Electronic briefs for traditional and virtual offices
Cloudbrief is an Australian Internet based secure flexible and easy to use filing system developed by an Australian trial and appeal lawyer.
It is designed to file, organise and store court documents, evidence, cases, statutes and correspondence for the litigation team including paralegals.
The file structures are flexible and can be modified for each particular case. The file system can be used by commercial lawyers who want a cost effective secure virtual filing cabinet, keeping confidential documents safe.
Access to particular documents can be given to the client, expert or particular witness.
It can be used by lawyers on different sides to share common documents in a litigation case or in a commercial transaction.
For many years the trial lawyer/developer used computers for trials and appeals but was not satisfied with computer based litigation support services and products. He thought that a product should be developed that better catered for lawyers’ needs.
Some software packages or services are very useful to sort relevance of documents in large cases but have less or no value for day to day management of cases or commercial matters.
Cloudbrief was created to try to fill a void in legal support software by providing a cost effective web based filing service designed to meet the practical needs of legal teams, paralegals, clients, experts and witnesses in cases large or small.
Cloudbrief is an online filing system that is backed up by a relational database. Cloudbrief is not a document searching or text retrieval service. However it contains an intelligent search function.
Cloudbrief enables documents to be filed in folders and sub-folders. It lists the contents of each folder or sub-folder. A User can sort or re-sort the list by applying a number of relevant fields that include, for example, Date, Author and document Type.
Cloudbrief has been designed by applying a number of ideas about managing information in litigation that will be familiar to lawyers. These ideas also apply to transactional matters for commercial lawyers:
- The prospects of a successful outcome in a legal case or matter are enhanced by having the information in the matter well organised and structured, and readily accessible.
- Data for a legal file must be organised from commencement of the case or matter through to its conclusion (eg trial appeal or settlement). Organisation is aided by structure.
- A legal matter, and importantly a litigation case, is conducted by a team rather than an individual and all team members can contribute to the organisation of data.
- Organisation requires intelligent input from members of the legal team and the client.
- Intelligent input from a team member benefits all team members.
- Effective teamwork is best achieved by having a common file that all team members can access and build.
- The manager of the team should be able to track what has happened on the file including drafts and final documents.
- Data in electronic form can be managed in ways that are not available when a brief or file is in paper form.
- Lawyers often need to access a file when they are at home, in another State, or overseas.
- Electronic files are best managed in their native format using the software that is specifically designed for documents of that kind (eg. pdf, Word, tiff, etc).
- Computer based legal support must be easy to use.
- Computer based legal support is useful in all cases or matters and should not be restricted to the mega matters run by the mega firms.
- Computer based legal support must be cost effective.
- A client should be entitled to access a case or matter file and follow the progress of the matter.
Development and refinement over two decades
Cloudbrief is the product of more than a decade of development, spanning the phases of planning, design, and testing with real cases, to create a working online filing system for lawyers that is organised, intended to be easy to use, practical, and cost effective. Add to that another decade of practical operation and refinement.