Case management 'lite': power without the cost of full-scale programs.

Once word processing becomes old hat, lawyers may venture out in search of office software products that do far more than document writing, Case-management software, to some, is the one that does it all.

Using one of these products is a little like stashing your entire law practice in your computer. Databases arc the heart and soul of all case-management software programs. Once you create a database of clients, opposing counsel, insurance adjusters, physicians, and expert witnesses, you can plug that information into correspondence, pleadings, and other documents via the program's document assembly modules. Or, you can use the electronic copy-and-paste method.(1) Either way, you would never need to type a client's name or address again.

Case-management software allows you to automatically produce concise, well-organized reports that fist pending matters with insurance carriers or defense firms, track hours and expenses, display the day's court schedule, and perform calendaring and docketing tasks to track critical dates in your practice.

More specifically, this software puts information from all your cases into various nooks and crannies of your computer. The information goes into "fields" in the database. Once the information is entered into your system, the software pulls those bits of information from fields into "reports" that lawyers car dockets, calendars, to-do lists, settlement sheets, and standard text files.

A miracle product, indeed. However, after investigating the many excellent case-management software products and considering the costs of installing one, training staff, and setting up the necessary local area network (LAN) to link office computers to one another - in some cases, the software alone can cost up to $25,000 - you may be tempted to stick with address books, file cabinets, legal pads, and pens.(2) You wouldn't be alone.

What some small-firm lawyers want are many of the benefits of case-management software without the high cost and time commitment. That will require installing two simple, inexpensive programs to do some of the jobs of one very expensive case-management program.

The first program is an information manager and the second is a document generator. We'll call our makeshift product case-management "lite."

Before starting the actual hunt for this hybrid workhorse, note that our general aim in office automation software is to find programs that save us from entering data, like client names and addresses, into our computer more than once. In our search for "lite" software, we'll have to break, or at least bend, that rule right away.(3)

Unlike a full-scale case-management product, our "lite" software may require entering the data twice because two distinct programs will be working together. The following are my recommendations for case-management alternatives.

Information Management

* Info Select for Windows is a free-form database.(4) If, for example, you want to take down information on an accident, all you need do is type into one window on your screen the plaintiffs name, address, and the time and place of the accident. Info Select stores the information. To retrieve the text, all you need remember is any one word.

You can use pull-down menus to open new windows for text and to enter search words. (Use the mouse to point to labels or icons on your screen, and then click the mouse button to activate these commands.) Searches are done instantly. All the windows containing the key words you selected then pop up on the screen.

This product can also create field-oriented windows that can manage lists, address books, calendaring and docketing tasks, and almost anything else you can dream up. For about $150, this is a favorite of many ATLA members.

* Info Select Express is perhaps the best bargain on the market.(5) It's ideal for those who fear computers and believe they'll never be able to master one. The express version, like its older sibling, is geared for users who have lots of miscellaneous or unstructured information like notes, ideas, contacts, plans, and schedules. It works on any computer running Windows 3.1 and costs just $19.95.

In the more expensive original version you can break down your entries into separate "stacks" or databases, but in the express version, you have only one stack, which is sufficient for most lawyers' needs. If you are new to computers, this may be the only product you will use - or want to use - for months to come. It will give you a good feel for what powers a computer can bring to your desk.

* SideKick for Windows(6) is priced under $100 and is very different from Info Select and Info Select Express. This product gives you card files for addresses and telephone numbers, note-taking capability, an excellent calendar and to-do list, the ability to import and export text to and from other databases, and instant search capability. It, too, is easy to learn, but its format is more structured than that of Info Select products. I've been a big Sidekick booster since the first version of this product came out years ago.

* InfoGenie(7) is a Macintosh product similar to Info Select and just as easy to use. Enter your random thoughts or notes, and when you search for them, the entries appear instantly on your screen. As with the Windows-based products, you can select any text on your screen, choose the "copy" command from your menu bar and "paste" the selected text into any other Mac program like Microsoft Word or WordPerfcct for the Mac. InfoGenie, the successor to QuickDex, allows users to customize fields. It also offers free-form text data entry. Even if you're already into case-management software, I highly, recommend this product to all Mac users.

* Amicus Attorney, a new product, sells for a bit more than the others.(8) However, it is much more powerful and was created for lawyers by lawyers.

The principal uses of this software program are tracking critical dates, to do items, and case documents and keeping time records. This product seems to do as much as the more expensive case-management software programs except for automatic document preparation.

Originally created on the Mac in what Mac users call "Hypercard," the product was released in the Windows environment and will be re-released on the Mac in a faster, better-designed programming language before July. A single-user version for Windows only became available in late 1994, and a multi-user version is set for release in mid-1995.

The publishers are working with other vendors so that information in Amicus Attorney can be exported to programs that offer time and billing and document assembly. This is a product worth investigating.

Document Generation

The second aspect of case management is document generation. I recommend two products:

* West's DeskTop Practice Systems generate standard documents and allow information you enter about your clients to be stored in a database inside this product.(9) You can use the information either with West's forms or revised versions of the forms you have created.

For example, if you want to create a trust agreement, you start the word-processing program, change the text of the document, and save the revised text as a new master form. However, you cannot add to or alter the "fields" of information that come with the product.

Once information is entered into the database, it need not be entered again. That way, if you prepare your client's spouse's trust agreement or will, identical information already entered for the family is automatically inserted into the appropriate fields. Check with West Publishing Co. to determine whether document-assembly software geared to your type of practice and your state is available.

* HotDocs is an exciting and reasonably priced product designed for small law firms.(10) Its creators' philosophy is that no matter how good a legal publishing company's forms may be, most lawyers want their own forms in their document-assembly system. This product lets you enter "merge codes" fairly easily, in existing Windows documents so that the documents become "standard" in your forms library.

Keep in mind that even with HotDocs, inserting those merge codes where you want them is time consuming.

A product that would "do it all" is what we want; however, selecting the best product is difficult. The total, real cost of wrong choices can run into the tens of thousands of dollars and set back your office automation efforts for years.

The products described here are affordable. None costs more than $400 for a single-user version. It is important to start learning to use your computer and consistently use all its significant powers.

Once you try products like these, you may develop a craving for technology. Your desire to be master of the matter at hand win be a reality, not a dream.

Paul Bernstein is a CPA. practicing attorney, and law office automation consultant in Chicago. The opinions expressed in this column are the author's and do not reflect an endorsement of any product by TRIAL or ATLA.

Notes

(1) Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) allow you to "copy and paste" information from one file to another. For example, if you have a file of names, addresses, and telephone numbers, or can find a "window" for the name and address of a given client, you can simply "highlight" the text and copy and paste it into the address part of a letter. (2) See Paul Bernstein, Case-Management Software: Moving Paper, Keeping Schedules, TRIAL, Jan. 1993, at 105. (3) There are constant trade-offs in deciding the best software and automation strategy. Personalities of staff and senior attorneys, products in use, availability of local support, and budgets often result in compromises instead of an ideal system. Most law firms need short-term and long-term automation strategies. Although programming techniques ma), allow one time entry of data into many programs, "two-time" entry of data is a fair trade-off if it helps you take even one step toward automation. (4) Info Select (suggested retail price (SRP) $149.95): Micro Logic Corp., P.O. Box 70, Hackensack, NJ 07602, tel. [phone]; fax [phone]. (5) Info Select Express (SRP $19.95): See footnote 4 for company, information. (6) SideKick for Windows (SRP $49.95): Borland International, Inc., 100 Borland Way, Scotts Valley, CA 95066 3249, tel. (408) 431 - 1000; fax [phone]. (7) InfoGenie (SRP $79.95): Casady & Greene, Inc., 22734 Portola Dr., Salinas, CA 93908-1119, tel. [phone]; fax [phone]. (8) Amicus Attorney (SRP 399): Gavel & Gown Software, Inc., 184 Pearl St., Ste. 304, Toronto, Ontario M5H IL5, tel. [phone]; fax [phone]. (9) West's DeskTop Practice Systems use the OverDrive software "engine" to create documents. For more details on these systems, see Paul Bernstein, High-Tech Products Can Help Lawyers in Small Fir s, TRIAL, Dec. 1993, at 64. (10) HotDocs 2.0 for Windows (SRP $99): Capsoft Development Corp., 732 East Utah Valley Dr., Ste. 400, American Fork, UT 84003, tel. [phone]; fax [phone].