Yesterday’s law offices were what are now known as “paper offices.” Lawyers’ news, reports, testimonies, and billable hours were recorded and displayed on sheets of paper. In today’s digital age, we know that paper systems can waste money, time and efficiency. Additional staff must be hired to manage paper documents, file legal reports, and search and / or catalog evidence. Losing a vital document means extra time and money must be spent tracking down a copy. Manually compiling billable hours is time consuming. Additionally, paper case filing systems require large amounts of warehouse storage space, which is costly, and can require lengthy human search tips to retrieve necessary documents, which is time-consuming.

Access the electronic law firm, digital courtroom, and virtual database.

Modern technology has digitized or automated most aspects of the paralegal, legal secretary, and attorney job functions. From billing hours to retrieval of evidence to reporting to a court of law, technology is helping legal professionals perform an incredible amount of work economically and efficiently.

One of the greatest advancements in legal work is the increased use of digital entities such as databases, emails, forum posts, and text messages as evidence. These types of records are invaluable in allowing legal teams, judges, and juries to quickly view evidence of crime. Cyber ​​technology specialists are adept at decrypting and translating electronic records into testimonials and evidence.

Digital evidence can be especially compelling in intellectual property cases, murder cases, and white-collar crime debacles. For example, critical emails in the Enron case were used as evidence that the energy giant had partnered with its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, to produce faulty accounting and auditing records. These emails ultimately helped charge Enron associates and Arthur Andersen with criminal offenses. However, digital evidence also has other legal uses. For example, content from pop star Michael Jackson’s computers was seized for use against him in The People v. Jackson, a case during which he was charged with lewd acts with children, in 2005.

Technology-based evidence is a major advance in speeding up trial preparation and proceedings. However, technology can be used in law firms on a daily basis, helping to make the daily tasks of paralegals and attorneys easier to complete.

Legal hour tracking and calculation programs allow law firm employees to fully or partially automate the legal billing process. Paralegals, attorneys, and other legal professionals are often billed for their work by the hour. Therefore, they must also detail the tasks that they perform by the hour. Specialized legal billing software allows legal professionals to bill for their hours; These invoices can also be submitted internally for payroll, firm budgeting or accounting purposes.

Another area of ​​legal practice in which technology is an asset is document control. There are several proprietary legal software packages that streamline document imaging and preservation processes. Paralegals and attorneys can scan paper documents and convert them into electronic files; compiles databases of evidence, facts or statistics; encode litigation documents for faster recovery and, in some cases, restore the quality of damaged electronic documents. These document control programs allow legal professionals to work more efficiently while saving immeasurable amounts of space, and therefore cost, by eliminating the need for bulky paper organizing and filing systems.

There are also special software packages for handling cases and litigation. These packages can include features for client interviews, evidence management, and litigation and case evidence filing. Some law schools and paralegal training programs instruct students on the ethical uses of these software packages. Law firms are increasingly demanding that new hires be proficient in this type of software.

Electronic filing is another use of technology in the legal profession. Before the advent of electronic filing, companies had to submit hard copies of all documents and evidence to the courts for use at trial. Now, the case materials can be sent to the court by email, with many evidence scanned or digitized. One drawback is that compliance and system compatibility can be difficult for these programs to establish; however, compliance and compatibility are vastly improving and will only keep getting better. Legal professionals can have a complete education in this area of ​​legal technology before beginning their legal careers.

Legal research has also been made more effective through the use of electronic information storage and retrieval systems. As the Internet became widely available to Americans, legal professionals were able to speed up their research – they can request, track, and research documents online. Now, online archives like LexisNexis act as repositories for court decisions, news, and legal precedents dating back many years. This saves legal professionals time and money by reducing travel to courthouses, state records departments, law libraries, and the like. The use of LexisNexis and similar databases has become an integral part of the educational curriculum of law schools and paralegals.

Finally, technology can be an asset in the courtroom, during civil or criminal proceedings. Graphics and slide shows are available to optimize and enhance short presentations in electronic formats. Attorneys, paralegals, and clients can also present some forms of evidence electronically – computers and other electronic devices are most often used during trials to present the facts of a case.

The advent of technology has provided paralegals, attorneys, and other legal professionals with a wide range of time and money saving programs and devices with which to get their work done. Because legal professionals can access, distribute, and display information faster, they free up their workdays and departmental budgets for other needs.