More Organizing the Facts in Your Case: Linking CaseMap, Outlook 365, and Evernote.
I had two new revelations yesterday; one has great potential, and one works now and will be vital to our practice from now on.
First, I can install into Microsoft Outlook 365 the “EverNote” and “EverNote Web Clipper” plug-ins and use them to integrate Outlook 365 and the information organizer Evernote. More on that as I play with it.
Second, another plug-in is the CaseMap suite of trial preparation modules. I have figure out the technique to send facts into each client’s CaseMap folder from Outlook!CaseMap is the system that my manual “Digging Down” system of organizing the facts in your case is based on. I give each client her/his own “digging down” kit in an accordian folder. Perhaps soon I will give them a “digital kit”!?
I “bit the bullet” and bought two licenses and subscriptions for overpriced Lexis/Nexis’ CaseMap suite for $350/month.
My thought was we would use it for large cases. Unfortunately, extra licenses are over $100/mo., and I couldn’t add three other staff members, two of whom wouldn’t really use it much.
SO, we are switching the license to a new, basic, HP laptop that can only be used by one staff member at a time, but will be available at all times for at least one staff member.
We have an office file server, but we need to access our CaseMap files from anywhere, including by me when I’m at mediation or trial!
Solution; “DropBox Team”!
We created a shared DropBox folder, “2019CurrentCaseMapFiles”. We created a CaseMap File for each current client.
Yesterday a client sent me six photos of marks on this child’s small body. I created a CaseMap File in DropBox. “lastname.firstname.date”.
I selected the six e-mails and the CaseMap plug-in and sent six new “objects” directly to the client’s CaseMap folder! Now his folder holds 6 new “objects” or what I call “puzzle pieces.
If we can make this work, the paralegal working the case or our new trainee employee will spend an hour or so each day, entering lists of potential witnesses, documents (e-mails, texts, letters, bills, balances sheets, insurance policies, pay records, photos, video clips, ANYTHING).
That stuff member can also send them to EverNote.
But, for now, I think I will save EverNote for personal stuff and office management and blog writing.
Each client will now have two folders, his/her client folder on our file server, and her/his CaseMap folder in Dropbox. This is a “game changer”.
Eventually we will integrate the two client files into one per client. Pretty exciting stuff!
Instead of laboriously trying to find the various handwritten “object lists”, when it is time to do a pretrial memo or to prepare for trial, those lists will just be entered an hour or two each day by the staff member who has time to do it. This duty will be done by a “tag team”. The witness and exhibit lists, list of issues, and chronology, can now be prepared in a fraction of time it used to take!
You may search my blog www.hunterlawfirm.net/blog for the word “CaseMap” for articles that explain the remarkable feature of CaseMap and TimeMap.
This software allows you to enter lists of people, documents, photos, events, organizations, pleadings, and physical objects; in short, the “puzzle pieces” that every case has. The whole picture can only be viewed when you have most of the “puzzle pieces”.
Here’s the link to my “digging down” manual system: https://hunterlawfirm.net/2018-revised-digging-organizing-preparing-case/
If just one or two of my colleagues learns a better way to serve her/his clients, I will be happy. I am happy that I am making progress in my battle to become fully paperless!
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This post was written by Burton Hunter