Best Document Scanners for Small Law Offices

Few industries can get by without a reliable document scanner these days, and the legal profession is no exception. In addition to the standard paperwork that all businesses deal with, law firms must stay on top of court notes, client documents, contracts, research, estate papers, and more.

Digitizing these documents allows law offices to save space and minimize clutter, prevent the loss of critical information, and work more efficiently.

Of course, choosing the right document scanner is easier said than done. Finding the best scanner for a small law office requires understanding the different types of document scanners available and the technical requirements necessary.

Best Type of Scanner for a Small Law Office

Three different types of document scanners are available:

• Desktop: Desktop scanners are the smallest type of document scanner and fit comfortably on most desks. They are often the best choice for small to mid-sized businesses.
• Departmental: Departmental scanners are heavy-duty machines that can handle large workloads and run all day, and are typically used in departments that require high volumes of scanning.
• Production: Production scanners are the most powerful scanner type available and are ideal for large offices with heavy workloads.

Desktop and compact departmental scanners will likely be the best scanners for small law offices because of the size constraints. Both of these options should be able to handle the typical workload of a law office without taking up too much space.

Technical Requirements

Software Integration

Whatever document scanner you choose should be able to integrate with different software solutions to maximize its productivity.

For example, nearly all scanners from Kodak Alaris are compatible with Kodak Capture Pro Software, which streamlines your processes and workflows by indexing your critical data and sending smarter information to business applications and content management systems. This capability allows you to extract data from multiple sources and route it to wherever it needs to go.

Another technology standard with most scanners from Kodak Alaris is Smart Touch. Smart Touch allows users to preconfigure scanning options so they can perform actions such as the following with just the touch of a button:

• Scan and store documents to a specific location.

• Attach a document to an email and send it.

• Convert a file to a specific file type.

• Upload documents to Google Drive, Evernote, Microsoft Office, and more.

Searchability

Most scanners from Kodak Alaris can also be integrated with document scanning software, which includes optical character recognition (OCR) for complex scanning, data extraction, and indexing. This software allows law offices to delete the information they don’t need for a case, organize the information they want to keep and turn their scanned documents into fully searchable electronic files.

Attorneys can efficiently search for and find what they need rather than looking through boxes of paper documents. Multiple people can even work with the same documents at the same time.

Ability to Handle a Variety of Content Types

Law offices must process a variety of different content types on a regular basis, including both large and delicate documents. A flatbed scanner is usually necessary to handle these types of content.

While multiple scanners from Alaris are compatible with a flatbed scanner accessory, several of them actually have an A4 (legal size) flatbed scanner built-in. These scanners are able to handle a wide range of content types, such as passports, book pages, file folders, cardboard, and extra-long documents.

The A4 flatbed-integrated scanners also feature book-edge scanning, allowing you to scan one page at a time and eliminate blurred or dark imaging in the “gutter” area of a book that sits fully opened on the glass plate.

> See how one law firm quickly transformed 7,000 boxes of legal documents to digital files. 

Ease of Use

The scanner you choose should make life easier in your law office, not harder. Make sure that your scanner and any hardware or software it integrates with aren’t overly complicated to operate.

A couple of convenient features to look for are an automatic document feeder, which eliminates the need to supervise the scanning process, and intelligent document protection, which listens for problems and alerts you before they become jams or misfeeds. Both of these features can save you a significant amount of time.

You may also want to ensure that the scanner can be customized to fit different users.

Choosing the Best Scanner

A number of scanners from Kodak Alaris meet all of the above technical requirements, meaning that you only need to decide which can best handle your law office’s workload.

For example, the best scanner for a small law office could be any of the following three options:

• Kodak i2900 Scanner: up to 10,000 pages per day and 60 pages per minute
• Kodak i3250 Scanner: up to 20,000 pages per day and 50 pages per minute
• Kodak i3450 Scanner: up to 30,000 pages per day and 90 pages per minute

Even though the Kodak i3250 is a departmental scanner, its compact design makes it the same size as the Kodak i2900, the only desktop scanner on the list. The i2900 offers the lowest pages-per-day scanning capacity but is able to scan 10 more pages a minute than the i3250, making it slightly faster.

The Kodak i3450, while larger than the other two options, has the highest scanning capacity and fastest scanning speeds.

All of these options offer software integration, optional or built-in A4 flatbed scanners, and intuitive interfaces. Choosing the best scanner for a law office comes down to assessing how much and fast you need to scan and decide which option will best meet your needs.

> Learn more about finding the best document scanner for a small office.