3 Steps to a More Manageable Law Office – Organizing Your Files

Organized chaos just doesn’t exist.

Anyone who tries to say otherwise is just avoiding their own issue! Living and working in an unorganized space is a breeding ground for clutter, confusion and poor productivity. Creating a manageable and orderly office is key to a successful law firm and it’s necessary.  Organization promotes efficiency, allows you to maintain a client’s trust and creates a well-run and productive space. Improve your law office – organizing your files is the first step!

You can’t bill a client for a misplaced file or lost page and you’ll never get back the time that your staff spends trying to find or reproduce that work. Putting your client’s cases in danger of failure is a terrible side-effect of poor office organization and you risk damaging your credibility in the legal world. A messy law office can lead to unmet deadlines, wrongly filed paperwork and a million other ways in which malpractice suits could be filed and your reputation damaged.

Step One – The Purge

You can’t organize clutter. Do yourself a favor and get rid of it! Take the time to go through your files and do an initial, “clean sweep” of your files. This ensures that you will have nicely organized files at the end and nothing you don’t need. Start at one end of your office and work your way back!

Step Two – Order From Chaos

Creating a workable filing system is ESSENTIAL to your law firm organizational ideas. You need to create order to operate efficiently. A filing system that works for every aspect of your office is ideal. This ensures that everyone knows how to locate any specific document.  Color-coding is an excellent option to begin the process and differentiate between stages and types of cases.

Step Three – Make Technology Work For You!

Nowadays, hardware and software has come too far to ignore. The advances in cloud storage options and security practices as well as OCR software are huge in the legal field. Things like Bates stamping are already widely used in the courts, so why not make that same technology work for your organization? Billable hours can now be tracked using a software which increases efficiency and those records are now searchable!  The ability to share files is easier than ever and massively improves communication in the office.  Additionally, document scanning companies can help you rid yourself of bulky traditional storage and still allow you to meet your retention requirements.  Keeping legal case records for 7+ years is a whole lot easier when you keep them on a hard drive or via the cloud.

Organizing a law office can be a massive job if you’ve let it get out of hand, but the first step will create the motivation to get through the rest.

No one likes working in clutter and even the most chaotic of legal firms can be saved! Becoming more efficient and productive makes for a more profitable and enjoyable legal workplace.