity.

The RAND Corporation found that 73 percent of document review project expenses[link to: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG1208.html] are spent on document reviewers. When you fully utilize your software, you decrease the number of person hours required for document review. And, reducing the amount of time spent on document review also helps your review team meet deadlines or even get ahead of schedule—which gives your firm the potential to take on more cases.

In other words, taking full advantage of the features available in your legal software could very well result in both reduced costs and increased profits.

What do you need from a great document review tool?

Not all document review applications are created equal. To make sure you get what you need to save time and money, look for these features:

·      Keyword searching

Most document review applications offer some level of keyword search, but some allow for more complex searches than others.

·      Robust search capabilities, including keywords to exclude

Sometimes what not to search for is just as important as what to search for. Enhanced search capabilities can save a significant amount of time.

·      Ability to group documents together based on criteria

This feature streamlines the review process, allowing you to take a nonlinear approach to finding the most important documents, rather than just starting at the beginning and ending at the end.

·      Ability to compare different versions and changes side-by-side

Flipping between different versions wastes time and energy—and could lead to increased human error.

·      Ability to flag, highlight and make notes when reviewing

Having your team’s notes all in one place means nothing gets lost.

·      Integration with document management tools that you may already use

If you are part of a tech-savvy law firm, a document review application isn’t the only type of legal software you use. Integrating your document review software with your practice management software could allow you to take advantage of workflow automation, for example.

Clients and management both want greater efficiency (and accuracy). Finding the right document review software—and using it to the fullest of its capabilities—will give your firm an edge.

If you need assistance selecting document review software or maxing out its effectiveness, Legal Workspace’s application support specialists can help.

About the author: Joe Kelly is the founder and CEO of Legal Workspace, a service that offers law firms virtual computing workspaces in the cloud. He is an entrepreneur who is constantly looking to leverage technology to make it easier for law firms to do business.

Thank you for sharing your information Joe Kelley.

pamela@pameladeneuve.com

www.pameladeneuve.com

20 minute consultation available schedule a call

My calendar:   calendly.com/pdeneuve

#Lawyers #Solicitors #Attorneys #Barristers #AttorneyatLaw #Lawfirm #BigLaw #DocumentReview

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