"This Breeze product is very handy. They call it the 'Swiss army knife of applications,' and I think that's right."
Karl Kindt
Lewis, Rice & Fingersh
"This Breeze product is very handy. They call it the 'Swiss army knife of applications,' and I think that's right."
Karl Kindt
Lewis, Rice & Fingersh
By Natalie Lombardo
Litigation support software lets attorneys scan documents in-house - instead of farming out to vendors.
New litigation support software that allows file conversion and digital document creation to happen at a desktop computer will change the practice of trial attorneys, its developer touts.
"Technology is digitalizing the field of law — some courts even require digital filing — and 'Breeze ' simplifies the transition, even for the most paper-dependent firms," said Simon Aleman, president of Tulsa, Okla.-based Idea Mill Technologies, Inc.
Instead of paying outside vendors to scan case documents used in litigation matters, attorneys and paralegals can perform 80 percent of the work in-house with Breeze. The remaining 20 percent to be handled by vendors would consist of different formats and large volumes of documents.
Breeze transfers multi-page TIF or PDF image files into single-page TIFs. It then loads them into databases such as Summation, Concordance, Sanction and TrialDirector, which allow an attorney to display various types of evidence as well as categorize, process and organize case files. The program also performs Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for searches and Bates numbers, an organizational method used to identify legal documents.
"Attorneys need to get to their evidence faster. Breeze makes that possible by allowing them to do in-house immediately what was previously sent out and processed on the vendor's schedule," Aleman explained. "Thereby, law firms can bill for the services themselves or pass the savings on to their clients."
The product is ideal for trial attorneys. But the $1,990 price tag makes it accessible to all types, including those in solo and small firms, Aleman said, noting that no training is necessary to use the simple program. All sales, demonstrations, installations and support are performed via the Internet.
Breeze entered the market with the New Year. In its first two weeks, more than 30 programs were sold to firms, including two of the country's top 50 according to Law.com, he added. With that, Aleman says his program will have the same effect WordPerfect had on the legal market in the 1980s.
"Word processing in the '70s and early '80s was only available to the large law firms. It was centralized and very expensive. Once the PC was affordable and WordPerfect was released, the technology ... trickled down to the end-user desktop," he said. "Breeze will have that same effect on the document and image-processing tasks. ... It will contribute greatly to the improvement, productivity and efficiency of the law practice."
***Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Patrick M. Muscat has tried more than 60 homicide jury trials using several forms of courtroom technology, including Sanction, to assist in his victories. He also teaches litigation technology and advanced trial practice at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, respectively. Michigan Lawyers Weekly asked Muscat to review Breeze and share his thoughts on the new product with readers.
Here's what he had to say after Internet research and watching the Breeze demonstration:
Q. What do you think of the product overall?
A. It looks very interesting. Anything that can keep work in-house as opposed to outsourcing will save time and money. Imaging and OCR software are modern tools that every lawyer and law firm should be using in some form.
Q. Do you currently use an outside service for scanning documents into Sanction?
A. No, and I don't see the need.This can be done in-house with minimal training and a few additional hires. The biggest expense would come from renting or buying safe, reliable and secure server storage space.
Q. Is Breeze something that could be useful to your practice?
A. I think it could be useful to our office and any large office, but since I'm still a "do everything myself" kind of guy, I don't have the immediate need for it. I can do what I need for my cases with free software and our office copy machines, which scan into TIFs.
Q. Do you see any flaws to Breeze?
A. To me, flaws with software are most relevant in terms of pricing. It is highly unlikely that any software package will damage or destroy files, so it boils down to how easy it is to use and whether it's worth the price. Regardless of the fact that one may be able to use other free software packages to accomplish some of these tasks, if Breeze organizes it all into one neat interface for a decent price, I would say, "Buy it." I haven't used the software yet, so I can't honestly provide any critiques regarding glitches, etc. But on its face, it looks very easy to use.
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