Streamline Your Document Management with High Volume eFiling
Any paralegal or legal assistant learns quickly enough that what seems like an open-and-shut case at first glance can quickly transform into a tidal wave of documents to process and file. Handling documents and making sure to hit all the relevant deadlines to keep your cases running smoothly and get the best possible result for your clients can feel downright Herculean—particularly, like being tasked with slaying the hydra and watching two heads grow back for each one you cut down.
In order to win the day and be a hero to your client, you and the rest of your firm’s back-office team must handle a high volume of court documents on schedule without sacrificing accuracy. But if you spend too much time on filing, there are plenty of important duties you won’t be able to devote your time and attention to.
In this article, we’ll explore how high-volume electronic filing solutions can streamline document management in your firm and give you and your fellow back office heroes the time back you need to make sure all your clients’ needs are addressed—without the need for backbreaking overtime hours that can burn you out of your career.
How eFiling Streamlines Your Document Management Practices
In the old days, documents had to be filed and delivered by hand, in person or by a courier to the clerk. Today, thankfully, manual document filing is as dead as disco, the dodo, and A Christmas Carol’s Jacob Marley. eFiling is not just preferred but mandatory for nearly all jurisdictions. However, high volumes of documents can still be a crippling burden on your back office. Going digital might have put an end to the hand cramps of the not-so-good old days—but higher volumes than your back office can handle can still cause carpal tunnel!
Fortunately, MyFileRunner provides the support your back office needs to handle the highest volumes of documents to eFile:
- Easy-to-navigate, user-friendly interface
- Real-time updates on your filing status
- No additional self-service charges
- Permanent, secure, and organized document storage and management for simplified retrieval
- Free, customized training and online webinars on eFiling best practices
- Comprehensive court filing support from eFiling experts
- Outsourced handling for post-filing clerk comments and rejection management
- 24/7 access to our services and customer support
How to eFile in a High-Volume Back Office
Like any automation and productivity strategy, eFiling is not an autopilot but rather a handy assistant. Be prudent and smart with how you use eFiling as the cornerstone of your streamlined document management practices, and you’ll find yourself in a less stressed and overwhelmed back office even as the volume of documents you handle skyrockets.
Maintain Standardized Filing Protocols for Consistent Results
eFiling on its own isn’t a magic bullet for solving all your document management dilemmas, especially when you have a firehose of court documents flooding your office. What you need is a solid foundation of uniform procedures for preparing, reviewing, and submitting documents to keep yourself—and the rest of the back office—on the same page.
Collaborate With Your Peers
Speaking of keeping everyone on the same page, a streamlined document management system also needs effective collaboration practices to effectively handle high volume eFiling responsibilities.
Use shared calendars and communication tools to distribute and coordinate document preparation and submission responsibilities within your team. These tools help you manage your tasks, get the most urgent filing deadlines taken care of first, and make sure everyone has realistic goals and no one is overburdened.
eFiling alone can’t solve every problem with a high-volume back office—so don’t go it alone. Make sure you and your fellow paralegals and legal assistants are doing your best work together.
Organize Your Files Sensibly and Effectively
Finding a digital file is easy—as long as that file you’re looking for isn’t hiding in a random folder under the name “untitled (1)-7 final (FINAL).doc” along with a dozen other documents that all have equally non-descriptive names.
Make sure to save your documents with consistent, descriptive file names and in folders and subfolders organized clearly by case number/client name and type of filing (e.g. motions, pleadings, evidence, etc.). To make cutting through the digital clutter even faster and easier, use metadata tax and indexing to make your documents easier to search through and retrieve.
As your firm grows and the documents pile up, anything you can do to make them easy to find will save you your time, your effort, and your sanity.
Prioritize Quality Control to Reduce eFiling Errors
While eFiling can prevent you from submitting documents to the court with blank fields, it can’t catch every error you make on its own, especially if those errors popped up when a document was being prepared for submission, such as OCR (optical character recognition) processes introducing typos when a physical document is converted to digital.
That’s why you should always have someone ready to proofread your documents and double-check them for completeness, accuracy, and proper formatting as stipulated by your county clerk.
To reduce manual errors in eFiling:
- Double-check for completeness.
- Proofread carefully.
- Use your eFiling system’s built-in validation tools.
- Stay up-to-date on your court’s format and content requirements.
- Keep current with any updates in your jurisdiction to court rules and eFiling procedures.
- Always check submission confirmation receipts.
- Log filing dates, times, and confirmation numbers to track your submissions.
Regularly Review and Optimize Your Workflow
As the volume of work flowing through your workplace changes, you’ll need to make sure your workflow changes along with it. Streamlined document management processes and procedures look slightly different from one firm to another. What works for one firm’s structure and body of work won’t work perfectly for firms of other shapes and sizes.
As your firm changes shape, make sure to assess your eFiling and document management practices periodically—such as per year—to see if they’re still up to snuff. If you find room for improvement, make those improvements, whether that means adjusting your processes or implementing new automation or collaboration tools.
eFile High Volumes of Court Documents with MyFileRunner
Your ability to keep up with your document filing and management responsibilities is what keeps your firm humming along and your clients happy. But as your practice grows and more clients come through the front office, the rain of court documents you and your fellow back office staff are used to can quickly become a torrential downpour.
For years, MyFileRunner has helped firms across California, Texas, and Illinois lighten the burdens on their back office staff with eFiling services that streamline document management even for the biggest firms and allow everyone to spend less time on admin and more time winning cases. Register now to bring the best in high-volume eFiling solutions to your firm: