They have enormous needs for information organization, for collaboration over time and space, and for efficient ways to filter the information they receive for relevance. Information Overload Attorneys work with many forms of digital information, including deposition documents, notes from client meetings, audio and video transcriptions, and case law databases.
Some information is in the public domain, and some is extremely private.
Organizing all this information and sifting for relevance are overwhelming tasks for any attorney. Although many matters are handled by one or two attorneys, collaboration with other attorneys is often necessary on large cases. This presents severe communication problems, especially when attorneys are visiting international clients. Another issue is that when an attorney leaves the firm, his or her knowledge base leaves also. If we could look back in his case history and see his collaboration every time he sends or receives a fax or creates a document, every person he works with you could piece together a knowledge trail and see what his methodology was.