Speaker 1: Hey YouTube and fellow paralegals, today's topic is all about file management. One of the biggest questions I get from paralegals is how do I manage a case without having expensive software management, litigation, practice management, document management system in house on our server. And I'm here to tell you that you don't need one of those in order to be the most effective paralegal you can for any attorney. I've got some simple tricks and tools that you can use on your desktop computer right now that your law firm and you are probably already paying for. So stay tuned and let's dive into it today. But before we get into things today, you know the drill. Please click that subscribe button that is right down below and I want you to know that anything that I use in today's video, anything that I talk about, I'm going to put it into the description below so you can download it completely for free. I'm not asking you to sign up for an email list or opt into anything. This is free resources that I'm giving to you as a fellow paralegal. That's what I want to do. I want to help my community and this is how I help my community. So click subscribe, click the bell button so you can be notified of each episode I put out which is every single Wednesday and of course, follow me on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, I've got it all. Being highly organized is the number one trait any paralegal has to have. It's the number one thing that attorneys look for and being good at organizational skills leads to excellent file management skills. The two really go hand in hand. So when you think about terms of organization, where does it start? Guess what? It doesn't necessarily have to start right here. It starts with the way that you think. It starts with your thinking process. You are working for attorneys so start thinking like one and by doing that, that means that you have to start thinking multiple steps ahead and if you do think those multiple steps ahead, it will truly help you in that file management and here's how. Particularly in the field of litigation, every part of a litigating case is part of an assembly line of processes that everybody involved in that case takes. If there's any part of that assembly line that breaks down, then so does the case and as a paralegal, you are truly on the front lines of those cases. So let's take medical records retrieval and look at it as an organizational standpoint that leads to excellent file management. When medical records come in digitally, I don't want paper, then the first thing that I do is I download them and I open up my page thumbnails and I audit all the pages to make sure they look great. I don't want anything turned on its side because when an attorney is viewing those medical records on an iPad, if the document is on its side and the attorney turns the iPad, then it turns the document too. So we want to make all of our pages right side up and to make sure they all look good. The second thing that I want to do is I want to number them. So if you're getting your records in paper form, the first thing that you need to do is go stand at the scanner and scan all of those pages, walk back to your computer and save the document wherever you need to. I'm downloading those records so I don't have to go through that process of standing at the copier. All I need to do is download those records, open up those records in my Adobe application and put my page numbers on the lower right hand corner. And if you need help learning how to do any of this, then you could take a look at this video right here and it will show you how to base label documents, how to bookmark documents, how to turn those page thumbnails and everything else that you need to do. The first things first is to get those records on your network, to audit them, put those page numbers at the lower right hand corner and save your document. If you have paper records and you've just got back from the copier and it's time to save them, then you have an extra step to do. You really need to OCR for text recognition so that your system recognizes keywords and terms whenever you need to index or whenever you need to search for something. For me, I'm downloading these records digitally because I requested them in electronic format and they most likely came from an electronic healthcare record system. That means they're already OCRed for me for text recognition and they're probably already bookmarked as well to go through the pieces of the chart within the medical record. So I don't have to go through those processes. But if you are getting paper records, then you really need to OCR them for text recognition and save your document again. Now if there are any records at all that you're getting in paper or any pleadings that you're getting in paper regardless and you need to set up multiple processes, it's easier if you use your action wizard within Adobe to set up those multiple processes so they can be performing on your computer while you're doing other things and you're not having to sit there and run all separate processes. So open up your document in your PDF application and set up an action wizard that OCRs your document for text recognition, numbers your documents on the lower right hand corner, and saves your documents wherever they need to be saved on your network. Instead of you doing those three separate things on your computer, you can set up an action wizard to run and it will do those things while you carry on and do other things on your computer. Okay, now I've downloaded my records and done everything else that I need to do with them and now I need to index them. It's not enough that you just have the records and you put them on your network, you need to show the rest of your team that you have those records and when you receive them and where they're located at in your file. Indexing is one of the best forms of file management because it's an excellent organizational tool. So what I want to do when I get in those records and I've moved around and done all those other processes is I want to show that I have them and that's exactly what I do on my medical records index that I started at the beginning of the case. I looked at my client file and I saw all of the records that I needed to go and request and I had my records agent do that. Once I downloaded it, I showed that I had it on my records index. I linked them to my environment wherever they are in my network so that at any point in time, anybody on my team can go into that index and click on that link and find it on our network. They're not having to thumb through Bates number range so and so and page number so and so. I've got a direct link to it. I've got a map basically of my cases. So this is how the thinking process transforms your ability to be able to manage your file. To have those great organizational tools and to index your file for anybody on your team to be able to access because I know my practice and I know how cases in my practice are litigated. I know eventually where these records are going to end up. So in my thinking process, I can think several steps ahead and do things now that will help me much later on in the case when it comes time to discovery, document production, taking depositions, preparing a motion for summary judgment. Of course, I'm not doing that but I will be helping the attorney. To do that, I have to build an organizational tool which is a map of all of my cases and everything in that case that they're working in. By digitally downloading the records, I've saved valuable time from having to stand at the copier scanner to go ahead and scan all of those 1900 pages of a document of a medical record. So I'm saving valuable time just by downloading them. By auditing all the pages as soon as I get them, I'm able to save time later on when it comes time to that document production. Document production can be a very sort of frenzied time in a law firm depending on the volume that you've got. So if I've already got all of my documents saved digitally and I've got them saved in a format that is user-friendly, then it's going to save so much time when it comes time to discovery and document production. I can't tell you how valuable it is and how much of a time saver it is to save those documents in a manner that's user-friendly because if you take a look at this video right here, you will see how bookmarks help you effectively index a document production so that you can map it in your network for any attorney to find any portion of that discovery without having to go through a 10,000 page discovery document when he only needed six pages from a particular document in that document production. Numbering your records is actually something that I like to use because I work with a lot of people that I'm not in an office with. My attorneys are in Chicago. I'm in North Carolina. My nurse consultants are in Florida. I've got a physician consultant that's in Ohio. So I number my records so I can have a productive meeting with my consultants and experts online or over the telephone about medical records when we're not even in the same state. All they have to do is give me that document number at the bottom lower hand portion or a Bates number and I know exactly what they're pointing to when we're talking about those records. By indexing the records as you go along, it is a great tool to organize your case and keep it organized as you're going along. I know exactly what medical records I need. I know when I've received them. I know what I'm missing. So when it comes time to the document production and I'm going through all those requests for production of documents, I know exactly what I have to be able to produce those documents. Now I can poro those documents from one folder into a document production. I've got all of my bookmarks as I've kind of told you from this video right here. And so it's not such an overwhelming task because I've done everything that I needed to do along the way so that it wouldn't be an overwhelming task by the time I got to the document production. I saved valuable time throughout the course of the litigation and I've kept it all organized which in turn helps the attorney and helps you. Keeping indexes in your cases is tremendous for anybody in your team working on that particular case. For this reason, I start each one of my cases with template indexes. I have a pleadings index, document production indexes, I have a liens index, I have a medical records index, I have a deposition index, I have a written discovery index. And while I know that sounds like a lot, it's truly a tremendous tool in helping everyone especially when your indexes are searchable. I've got all of my indexes in OneNote because I like to have my indexes on the go. If an attorney is at court and needs to know what we've produced and when we've produced it, he can pull it up right there in court and it's not an issue. He doesn't have to email me, wait for a response, and then give it to the judge or opposing counsel or whoever he needs to give it to. Because I've built an index, I've already built a map of what is going on in that case so that the attorneys can have it on the go. Your indexes are also great when it comes time to litigating the case later on. How is your attorney going to know to look for something that he's not sure even exists? So for me and my indexes, they can go into the search feature in OneNote and type in a keyword and they can search every single index across all of our cases or they can search just the indexes in that particular case. So if they're going to prepare a motion to compel and they need to look at the structure of the written document production or the documents that were produced or the written discovery, then they can go and do that in the indexes that I've created for them because I've essentially built them a map. So I'm a volleyball coach and one of the things that I tell my volleyball players is control the ball, control the game. So you as paralegals, control your organization, control the cases because organization equals file management. As always guys, thank you so much for joining me today and I hope you come back and join me next Wednesday. If you find that you need help building those indexes, then I want you to reach out to me and I will link my website in the description below and of course I have all of those indexes ready and available to you. You just let me know and I can get them to you or I will put them in the link below if you comment and let me know that you need them. If you're looking for some more one-on-one coaching for your paralegal career, whether it be resume review or interview questions or organizational tools and tips, tricks, hacks, productivity stuff, you let me know and I will help you. Of course I want you to also comment below and let me know if there's anything else on here that you want to talk about because that's what I'm here for. I want to bring all of this content right to you here on YouTube. I hope you all have a great rest of your week and a great upcoming weekend and I will see you back here next Wednesday. Bye bye.