InQuery for Litigation

InQuery for Litigation

InQuery for Litigation from Paladigm Systems is a Web-based document repository application. The concept is basic. You send your paper documents to Paladigm, the company scans them into TIFF format, indexes the images and posts them on a secured server giving you and your colleagues access to them via your Web browser from anywhere. While the idea is brilliant, the execution, at least at this point, is less so.

After your documents are scanned and installed on Paladigm’s servers, you unzip and install two files on your computer. The first file handles the actual process of connecting to the Web site where your documents are stored. The second is an icon placed on your desktop, which launches the application. This, of course, means you can’t access your files from any computer. This seems a serious limitation in a service meant to be accessed from anywhere in the world.

When the application launches, it asks for your username and password, and takes you into an Explorer-like interface. Once you open your case, you can search for information, annotate and highlight documents, mark them as “read,” or “approved,” and add notes.

If you want to upload your own scanned documents, you have to send them to the Paladigm server via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). And if your documents are in a format not supported by Paladigm, such as WordPerfect, you will not be able to view them. The viewing program must be installed on the Paladigm server, which means you can view Microsoft Word files, but you can’t edit them.

You can save documents to your own computer’s hard drive, but each time I tried, the program would look for all my drives, which took at least a couple of minutes. You also can print documents to a printer attached to your PC, but the printer driver must first be installed on the Paladigm server.

With InQuery for Litigation, the idea is a good one. Your whole case is imaged and stored in a safe location, available from any computer via a Web browser. Unfortunately, because of the serious limitations this idea might not work for you. On the other hand, if you want to set up a document repository for viewing by several sets of counsel from their offices, this might be the product for you.

Paladigm Systems
(888) 556-2758
www.paladigm.com

Price: Depends on size of case and number of users; set-up fee of $500; average cost is 25 to 35 cents per image for Paladigm to prepare, scan, index and host.

Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP; Microsoft Office 97/2000

Reviewed by Grace Suarez, a sole practitioner and knowledge management consultant based in San Francisco.

Jun/Jul '02 Issue

PROS
Documents reside in Paladigm’s servers and are accessible through a browser.

CONS
If the company disappears, so do your documents.

VERDICT
The product is good, but the implementation has some bugs.