There are few professions that rely more on their office copier than the Legal Profession. Law Offices often make huge volumes of prints and copies. Not only is their overall volume large but in many cases they are working with a single document that can be well in excess of 100 pages which can create a challenge for many traditional office copiers. An important note for all Law Offices is that there are certain copying/printing systems that are uniquely designed to address the challenges that Law Offices present.
5 Copying Features Designed to Benefit Law Offices
1)Bate Stamping/Date Stamping/Page Numbering on the fly when copying or scanning documents.
Many law offices bate stamp their copies after they have been copied. There are office copiers that have a built in option that imports the Bate Stamp on the fly as the copying or scanning process is being done. In addition, there are many law offices that have need to have documents dated or page numbered. Any combination of bate stamping, date and time stamping or page numbering can be done as the copying, printing or scanning is being produced.
2)Account Tracking for Customer Billing
Most law offices charge back the client for any copies, prints or scans made in the preparation and support of their case. Many office copiers have the ability to track each individual action by account numbers. This allows offices to assign a case # or a employee number to each copy, print or scan produced. This information can be downloaded into a spreadsheet that will automatically calculate the billing for each account based on the values/charges assigned by the firm for each copy, print or scan produced.
3)Encrypt and Password Protect Scanned Documents
Many documents produced by a legal office are of a confidential nature. Many office copiers offer an option to encrypt and password protect scanned documents. When these features are enabled the documents are encrypted as they are being scanned and also require a password to open the electronic file.
4) Copy Protection Watermarks
Due to the sensitive nature of many documents being copied in the legal environment it can sometimes be important to ensure that sensitive information is not re-copied for unauthorized distribution. Many office copiers have the ability to use a transparent copy protection watermark that is hardly visible to the naked eye unless someone tries to reproduce/re-copy the materials. With this feature enabled if anyone attempts to make unauthorized sets of copy protected materials a bold watermark will appear on the copies with whatever message has been programmed into the watermark feature. As an example a watermark might read “confidential materials – unauthorized reproduction punishable by law”
5) Copiers that can handle 200 documents in a single set.
Most office copiers are designed to handle a maximum of 100 documents in any given set. This can be a real shortcoming in a law office where documents often exceed 100 pages. This challenge is something that should be addressed when reviewing available options. It is always important to ask your copier service provider to speak with a representative that has experience supporting the legal environment to ensure that the unique needs inherent to law offices are addressed.
