The impact of document scanning and imaging on the practice of litigation cannot be underestimated. The entire process of "discovery"--when lawyers are searching for evidence--has grown to include more and more sources of information, rather than just physical files. Scanned files, for instance, are much a part of the modern courtroom.
That has happened--and will continue to happen--because scanning documents makes good business sense in so many ways: cost savings, efficiency improvements, records backup.
Some law firms specifically focus on ferreting out evidence found in non-paper formats.
Unfortunately, some companies don't discover how much the process of discovery has changed until they're being sued and a pack of lawyers is combing not only through their filing cabinets, but through their hard drives, and their online storage capabilities, and their emails.
More information means more evidence. Obviously, whether that helps or hurts your company depends on what's contained in those scanned documents. If you're a doctor being sued for malpractice, for example, keeping good records can save your career.
What is sure to potentially hurt your company is not thinking about how retaining scanned documents could play into any lawsuits that may come in the future.
Thinking ahead in this area is a part of doing business in this Information Age. Some third-party document imaging services are quite savvy at coming up with solutions to this concern.
Showing posts with label lawsuits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lawsuits. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Lawsuits Render Document Imaging Recession-Proof
Kodak recently announced earnings off 24 percent, with sales of document imaging systems contributing to that shortfall. The larger economy continues to struggle.
However, as noted repeatedly, it's during slow times that great businesses and great business ideas are born. John Mancini hit on this hopeful point in a superb post over at the AIIM blog, Digital Landfill.
Mancini sees six silver linings for document imaging among the IT spending freeze. One in particular is probably more reliable than any of the other ones.
Mancini writes: "Given the mess of the last few months, there is a new wave coming: A surge of litigation—as the blame game goes ‘round and ‘round—and a tsunami of regulatory mandates, as members of Congress find people to point fingers at other than themselves."
With lawsuits come piles of paper. With paper comes the need to reduce paper without losing the information on it. It's called "eDiscovery," and document imaging is a big part of it.
Some industries may in fact go away. Document imaging isn't one of them and neither is records management.
Unless people stop suing each other, which they won't.
However, as noted repeatedly, it's during slow times that great businesses and great business ideas are born. John Mancini hit on this hopeful point in a superb post over at the AIIM blog, Digital Landfill.
Mancini sees six silver linings for document imaging among the IT spending freeze. One in particular is probably more reliable than any of the other ones.
Mancini writes: "Given the mess of the last few months, there is a new wave coming: A surge of litigation—as the blame game goes ‘round and ‘round—and a tsunami of regulatory mandates, as members of Congress find people to point fingers at other than themselves."
With lawsuits come piles of paper. With paper comes the need to reduce paper without losing the information on it. It's called "eDiscovery," and document imaging is a big part of it.
Some industries may in fact go away. Document imaging isn't one of them and neither is records management.
Unless people stop suing each other, which they won't.
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