(Originally published on Colorado Social Security Law)

I was recently interviewed for Canada’s Lawyers Weekly magazine about how I took my law office paperless.

“I have been practising on my own since 2002 and slowly filling up a wall of shelving with bankers’ boxes of files,” said Colorado Springs, CO-based attorney Tomasz Stasiuk. “When it came time to start another wall of boxes, that started me thinking of going digital.”

“Now, when I receive medical records on paper, they get scanned in, the paper is destroyed and the digital copy is all I keep. I submit records to Social Security digitally.”

Stasiuk reviews documents with visitors on computer monitors instead of printouts. “They’re impressed by the speed, the efficiency, the ‘wow factor’ of my technical set-up,” he said.

Such habits also communicate environmental responsibility, as paper, toner and electricity usage plummet. Stasiuk reckons he prints one-tenth as much paper as he did before committing to digital files.

You can read the entire article here.

(Originally published on Colorado Social Security Law)

“Paperless” does not mean having no paper in your office. It simply means not relying on paper as the sole means of keeping information.

Attorneys who have gone “paperless” either get documents digitally or scan in all documents coming in to the office.

Is your attorney “paperless?” If not, should he be?

YES!

1. Digital storage of all documents allows for instantaneous recall of documents at all workstations. No more trying to figure out where the file is: is it in the partner’s office, with the secretary, in the associate’s car? In a “paperless” office the file is always available.
2. Digital storage allows for copies in multiple locations. If your attorney uses paper files, what would happen if your attorney’s office had a fire? Or if there was a flood? Or a hurricane? No attorney I know who still uses paper, keeps multiple copies of paper documents in different locations in case of a disaster. But in digital offices it is easy to make duplicate copies of all records and store them out of the office, or even in another state! If disaster strikes, there is always another copy.
3. Attorneys who have gone digital can use Social Security’s Electronic Records Express (ERE) service to digitally submit records directly into their client’s files at Social Security. This allows nearly instantaneous electronic submission of evidence directly into the Social Security file, eliminating mailing and filing delays. Electronically submitted evidence is instantly associated with a client’s file and immediately available for review by Social Security, potentially resulting in a faster decision. ERE is gives Social Security much higher quality documents than is possible with faxes, and in color.

Going digital with my office has let me leap ahead of other practitioners and provide greater service to my clients. Every medical record we have is just a few keystrokes away.

(Originally published on Colorado Social Security Law)

There are a lot of myths about going paperless

Scanned records are only black and white. I have documents with graphics, highlighted sections, signatures, and notes in pen. If I scan it, it won’t look the same.

False. Today’s scanners scan color at the same speeds as black and white. You can have all the advantages of digital documents and still have the highlighted sections, signatures in blue ink, and even color pictures or graphics.

I’ve seen scans. They are blurry and low quality.

They can be, but they do not have to be. The scanners in my office are fast enough to scan at a high resolution allowing for crisp, clean digital images.

I prefer to read from paper. I don’t want to have to read everything from a computer screen.

You do not have to! Print off a copy. Jot down notes on it. Highlight it. Your coffee cup left a ring on it? Don’t worry, it is just a copy. The original is safe in the computer. And if you find that you want to preserve the notes you made on the print out, just scan it in!

Computers crash, hard drives fail. What happens to my digital files then?

Yes, hard drives fail. But, paper burns, or stains, or pages can get stuck together. Heck, mice will even eat paper. Physical paper files get misplaced or lost. Do you “back-up” your paper? Or, are your paper files the only originals you have?

With digital files, it is easy to make back-up copies, even multiple back-up copies. On the whole, digital files are more secure then paper files.

When you scan documents, you lose any secret notes someone may have written on the back of a document.

Nope. My scanner does duplex scanning (scanning both the front and back of pages). I get the whole document, including any notes on the back.

Scanning is just a gimmick. It doesn’t do anything for the client.

I will admit there is a “wow” factor when I hand back my client’s original document seconds after receiving it and the digital version comes right up on the monitor facing the client. But, the real value is that I can pull up any document, any letter, any record, on any case, from my laptop at any time. That is the real wow!