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Management Assistance Program

A Scanner for All Situations (April 23, 2020)

Some lawyers working from home may miss the massive copier/scanner back they had at the office. While I understand the need for larger firms to have these expensive behemoths for quickly handling large jobs, I’ve always been a fan of desktop scanners. Most firms that have transitioned to paperless workflows will agree that all attorneys and most staff should have an affordable scanner at their workspaces to maximize productivity. Having a centralized scanner down the hall so everyone leaves their office to scan something makes about as much sense as having one centralized waste basket for everyone to use located down the hall. For digital client files, the scanner is the new two-hole punch.

So even with looming financial uncertainty, it may make sense to buy a scanner for the home office now. Many of us already had them at home. The recommendation on this purchase is simple. Just buy the scanner that most legal tech experts use and recommend— Fujitsu ScanSnap IX1500 scanner.

We at OBA MAP Program use this scanner and we love it. Some of the features of this scanner include:

  • Pricing at less than $500 (Staples has a special today for $399.99 w/ free shipping. Walmart is also $399.99 w/ free shipping. New Egg lists $419.99)
  • Easy set up on PCs or Apple computers
  • Easy to operate (“push the big blue button”)
  • Automatic document feeder (50 pages)
  • Scans at a rate of up to 50 pages per minute
  • Duplex scanning (both sides of a page in one pass)
  • Handles letter and legal sized pages, even when the page size varies within the document. Also does great with smaller items like receipts.
  • Excellent software package that can automatically make PDFs text-searchable
  • Scans wirelessly to a computer, phone or other devices

Sure, you can use an app on your phone for smaller jobs, but for large documents you want the automatic document feeder.