Contracts. Notices. Transcriptions. Emails. Invoices. Agreements. Sometimes, a career in the legal industry seems like nothing but piles (literal or digital) of documents, doesn’t it? 

This is why one of the keys to an efficient and productive firm is thorough legal document management. Without solid legal document storage and management, you run the risk of every case drowning under a pile of paperwork.

Here’s everything you need to know about legal document management, from what it is to the best document management software on the market.

What Is Legal Document Management?

Legal document management is the organization, handling, and storage of legal documents. It is also known as legal records management or legal document and email management, but however it's labeled, it’s an essential part of case management. And since the vast majority of legal documents are now digital, most legal document management should be handled by a legal document management software (DMS). 

Why Switch to a Legal DMS?

A good DMS can do the job of multiple people, which frees your staff up to focus less on busy work like finding documents and more on the important aspects of a case. With legal document management software, you’ll spend less time searching and more time acting, essentially. 

But why is legal document management a good solution for law firms? Here are just some of the benefits of better legal records management.

1. Better Organization Means Easier Access to Information

Picture trying to find a specific document in a vast, dusty, and cluttered room overflowing with messy manila file folders. Now think about organized filing cabinets, each clearly labeled with its contents. How much easier would it be to find something with option two?

Now translate those same situations to the digital world. A legal DMS can automatically turn the former into the latter, which can save untold billable hours. 

Instead of spending time dealing with messy filing systems, inconsistent file labeling, and a variety of file formats, you can enlist a good DMS to not only search for you, but clean up the mess before it ever happens. This can save you time, which essentially saves you money. But more importantly, the ability to quickly find the info you need can be vital to a successful case.

2. Better Use of Time (and Money)

It’s a cliche to say that time is money, but in the legal profession, it’s simply the truth. Every minute spent on redundant work or work that could be done by a DMS is billable time that could be spent on strategy, investigation, or some more vital aspect of a case. 

Whether you’re using internal staff to sift through documents or outsourcing parts of the legal process, you want maximum productivity from every hour. This not only maximizes your billable hours, it creates better work and more positive outcomes for your clients, which is the most important thing.

For instance, let’s say you were already ahead of the game and use an AI assistant (like ours) to automatically transcribe every meeting, interview, and deposition. That’s great! Now you’ll have a scannable, searchable document that you can use to quickly find what you need, as opposed to spending literal hours reviewing video or audio files. 

But what kind of file is it? A Word doc, a Google Doc, a txt.file, or some other proprietary format? Who on staff knows the firm’s “style” for naming these documents? Is it automatically filed with the corresponding recording?

These questions can easily be answered by your legal DMS, which will automatically save all files in a consistent way, and with any related documents or other files. 

3. Efficient Matter Management

Efficient matter management—the process used by law firms to organize, track and control the progress of legal cases— is vital to a firm’s success. Better file organization and more efficient use of your files and data leads to more efficient matter management. With better matter management provided by your DMS,  you’ll not only have the entire case at your fingertips; you’ll have the progress of the case available too. 

This means that all versions of all documents, all search histories, and all aspects of investigation related to the case will be easily accessible to provide an overview of where you are and where you’re going. 

This sort of matter management can be accomplished by staff, but it can get done quicker by delegating it to a legal document management solution. We’ve already talked about the time (and money) savings this sort of management provides, but you can’t place a price on the ability to always have a streamlined overview of the case at your fingertips.

4. Easier Collaboration

No legal matter is a solo endeavor. Collaboration is key for everyone, from attorneys to clients to outside resources. Document management software makes collaboration easier by ensuring that everyone is on the same page. 

How much time is spent asking others where a file is or what it’s even called? With the consistency of organization that a legal DMS provides, files can be found and shared by everyone involved without wasting precious hours.

As legal document collaboration becomes almost exclusively an online entity, multiple authors often handle documents at the same time. It’s good to have a DMS wrangle every voice, providing credits, sources, and digital paper trails so that there’s a clear path showing every change and document version.

How to Find the Best Legal Document Management Software

There are dozens of DMS platforms available, and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. You’ll need to assess your firm’s specific needs before choosing a DMS, but here are a few “must-haves” we think a DMS should include:

• App integrations. Your DMS will have to “play nice” with all your firm’s other apps and tech, so a DMS that easily integrates with a wide variety of other platforms is essential. 
• Granular search capability. There’s nothing worse than not knowing what to search for when you’re looking for information. A robust search function that uses AI to intuit what a query might mean without being specific can save a lot of guessing. \
• Scanning features. It should also be able to scan static images like JPGs for words or phrases. This is important because not every word is in text form; an investigation often includes photographs or even static PDFs.
• Document automation. Creating documents is a huge part of any attorney’s job, so if your DMS can automate this process, it has a leg up on other platforms. Generating templates for contracts, briefs, and invoices can save tons of billable hours.
• Access controls. Being able to set who can access what and when is a vital part of document and data security.
• Unlimited storage. With so many documents and files involved in every case, file storage space is always at a premium. Unlimited space is a must!
• Security and compliance measures. Obviously, document and storage security is vitally important in the legal industry. Encryption, HIPAA compliance, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and ISO 27001 compliance are the minimum requirements in ensuring that sensitive legal information remains confidential and secure. 

DMS Platforms to Consider

Here are a few of the most popular DMS platforms and why they’re worth checking out.

• Clio Manage lets you organize documents in a single, accessible location. You can also assign, track, and collaborate on tasks using its virtual dashboard and reusable document templates. However, some G2 reviews mention that its integration isn’t as comprehensive as they’d like. 
  
  • Cost: Plans start at $39/month.
• iManage Work offers seamless collaboration for entire legal teams. It’s built to integrate with Microsoft products, using Outlook to organize and access important documents, matters, and client files. The cost can be prohibitive, however. 
  
  • Cost: Plans are priced on a per-case basis.
• CosmoLex is a legal practice management platform that organizes documents, client billing, and CRM files while utilizing a shareable portal for easy case updates and collaboration. Some reviews point out that it’s harder than it should be to share documents, and that the cost is significantly higher than its competitors.
  
  • Cost: Starting at $89/month per user.
    

Going Beyond DMS: Updating Your Legal Tech Stack

Software, apps, and tech geared toward streamlining the legal industry are always evolving, and sometimes keeping up with tech advancements can seem like a full-time job.

To help you cut through the noise, we spent some time weeding through other apps, platforms, and law firm solutions that you can add to your stack to make the job a little easier.

You can start by integrating VoiceHub into your day-to-day. VoiceHub’s AI assistant and note taker can tackle much of the tedious busywork that can get in the way of thoughtful casework. VoiceHub will automatically attend meetings with you to record and transcribe them, so that nothing is missed. 

VoiceHub will also take comprehensive notes for you, so you can concentrate on the matters at hand, then it’ll summarize the session and even highlight important information. It’s an all-in-one virtual assistant with industry-leading ASR that makes media asset management go hand-in-hand with your DMS.

AI calendars like Calendly and Motion can plan your days and help prioritize important tasks so that nothing important gets missed or completed too late to be useful. At the same time, comprehensive project management platforms like Monday or Wrike offer AI features built to boost productivity for entire teams. When integrated with your legal DMS, these tech additions can significantly streamline an entire firm.

Start With a DMS, Finish With VoiceHub

Legal document management software is the first step toward creating a more organized law firm. But when it comes to creating a streamlined workflow that leads to better outcomes for your clients, you’ll need to go further. When used in conjunction with Rev VoiceHub, a legal DMS can truly elevate your bottom line by making the entire firm more efficient.

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