"Electronic Transcript Management Made Easy" By Barbara Lynch

(Reprinted with Permission from Atkinson-Baker)

Today’s technology has caused the amount of paper being used in the legal industry to be cut back over the years, but the quantity of paperwork that still is flowing in and out of law offices can be overwhelming for any legal professional working in litigation.

The entire litigation process has been a test in itself for paperwork management: how to organize paperwork, how to pass on paperwork, how to prioritize paperwork, and, all the while, trying to minimize paperwork. This is something they don’t teach law school students or first year associates.

Attorneys and their support staff shuffle through and pass back and forth loads of paperwork daily which, in large part, includes deposition summaries and transcripts. Multiply the amount of deposition hours by the number of cases and one attorney could easily fill a medium-sized closet with nothing but stacks of “active” transcripts at any one time.

But that has changed.

We are now in the time of electronic deposition transcripts. Receiving electronic transcripts not only cuts down on the amount of paper, but also cuts down on the delivery time, helping legal professionals to be much more efficient when handling and using transcripts.

How can electronic transcripts help?

Noelle Toorish, a legal secretary at Thompson Hine LLP in Cleveland, Ohio, has been taking advantage of electronic transcripts for quite some time now and sees how it benefits everyone involved - the attorneys, their support staff and, most importantly, clients.

“Having this information literally ‘at our fingertips’ helps us better manage our workflow in the review process--providing our clients with a better work product, quicker turn-around times and lower fees,” she said.

Eric Anvari, a litigation attorney who heads up his own practice in Woodland Hills, California, has also been a big fan of working with electronic transcripts.

“I have been reducing my paper bulk since 2005 and having electronic deposition transcripts and exhibits fits well with my personal policy of reducing the amount of paper used,” he said. “Besides getting rid of the paper clutter, the electronic version is easier to store, retrieve, and transport.”

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