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Senior Litigation Paralegal |
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"In 1986, the terms computers and law firms really did not mix," says Dwayne
Krager, a litigation paralegal with Reinhardt, Boerner, Van Deuren, s.c. |
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| "Firms that were using computers saw them as ways to move away from the
typewriter. Fortunately, when I began my paralegal career in 1986, I was able
to work with a firm where computers were used as a litigation process tool.
Reinhart, a technologically progressive law firm, allowed him to use his
litigation paralegal knowledge to develop into an expert on technology and the
litigation process. In addition to the use of litigation software, this
knowledge path has lead him down the road of implementing a firm-wide docket
system, an in-house imaging center, and one of his greatest achievements, a
state-of-the art courtroom called the Trial Science Institute, LLC. |
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| In 1998, in addition to his normal litigation paralegal duties, Dwayne assumed
the task of designing, building, promoting, and now running one of the first
mock courtrooms with three separate deliberation rooms in the United States.
Designed as a model courtroom in Wisconsin, hundreds of lawyers, paralegals,
and court staff have toured the Trial Science Institute. The courtroom is
currently utilized by Reinhart attorneys and outside law firms for mock trials,
mock appellate arguments and to prepare witnesses for actual trial or
mediation. Today, Dwayne utilizes his knowledge of the technology and
litigation practice to teach other paralegals on how to use technology in the
courtroom and how to use these tools to help make their firms more successful. |
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WORKING
WITH OUTSIDE VENDORS |
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by
Dwayne E. Krager |
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Many companies are now taking an A-to-Z approach in offering
services to the legal marketplace. Copy companies who previously elected not to
offer technology services now realize that to remain competitive in today's
legal industry, they must provide more than just copy services. |
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With this A-to-Z approach to the legal marketplace, it has become imperative
for paralegals that make technology vendor and software decisions to know what
to ask. In addition, paralegals need the ability to decipher which company is
going to offer the best and most accurate document management services. |
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The comparison of imaging to photocopying is a relatively simple process, in
that once the copy button is pushed and a quality check is made, the job is
essentially complete. However, imaging requires technical specifications and
up-front decisions that can affect how the images are stored and retrieved. A
full-service litigation support vendor who has been providing imaging for many
years knows the questions to ask and can make cost-effective suggestions for
processing documents. |
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When determining which company to use for document management services, you
should consider several key criteria. These criteria's are the company's
stability, reliability, quality, expertise, security, and price. Part of
determining stability involves finding out if the company has retained
educated, experienced, and dedicated staff at all levels of the organization,
from sales staff to the people who work in production. Because it is important
to trust vendors with whom you work, companies with a high volume of successful
projects become valuable assets to the litigation process. |
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Measuring a company's reliability depends on how well a project is tracked,
including where the paper, electronic media, and data deliveries are throughout
the production process. Ideal vendors will provide timely project status
reports. The company should also test all data deliveries in the target
software application before releasing the data for law firm use. Reliability is
also measured by how much capacity a company can handle, especially on complex
projects that involve a large number of documents. |
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The quality of a company's performance is determined by the control measures
in place for each project. Quality companies create and retain clear and
accurate documentation of the project specifications and note any changes
throughout the project. When coding is complete on a project, quality companies
develop and follow a comprehensive coding manual to produce a clear and
consistent document database. |
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The most important criteria you need to consider when selecting document
management service is company expertise. The company's expertise must include
project managers with a deep level of understanding of how the world of
litigation operates and the importance of managing case documents, schedules,
and deadlines. In addition, the company should have technical people with
experience in the wide variety of database management applications available to
the legal industry. |
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Security is important because you are relying on an outside company to work
with client documents without the direct supervision of an attorney or a member
of your firm's staff. All documents must be stored securely and separately from
other projects and handled by personnel who agree to follow strict
confidentiality guidelines. |
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In addition, upon the completion of a project, security involves storing and
backing up electronic data for future retrieval. |
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Pricing for providing document management services can be determined by
getting quotes from at least three separate vendors. |
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Companies that succeed in offering complete A-to-Z document management
services have the ability to educate paralegals on how to best utilize the
technological tools that are available to meet their case needs. |
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Storm X allows you to extract and then distribute images, coding. |
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Both Trial Director and Sanction are trial presentation software programs
that give a trial team the ability to present evidence in either an imaged
document or video format. These programs are primarily used at court hearings
or arbitrations. |
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An A-to-Z approach from companies also applies to when you want to present
evidence at trial. Some law firms have the capability to work with trial
presentation software without the assistance of an outside company. If nobody
from your firm can commit to handling the trial presentation aspect of your
case, then a trial consultant may be the answer. Because qualifications for
people who represent themselves as trial consultants can vary, it is
recommended that the trial team look for a consultant with at least five years
of courtroom experience. The consultant should also understand the litigation
process, know both trial support hardware/software, and be able to provide
advice to the trial team on what is the best methodology to present evidence. A
good trial consultant will take over the technical aspects of the trial so that
the trial team can focus directly on the case. |
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Because the legal vendor and software market has taken an A-to-Z approach to
offering services, it is important for you to have an understanding of document
management services and the software programs that work the best with these
applications. The risk of hiring the wrong document management vendor is
greatly reduced when you take the time to plan a project all the way from
selecting the proper vendor to the actual software programs that will produce
an accurate result. |
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