Are Mailrooms No Longer An Option For American Law Firms? 

Petro Krasnomovets
By Petro Krasnomovets,
4th February |
21

Recent updates to premium first-class mail services may jeopardize time-sensitive processes as USPS stretches delivery times to five days. 

For quite a while, pens and paper holding back the digitalization of law firms have been a running joke in the industry for quite a while.

That said, the joke was never interpreted as something literal until the pandemic hit. Postal mail as a whole and corporate mailrooms in particular were hit hard when COVID struck.

Interestingly enough, logistical challenges don’t seem to cease to exist as the world is climbing out of lockdowns. Furthermore, they are proving to be a bigger bottleneck than ever before.

What happened?

If put simply, the business processes we’ve established and polished for the better part of a century were never designed to play well with work from home or hybrid workspace policies.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has recently added salt to injury by updating their service standards.

The change has already resulted in 40% more time needed to deliver letters for those who use first-class packages. In simpler words, time-sensitive packages can now take up to five days instead of the usual two.

USPS has also decided to raise their prices. Yes, longer delivery times will now cost 10% more. Reportedly, the USPS is forced to take these steps as part of their 10-year Delivering for America plan. The plan is designed to help the agency climb out of massive debt.

Obviously, these are not massive changes for the average consumer, but a law firm is anything but one. The impact and potential implications associated with routing inbound mail internally or collecting paper mail from clients, courts, research sources, and opposing counsel are hard to calculate. Most of these types of letters mandate a fixed, calendared response, which leaves you with less wiggle room to prepare or do some research.

Is there a solution?

Obviously, the situation is far from the end of the world for a law firm. Still, while being technically able to afford the delays, most players will opt for a much faster solution. As such, SLA-based operations, cloud service providers, and legaltech startups will seem like even greater assets than they were before.

Alternatively, a company can invest in the automation of its internal processes. This option involved designing an efficient digital operation that supports configurable routing routes, built-in quality control, and direct-to-DMS delivery.

Why not go full digital?

Scanning-to-email and vice versa is technically less efficient, as you’ll still be relying on heaps of paper you’ll have no use for.

As such, our suggestion would be to look into a completely automated solution that supports crucial elements of document workflow management, such as e-signature, etc.