About Suffolk Legal Aid Society
The Suffolk Legal Aid Society is a key player in the legal landscape, providing essential legal services to those in need. With a focus on justice and equity, the organization deals with complex cases across various bureaus, including the criminal bureau, family court, and children’s law bureaus.
Challenges
Before transitioning to VIDIZMO DEMS, the Suffolk Legal Aid Society faced several critical challenges with their existing platform. They needed more than just a tool to access evidence—they required the ability to edit and collaborate on case files.Their previous system lacked advanced features like annotations and indexing, which made internal collaboration difficult, especially when working with multiple teams. Additionally, attorneys needed to share evidence with prosecutors before going to trial, but they didn’t have the tools to make changes or manage access in an admin-controlled environment.
A significant issue was the absence of accurate, downloadable transcriptions for courtroom use. This slowed down the process of preparing cases, as attorneys had to manually transcribe evidence or outsource the task, which took time and introduced the risk of human error. Furthermore, Suffolk Legal Aid Society required a platform that could accommodate FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests, with the ability to redact sensitive information for external audiences when necessary. Their current platform, though functional for the criminal bureau, didn’t extend to other important areas like family court and children’s law, leaving other teams unable to access critical evidence and collaborate effectively.
Solution
Recognizing these challenges, the Suffolk Legal Aid Society turned to VIDIZMO DEMS (Digital Evidence Management System) for a comprehensive solution. VIDIZMO DEMS allowed the team to not only access evidence but also edit and annotate files directly on the platform, improving collaboration across bureaus. The system's indexing capabilities made it easier for attorneys to search through vast amounts of data, find specific points of evidence, and prepare their cases more efficiently. One of the standout features of VIDIZMO DEMS was its accurate transcription functionality, which allowed the team to automatically generate, download, and present transcriptions in court, saving both time and effort. Additionally, the platform's redaction capabilities ensured data privacy while meeting FOIA. This enabled the team to share evidence with external audiences while protecting sensitive information.
The transition to VIDIZMO DEMS also meant that multiple users could access, upload, and collaborate on evidence with role-based control, ensuring that only authorized personnel could make changes. Suffolk Legal Aid Society now had a centralized platform where attorneys could receive automatic alerts whenever new evidence was uploaded to a case, allowing for a more streamlined workflow. Most importantly, the solution extended beyond the criminal bureau, making it accessible to other departments like the family court and children’s law bureaus, ensuring a unified approach to evidence management across the organization.
Impact in a Nutshell
- Enhanced collaboration by enabling seamless editing and annotation of evidence, fostering more efficient teamwork.
- Reduced manual transcription efforts through the availability of accurate, court-ready transcriptions.
- Streamlined sensitive information management, simplifying redaction for external audiences while ensuring compliance.
- Centralized and secure evidence management, with role-based access improving control and authorization.
- Improved case handling efficiency with automated alerts, allowing attorneys to stay up to date with new evidence.
- Expanded evidence management capabilities across multiple bureaus, improving cross-team collaboration and information sharing.
About VIDIZMO DEMS
VIDIZMO DEMS is a CJIS-compliant, AI-powered digital evidence management system that enables secure ingestion, storage, management, analysis, and sharing of digital evidence.
