What has happened so far?

In previous articles I have described how it took Abney Garsden McDonald solicitors 7 years to go paperless. The things most people want to know are:

• Is it possible to go completely paperless?
• What do you do with the paper?
• What were the obstacles/problems?
• How much did you save and what did it cost?
• What are the benefits?

For those of you who have not read my previous articles, the following is a rough summary.

2003 We started scanning in all incoming post. We purchased, at a cost, then, of about £2,500 a fast scanner. Curiously the price is about the same in 2012 but the speed has increased from about 32 to 60 pages per minute. We now have two scanners and double up our new photocopier to scan large bundles.

2003–2008 Whilst I went paperless, the other fee earners were not ready for the change. Having no paper file was a bit like working naked without a chair to sit on. We did not then have a case management system and were using Word folders arranged like a digital filing cabinet. So most fee earners continued to scan in small items of incoming mail and kept paper files. It was useful to have an electronic copy to view as an alternative.

2006–2008 I tried to persuade the fee earners to go paperless voluntarily. We ended up with three different systems at the office:

• Paperless – 2 fee earners
• Partially paperless – keeping only incoming mail on the paper file – the majority of fee earners.
• Paperful – keeping all incoming and outgoing mail both digitally and on paper – 1 fee earner.

It seemed to me that we were duplicating work and wasting labour using systems 2 and 3. People, however, were convinced that their own system was the best. It was confusing for support staff, who had to adapt to each person’s requirements.

May 2008 We purchased the Proclaim Case Management System from Eclipse Legal Systems. I developed it to suit our niche practise Child Abuse system with the capability to do Group Action work. It has a bespoke batch scanning facility which delivers the incoming mail to the file instantly instead of using email. It also has an efficient file history system. Without incoming mail one would only see half the story.

Early 2010 My cashier calculated that if we went paperless we would save £65,000 per year. The majority of the savings were the labour involved in filing pieces of paper. Stationery is a very small part of the equation.

June 2010 Anonymous referendum for all staff. Voting was 2 for paper; 9 for partially paperless; 16 paperless. So paperless won but not to overwhelming applause. A rather tense meeting followed.

6 Sept 2010 Paperless D-Day. The rule was that if you wanted to keep a document you could do so. The idea was that such documents should be limited to client’s own documents, original signed statements, and other documents where the original had to be preserved. The idea was that the keeping of documents should be the exception rather than the rule.

What happens to incoming post?

It is scanned in then distributed as normal. The fee earner:

• Deals with the post in the normal way. If a document is sent out to the client we use the original rather than a photocopy as there is a digital image on file, so saving on copying.
• The incoming post item is then put into shredding bins. We have two on each floor which are collected by Shred It every month.
• It is up to the fee earner to request that a document be preserved.
• If we receive records we do not destroy them until the end of the case, so that paper perusal can be carried out if wished.

What is the environmental impact?

It was predicted that we would save 65 trees per year, but the figure in reality is more like 31 – still an achievement.

What have been the benefits?

1. Ever increasing floor space as paper files are closed and filing cabinets disposed of. We decided not to digitise all our stored files as the cost was prohibitive – about £31,000. The storage cost, however will gradually reduce to zero.

2. In addition to an annual saving of at least £65,000 as a direct result of going paperless, we have additionally saved about £15,000 on DX and postage bills by no longer sending huge bundles of paper to our costs draftsman and experts. As child abuse compensation solicitors each case carries a huge bundle of records. We send all our instructions to experts by using Dropbox, an online cloud-type system which is secure and free of charge for up to 2 Gb of space per user. Our costs draftsman has a limited read-only dial-in system, to enable them to view our entire case history and documents by dialling into Proclaim and viewing the case online. If they wish to print off documents at their end, they can do so, but not at our cost.

3. It is much quicker to find a document if it gets lost by using the very powerful search facilities that our Case Management system carries with it.

4. It has reduced the need for so many support staff, as it is much easier for the fee earner to produce his own letters, file notes and documents.

5. Each fee earner has 2 screens, replacing desk space; 4 screens would be even better – one for each document you are comparing. This is an essential requirement for anyone going paperless.

Are there any disadvantages?

Not really. You don’t leave your desk as much to get files out, so mid-morning and afternoon breaks become more important. The biggest difficulty is the human resistance you will always get in making such a major change. My advice is to go for it; you won’t regret it.

Peter Garsden is senior partner of Abney Garsden McDonald Solicitors of Cheadle Hulme in Cheshire. The firm has the largest dedicated child abuse compensation department in the country (abuselaw.co.uk). They run several group actions, and have a legal aid franchise. The firm were the winners of a Claims Technology award in 2010 for most innovative use of Legal Software, Personal Injury Team of the Year 2010, and Small Firm of the Year (Manchester Legal Awards) 2011.

Email peter@abneys.co.uk.