If you are after organisation and centralisation of a precedent library, or to implement basic quality controls and review your precedent currency, you are probably seeking to achieve the following:

• Ensure there is only one version of a precedent or only one version of a specific purpose precedent (i.e.: you will have many letters, but only one precedent for each specific use).
• Precedents only modified by the relevant person, and are reviewed periodically to ensure they are current.
• Ensure precedents are organized by area of practice, are indexed and described adequately for easy location.
• Possibly ensure that all precedents are styled properly so that all documents produced from your precedents look and feel the same (font type, size, heading sizes, RE lines and the like).

In this scenario, it is not likely that you need a document assembly product to achieve your goals. There are a multitude of programs that will achieve all of these things and many more that will do this as well as provide search functions and other "quick find" tools. It is quite possible that you will require no software whatsoever, as you can organize even large numbers of precedents with intelligent foldering, naming schemas and protocols or simple databases to ensure they are maintained. With small outlay on an appropriate developer, you could quite possibly do all of this in-house by having a custom built Access database designed for your needs. Alternatively, you could probably even do it yourself with Excel, using a tab for each area of practice.

Approach To Organising Your Precedents

This one is relatively simple and easy to get moving, as it is mostly common sense. For any document related project, this should be your first step. Firstly, get a complete list of every precedent you are dealing with. You have two main areas to address: How to handle "documents" (final products that were delivered/filed/signed etc...) and "precedents" (model forms). In this regard, you have two options - purchase or don't purchase document management software.

If you DO purchase software, make sure you shop around well, and ensure that you purchase a product that is appropriate. If you are a 10 person practice, you don't need the hummingbird suite. If you are a 200 person firm, you are not going to do well with a $50/seat document management system. Don't let yourself be oversold and when looking at a list of functions (sales pitches) on a product - ask yourself whether you'll actually USE this stuff. Conversely, don't "go cheap" if you have a substantial volume of documents.

If you decide you DO want to purchase document management software, ensure that you shop around for an appropriate product with appropriate features that your staff will need and use. Ensure that at least one person in your firm receives administrator type training. Lastly, ensure your staff who will be using the product, be trained. Don't skip on the professional staff either, as they will likely need to search for documents they have previously created!

If you decide you DONT want to purchase software to manage your documents & templates, read on. As mentioned, there are two major areas to address: documents and precedents.

Documents - The client/filed/signed versions

The steps to organizing your own documents:

• Decide where you wish to store your currently existing documents (I always recommend at least a separate hard drive or virtual / mapped network drive). The location should be accessible by all computers in your firm and be defragmented regularly to ensure optimum access times. Nothing irritates a secretary like having to wait 30 seconds to open each and every document they have to work on.
• Think about how you wish to save newly created documents. Do you save all your documents in folders, such folders being named according to the file number they relate to? Do your folders bear the name of the client, and then sub-folders for each matter of that client? What works best for you?
• At this stage, you should also look at an MS Word or WordPerfect macro that will auto-save your documents for you (should not exceed $1,500.00 unless you want a lot of features). An auto-save macro combined with smart use of windows folders will ensure that your documents are able to found easily and logically.
• You should also ensure you have some type of daily back up mechanism (tape units, DVD burns - whatever works for you) to ensure your documents are never lost.
• Lastly, in terms of documents, you should also consider an "e-file archive". Most law firms save their documents in folders by matter name or file number. A simple utility that will "zip" (compress) your matter folder and save it in a location will save you hard drive space and ensure that you can always resurrect your e-file if necessary. Please note you do not need to address this if you are going to purchase a document management system.

Precedents - Model Templates that Documents are Created From

• Review your precedents - you will almost certainly be able to delete many precedents due to them being either outdated, inaccurate or just simply "wrong". It is counter productive to leave incorrect precedents around, just waiting for a secretary to use them and have to do their work over.
• Create a folder in your precedents directory called "archive" or "outdated" or some such, and dump old precedents in there. This folder may or may not be eventually deleted.
• Once you have deleted all the old precedents, create a "base" set of templates which represent the absolute basic templates for your firm - letterhead, pre-printed letterhead, cheque requisitions, memos and the like - as these will form the base from which you create other templates at need.
• Next, you need a list so you can start sorting through them and organize them by area of practice. Databases (such as access) serve well, or for smaller numbers of precedents (in the hundreds instead of thousands), Excel will suit. A tab for each area of practice and some auto-filters will serve you well. Personally, I prefer Excel over Access almost every time, as auto filters and sorting is far faster, more visual and its generally "quicker and dirtier" to work with.
  

Once all this has been done, you will then be in a position to have a look at the templates you DO have that you WILL use. You can then decide whether you have the knowledge and experience to organize them and index them in-house, or whether you should retain a consultant briefly to provide some advice and some assistance. Whichever road you choose, you should bear in mind the following:

• Every template should be in a folder which is named according to the area of your company it relates to.
• Every template should have at least a semi-unique name that is not long, but is readable at a glance. I have always favoured an abbreviated naming schema. LTR indicates a letter, MEM a memo and so forth. You can also use such abbreviations as CLI for client (LTR to CLI overdue account.dot), OS for other side and so forth. Common sense abbreviation keeps file names short and readable, yet still descriptive at a glance. If you are using a program to launch your templates (instead of users navigating to them and reading file names), then this is not so critical. Under this scenario, what is more critical is that the name of each file categorizes itself by area of use, type of document and the like.
• Only a very limited number of persons within you firm are able to edit/move/delete these precedents. Anyone can "open" them, which will produce a copy of the precedent, but only a few can edit the content. This should be done on a network permissions level, meaning that when a staff member logs into windows, their log in dictates what level of access they have.
• Have a definite method & process in place to ensure each precedent is only ever changed "correctly". That is, have a procedure involved in changing the legal content of a precedent that must be followed and confirmed by your professional staff.
• Ensure there is some document, file or database that indexes all your precedents and that your users KNOW where this is! Having a clickable link to open a copy of the precedent is a plus. Access or Excel will both work for DIY firms, while other firms will want to have custom built databases or purchased software. If your naming scheme is clear and concise, users will be able to find any precedent they want (since it can only be in one folder, right?) and if they are still having trouble, they know where the index is to search for it.
• If you are going to enforce proper styles, ensure you hire a consultant or send someone to be trained in the proper creation and maintenance of style sheets. A poorly implemented style approach is often worse than none at all.

Benefits to this Level of Document Assembly

This isn't document assembly, its common sense organization of your precedents & documents. In some cases, its smart use of common programs to organize your firm and in other cases, its purchasing some tools to achieve your goals The benefits are that its cheap, easy and a critical step in any document related venture. Quite often, it is a step that is executed poorly or not at all, because it is not seen as returning a profit (actively generating revenue)...it is prep work, pure and simple. Good organization and structure results in quicker document production. As any lawyer will tell you, poor instructions results in poor results and more expenditure than was necessary: garbage in, garbage out.

Downside to this Level of Document Assembly

There is no real downside, unless you get taken to town on the auto-save macro, or get oversold on a method of document management. Even if six months down the track you decide you identify several areas of practice where you can potentially increase/save thousands of dollars per month, you will have had to go through this process anyway, so there is no loss incurred.