Many businesses are now working to become paperless. By cutting down on your firm’s paper usage, you can decrease costs on paper, ink, postage, storage space, etc. Office stress can even be reduced because you won’t have a cluttered workspace. If your firm is interested in joining the thousands of others becoming paperless, or are interested in just cutting down on your firm’s paper consumption, check out these tips:

Tip #1: Remove Your Fax Number

If it’s possible to get rid of your fax, do it! You’ll have a lot less paper coming into the office. If having a fax is vital to your firm, a great alternative to a traditional fax machine is using an online fax service. Many will even allow you to keep your old number. You can then send and receive faxes by email.

Tip #2: Online Filing System

Switching from relying on physical copies of documents means using some kind of online filing system. Complimentary with our leads, you’ll receive access to eLuminate, our lead and case management system. eLuminate is entirely web based, so you can access it remotely, even when you are not in your firm’s office. Within eLuminate you can generate different documents, send them to your clients for an electronic signature, and have notes automatically recorded for each lead.

You may need to also enlist the help of an online document management system for older documents or other important documents that do not directly pertain to your firm’s cases. An online document management system can help keep the boxes of files in storage organized in a much more accessible manner.

Tip #3: Scan Mail

As your firm receives mail, have it scanned immediately and emailed to the corresponding recipient. This way, you won’t have excess paper floating around the office. The scanned copies can then also be added into your online document management system. Once this system is in place, your firm’s mail will stay organized and paper copies will no longer be necessary.

Tip #4: Electronic Signatures

Instead of printing documents that need to be signed, start using electronic signatures. You can have documents sent to a client to sign anywhere. Plus, e-signatures can help cut down the time to have a client sign important documents for their claims because they won’t have to wait for a copy to mailed, signed and mailed back.

As previously mentioned, through eLuminate you can generate documents and have them emailed to clients to sign with an e-signature. When using eLuminate for an e-signature, the claimant will receive an email with the PDF of the document with many of the fields already filled out (like name, Social Security number, etc.) He or she can then sign the document and emailed it back. The entire process can be done in a matter of minutes, cutting down on time and paper!

Tip #5: Make It Inconvenient To Print

Cut down on the number of printers you have in your firm’s office. If it’s less convenient for someone to print then people will be less likely to print unnecessary documents or emails. You’ll save money on paper, ink, toner and printer maintenance costs with one or two less printers.

Tip #6: Make a Plan

Whether you use all these tips or just a few, come up with a long-term plan for reducing your firm’s paper consumption. You may need to do things in steps rather than all at once. Let the entire firm know of the plan to keep everyone aware of why changes are happening and how they can help. Together, your firm can achieve the goal of becoming paperless!

Source: lawfirmsuites.com/2018/07/7-best-resources-running-paperless-law-firm/