Ernie the Attorney

I believe that Adobe Acrobat is a great program for lawyers. Here are links to some articles that I have written on the benefits of using PDF files, along with other useful information.

Introductory Article

Explains benefit of using PDF files, and gives examples of use in litigation. Appears at LLRX site.

Online Legal Research

Explains how to use PDF files when you do research with Westlaw and LEXIS

Creating PDF's

In the posts above I explain the process, and recommend that you purchase the full version of Acrobat ($250), but you can also go to this site and create 5 PDF files for free. Supposedly, you can register and pay $10 a month and create unlimited PDF files. I haven't used it so I don't know how it works.

PDF Factory is a great tool for creating PDFs ($50). Learn more here.

Questions from users

Questions about Highlighting

Question #1

I am an employment law attorney in NC. I read your recent "Adobe Acrobat For Lawyers" article with great interest. I have been using the full version of Acrobat for about 6 months.

My one major frustration is that I have not been to "highlight" a yellow block over portions of scanned documents (I do understand that without a ocr capture, the PDF is merely a "picture" and that a capture would allow the highlight text tool to work. But I really don't need the capture function for most of the discovery documents I work with).

The box tool would seem to be the solution, but it completely covers the portion, I want to highlight over. I also know that in Paperport this can be done, so I don't understand why Adobe does not allow this type of box highlighting (which would be very beneficial in mediation or trial).

Am I missing something?

Answer #1

No you aren't missing anything. You have to "Paper Capture" in order to highlight. In my experience of talking to lawyers who use Acrobat this is the biggest complaint. I don't understand why Adobe would not enable this to be done. Maybe they're saving it for version 6.0.

You can get the Paper Capture plug-in free from Adobe. You just have to register.

As for the "box tool" you can draw a box around it. If it is covering the whole image then you have a setting that is out of whack.

To fix this, "right click" on the box that you drew (you may have to position the cursor at the edge of the box).

From "properties" see if the "Fill Color" box is checked. If it is, then un-check it. From this box you can also set the border color.

Why would you want to "fill" a box? I suppose if you wanted to fill with white and white something out. You can do this with a TIFF image with the free viewer that comes with Windows. And then you can actually save the file with the changes. Not a lot of people know about this, but --trust me-- it can be done. Another reason why a PDF file is actually more "secure" than a TIFF file (but many people seem to argue otherwise).

What kind of scanners to use?

Here's a good article on scanning that appeared in Law.com.

Whatever scanner you use, you have to make sure you have a dedicated PC, a compatible SCSI card, and that you have solved all of the compatibility issues. If you don't feel comfortable doing that on your own look for a good consultant.

Canon and Fujitsu make good scanners that work well, and don't cost too much.

Here is a site that has specs and pictures of Canon & Fujitsu scanners

I personally have used the Fujitsu 15C (comparable to the 600C) and the Canon 3020. So I can vouch for those. Expand the post to get more information on these models.

Fujitsu 15C or 600C

15 pages per minute, with feeder (holds about 50 pages) & glass; available for well under $1,000.

Canon 3020

40 ppm, with feeder only (holds 100 pages) (no glass); available for about $2,000. We use this model at work and it is very reliable and very fast.

Canon 2080C

20 ppm with feeder (holds 50 pages) (no glass). Very small footprint and weighs only 2 lbs; available for about $600. I have one at home. You need a SCSI card (which is true for all of the scanners I have mentioned so far) but it works very well and takes up no space at all.

Other scanners I have heard are good

Canon 5080C - 75 ppm (500 page feeder)