Client challenge
- Comply with Victorian Court requirements on paperless Briefs
- Reduce costs and time taken to generate paperless Briefs
- Produce paperless Briefs that are easy to navigate for solicitors and others
- Eliminate inefficiencies producing Briefs to Counsel
- Share secure electronic Briefs with all interested parties
pdfDocs Binder as a solution
- Collate large volumes of documents from multiple sources into a single, secure electronic PDF binder
- Add folders/subfolders into the binder, maintaining hierarchy and structure
- Rearrange documents and folders within the binder with drag-and-drop ease
- Generate a Table of Contents, cover page, links, and bookmarks automatically
- Secure the binder by preventing changes and by redacting information
- Edit and mark up content using a variety of annotation tools
Business value
- DocsCorp has global experience helping law firms comply with Court requirements on electronic binders and electronic filing
- DocsCorp provided an out-of-the-box solution, eliminating the need for the organization to develop its own custom solution
- pdfDocs Binder integrates with core business applications, processes, and systems to streamline workflows and drive efficiencies
- pdfDocs Binder is an end-to-end solution that enables electronic Brief creation, packaging, and delivery to the Courts
- Empowered the organization to produce electronic briefs and courtroom books at a significantly reduced cost than previously
The Business Challenge
The regulatory body is responsible for a broad range of functions within part of Australia’s legal industry, many of which require it to produce Briefs to Counsel, Briefs of Evidence, Court Books as well as Compliant Files.
A Brief or Court Book usually consists of a variety of documents, including affidavits, evidence, pleadings, and relevant correspondence, which need to be arranged chronologically, and a cover page and index generated to help navigate the Brief. For the organization, putting together these Briefs was a very manual process taking approximately 12 hours per Brief.
Staff had used another product to do some of the simpler Briefs, but the bulk of them were done manually. As an example of the scale of work involved, 1,489 Compliant Files were opened from 1 July 2016-June 30 2017.
The Australian regulatory body sought an alternative solution when the Courts indicated that they wanted to move to paperless files. An electronic binder application makes it easier to combine multiple documents from multiple sources. Bookmarks, Tables of Contents, links, and indexes can be automatically generated.
The organization was considering either Adobe Acrobat or a custom solution when their technology partner, Kapish, a Citadel-owned company in Victoria, introduced them to DocsCorp, a technology provider that specializes in PDF technology and in electronic binders specifically. The company has worked extensively with US and European law firms to help them comply with their own Court requirements on electronic binders and electronic filing.
Our Solution
pdfDocs Binder from DocsCorp has automated the process of converting and “binding” vast amounts of documents, emails, and attachments together into electronic binders that are easy to read.
In one particular example, staff at the regulatory body were able to generate an electronic binder that consisted of 122 charges, over 5,000 pages (1GB in size), complete with a Table of Contents and cover page without any issues.
Documents and folders, even folders with sub-folders from its network and document management system (Micro Focus Content Manager) were easily added to the pdfDocs Binder interface. Documents and folders were then rearranged within the binder with drag and drop ease.
pdfDocs Binder automatically generates hyperlinks and bookmarks to help readers navigate through the collection of documents.
And to bring all the documents together as a single unit, users could apply page numbering, date and time stamps or information from the document management system itself such as author, Doc ID, or version in the document headers and footers.
With pdfDocs Binder, the process of creating electronic binders was less expensive and less labor-intensive, freeing up staff to work on other projects. The cost to produce a standard electronic binder with pdfDocs Binder was cut by almost 84%.
Other Benefits
In addition to creating electronic binders, the regulatory body needed to be able to edit, annotate, secure, and redact documents within the collated set.
pdfDocs Binder met these requirements out of the box; encryption to prevent users from changing or modifying the content of the documents within the collection, and redaction capability to permanently remove confidential or sensitive information from any of the documents.
Users could also edit the text to make last-minute changes; add comments and other annotations on the PDF to provide feedback or advice.
The final requirement was the ability to share the Briefs with all interested parties. As part of the electronic binder creation process, pdfDocs Binder generates an Autorun.inf file, which launches the binder automatically on a CD or a DVD.
In Summary
A regulatory body in Australia’s legal industry turned to DocsCorp to help it automate the process of creating electronic Briefs to comply with the Court of Victoria’s decision to move to the paperless sharing of Briefs and Compliant Files.
Using pdfDocs Binder, staff were able to generate electronic versions of these previously paper-based Briefs and reduced costs by almost 84%.
About Citadel
Citadel is a leading software and technology company that specializes in secure information management in complex environments. Citadel is a Micro Focus Platinum Partner and delivers a range of Content Management productivity tools through Kapish, a Citadel-owned company.