Maintaining and keeping everything in a centralized database will help you streamline your evidence management process.
In the legal sector, evidence holds a vital position as a common yet dominant word. Evidence is the power to either prove guilty or not guilty within the courtroom. Evidence management begins much before that, in the hands of lawyers. Lawyers must handle evidence carefully and properly as the first part of an efficient evidence management system is to take care of the process in an organized way.
Traditionally, that system was paper-based and tiring. It required many man-hours of noting and written documentation if done manually. Evidence management software tools are available to streamline this vital process of maintaining evidence. It enables lawyers and police departments to regulate digital also as physical evidence paperlessly.
The solution uses cloud-based technology to securely store evidence and permit users to access the system from anywhere. For instance, police officers and lawyers can use smartphones to require images and videos, record and log interviews, and track the procedure remotely.
What is Evidence Management?
Cloud-based software for evidence management that solves all digital evidence management, storage, and sharing problems for courtrooms. It integrates with the evidence collection tools and applications for the automatic import of footage and other evidence files.
Furthermore, a digital evidence management software provides a centralized management process, streamlines sharing of files and evidence, maintains everything in a well-managed system, and centralizes multiple sources of information in one place.
Top Features of Evidence Management
1. Seamless Accessibility with Remote Working
Cloud technology has become a vital part of every industry and the legal sector is no exception. Any application or solution that runs on cloud-based technology is secure, users can access it from anywhere, and cost-effective for the law firms.
With the increasing trend of working remotely, the efficiency of Cloud-based applications is high. They can be used on all devices with an internet connection, which means lawyers and police officers can use them in the field rather than waiting to manually put data into paper-based systems.
2. Ease of Use
It’s not necessary that all lawyers and personnel involved in a case are tech-savvy. It’s essential to have an easy-to-use interface for better understanding and using evidence management software.
System integrity and cost-effectiveness are vital elements; however, they do not benefit well if the system itself is too complicated to use and difficult to understand for the users.
Evidence management software should be user-friendly with an easy-to-understand user interface, which means users can learn it quickly. If it is too complex, lawyers will waste valuable time correcting errors, searching help files, and trembling over software complications.
3. Centralized Place for All Types of Evidence.
Years before when technology wasn’t used so frequently, digital and physical evidence were managed separately in different ways.
In recent years courts have started recognizing both types of evidence equally. Maintaining them on separate systems no longer makes sense, both are prioritized equally. Further, lawyers no longer store digital media on physical CDs Now, they are logged as digital data that displays metadata for ease of identification.
Separating physical and digital data on separate systems calls for inefficiency as it is difficult to manage multiple sources of evidence. Evidence management software allows you to support digital and physical evidence both on a single system, which creates an efficient system for working with it and presenting it in front of others.
4. Custom Data Fields
Lawyers for years in paper-based systems have used the same labels or field names, and it makes sense to use the same field names in your evidence management solution. Though, consider the fact that there are some changes in the legal sector with time. New ways of doing things are continuously evolving, and you may need new labels and categories. Data customization in the legal sector changes as quickly as the technology that supports it. your evidence management system must be able to adapt to it.
While the data collection fields within your system are adequate today according to you but, they may be obsolete tomorrow according to the fast-changing technology. Your evidence management system should have a customization feature that enables lawyers to modify or add new data fields as needed.
5. High-Class Security Protocols
It’s obvious and goes without saying that all data stored in evidence management software is important and it should be stored with utmost security. If your firm stores its information in the cloud, that information is crucial to all your processes and employees.
With businesses climbing digital walls, cybercrime is increasing at an alarming rate, and any data management system provider must be cautious when it comes to data security. Your evidence management software provider should deploy multiple security protocols to protect your data in software.
6. Affordability
Affordability is a factor when it comes to shortlisting evidence management software. Keeping in mind that determining your budget should also include accounting for the savings in man-hours and other resources that come with moving to a more efficient system.
To analyze the cost of continuing without adding a software system? If your current software lacks customization, automation of tasks, security features and it’s not giving up productivity results offered by evidence management software, you may already be spending more than the cost of implementing the software in your practice.
Good software providers will offer pricing plans with no hidden fees and charges. They will be glad to answer all your questions as well as offer bundle pricing plans if you need multiple features or enterprise solutions.
Summing up
Time is precious for lawyers and every party involved in the case, manually documenting everything in the old paper-based way is not just time-consuming and tiring but also involves the risk of misplacing. A case has many stages and countless micro-management tasks.
Maintaining and keeping everything in a centralized database will help you streamline your evidence management process. Easy retrieval and access to your evidence will benefit you in being productive and efficient.
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