Managing Electronic Documents in Litigation: Step by Step

Sun, 09 Mar 2003 13:19:01 GMT

I put together this handout, in outline format, for a recent presentation to a group of paralegals, attorneys, and secretaries at my firm's New Orleans office. It talks about using CaseMap 4.0 and Adobe Acrobat 5.0 to manage electronic documents in litigation. Because it was meant to go along with an oral presentation, it could be a bit cryptic, but I thought I'd go ahead and put it out here. I'll be updating and fine-tuning this outline (created in NoteMap) from time to time, and I'd appreciate any input, comments, or critiques anyone might have.

I'm back . . .

Sun, 09 Mar 2003 10:00:19 GMT

I'm back from my quickie trip to Florida, where I trained to become a CaseMap Certified Trainer. (As it turns out, I will have to take a test, via telephone, in the next couple of weeks before I will actually be "certified.") I'd never been behind the doors of a *real* software company, so it was really neat from that aspect alone. I received a very warm welcome from the great folks at CaseSoft, and I got to meet several of the people I've heard about, exchanged e-mail with, and talked to over the past couple of years, including Jennifer, Janine, Haans, and Danielle. I was particularly impressed that Greg Krehel, CEO and one of the founders of CaseSoft, took the time to visit with me and listen to what I had to say about his products -- very cool!

The one-on-one training was great. I got all of my questions answered, and learned about some features I haven't been but should be using. I learned a bit more about the upcoming release of CaseMap 4.5 that I wrote about here, featuring the new CaseMap Send to Adobe Plug-In. With this new release, which is due out in about a month, Adobe Acroabat users will have much more flexibility in sending links to imaged PDF documents to CaseMap. As I understand it, instead of dropping the link directly to a fact in the Facts database, a dialog box will pop up, from which you can direct the link to drop into any of the databases (Fact, Object, Research, or Issue). How cool is that?

As far as I'm concerned, if you're a litigator and you're not using CaseSoft's products -- CaseMap (case management), NoteMap (outlining tool), TextMap (transcript management utility for CaseMap), and TimeMap (timelines) -- you're missing the boat. And if you're up against an adversary that does, well, you've got your work cut out for you. These products are not only extremely well thought-out and designed, they're fairly user-friendly and intuitive. And CaseSoft's Customer Support is the best of any software company's that I've dealt with. So, if you have a problem, you can always reach a live person to walk you through it. I really like their licensing, too, because it not only registers the product to the person but allows each person to register the product for personal use on up to 3 PCs (home, office, and notebook).

You can get a free CaseSoft Starter Kit here, which includes a CD with full-featured trial copies of the latest versions of CaseMap, TimeMap, NoteMap and TextMap.

Kim Plonsky: CaseMap

Managing Electronic Documents in Litigation: Step by Step

I'm back . . .