If you are a law firm still relying on paper records, don’t feel you are being left behind, as a recent survey of US and Canadian firms found 84% of firms rely on paper records for their official matter file, with 13% noting their firms had no official matter file policy at all.

DocSolid, a provider of enterprise document scanning solutions for the legal market, surveyed attendees of a roadshow for the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), held recently across 26 cities in the US and Canada. Over 197 law firms of various size and geographic locations attended.

To pinpoint current paper and digital practices, the DocSolid survey delivered exactly one question to the 197 participating law firms, “At your firm, what is the official matter file?”  The aggregate results are below:

 Firms that answered B, C or D (84%) operate with various degrees of an acknowledged dependency on paper files—problematic in terms of cost, risk and inefficiency. The 16% of firms that responded that the document management system (DMS) is their official matter file generally commented that a corresponding paper file often houses key documents that aren’t in the DMS, softening the impact of those results.

When the audience was asked which firms would want the document management system to be the official matter file, the answer was 100%.

Steve Irons, president of DocSolid said, “Paper records are a boat anchor to the business of law. The industry is at a tipping point on this issue, because it needs to address the hard cost, the IG risk, and the de-automation of paper records. This survey shows how far the industry is behind, and how much opportunity for improvement is ahead.”