Documents, contracts and emails are the lifeblood of any legal professional. They are the means by which legal professionals can levy years of expertise in order to serve organizations and clients. But they also create numerous assets that require constant organization and upkeep. Without it, finding what you need when you need it could make or break all your legal efforts.
This is why creating, storing, searching, revising, sharing, automating, securing and delivering documents should be as seamless as possible. Legal professionals are increasingly turning to matter management software to streamline these assets and centralize access within their organization. With best matter management software, legal professionals can manage a wide range of documents, including (but not limited to):
- Policies/claims
- File facts/issues
- Court proceedings
- Evidence
- Pleadings
- Legal holds
- Contract management
- Invoices
- Emails
4 Ways Matter Management Centralizes Your Legal Documents
It’s crucial to keep any important item organized and easily accessible—from car keys and valuables to legal documents and emails. But, properly managing important assets also leads to increased productivity and efficiency. Here are just a few reasons it’s a good idea to invest in the right matter management solution.
- Remote access to documents and emails anytime, anywhere.
With the increased number of individuals working remotely, the need for accessing important documents quickly and easily via the web has never been higher. With all your documents housed within a matter management system, you can quickly search for the documents you need and gain access to them in real-time, no matter where you are. And since many legal documents are constantly evolving, the need for a one-step process to edit existing documents in real-time and save changes to the matter management system—without having to upload anything manually—can be a huge time saver. Gone are the days of leaving an important document at the office or on a co-worker’s desk and needing to retrieve it. With everything stored digitally, you can rest assured knowing all the documents you need are in a centralized location and accessible whenever you need from your laptop, smartphone, tablet, or other authorized device.
- Reduce risk and liability through enhanced security.
It’s important to select a matter management platform that prioritizes security and can provide a history of proven standards and secure reputation. Many organizations utilize third parties for hosting data to gain an extra level of protection and security since they’re required to pass stringent tests and certification processes. A good matter management software will also provide a self-hosted option for those organizations who can’t or won’t permit outside hosting. This flexibility offers peace of mind and makes all the difference when entrusting a legal email management vendor..
When it comes to sharing these documents, many organizations have traditionally passed legal documents and sensitive files back and forth via secure email links. However, this process can be tedious and time consuming. With matter management software, files are shared with clients, colleagues and third parties directly via the legal software. Plus, everything is tracked, saved and shared in one place. You can assign permissions directly within the software, giving you full control over who can access the documents. Version tracking and document history also take productivity and organization to the next level.
- Increase productivity among team members.
Legal teams have weathered many adjustments over the past year or so, and the shift from the traditional office setting to remote work has not come without challenges. One of the biggest issues teams have faced is how to remain productive despite not working together in the same location. This dynamic has exposed the importance of technology that boosts productivity and communication. With a matter management platform, legal professionals can gain access to all the documents associated with their cases or matters from a single platform in an organized and cohesive way—taking productivity to the next level.
Matter management systems can index documents for easy storage and retrieval by specific parameters that you’ve specified. This allows you to fully customize a legal document management system that works uniquely for your organization. Every document someone creates or copies into the matter management system can quickly be retrieved.
- Securely share files with relevant team members and clients.
Even when working remotely, there are instances where team members need to be “out of the office” and someone else needs to step in and take over. If case files and emails are scattered, this transition of work to another colleague can’t occur, much less be seamless. When all your files and emails are centrally located, any team member can easily access and share assets when needed.
But it’s important to ensure your confidential files don’t end up in the wrong hands. A good matter management system enables security protections through document routing features with secure sending to individual or multiple users.
Document Management Features to Look For in a Software Provider
Here are a few of the features to look for when it comes to document protection, sharing and security functionality:
- Document versioning to keep track of any changes made
- Anti-delete
- Anti-editing after sending
- Inability to access specific documents without access to a case/matter
- Second-level security, including private document access, read only (lock) or update access even with full case/matter access
When these features are in place, you can easily transition one person’s case to another if the need arises—without the added worry of unauthorized access or increased risks.
Centralization Takes Legal Productivity to New Levels
Many organizations are looking for ways to be more productive and spend less time tracking down files and emails so they can focus on strategy and relationship building instead. With Legal Files’ built-in lawyer document management features, you can access all your important documents remotely from a central location. Through indexing, versioning and full text search capabilities, you can easily access legal documents and emails or share with approved team members no matter where they are.
With 30 years of experience supporting organizations across a number of industries, Legal Files Legal Document Sharing Software, Inc. offers legal professionals such a system. Legal Files provides the document storage sharing, and organization capabilities needed to focus on the bigger picture of matter management and overall legal operations.
“I knew the advantages Legal Files would give us from my time using the program at my previous job. Our department provides the city with advice and counsel on numerous municipal matters, so Legal Files’ ability to track all these issues and automate workflows based on the type of matter is going to make a major difference in our daily work.”
Gabriela Torres, Deputy City Attorney
The City of National City (California), a Legal Files Customer
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