Does Your Document Management Vendor Keep Your Secrets?

When document support companies offer services to attorneys and their support staff, many law firms dangerously assume their client materials are safeguarded enough to guarantee complete privacy.

But some companies that offer high-speed copying and document scanning don’t always adhere to the strict confidentiality standards necessary for law firms to uphold their attorney-client privilege.

The problem with this scenario of course, is an unintended breach of case information to the wrong person (or to the unsuspecting public using these facilities) can cause problems for the parties attorneys represent in litigation; possibly even jeopardizing their case altogether.

Does Your Litigation Support Vendor Have a Privacy Guarantee?

No matter the source or format of the information being entrusted to a document management company, whether on paper or housed on other media like video & audio media, X-Ray / MRI images or film, digital files, CDs, DVDs or thumb-drives, asking the right questions of your copying service could make or break your legal practice.  But not all copying services can accommodate the specialized needs that law firms require for confidential case management.

There are quite a number of laws securing privacy of information.  Among these are Gramm-Leach-Bliley, Sarbanes-Oxley, Fair Credit Reporting, FACTA, GLB, FERPA, and HIPAA /HITECH. It is, therefore, very important that attorneys use legal copy services that are compliant and offer a guarantee of secure disposal and destruction for waste pages.

How Qualified is Your Litigation Support Vendor?

Choosing a vendor based on cost alone can (and does) often create pitfalls for attorneys and their clients.  Make sure your vendor is well qualified and able to handle more than just duplication.  It is critical for attorneys and their support staff to ensure that their document duplication and scanning partner demonstrates experience in all areas of litigation support.  After all, processing the documentation you require isn’t the only area of confidentiality necessary for safeguarding the details of your case.

Make sure your document management partner has specific experience in the following areas:

• Litigation Copying and Scanning that adheres to HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, Sarbanes-Oxley, Fair Credit Reporting and FACTA regulations.
• Opposing Counsel facilitation that allows for unbiased, third-party sharing of authorized documents within their own facilities.
• Creating trial exhibits in a variety of formats (audio, video, exhibit boards, medical / X-Ray duplications), with a full-service graphics department within their own facilities.

Make sure your document duplication and scanning vendor is proven to be trustworthy as a neutral third party and can be relied on to pick up original documents from opposing counsel for secure legal scanning and legal document duplication and their subsequent safe return.

In other “light litigation” practice areas and support tasks, it may be worthwhile to select a legal copying and scanning partner that can handle bankruptcy mailings and secure your scanned document data using encrypted online data backup servers that you can access at anytime.

At CopyScan Technologies, we understand Security and Confidentiality.  Our production center is not open to the general public, because we don’t want anyone near your documents.  We transfer your files ONLY with a secure and encrypted system.  Our facility is monitored 24/7 with closed-caption TV, and alarmed.  Our vehicles are equipped with GPS systems to monitor where your documents are while in transit.  Our vehicles are not marked with our logo and company information, so as to not broadcast that we are transporting sensitive documents.  Our employees are background tested and drug tested.  We are compliant with all federal privacy laws.

Give CopyScan Technologies a call for a FREE Quote or Consultation!