CasePoint

Good News: You already have the software you need.

If you use Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007, and a file server with Small Business Server, you don't have to buy any software to compete with the mega-firms. Since 2001, Microsoft has included Windows SharePoint Services bundled with its server products. The latest version boasts incredibly tight integration with Office: Outlook, Word and Excel, and other members of the Office family like OneNote and Access. You can create a wiki to store the firm's knowledge - not just about an individual case, but about judges, lawyers, cases—people and things you deal with on a daily basis. You can share documents, forms, and "go-bys" firm-wide, without the hassle of a commercial document management system.

Better News: Your staff handles the details.

Microsoft designed SharePoint so creating and maintaining files are administrative tasks. And with CasePoint's forms and templates, you and your staff will find a familiar interface set up like your paper files. Loading transcripts, pleadings, discovery and evidentiary documents is a simple drag-and-drop operation. If you are already using Office applications to manage trial information, individual documents like Excel spreadsheets and Word tables can be converted into forms and added to CasePoint. And the forms you already use, like client intake, checklists, and reports, can be easily adapted for use.

Best News: You already know how to use CasePoint.

Since CasePoint is based on Microsoft Office products, you and your staff will recognize most of its basic functions. If you can use Outlook, you can create a witness list or cast of characters in CasePoint. If you can search for a document in Windows, you can run a full-text search in CasePoint. If you can highlight text in a Word document, you can mark deposition transcripts for use at trial. If you can fill in an Excel spreadsheet you can create a timeline or document index. CasePoint's familiar look and feel, and Microsoft's Office programs, will cut training time to a minimum and let you start using the program right away.