Document Imaging

As a trusted member of your office’s legal team, one of your support roles as a paralegal may be to research and make technology purchases, including hardware—whether computers, cell phones, fax machines, or other devices. In the following exercise, you will be part of your office’s decision-making process regarding a high-speed scanner.

The legal assistant in a corporate legal department, you are responsible for tracking hundreds of real estate transactions throughout the U.S. every year. Keeping track of the paperwork is beginning to overwhelm you as you try to stay organized.

Because you work with attorneys and corporate staff all over the country, it would be nice to forward electronic versions of real estate records, title searches, and other records. Because many of the documents are in the hardcopy format, you would have to convert the documents to images.

By the due date assigned, use the Web sites introduced this week, including Find Law-Law Firm Hardware, TechnoLawyer, Law Firm Management—Find Law or other legal and/or professional websites providing information and reviews on scanners to write a short paper on imaging.

After visiting these Web site, answer the following questions:

• How much do high-speed scanners cost?
• How accurate is imaging?
• Do many legal organizations use imaging?
• Would you recommend the move to imaging?