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Get ‘Wired’ for Savings continued from page 23 Corporations are leading the way into e-procurement. Because of the costs involved, law firms and other smaller organizations are lagging behind. However, one way for smaller organizations to take advantage of e-procurement’s benefits is to consider using application service providers (ASPs). By running their e-procurement and finance software on an ASP’s hardware, a law firm can reap the benefits of e-procurement without the cost of actually owning and maintaining the hardware. Tying e-procurement to the firm’s financial system can make the entire process virtually paperless. Sound unlikely? Take a look. It starts with an electronic requisition that is routed automatically for authorization. Office staff enters requisition data only once, some of which can be supplied automatically. This speeds up the process and reduces the chance for errors. Once the requisition is approved, the actual purchase can be handled a number of different ways. The person handling the order can call up electronic catalogs from approved suppliers and order directly from them. Some advanced systems can search approved vendors for the lowest price and make the purchase automatically. Once the purchase is made, receiving can be handled electronically with electronic matching of the goods received with the purchase order and invoice. Some systems automatically notify the supplier that payment has been authorized so the supplier can eliminate invoice generation and simplify the reconciliation process. There are a number of steps, but most are automatic and, in the best systems, are also paperless. The key advantage to this is that financial data are automatically updated throughout the process. Information is always current, and office staff handling accounts payable and purchasing will not have repeatedly re-enter the data. The biggest saving, however, is in manpower. Electronic procurement gets the job done faster and eliminates extra steps—not to mention cutting costs of paper and postage. If the firm does not tie its systems together, e-procurement becomes an isolated step, with the purchasing information stopping at procurement. The firm winds up with data stored in a number of different places at considerable extra cost and with greater opportunity for errors. Typically in such systems, much of the process is handled manually with paper documents. The supplier still prepares paper invoices and mails them out, while the law firm cuts paper checks and mails them back. Checking current purchases against budgets requires that data be drawn from several sources, and even then the information won’t be current. Automating the purchasing process, from requisition to payment, creates a paperless procurement process that is fast and secure, yet permits all users to share the information on a real-time basis. File Pleadings Electronically Despite widespread use of computers in law offices, the filing of legal documents with the courts remains a labor-intensive process. However, courts are beginning to replace or supplement paper-based filings with electronic systems that allow documents to be filed over the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Many of these electronic filing systems are accessible from any Internet connection by anyone, including the general public. This means that lawyers can log on to the system at any time and quickly locate or search documents. Advantages of electronic filing systems are many. They simplify and standardize the process of filing court documents; they greatly reduce the resources devoted to generation, manipulation, storage and retrieval of paper filings, including much less expenditure on paper, toner, printer upkeep and repairs, photocopying, postage and courier services; they reduce errors in copying and transcription; and they facilitate access to and sharing of court documents. The typical electronic filing system uses e-mail or a Web-based form to transmit a document (motion, pleading, etc.) electronically to the court. If e-mail is used, the document can be included in the e-mail as an attachment or in the actual e-mail text. The filing party provides proof of identity (such as a digital signature or a user name and password) and some kind of electronic “caption” identifying the case in which the document is being filed. Encryption is used to ensure the security of the transmission. The receiving court verifies the identity of the filer and extracts both the contents of the document and the electronic caption from the electronic filing. The court then sends an acknowledgement to the filer, enters information from the caption into the court’s case management system and files the pleading appropriately. Courts that adopt electronic filing systems benefit from a drastic reduction in the amount of physical space required to store case files and in the amount of time spent by court staff searching for and handling case files. Data entry time is sharply reduced because information can be automatically extracted from filings and distributed throughout the system. Efforts are underway to develop national technological standards for electronic filing systems to spur the widespread development of electronic filing systems by software vendors, stimulate courts to adopt such systems, and ensure that such systems are capable of interacting with each other. Looking Ahead At this time, many of the new Internet services are still in early stages of development, but they are rapidly becoming more sophisticated as new software and powerful computer languages like XML (extensible markup language) increase the ability of computer systems to “understand” the information in documents and databanks. Such capabilities are already enabling lawyers and legal assistants to search databases more quickly for very specific information, and are helping eliminate redundant tasks such as re-keying information and doing away with the nuisance of 24 FACTS & FINDINGS / AUGUST 2003
printing, collating, messengering, and filing paper documents. File cabinets, copying machines and other paraphernalia of the “Paper Age” are starting to disappear as computerization and network services make the promise of paperless offices a reality. Unlike the introduction of computer systems, with their high costs and demanding training requirements, this new Internet wave promises to provide a far higher ratio of benefits to costs for law firms. Most of the investment and much of the training has already been done, so law firms should not look upon this new wave with foreboding but rather greet it as further fulfillment of promises made long ago by the computer gurus and their Internet successors. Jennifer Beauharnais is a legal assistant in the New York City office of Holland & Knight, LLP, an international law firm with more than 1,200 lawyers. jmbeauharnais@hklaw.com. Robert Gibson, co-founder and CEO of Serve-em.com, an inter-jurisdictional process serving company, has an extensive background in applied technology programming. Over the past eight years, he has developed automated systems for the process service industry. ceo@serve-em.com. NATION’S COURTS - 2004 - New editions now available! This two-volume series, now in its 29th edition, is the profession’s #1 court reference. “The series are standard reference-desk fare... packaging large quantities of information that are now relied on by librarians everywhere.” —Law Library Journal Want’s Federal-State Court Directory, 2004 Includes all U.S. appellate and district judges and clerks of court; U.S. magistrate judges and bankruptcy judges; places of holding court and counties in federal districts; U.S. attorneys; State court organization charts; State supreme court justices and attorneys general; Federal and State Court web addresses; State Bar Associations. Plus much more! Softbound. 230 pages. $45.00. Directory of State Court Clerks & Country Courthouses, 2004 An excellent complement to Want’s Federal-State Court Directory. Includes name/address/phone numbers of State appellate, trial court, and county clerks for all 50 states; listing of State court websites; State-by-State guide to corporate and UCC filings; State offices of vital statistics and how to order records; and trends in State court litigation. Softbound. 350 pages. $75.00. For additional information on our print and online products, please visit our website: www.courts.com WANT Publishing Co. 420 Lexington Ave., Suite 300 New York, NW 10170 Voice: 212-687-3774 • Fax: (212) 687-3779 www.courts.com
Page 2 and 3: Departments President’s Message -
Page 4 and 5: Call for Proposals 2004 Convention
Page 6 and 7: Anatomyofa Construction Paralegals
Page 8 and 9: Anatomy of a Construction Defect Ca
Page 10 and 11: Resources & Opportunities Reviewed
Page 12 and 13: Automotive Product Liability contin
Page 14 and 15: Po Windows er Can by Robert M.N. Pa
Page 16 and 17: Estimated Number of Persons Injured
Page 18 and 19: The Digital Millennium Copyright Ac
Page 20 and 21: Get ‘Wired’ for Savings by Robe
Page 24 and 25: y Ann Marie Verity Paris may be the
Page 26 and 27: An American Paralegal in Paris cont
Page 28 and 29: CONVENTIONSNAPSHOTS July 9-12, 2003
Page 30 and 31: CONVENTIONSNAPSHOTS NALA Board and
Page 32 and 33: Experts on the Internet continued f
Page 34 and 35: Experts on the Internet continued f
Page 36 and 37: EDUCATION A Road Worth Traveling Th
Page 38 and 39: TECHNOBITS Use the Technology Elect
Page 40 and 41: PRACTICETIPS Knowledge Really IS Po
Page 42 and 43: Practice Tips: Behold the Power of
Page 44 and 45: members demonstrates the importance
Page 46 and 47: y the United States Bankruptcy Cour
Page 48 and 49: AFFILIATESCOLUMN Making the Most of
Page 50 and 51: ility of course content and materia
Page 52 and 53: & NEWS INFORMATION Phyllis L. Dunha
Page 54 and 55: & NEWS INFORMATION NORTH DAKOTA Red
Page 56 and 57: & NEWS INFORMATION Alicia L. Castil

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