Public Defender Corporation Appoints GlobalSearch® As Chosen Document Management Software

Located in Mercer County, West Virginia, the Public Defender Corporation for the 9th Judicial Circuit is responsible for representing indigent clients and youth with criminal charges. With a team consisting of seven attorneys and seven support staff, the Public Defender Corporation funds all indigent defense for the State of West Virginia. Representation is provided by two methods: private attorneys on a court-appointed basis and full-time public defenders.

Over the past 27 years, the Public Defender Corporation has built a client base of over 60,000 constituents. As their client base continued to grow, so did the amount of paperwork. They had reached the limit for storage capabilities within their office and were forced to rent storage space for their file cabinets. The Public Defender Corporation was determined to find a more productive and cost-effective solution to reduce their reliance on paper. They swiftly decided to begin their journey for a document management solution.

After researching multiple companies and demoing product after product, the Public Defender Corporation found that Square 9’s award-winning GlobalSearch enterprise content management software best fit their needs. With new clients daily, the office environment at the Public Defender’s office is very busy. The implementation of GlobalSearch was seamless and the solution itself was easy to learn, which allowed staff at the Public Defender Corporation to begin using it every day.

Before GlobalSearch, the Public Defender office staff would search through several boxes to find client files. Now everyone at the office is able to scan documents directly into the digital document database, which gives the support staff and attorneys immediate access to client information via simple searches. With all documents digitally and securely stored, case files are also easily shared with attorneys outside of the office. The staff at Public Defender Corporation has seen a 100% increase in overall productivity with GlobalSearch document management. Additionally, since implementing GlobalSearch the Public Defender Corporation has saved costs by eliminating the need for an off-site storage facility, rent expenses, paper, ink, and printing costs, as well as the amount of time and effort it takes for staff to find and file documents.

Back when the Public Defenders Corporation was in the phase of researching potential document management solutions, a major factor in their decision was product support. With an average customer support response time of under seven minutes, Square 9’s knowledgeable Support staff has been readily available to answer any questions that the Public Defender Corporation has had throughout the process. Plus, Square 9 offers an online database of all product resources from how-to and troubleshooting articles, to technical product knowledge documentation, which has helped the team gain confidence using their specific GlobalSearch solution.

Thanks to Square 9 and GlobalSearch, the Public Defender Corporation is operating with more efficiency, and best of all – with less costs! To learn more about the West Virginia Public Defender Corporation for the 9th Judicial Circuit, please visit https://pds.wv.gov.

Interview: M. Denise Campbell, Office Manager, Public Defender Corporation for the 9th Judicial Circuit (West Virginia)

Q. What criteria did you have in mind when searching for a Document Management solution?

M. Denise Campbell: Our office is quite busy, representing indigent clients and youth with criminal charges throughout Mercer County. We have a small team that consists of seven attorneys and seven support staff. Currently, we have had over 60,000 clients acquired over the past 27 years, and our database continues to grow daily. We had so many files we were running out of space, so we searched for a way to scan the files and found Square 9. We tested several programs, and we found Square 9 to be the best.

Q. How is your organization leveraging the GlobalSearch solution?

Campbell: Our support staff scans files for our attorneys, so that our attorneys can use GlobalSearch to access the scanned files if they have any questions. We also use GlobalSearch to email case files to attorneys outside of our office that represent our clients on future charges. GlobalSearch is accessible through any browser, so our attorneys can access files even when they are away from their desk. We used to search through boxes to find the files before we had the scanning process, and that took quite a while. Now we can access the files in a matter of seconds – without searching boxes.

Q. How has Square 9’s solutions impacted processes?

Campbell: Since implementing GlobalSearch, the amount of administrative time saved has been huge for our productivity. It is hard to describe since we still have many responsibilities but finding our client files is much easier and faster. We have absolutely experienced over 100% increase in productivity with GlobalSearch a part of our office processes. We haven’t had to pay any additional money to store files and cabinets in our rental building, and nearly everyone at our office uses GlobalSearch every day at work.

Q. Would you recommend Square 9’s solutions and why?

Campbell: Yes, we would and have recommended Square 9 to other Public Defender Corporations. The GlobalSearch solution works very well for our office. Square 9 has been great, helping us whenever there is a question. I scan something every day and am so proud of the scanning program we have now. Thank you Square 9 for preparing it and guiding us!