Several years ago, after too many lost files caused too much lost time, Freeman, Freeman & Smiley decided to take records management a lot more seriously.   “A lost file is lost time,” says Art Miller, information systems manager for the 35-attorney Los Angeles-based law firm, “and you don’t just make that up.”  So the firm began looking for a new, up-to-date records management system that would be integrated with its time and billing system for seamless workflow.   

What FF&S found to fill the bill was file folder management software with barcode capabilities that enable, via a lightweight and portable handheld device, electronic scanning and tracking of the location of every file in the firm’s offices and offsite — and then checking them in and out when required.  The system has reduced the amount of time spent in locating files, and it has brought more efficiency to all firm personnel needing access to records.

The benefits of the latest records management technologies are obviously not unique to FF&S.  New features such as portable bar coding have made keeping track of client files from initial creation to offsite storage extremely easy for law firms of varying sizes around the country. 

For example, New Orleans-based Frilot Partridge currently uses similar file folder management, mainly for tracking documents that have been moved offsite.  According to Ray Lightell, the firm’s administrator,  “Being able to know exactly where files from pertinent closed matters are located at any given time has enabled our attorneys to focus on servicing our clients with little headache and worry,” he says.  “Our attorneys request a file, and we can locate it within seconds rather than hours or days.  This means they can continue to prepare their cases without delay.  This file folder management technology, tightly coupled with the time and billing, financial accounting and budgeting, to name a few capabilities, is an integral part of our work environment.” 

How Does It Work?
File folder management software keeps a historical, electronic record of a file’s physical location, a much more reliable system than the manual one FF&S formerly used.  According to James Sneed, Records Manager at FF&S, the firm tried to create file folder records, but no one was really paying attention to who had the file.  With this system, an attorney or secretary logs a dated request in file folder management or sends e-mail to Sneed requesting a file.  He retrieves the file, notes the location and is able to quickly deliver the file to the attorney or secretary requesting it. 

Sneed scans the file to the attorney location, which updates the current location and adds to the location history in the system.  If the file is already checked out, he will know who has it and where it is located so he can facilitate the transfer of files.  To check the file back in, Sneed again uses the scanner.  Thanks to the portable, infrared scanner with built-in synchronization, the time required to locate and track files has been cut dramatically.

Managing Subfiles
Using this system, a firm decides how it wants to organize its subfiles (or backers).  Multiple subfiles can be automatically created for a matter, according to that matter’s type of law.  Multiple volumes of an existing subfile can always be created later, and the bar code and text labels can be printed at any time.  Subfiles are tracked individually, because they might be going to different offices within the firm.

Since files frequently get passed from attorney to attorney within the office ,it is still necessary to refresh the data regularly.  Sneed and his staff scan every file in every office at least once a month.  “When we manually tracked our files, they always seemed to get lost.  Now, if an attorney asks where a file is, I can tell him exactly where it is: often in his own office.”

Richard Freeman, a partner at FF&S, appreciates the value file folder management technology brings.  He says that when he requests a file,  he now expects to actually receive it within minutes, which greatly improves response time to the client.

What’s Ahead
FF&S’s Art Miller sees the difference between records management and document management blurring as more documents begin to be stored electronically rather than physically.  Currently, records management consists of the physical filing and retention of hard documents.  As the technology that enables documents to be scanned and stored electronically gets cheaper, more robust and more secure, possibly over the next year, the electronic storage of documents will make our job even easier.  Not only will it be easier to find and track documents, but more than one person at a time can actually view the document.

Miller also sees the benefits of electronically storing files in terms of business continuation.  “Like any law firm, we have a vast amount of files that take up an incredibly large space.  Not only is the space costly, but [in the event of ] a fire we’d lose all of them.”

Miller is also looking forward to radio frequency identification to help track his files.  With RFID, the labels on the files will contain codes with RF identifiers, so that a file can be located at any time without scanning. 

While expensive and not yet ready for prime time, Art Miller predicts, “It’s about to revolutionize a lot of industries and will become a very important component of records management.”

About our author

Donald A. Gall is President of Omega  (www.omegalegal.com).  He founded the company in 1975 with the creation of Omega Legal, a completely integrated time and billing, accounting and case management software product suite, which includes a file folder management module.  Don can be reached at 602.952.5240 or dgall@omegalegal.com.