Risa Beck is the Paralegal Manager at Hutchison & Steffen, a full-service law firm providing legal services in 20 categories of law. Since 2010, Risa has been assisting the firm in all aspects of trial preparation including e-discovery, ESI collection, and document review on various platforms.

“I wear a lot of hats,” Risa said. “Trial is my forte. I serve as the lead paralegal for both litigation and trial. I also do an in-house training course for individuals who want to become paralegals.”

As someone who “does things on the fly,” Risa shared how she uses technology to her advantage. In this case study, learn firsthand why paralegals like Risa have chosen CaseFleet to help build winning cases.

Discovering CaseFleet’s capabilities for organizing documents

When she was initially searching for a new solution, Risa knew she needed to find something that they could utilize within her firm that also wouldn’t be a huge cost.

Risa shared that after onboarding with CaseFleet, they ramped up with it quickly to use it for document review with one of the large cases the firm was already working on. “We had tons of documents to review, and we needed the ability to search and find specific information,” she said.

In CaseFleet, Risa explained that she can quickly filter and locate everything on a particular person, issue, or tag on the spot.

Building stories and creating chronology in CaseFleet

Following up on her original point with the benefit of CaseFleet to use on complex cases, “which we won before we even got to opening arguments,” Risa said, is having the ability to quickly identify and link documents to specific parties in the case.

“Within CaseFleet, when we initially load documents, I tag them with their source. Is it from discovery, like requests for production of documents, subpoena documents, medical records, employment records — you name it — where did these actually come from? Are these opposing counsel’s records, or are they privileged documents that we’re not going to produce? I will associate various tags that way and then depending on the team I'm working with sometimes I will do some basic issue tagging for the chronology.”

“When you start creating the facts, it's easy to go back and look at the chronology that CaseFleet is creating for you as you're progressing through the matter. So when it does come time to prep for a deposition, to do motion practice, or whatever it might be... it does help.”

Using CaseFleet to win in the courtroom

“I have multiple stories where I've been able to use CaseFleet in outside-the-box ways,” Risa said.

As an example, she shared how she has used CaseFleet in the courtroom when a witness was on the stand. “I will often have CaseFleet open when a particular witness is on the stand so I am easily able to pull a document being discussed, which may not currently be in evidence, for counsel to review and consider. It is a great tool to have at our fingertips.”

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