[Mac] I’ve been using DEVONthink Pro Office for a few years now, but only as a filing cabinet for documents that I don’t want to trust to the cloud. The latest episode of the Mac Power Users podcast took a detailed look at DEVONthink, and got me thinking about whether I was using the app to its fullest potential. Specifically, I wondered if I would benefit from using DEVONthink in my legal practice.
I was involved with a few longer depositions this week, and copied all of the documents for those cases into DEVONthink, and then took my MacBook to the depositions. This is the first time that I’ve used DEVONthink for legal work. We have a high-end document management system at my firm, but the system doesn’t work well when off of our network. That doesn’t translate well to managing documents during a deposition.
Prior to each deposition, I created a separate database for the case, and moving the documents into the database. I organized the documents into some basic groups (pleadings, discovery, investigation, etc.). Fortunately, our case management system made that easier, as I could export documents by classification. The first case involved 207 documents spread among 11 groups. The second case involved 660 documents spread over 19 groups (with more to come, since that case began prior to when my firm scanned every document; we’re going back and getting old documents scanned prior to trial).
How did it work? Very well, although I still have some work to do, as I’ll explain below. The two areas it really helped with were navigating to files, and searching for content within files.
With respect to navigating to files, I used a three pane view, with the groups on the left, the list of documents in the middle, and a preview window on the right. I still had to have a rough idea what document I wanted to locate, but that view made it quick and easy to jump between documents. I did learn, though, that I probably need more subgroups to be able to find documents faster. My second case involves five parties, and I’ve decided that in the future I will give each party its own discovery subgroup, for example, instead of lumping all discovery together. Still, after one attorney claimed that he hadn’t been asked for certain information, I was quickly able to locate discovery requests where he had been asked for the information in question.
The ability to search for specific content within documents (if those documents have been OCR’d) came in handy in the first case. In the first case, I quickly needed to call up information about a person mentioned by one of the witnesses. Typing the person’s name into the search box revealed a few documents almost instantly.
DEVONthink’s real power is in its artificial intelligence, and how it builds relationships between documents. I’m no DEVONthink ninja, so I haven’t even tapped into that power yet. For now, though, the easier navigation and quick search make DEVONthink a nice alternative to lugging thick files off to depositions.
Michael Carroll says:
Evan,
Would love to hear how you go a little deeper with DevonThink for creating timelines or subfolders within the database. More specifically what I mean is the process during review of documents, how you tag it, link to it, or mark it and save that information for ready reference later. Like a lot of lawyers when we have to look at thousands of documents, only a small handful (even a hundred or so even with multiple pages) may be relevant to ask about in a deposition or use as an exhibit at trial. Do you have a process? Have any good references for tutorials?
November 25, 2016 — 5:34 pm
Evan Kline says:
Michael,
I haven’t used it for Timelines yet. I mainly break up my database for a case into pleadings, discovery, etc., with some smart searchs to break things down even further. I might have a few text notes in there, with links to documents using the ability to link to specific pages in a document. Beyond that, I really just like the ability to quickly search and find things.
As far as tutorials, I watched the tutorial on Screencastsonline, although that wasn’t law-specific. I also spend some times in the official forums, too.
November 26, 2016 — 6:18 pm
Michael Carroll says:
Evan,
Thanks for the reply. Do all your cases go into DTPO or do you just put the hot ones in? And are you importing or indexing? DTPO is such a powerful tool even if used in its most basic form, but I want to make it hum for me. In searching around on this same issue, I found an old blog entry here, that gets at what I would love to implement.
http://www.maclitigator.com/2010/07/08/devonthink-pro-for-case-analysis/
November 28, 2016 — 3:13 pm
Evan Kline says:
Michael,
My usage of DTPO has changed slightly in the last few months, as we’ve moved to a less cumbersome document management system in the office. In the past, I’d move an entire case into DTPO at the first sign of any significant activity, such as a deposition. Our new document management system is much more accessible, so I typically wait until a case gets very hot (approaching trial, arbitration, mediation, etc.) to move it in.
I’ve typically indexed in the past, but I don’t feel too strongly about it. I think importing is the easier and cleaner method. If you have an enterprise Dropbox account, you could store your documents there, index, and turn off selective sync to that folder when you no longer need the case at your fingerprints.
I’ve seen the MacLitigator article before. I don’t use it that intensively on my cases yet. Mostly, I’m using it for its robust search, replicants, etc., plus the ability to link to specific pages.
November 28, 2016 — 4:23 pm
Michael Carroll says:
Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
November 28, 2016 — 5:44 pm