How to Organize Documents in a Legal File
Legal documents accumulate quickly when you are actively involved in legal proceedings. When the case is complete, you will still want to keep those important papers for future reference. The project of organizing legal documents in a file can be overwhelming, and there is the temptation to leave everything neatly piled into a manila envelope. However, if you've sorted the documents in a sensible manner, you are sure to eventually pat yourself on the back for your extra efforts in document organization.
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Instructions
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Purchase a sturdy, expandable file folder that will withstand time. A sturdy and secure folder will protect your documents from the bending and damage that normally occurs in more flimsy folders. High-quality folders can be purchased at your local office supply store.
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Purchase sticky tabs for easy visual reference. Sticky tabs are white, stick-on tabs with a strip of color on top, or with a colored border, which make marking and identifying specific papers very easy. When many papers are in a folder, you don't want to have to thumb through the pile searching for that one particular document. You can write or type a description of the documents on the tab, while employing a color-coding system. For example, you can use blue tabs for discovery materials, red for court orders and green for letters.
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Decide the order of importance in accessing your documents. Is it most important that all of your paperwork is laid out chronologically? If so, start by sorting the papers into separate piles for each month of the year. Would you rather that the most relevant papers be on top (such as a will)? If so, begin separating your paperwork into piles by level of relevance, perhaps having an "extremely important" pile, a stack for "somewhat important" and "less important." Do you anticipate needing to access certain legal documents frequently, such as custody papers, a birth certificate or tax forms? If so, separate stacks should be sorted according to how easily you should be able to grab them. When you have finished separating your piles by date, relevance or frequency of use, carefully stack the piles together, with the farthest date or least important pile at the bottom, then setting them into the file folder.
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Also consider using smaller, labeled sub-folders within the larger folders. You might put trial exhibits in one separate sub-folder, deposition transcripts in another, etc.
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