The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of electronic document bundling (e-filing) by the courts with all states now permitting e-filing to some degree, and adjusting their policies to make it even easier to submit documents electronically.
As a result, the shared electronic bundle is now an essential component of preparing a case and the hearing itself. All key documents and material are uploaded onto one secure central platform that can be accessed from anywhere.
e-Filing has become the rule rather than exception and greatly enhanced the digital relationship between the courts, counsel, and clients.
So, let’s take a closer look at the anatomy and characteristics of a good electronic document bundle/binder:
- Compliant: Fonts, letter sizing, margins, and pagination are compliant with court guidelines.
- Impressionable: An impactful court compliant title page and index/table of contents leaves a lasting impression.
- Organized: A harmonized flow of sections and documents, both logically and chronologically, tells the story of the case.
- Navigable: Establishing a logical content flow via index/bookmarks and embedded hyperlinks is critical.
- Relevant: Naming conventions for sections, bookmarks, and documents that are clear, concise, and contribute to the logistical flow are nonnegotiable.
- Integral: Fluid navigation with no orphaned links should be expected.
- Performant: Easy and quick navigation including the ability to full-text search is a mainstay of the modern e-file.
With a baseline of knowledge of what constitutes a courtroom-ready e-file, let’s look under the hood of ‘best-in-class’ legal technology to support the practice: When selecting the right e-bundling and binding application, consider the following:
- Collaboration: The ability to bundle from anywhere with multiple team members working collaboratively against a single bundle.
- Integration: Native integrations with popular document/practice management solutions (the likes of Clio, Actionstep, NetDocuments, Worldox, M-files, iManage, etc. ) as well as document storage providers including Dropbox, Google drive and OneDrive.
- Usability: A friendly UI/UX to visually organize and name documents/sections to create the highly performant binder.
- Accessibility: A cloud platform for both binding and PDF editing eliminates the need for other, disparate technologies.
- Reliability: Binder delivery you can count on 100% of the time regardless of binder size … 100 pages or 10, 000 pages.
- Customization: A perfect tool to meet any court guideline requirements, for index, pagination, and formatting.
Interested in modern, best of breed PDF editing and bundling technology? Join Peter Zver and the Bundledocs team on Friday, March 3, 1:15-2PM, for their Cloud First PDF Binding with Bundledocs session on the Exhibit Hall Stage.
By Peter Zver, VP, Revenue and Operations, Bundledocs North America