If you are an attorney or other law firm employee, you know servicing clients’ legal needs requires an immense amount of paperwork. Law firms often have to print, bind, and finish material such as pamphlets, booklets, brochures, collections of important documents, pieces of important evidence, etc.
Binding also allows you to permanently compile important documents without having to worry about any papers going missing or slipping out of the stack. This can prove critically important when going to court, in which case you may need to reference an important document, or a piece of information buried somewhere in a sea of paperwork. Binding can be a great solution if done properly. However, it’s not as easy as it sounds and could cost you if you get it wrong. Take a look at your binding options before jumping in and trying to DIY it:
- Velo Binding: This is a punch-and-bind system. One long plastic strip with tiny rivets in it is placed underneath the paper on the left-hand side (where the binding will be), another long plastic strip with pins is placed on top and punches holes through the paper, aligning the pins with the tiny rivets in the bottom plastic strip. The plastic is then melted so the front and back binding, as well as the pins holding them together, are adjoined. Once melted, velo binding cannot be taken apart without a razor blade.
- Spiral Binding: This requires you to punch a series of evenly-spaced holes along the binding side of the document and twist a metal or plastic coil through the holes. This may be simple to DIY for documents only consisting of several pages, but it proves much more difficult when binding books and lengthy documents. In order for spiral binding to be effective and not bend your document, holes must be punched in a curve to fit the coil, which is difficult to do by hand.
- Tape Binding: While binding documents with duct tape may sound like a cheap DIY option, the best tape binding is done by professionals (and doesn’t involve duct tape). Proper tape binding involves placing a wide cloth strip of adhesive along the binding edge of the document. While the title “tape binding” implies that just any tape will do, tape binding must be done using adhesive strips designed to keep every page permanently intact.
There are a variety of other ways to permanently bind legal documents, including methods specifically tailored to secure large amounts of paper together, which can be critically important for attorneys who often rely on the accessibility and portability of large amounts of written information. If you are a lawyer or member of a legal practice who is looking to bind important documents, don’t risk the inconvenience of printed materials falling apart when you need them just to save money in the short run.
Quality Printing and Binding Service in New York City
At Acro Photo Print, Inc., we know exactly what it takes to print and bind legal documents of any length in a way that will keep them together for years to come. If you need important information bound up in in a hardback book, a spiral notebook, or other permanently secured form, we’re here to serve you.
Call (929) 244-4322 today and make us your New York City legal copy service.