I'm going to assume that you are o
There is no simple answer for this.
I'm going to assume that you are only planning to image current paper documents and not documents from closed matters. It is generally not cost-effective to image and index inactive records into an electronic system unless there is a time-sensitive need for retrieval of the records or a vital records consideration.
In terms of imaging active files and new incoming documents, it would be considered a common process to develop a series of work flows or processes for the records. Most organizations will image the files and index them as soon as possible, using the indexing process as a means of absolute quality control. You may think that you can use OCR to self-index the files, but I think you'll find it less than efficient. If anything, setting up a barcoded indexing system where a document can automatically be associated with a matter and document type would be the most help. Most modern imaging systems have the capability to read bar codes and apply the codes to workflows or index fields. You can also give consideration to using the imaging system as a replacement for paper mail delivery, but this will require a highly efficient process and considerable change management. It is, however, an opportunity to radically change the way that records are managed in your
office.
It is typical to maintain the imaged paper for a period of time (often about 30 days) to ensure that the QA is completed on the images and that sufficient backups have been made to ensure recovery if something happens to the imaging system. You'll also need to ensure that you have no legal requirements to retain paper records for compliance purposes. In some states, promissory notes must be retained in paper form. Likewise, certain contractual documents and mortgages. Generally this is required when the original note must be returned to the borrower or where only wet ink signatures are recognized (not common).
There are many other technical considerations including: the type of scanner, the manner in which multi-page documents are handled, image resolution, image format, and so forth. A significant consideration is to fully understand how your end users generally use the documents. If you have a lot of contractual documents or very large benefit plan documents, understand how they are marked up, flagged and used by your attorneys. Imaging a 500 page contract with no good way to bookmark the pages, make annotations, or find a particular section will make for very unhappy users who will end up spending a lot of time printing out the documents. If each page is loaded into the document management systems as a unique document, you will also have problems. Understand how your system handles multi-page imaged documents.
Patrick Cunningham, CRM, CIP, FAI
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"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier."
-- Colin Powell
________________________________
From: James Merrifield II <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2013 1:06 PM
Subject: [RM] Destroying Paper Documents After Imaging
Hello Everyone,
I work for a Connecticut law firm and I would like to start imaging all
paper documents into our document management system and then destroy the
paper.
Does anyone have experience doing this?
Thanks, Jim
Jim Merrifield, Records Manager
Finn Dixon & Herling LLP
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