Case Study

CASE STUDY

‌CHRISTIAN FOX – GENERAL CIVIL LAW BARRISTER

LIFE WITHOUT CASEDO

‌Before Casedo, I worked in London for a property management company as Legal Counsel, and I was largely paperless there. When I moved into practice, I immediately started looking for software that would help me become paperless in practice. Since the pandemic started, the whole industry has started working digitally, which was lucky for my quest to become paperless. I was desperately keen not to be one of those people who gets PDF files of court bundles and prints them all out.

LIFE WITH CASEDO

‌From the first moment I used Casedo, I always found it effortless. Although there are a number of features that take a little bit of learning, it’s very easy to get going.

The ability to lay out the documents easily and navigate through them truly gives me the feeling of having a paper bundle. Through the Index, I can see all of my documents, bookmarks and how big my bundle is, much like putting tabs in a paper bundle.

I now use Casedo for every case, both my court cases and paperwork cases. It’s just a valuable tool to keep everything in place neatly.

Much like all practice areas, there tends to be a lot of documents in civil cases. The ability to interrogate those properly and move between them easily is vital to my practice area. It is great to have the ability to pull all documents together and use the Desk Space area to have my instructions and other relevant pieces when preparing for submissions.

I have recommended Casedo to others, and I still do. I think Casedo is exactly what lawyers need for their practice. Lawyers don’t need something that just makes a PDF file or bundle. Lawyers need something that can operate across large bundles of paper, providing them with something they can use in court without using paper.

Christian Fox is a barrister at Becket Chambers with expertise in General Civil law. He also accepts cases in other areas such as Property law. He is a past Chairman of the Dairy Council.

WORK SMARTER.

CASE STUDY

‌NICHOLAS BARNES – FINANCIAL DISPUTES BARRISTER

LIFE WITHOUT CASEDO

‌I went paperless in 2007 when ScanSnap arrived with an Acrobat Pro licence. I would scan in my paper brief and just use my scan. This saved my back from lugging trolley bags around. I got used to Acrobat but it is a monster of a programme, inefficient and resources hungry. I still use it, but for useable bundles, case files, trial prep and easy use, it was inflexible. It was having a tank when you needed a jeep.

LIFE WITH CASEDO

‌Acrobat is now relegated to page labels (if needed) and OCR. The rest is Casedo.

For a start, it does not matter how I get my papers. Paper is now rare, but there is the occasional use. I get bundles, supplemental bundles, documents not in the bundles, updating material, skeleton arguments, correspondence, etc. All of these can be added to Casedo and arranged as I wish them to be. I know where they are. It does not matter how they come to me. Some are well organised. Some are an utter mess. With Casedo, I can organise them with ease.

I rely on bookmarks and highlighting. The colours enable me to have highlighting for examination-in-chief and re-examination, cross-examination notes and general notes. Bookmarks enable me to have themes or areas for examination. Notes are invaluable for additional material, context and instructions or information as the case progresses. I have all I need for preparing a skeleton, opening, evidence, and closing. The exposure of these in the table of contents is a very useful way to have an overview and quick resource, especially for those random judicial questions. Similarly, if it is an advice or draft statement of case, I have all I need to be collated for drafting.

At the end of each case or brief, I can export an archive PDF file that I keep for six years. It is fully referenced with a thorough index of not just the documents but the notes and bookmarks. The index is replicated in a table of contents. I can find anything at any time.

Nicholas Barnes is a barrister at 2KBW with expertise in family financial disputes and a broad practice in civil litigation. Nicholas is the Head of the Civil and Family Teams.

WORK SMARTER.

CASE STUDY

‌LOUIS STRIPP – STUDENT AT UCL

LIFE WITHOUT CASEDO

‌Before Casedo, I had handouts, cases, articles and statutes all in separate documents and located in different files. This made writing essays particularly hard, as having a streamlined train of thought was difficult to achieve when the relevant documents on a particular area of law were so scattered.

LIFE WITH CASEDO

‌As a law student, using Casedo has made understanding the law a much easier task. Having a number of documents within one continuous file has allowed me to gain a holistic understanding of different topics. The ability to access all relevant information in one file has made legal research, essay writing and general comprehension much more efficient, as I am able to see all of the necessary information in front of me at once.

‌The split screen function is a particular favourite. Being able to examine and compare two documents at once has improved my legal research and critical analysis, and has allowed me to identify similarities and anomalies I would likely have missed if the documents had been on separate windows.

I would absolutely recommend Casedo to a student. It has allowed me to better understand the law, something which can be incredibly difficult. It allows for a holistic view of a topic, thereby ensuring you have an informed and clear perspective of the law you are trying to analyse. This makes life much easier.

Louis Stripp graduated in law at UCL June 2022. He is a now trainee solicitor at Allen & Overy. 

WORK SMARTER.

CASE STUDY

‌DAVID GREEN- EMPLOYMENT AND PERSONAL INJURY BARRISTER

LIFE WITHOUT CASEDO

‌I was almost exclusively paper-based before I started using Casedo. Papers would usually come in to chambers electronically, but they were routinely printed by our junior clerks, and put in lever-arched files for my use. I spent hours dragging these files after me, in wheely suitcases, on and off trains and in and out of court buildings.

‌I had started to look around for an alternative – something that would be easier and more ergonomic to use, and that would also save my back – in late 2019, which was when I discovered Casedo.

LIFE WITH CASEDO

‌I’d say that Casedo is the single app I have open, and in front of me, the most in my working life. I have a relatively high and varied workload, with lots of ongoing cases, which might “pop up” again after a few weeks or months for a new instruction (say, to advise on an offer that’s been made, or attend the latest hearing). At last count I had nearly 160 individual Casedo .case files.

I find that Casedo allows me to organise documents around my cases and the instructions I receive within those cases, rather than having to organise my life around the documents I’m sent however they come in. My “Casedo process” – of organising a folder structure, and then splitting, merging and labelling documents – is the way that I engage with the material I’m sent, so that I remember my way around a set of papers straight away.

The ease with which documents can be moved around and re-organised: that’s what makes Casedo a document and bundle management system, rather than a mere PDF reader.

David Green is a barrister at 12 King’s Bench Walk, specialising in employment and personal injury claims.

WORK SMARTER.

CASE STUDY

‌FERN SCHOFIELD – LANDLORD & TENANT BARRISTER

LIFE WITHOUT CASEDO

‌I previously did all of my work on paper. It was a struggle to keep track of various individual documents that aren’t part of the bundle. Each of those has to be open in a separate document, which was less convenient.

LIFE WITH CASEDO

‌I use Casedo for the majority of my work, including working on papers for written advice and for hearings (both physical and remote).

I find it easy to add and organise new papers as different documents come in over time – doing it electronically and labelling everything in Casedo means all my electronic bundles are tidy for when I return to them.

The ease of renaming and re-ordering documents I find useful for sorting out sets of electronic papers which come in poorly organised – I save everything into a folder, put it all in a new case, and then go through and arrange everything in a way that makes sense. I have tried doing this in more traditional PDF software like Adobe, but find Casedo is far superior for this kind of wholesale reorganisation.

The side-by-side viewing panes are useful for all sorts of things, but particularly for my practice, it’s useful for comparing maps and plans. I also like to use it to check I have all of the relevant enclosures to my instructions – I open the instructions in one pane and check the enclosures in the other.

The links feature is useful for clauses in leases which cross-refer to other schedules or plans. I also use them for solicitors’ correspondence which refers to numbered points in previous letters.

Having everything in one Casedo file means I don’t have to look through lots of different files to work out if I have a particular document – I know that everything is in Casedo because I put it there when it comes in.

It is also very useful to be able to export everything as one clean bookmarked PDF if I have to give papers to a colleague.

Fern Schofield is a junior barrister at Falcon Chambers, specialising in all areas of property and landlord and tenant law. She has particular expertise in telecoms law and has appeared as junior counsel, led by Wayne Clark, in the first case under the New Code to be heard in the Court of Appeal.

WORK SMARTER.

CASE STUDY

‌RHYS TAYLOR – FAMILY BARRISTER

LIFE WITHOUT CASEDO

‌Before I went paperless, it was sometimes a logistical feat to gethard copy papers delivered to me if I was not in chambers.Alternatively I would have to rely on very heavy-duty and time-consuming printing.

LIFE WITH CASEDO

‌Every case I read or meeting I attend, I am using Casedo to kettleand organise the documents into a manageable space.

Once documents are split down into individual documents, it is then easy to move that document or to exchange it for an updated copy or insert new pages without causing havoc to the overall shape of the bundle or scheme of numbering.

Emails can be dragged into a Casedo file and if there are attachments, Casedo creates a folder with the date of the email and the attachments within the folder. This enables me to keep a tight grip on the progress of an issue in emails, which are all now in one place and very easy to read as one narrative.

The split screen allows me to look at documents side by side and easilyhyperlink between different points in a bundle. I can quickly create bundles if called upon to do so and then export into a PDF format.

The search facility also helps me locate information which I cannot otherwise immediately reference.

I printed out a large document to read recently. After two minutes I put it to one side and imported the document into Casedo, which felt the more natural way to read it.

Rhys Taylor is a barrister at the 36 Group and 30 Park Place, specialising in financial remedies and TOLATA claims. He is a member of the Family Procedure Rule Committee, a member of the National Committee for the Family Law Bar Association and a Bencher of the Inner Temple.

WORK SMARTER.

CASE STUDY

SUE RUMFITT – PUBLIC RIGHTS OF WAY CONSULTANT

LIFE WITHOUT CASEDO

‌When I started there were no rules on submissions.

‌Exceptional solicitors instilled the importance of producing comprehensive, paginated and indexed bundles.

‌Last year, I needed to create my first electronic bundle in anticipation of a virtual inquiry.

LIFE WITH CASEDO

‌I can’t imagine how I managed without it.

I was delighted to find it paginated the documents and produced an index automatically.

The two viewing screens makes comparing maps and documents so much easier.

Rotation of individual pages lets me ensure my text documents are portrait and my map images are landscape with north at the top.

Casedo has revolutionised what I do, improved my throughput, and allows me to produce much more professional-looking bundles.

17 case files down the line, I use Casedo for public inquiry bundles, instructions to counsel, appendices to my reports and for analysis of evidence.

Sue Rumfitt is a nationally known public rights of way consultant, an expert witness, and holds a Bar Council Licence to instruct counsel and participates in local public inquiries; both in a witness and advocacy role.

WORK SMARTER.

CASE STUDY

AARON WOOD – TRADEMARK ATTORNEY

LIFE WITHOUT CASEDO

‌Before I used Casedo I worked in the traditional way – largely on paper and organising and re-organising evidence was a particular pain.

‌Without a print team or software, I ended up spending days preparing bundles when I should have been preparing for trial.

LIFE WITH CASEDO

‌Casedo chops 30% off the time I used to spend putting evidence together and, as it stays electronic until printing is required, the images stay crisp.

I create printed paginated and hyperlinked e-bundles in minutes.

I produce witness statements quickly and drag in documents from the other side and collate everything into a single submission.

I read and annotate the witness statement in one viewing window while looking at the exhibit in the other.

The more I use Casedo the more useful I find it to be.

Clients are grateful for it as it has reduced the time spent on preparation.

Casedo makes the bundle readable and searchable to help me find references during hearings.

Aaron Wood is a Chartered Trademark Attorney, trademark litigator and trademark advocate. He is Head of Intellectual Property at Blaser Mills and a Casedo user since July 2019.

WORK SMARTER.