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How to Do 90 Minutes of Work in 60 Minutes

1. Pros and Cons Using the cloud has advantages In many cases office networks You can easily expand the network with the cloud as the firm grows Finally many cloud computing it is more secure than 30 January 2013 Trial solutions allow your staff to access data from virtually anywhere Security Despite some skeptics legitimate concerns the cloud is gen erally more secure than a typical law office Reputable cloud service providers use sophisticated data centers equipped with multiple levels of security designed to prevent unauthorized access to firm data These servers have other features that offer higher levels of security than in office systems including automatic backup systems duplicate redundant servers and other measures that most law firms either don t have or can t afford Universal data access With the cloud your data are stored on someone else s server which means that your staff can access the information no mat all they need is an Internet connection They can use a lap top smartphone or an iPad Regardless of the device and the location your staff can get critical information and make important decisions On the other hand if you were using a traditional desktop based application you would have to provide offsite access through a remote desktop connection or a program such as GoToMyPC for users to work on the firm s data while ter where they are Jsing the cloud has
2. Similar sites When you place related before a URL Google will display Web pages that have content similar to that found at that address See what a search for related www justice org turns up Web site information Using info in a search will yield links to information and to searches about a particular site For example info www justice org brings up a description of AAJ and a link to its home page and it offers several AAJ related search options Google Calculator Google includes a sophisticated built in calculator that works by entering the desired calculation into the Google search box or the Google toolbar an add on to most Web browsers The calculator can perform basic arithmetic addition subtraction multiplication and division advanced math trigonometry logarithms and computation of units of measure and conversions currency weights distances You can find excellent examples at www googleguide com calculator html Weather When you type weather and the name or zip code of a specific place Google will display the location s weather tyoe weather 19083 or weather Havertown pa to learn what weather conditions to expect in my area General flight information Use fly city to city in a query to get information about flights from one city to another You can also use airport codes if you know them For example you could type fly Philadelphia to Chicago or fly PHL to ORD Specific flight information By typing th
3. s not the best business practice Clients tend to be far more tech savvy now than they were just a decade ago and those who recognize the importance of technology in litigation may well select counsel based on their level of technological expertise And it isn t hard to imagine a scenario where a lawyer s refusal to use technology might form the basis of a legal malpractice claim Many lawyers still remember using typewriters carbon paper and onionskin paper and may never have dreamed that in just a few years these onetime staples would become obsolete Times change and lawyers who fail to change with them may find themselves at a distinct disadvantage Technology may not always be easy to use and it may not always be fun but neither is legal research Yet both are crucial to your work You would never think of writing a brief without researching the issues your technological obligations are just as important Attorney Daniel J Siegel is the president of Integrated Technology Services in Havertown Pennsylvania He can be reached at trial techlawyergy com The views expressed in this article are the author s and do not constitute an endorsement of any product by TRIAL or AAJ Notes 1 www abanet org tech ltrc research ethics competence html 2 Joseph Howie Lega Tech New York No Excuses LawTechnology News Mar 2009 http www lawtechnews com r5 showkiosk asp listing_id 3107598 amp category_id 27902 3 See t
4. NW Ste 200 e Washington DC 20001 800 424 2725 or 202 965 3500 Home Contact Us Help AAJ Sitemap Advertising Opportunities Careers Privacy Policy Reprints amp Permissions Site Feedback 2011 AAJ Copyright 2011 The American Association for Justice formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America Reprinted with permission Trial TECH BRIEF December 2011 Volume 47 No 12 Dive into the Deep Web Daniel J Siegel When most people want to find some hing on the Intemet they tum to Google Bing Yahoo or another search engine In many cases these sites are sufficient to locate the information you re looking for For attomeys and others who are trying to find more specialized informa ion better options may be available There is another dimension to the Internet often called the Deep Web which contains information not regularly catalogued by the Googles of the world The Deep Web offers an easier and faster way to get directly to relevant accurate and well rounded sources for legal research in less time and with less frustration The Deep Web is the largest part of the Intemet and it s much more expansive than anything Google or Yahoo can produce in a typical search The reason is that the common search engines only index include in their results Web pages that contain links such as sites like Amazon Typical search engines barely scratch the surface of what is available on the Web
5. The Deep Web on the other hand contains virtually every hing else on the Web One of the key chroniclers of the Deep Web is Bright Planet http www brightplanet com whose site explains the size and diversity of the Deep Web When Michael Bergman at Bright Planet wrote a white paper on the Deep Web a decade ago the amount of information available on the Deep Web was 400 to 550 times greater than what was available on the surface Web Among Bergman s findings were Deep Web content is highly relevant to every information need market and domain e More than half of the Deep Web content resides in topic specific databases e Ninety five percent of the Deep Web is publicly accessible information that is not subject to fees or subscriptions e On average Deep Web sites receive 50 percent greater monthly traffic and are more highly linked to than surface sites but Deep Web sites are not well known to the public e Deep Web sites tend to be narrower than conven ional surface sites and have deeper content Bright Planet says it currently estimates that the total quality content of the Deep Web is at least 1 000 to 5 000 times greater than that of the surface Web 2 Although hundreds of thousands of search sites are topic specific Deep Web directories and search engines perform more broadly based searches and provide topic headings to make research easier and faster Dive into the Deep Web depth of the Deep Web led one resear
6. someone else s Nevertheless there are differences beyond where your data are stored Pri s computers marily those differences are technologi cal and ethical As with all other forms of client data storage using the cloud to store client information implicates the ABA Model Rules of Professional Con duct as well as its state counterparts Various national state and local ethics and professional guidance committees have authored opinions designed to assist attorneys who plan to use or are using the cloud While many consider ations are the same for onsite or other traditional storage methods attorneys and law firms still must evaluate the dif ferences between the cloud and other methods Traditional computer networks are hardwired which means that every user is connected to each other by com puter cables These networks are man aged internally without relying on any other companies to make changes in the setup or infrastructure Outages and other related problems are not an issue because you don t need the Internet to access your data In addition provided your firm has appropriate security it is unlikely that a hacker will access it Since the data are generally accessible only to your staff you don t have to worry about considerations such as the laws where the data are stored concerns about who owns your data data breach policies and alternative methods of con necting when there is an outage
7. GETTY IMAGES comprehensive system for tracking every aspect of a client file from intake through litigation to trial And with the advent of cloud computing law firms use of CMS continues to change Attor neys need to understand the many major features of cloud based CMS the issues to consider when purchasing a CMS sys tem and a roadmap for implementing the system successfully Designed to permit convenient stor age and retrieval of client and case information CMS products often include all or many of these features a centralized office calendar that tracks appointments deadlines trial and court appearance dates and depositions com prehensive workflow monitoring using to dos reminders and other similar features a centralized database of cli ents parties insurance companies adjusters witnesses judges counsel medical and other providers inte grated external email generally using Microsoft Outlook law firm email and other interoffice messaging systems automated document creation gener ally using Microsoft Word Corel Word Perfect and related software standard and custom reports including statutes of limitations case aging conflicts of interest and filing deadlines such as governmental notice requirements mailing lists and labels based on vari ous criteria such as zip code and occu pation and remote access capabilities permitting staff and partners to use the CMS while trave
8. It would let your secretary put appointments into your calendar and let you create your own private appointments Many programs allow you to create confidential appointments that either appear only on your personal calendar or provide no details to other staff This brings up another crucial point If your firm s lawyers and other employees use portable devices such as Bla ckberrys and PDAs ask the vendor if the CMS works with them Document management Any business not just a law firm should have a standard format for letters memoranda and other documents in order to display a uniform professional image to its clients and the public CMS can help you develop a standard style for both the appearance and cont ent o f these docu ments If your firm sends ou t form le tters CM S docum ent management features ensure that every attorney is prov iding the most relevant information whether the document is a welcome letter to a client a letter of representation to an insurance carrier or a letter rejecting a case Page 4 Most case management programs let you create documents using information already stored in your s ystem Some have their own doc ument cre ation so ftware t hat w orks w ith p opular word processing programs like Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect When evaluating a CM S program determine which features are essential to your firm which ones would be nice to have and which are unimportant For example if yo
9. advantages In pany cases it is away from the office Some of these solu tions do not allow access by some of the more common types of mobile technol ogy For example not all remote access methods are compatible with iPads or Android tablets Cost of ownership One of the rea sons many firms have chosen cloud based CMS is that the cost of owner ship is often less than for traditional systems This is a difficult reason to quantify however because of numerous variables some tangible some intan gible The most common intangible is the value that many firms feel when their data are being stored at their own offices Of course that does not guaran tee that there will not be a catastrophe like a fire or that their data will not be breached What is hard to explain is that in many cases cloud solutions are actu ally as secure as or more secure than in office networks The tangibles are easier to quantify First firms must compare the costs of purchasing traditional software as well as setting up and maintaining their own physical network to cloud based soft ware expenses which often include a purchase price as well as monthly or other subscription based fees Second firms must consider the cost STEVEN PUETZER GETTY IMAGES of support both for the network and for whatever software will be used Third law offices must factor in the addi tional costs of remote access includ ing the need for high spe
10. anew CMS requires the entire firm s commitment Everyone from the managing par tner to the file c lerks must earn the system and commit to us ing it Your selection committee can act as an internal sales staff explaining why you are installing the new system how it will streamline work and the many benefits staffers will get from using it Before installing the system firmwide it is best to perform a test installation for a small group of users This lets you test the system s efficiency judge the quality of the data conversion and Page 6 data inp ut and locate an y glitches Once you are comfortable with the program make a schedule outlining when and how the conversion will occur Check whether any of your firm s attorneys has a trial or other significant event in the near future You don t want to install a new CMS program on the weekend before someone starts a monthlong jury trial Also it s crucial to find out what kind of training the vendor offers and how much it costs Some CMS vendors provide on site training others offer telephone training while others offer no formal training at all and the costs vary dramatically If you choose a program with limited training factor in the likely and often expensive cost of hiring someone to provide on site assistance Training must be mandatory and co mprehensive Every person who will use the CMS must attend the sessions and the firm together with the vendo
11. dates be in YEAR MONTH DATE format 2005 10 28 because it makes sorting similarly named files far easier Thus if you have four letters to your client they will sort in date order when you are searching Email amp Faxes More and more businesspeople and their clients communicate by email The volume of email in some offices is overwhelming and if the communication involves a client you almost certainly have to save a copy not only of the email but also of your reply and the reply to the reply and the reply to the reply to the reply etc At times the volume of email seems infinite There is no reason however to print out every email you receive The ubiquitous Microsoft 12 Outlook and virtually every other email program allows you to easily store email on your computer So unless the email is that important don t print instead hit the save button As for faxes old habits die hard Many offices continue to rely on the machine but there are better alternatives For smaller firms an online service such as efax http www efax com may be the answer Efax assigns you a fax number and sends your faxes to as many as five different email addresses all for one annual fee which is generally less than the cost of a fax line for a year For larger offices programs such as Right Fax http www captaris com rightfax may be the answer albeit at a significantly greater cost Using efax or RightFax you can view an incoming fax o
12. plan to view images frequently then the Microsoft viewer which requires a user to open and close every image manually is inefficient and will become a source of increasing frustration There are many other viewers that allow users to scroll from image to image without having to open and close 11 each document Users tend to have their own preferences and most viewers are relatively inexpensive and generally offer free trials Among the more popular viewers are IrfanView http www irfanview com which is free for non commercial use and ACDSee http www acdsystems com which is extremely easy to use and sells for about 50 00 File Naming No matter how you implement your less paper office one factor critical to its success is creating a file naming protocol Where possible your office should use a protocol that makes locating files easy and allows anyone to determine the contents of a given file Document management software DMS automatically performs this function although many offices do not have DMS For those offices files should still be organized in an easy to use style generally by client organization name after all who remembers every account number There are then generally subdirectories for correspondence memos invoices contracts etc After you establish a file organizational structure you should define a file naming protocol For example save all letters as Ltr to XXXX re YYYY Date I recommend that
13. types of technology you can use to accomplish more in less time in law offices and other businesses are S po OR OO OR OR OR oe a SOR Re SE OR A FA OR a a SR he Back Ups Performed Regularly Bates Document Numbering Software Calendaring Electronically Case Analysis Software Case Matter Management Software Closed File Case Procedures Standardized amp Electronic Deposition Document Review Software Dictation Voice Recognition Software Document Scanning to Achieve a Less Paper Office Document Management Software Document Viewers Including Adobe amp Other Products Documents File Naming Protocols Electronic Document Production E mail Rather Than Snail Mail Faxes Send amp Receive Electronically Medical Records Electronic Procurement In lieu of hard copies Metadata Removal Software Neat Receipts Portable Scanner amp Similar Devices OCR Optical Character Reading Software to Permit Easy Searches of Scanned Files Paper Use Reduction PDAs amp Blackberry Devices Research Online Time Billing Software Time Line Presentation Software Trial Presentation Software Word Processing Use Templates Standardized Document Preparation Methods 14 Conclusion You really can do 90 minutes of work in 60 minutes All you need to do is stop handling paper and transform your paper files into electronic ones While the transition takes a little adjustment I have yet to meet someone who
14. 3 of 6 1 2 2008 4 30 14 PM TRIAL listings that is difficult to search One of the most helpful and least used features of Internet Explorer is the Links toolbar which allows you to store countless Web site addresses and find them easily To enable the toolbar e Click on View gt Toolbars and make sure Links is checked Click and drag the Links toolbar to its own line Delete all the preselected entries put on the toolbar by the manufacturer right click on an unwanted icon and select Delete Next you need to create folders for the categories you d like to file Web addresses in Goto Favorites gt Organize Favorites Highlight the Links toolbar Click on Add New Folder and type Legal Add other new folders of your choice 2 e Click Close When you arrive at a Web site you want to save click Favorites gt Add to Favorites and select the folder you want to put it in from the drop down menu next to Create in or create a new folder for it or subfolder in the category you ve selected by clicking the New Folder button PowerPoint Spend less presentation time fussing with the program by learning a few shortcuts Navigate slides If you re in the middle of a presentation and need to jump forward or backward to another slide its embarrassing to have to move through all your slides to get there Instead while in Presentation mode just type the slide number you want to go to and hit Enter to jump righ
15. Association of Trial Lawyers of America Reprinted with permission Trial TECH BRIEF March 2012 Volume 48 No 3 Daniel J Siegel Do you remember when you had to dial up using a contraption called a modem to do research on Lexis or Westlaw Do you remember how hard it was to lind new court decisions or statutes Not anymore Despite the fact that the intemet has changed the way we conduct our daily activities some lawyers still don t take advantage of many Web sites that can make our lives easier The best part is that most of them are free Here are some of the Web sites AAJ members shotild be using Social Security Beath index http search ancestry com search db aspx dbid 3693 Have you ever needed to verily whether someone involved in one of your cases such as a potential defendant is dead The Social Secutity Dea h Index is the place to begin for that information This site provides a searchable database of the nearly 90 million records in the Social Security Administration s SSA Death Master File This file is created from intemal SSA records of deceased people possessing Social Security numbers whose deaths were reported to the SSA The database is updated weekly and provides a wealth of information about the person whose record you are searching for including e lastname e first name e Social Security number e State of issue e bith date e death date e last residence e lump sum payments The site n
16. How to Do 90 Minutes of Work in 60 Minutes By Daniel J Siegel Esquire Integrated Technology Services LLC 66 West Eagle Road Suite 1 Havertown PA 19083 610 446 3467 Fax 484 636 3993 www techlawyergy com Email dan techlawyergy com Perception There is so much technology that it seems to take me longer than ever to do everything Perception Ihave way too much paper to ever go paperless Perception I can t possibly work without my papers Perception TII never get out from under all this work Reality Managing technology paper and your time is easy once you v Harness the power of technology yY Reduce your reliance on paper by acknowledging that o You don t need to save all of the paper you save o It s faster and easier to rely on technology to handle paper y Organize everything you save electronically That s all you need to do It s simple providing you are v Open minded v Willing to explore all of your options y Willing to actually learn how to use the software you already have y Willing to reduce or eliminate paper and v Willing to automate as many routine tasks as possible Businesses law offices organizations and individuals will often make decisions or changes in their operations that cost significant amounts of money yet they are often hesitant to invest even a small amount for the technology including training necessary to improve their day to day operations By ignoring the ways techno
17. Is technical support live and is it done by e mail or telephone What hours is it available How good is it Is there a users manual If the technical support staff is on the East Coast and you are onthe West C oast or vic e versa will there be periods when no support is available Remember to ask who will provide s upport How many technical support peo ple does the vendor have What is the average length of employment for the vendor s support personnel and how extensive is their training When you talk with current and former clients of the CMS vendors ask about their experiences with technical support Don t forget to ask about hidden costs Does the price of the software include fixes service releases periodic upg rades and u pgrades when the vendor issues a new version ofthe program If not what do they cost How often are upgrades released The final hurdle to getting your CMS up and running is more personal People lik e to handle their own files with their own software without anyone else butting in Don t ignore this issue When staff members raise problems and complaints address them But don t let them get in the way of implementing your CMS successfully Case management software can revolutionize your of fice s day to day operations Buying a CMS program like any major purchase requires careful thought research and planning With clear cut goals and a firmwide commitment to its success CMS can significantly i
18. Most people wastefully retype all a contact s information when creating a new entry But if you have already created an address card for another person who works at the same company you don t have to retype the common information Open the address card you already have for someone who works at the company Click on Actions gt New Contact from Same Company A new address card will appear with all the person s basic company information already filled in Adobe Acrobat You can now do more with pdf documents in the Reader program Spiffing up the interface The free Adobe Reader is installed on virtually every computer but the latest version allows users to do even more You can customize the program by clicking on Edit gt Preferences Adobe Reader then presents you with a host of customization options ranging from how documents look on the screen to whether you will use its new audio reader function Moving text Although you cannot edit a pdf document in Adobe Reader the way you edit a Word or WordPerfect document you can copy text and pictures from many pdf documents and use them in other programs Click on Select Tool on the toolbar at the top Highlight the text or pictures you want Select Edit gt Copy Open the other program you want to paste the information into and select Paste Ctrl V The information you copied should appear although you may have to do some additional formatting Filling in and
19. Mouse Click to avoid inadvertently starting something you weren t ready for Of course test the link before giving your presentation and verify that your firewall or antivirus software does not prevent the link from working properly Microsoft Outlook Better organize how this program manages your life http www justice org publications trial 0801 me 50 fObBr1M 1uV29Wv3btpGI nkxZN9bjoGj1vY 20KXs4 4 of 6 1 2 2008 4 30 14 PM TRIAL Use the Reading Pane By enabling the Reading Pane preferably on the right you can view most of your e mail messages without having to double click and open the messages e Click View Select Reading Pane gt Right Resize the windows click and drag their borders for the view you like best You can even mark the messages as read after you see them e Click Tools gt Options Select the Other tab Click the Reading Pane button Check Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading Pane and enter how long you want to wait before marking items You could also have items marked as read when you move to the next message by selecting Mark item as read when selection changes Move easily between folders These keyboard shortcuts will help you switch among Outlook s functions without reaching for the mouse Ctrl 1 Inbox Ctrl 2 Calendar Ctrl 3 Contacts Ctrl 4 Tasks Ctrl 5 Notes Create a new contact without retyping information
20. The proprietary program is poor but if you choose Outlook the program won t store any case specific dates such as depositions hearings or trials in aclient s file Nor does it give you any way to obtain a comprehensive case calendar When considering a CMS program ask for a full explanation of how it works with your e mail system and what you can expect it to do and not to do Calendars The CMS program you choose should let you easily track statutes of limitations and other deadlines When a user opens up a file the program should require the user to either enter an injury or incident date after which the progra m automatically calculates the date the statute expires or enter the limitations date manually This is an important feature but at least one program know of does not include it Usually CMS calendars link to the particular case for which an event is scheduled allowing any user to see alle vents related to a case Users can also see attorneys and staffers schedules making it possible to schedule appointments without making numerous phone calls or sending e mails to check eac h person s availability Ag ain som e programs will not link dates to client files unless you use the vendor s proprietary e mail software so you can lose these benefits depending on which system you choose A go od CM S program lets ev eryone see each other s schedules avoiding mix ups and speeding up the process of setting up meetings
21. addition large copiers generally also serve as scanners Either way scanning is as easy as making a copy But the key to successful scanning is in the software Most manufacturers supply all of the software you will need for free when you buy a scanner For example Hewlett Packard offers user friendly software that makes scanning a snap Fuji generally provides a copy of Adobe Acrobat its mid range version with many of its scanners Scanning is easy You either open the software or click on the scan button and the scanning begins Once the scanning is over the software asks you what format to save the images in generally a pdf and where to save it Of course if you need to save your document as an image such as a tif or jpeg you can do that just as easily The advantage of the pdf format rather than a jpeg or other image format is that with proper software you can search one or more documents for keywords After You Scan You Need Software Scanning documents is just the first step After your documents are scanned you need the proper software to review them Selecting the correct software for handling your documents is crucial to reducing paper and increasing efficiency If you save your documents as pdfs you can 10 review them with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader downloadable at http www adobe com Adobe Reader allows you to view your documents but not much else If you purchase Adobe Acrobat or comparable software
22. aps even more than you rely upon that specialized job specific program your organization or business uses But for various reasons most people have never been trained in the rudimentary programs that are so crucial to their daily activities Many schools for example require students who graduate to have a working knowledge of Word Excel and PowerPoint But do they teach the students how to use the programs Generally not After all students from elementary through high school must graduate with certain levels of proficiency in math science history and other subjects but the schools do not expect the students to learn those subjects through osmosis Why is computer software treated differently And why should it be In reality it should not be treated any differently While students may not need four years of Microsoft Word training a semester of training would help students immeasurably throughout their lives just as students who were forced to learn typing are more adept at the keyboard than their hunt and peck counterparts Think how much time those proficient typers save And in many cases not only do they save time they also eliminate the need for hiring a full time secretary for those workers Acknowledge the need to reduce your use of and reliance on paper Jane M VonBergen of The Philadelphia Inquirer authored a series of articles in 2006 about the cost of clutter to businesses In her initial article she outlined t
23. ar icle Deepdyve rents the articles for 24 hours or more for as little as 99 cents far less than many sites charge to purchase similar items Using the Deep Web requires a bit more perseverance han tradi ional sites like Google Never heless when you find the site you need you are likely to discover a trove of information that you never knew existed Daniel J Siegel is the president of Integrated Technology Services in Havertown Pennsylvania He can be reached at trial techlawyergy com Notes 1 Michael K Bergman The Deep Web Surfacing Hidden Value Sept 24 2001 http brightplanet com images uploads 12550176481 deepwebwhite 20paper pdf 2 Bright Planet Deep Web FAQs www brightplanet com the deep web deep web faqs 3 CompletePlanet Deep Web FAQs http aip completeplanet com aip engines help help_deepwebfaqs jsp 4 www online college blog convfeatures 100 useful tips and tools to research the deep web The American Association for Justice 777 6 h Street NW Ste 200 Washington DC 20001 800 424 2725 or 202 965 3500 Home Contact Us Help AAJ Sitemap Advertising Opportunities Careers Privacy Policy Reprints amp Permissions Site Feedback 2011 AAJ http www justice org cps rde xchg justice hs xsl 17180 htm 12 12 2011 3 45 11 PM AMERICAN ASSOCIATION for SOSE Copyright 2012 The American Association for Justice formerly Fomedy i Aavoclation of Tal Lawyers ol Amedca ALAS the
24. articular demands Also it can be very helpful to get feedback from a vendor s clients If a vendor refuses to give you these names think twice before buying its product Ask the clients what they like about the program or wh yt hey s topped u sing i t Bes ure to ask abou t the qualit y o f training and customer suppor t an d t he long t erm costs of u sing t he software t hese include annual technical support costs upgrade fees and costs for customizing program features Finally your committee should create a plan forimplementing the new CMS A new system will require great amounts o fda ta input because it isd ifficultto transfer files from old programs to new ones Decide how data will be switched over and how much of it to include at this stage Client records and in formation abo ut c urrent cases of course must b e input first but you can probably add other data such as the names of insurance carriers and opposing counsel later as the need arises Your decision will depend on whether your staff will have access to its older system but only for looking up historical data and how much time and money you ve allocated to cover the cost of converting data One caveat Once you have implemented the new system and converted the key data do not allow staff to continue to use your old system Otherwise some users may simply refuse to use the new system and much of your work will have been for naught That s why installing
25. ccess Microsoft Word Almost everyone uses Word and probably so do you It s a program that can be irritating but you can eliminate some of the most common annoyances Change how the document looks Reading a document in Word s editing mode called Track Changes can be irritating if it has been marked up extensively Just turn this feature off it s easy to turn it back on if you need it Click on Tools and make sure Track Changes is not highlighted Another annoyance e mail attachments often don t appear as they were formatted to appear when you open them in Word This can make it hard to edit the documents To fix this turn off the Reading Layout Click on Tools gt Options Select the General tab Uncheck Allow starting in Reading Layout Enable Click and Type If you set this feature you can double click anywhere in a document to fill out a form for example and begin typing To enable it go to Tools gt Options gt Edit and check the Enable click and type box Inthe View menu select either the Print Layout or Web Layout view Inthe document you re working on move the pointer to a blank area where you want to insert text graphics or a table double click to enable the Click and Type pointer 1 Double click and start typing text or insert an item as usual Turn off automatic correcting features Word calls these features AutoFormatting and AutoCorrect They often make changes you do not wan
26. ce The site also provides specilic details about how to comply with each country s requirements For example if you want to serve a party in France the site explains that the United States and France are signatolies to the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters Done at he Hague November 15 1965 Hague Setvice Convention and that Service in France through the Hague Service Convention generally takes three months but can take longer The site provides similar infonnation for other counties Comel University Law Schoo Legal information Institute www law comell edu A great resource for starting virtually any type of legal research the site contains tons of informa ion as well as links to numerous other resources including e federal law e the U S Constitution e the U S Code e the Code of Federal Regulations e the Supreme Cour e the Federal Rules e State law resources e state statutes by topic e the Uniform Commercial Code e uniform laws e woild law e Wex legal encyclopedia e CRS Annotated Constitution e Lil Supreme Court Bulletin Law Technology News www law convjsp lawechnologynews index jsp When you need to know what s happening in he legal technology world this site is one of the most helpful It provides up to the minute news as well as product reviews and other infortation Acrobat for Lege Professionals nttp blogs adobe
27. cher to conclude that the Deep Web holds about 550 billion documents compared with the 1 billion documents on the surface Web A good place to start using the Deep Web is with a database of databases also known as a Deep Web directory Some of these directories are set up like a one stop shop listing databases in categories such as law and health while others simply let you type in a keyword and perform a wider search To begin your search of Deep Web resources you can go to one of the Deep Web sites or an index of multiple Deep Web sites Fortunately there are many good Deep Web directories Like other sources on the Internet some are more useful and user friendly than others and most are free One of the more popular Deep Web sites is Complete Planet http www completeplanet conyv a relatively large Deep Web directory powered by Bright Planet that includes many topics Complete Planet lists multiple categories you can search including education law science and health The site boasts that it encompasses more than 70 000 searchable databases and specialty search engines Another good starting point is Online College Blog s 100 Useful Tips and Tools to Research the Deep Web which lists 100 Deep Web sites While this list is comprehensive some links include stale sites or sites that no longer exist the latter is a somewhat common problem among Deep Web sites Because they rely on a more limited numbe
28. com acrolaw The standard and professional edi ions of Adobe Acrobat soltware contain a wide range of features for attomeys including Bates numbeling redac ion and the ability to search and index PDF documents Acrolaw the short name for this site is a compilation of invaluable tips and tricks that help you get even more out of the software You can also subscribe to the site s newsletter LexisNexis Communities Portals www lexisnexis com community portal contentlexisonelandingpage aspx Previously known as Lexis One this site provides a weallh of infornation much of it free but some at a cost including e daily updates and RSS feeds e legal news from a wide range of sources e blog posts e free case law searches for the past 10 years of state and federal courts and the U S Supreme Cour fram 1781 to present legal forms many of which are free e podcasts e free downloads The Federal Web Locator www lib aubum_ edu madd docsifedioc html This site operated by the Villanova Center for Information Law and Policy at Aubum University calls itself a one stop shopping point for federal government information on the World Wide Web It is well organized and contains links to hundreds of federal agencies services and other entities Social Security Online Disability Programs Listing of impairments www ssa gov disability professionals bluebook AdultListings htm For Social Security practitioners this site contains a
29. complete up to date compilation of the Social Security regulations governing claims for disabiltly and Supplemental Security Income benefits is Your Doctor Board Certified www certilicationmatters org is your doctor board certilied search now aspx Need to know if a physician MDs only is board certilied This Web site can help you tind the answer along with other information about the doctor in question The site does not include osteopathic physicians however and the Ametican Osteopathic Association AOA does not have a similar Web site If you believe the physician you are researching is a member of an AOA board you must first go to the AOA Web site www osteopathic org and look at the list of specialties there Then you need to locate the individual board Web site to obtain specific doctor certilication information RxList www 1xdist convscripvmainhp asp When you need to identify a particular pill or discover more information about a medication this site is a tetrilic resource You can search by name or by the iden ilying marks on a pill and then you can read the package insert for the medica ion The site contains a wealth of other informa ion about drugs and is an excellent starting point for any pharmaceutical elated research Jenkins Law Library Lege Research Links htip tinyutl conv7bgh3tv The Jenkins Law Library located in Philadelphia is the frst and oldest aw library in the country Its research links pag
30. ct and what hap pens if a provider goes out of business These are important issues that should be addressed in your contract with the service providers before signing or agreeing to the Terms of Service the document that outlines each party s legal rights and responsibilities Less versatility Many cloud based CMS products do not have as many features as traditional desktop based products As a result some features such as integrated calendaring or doc ument creation and management may not work with the versatility of some onsite products For example it is criti cal to know how the software maintains document versions how easily you can route items between users and whether the software s integration with Micro soft Outlook could cause performance issues as your firm grows Think Before You Switch There are many benefits to moving your firm to cloud based CMS yet the products are not the panacea that some claim Make sure that any cloud based software is compatible with Outlook and other products your firm is cur rently using Assess your firm s infrastructure both hardware and software to deter mine what you have and what changes will be necessary to make the move to the cloud go smoothly Evaluate your options Test drive the products you are considering so that you can be confident that the CMS you select will meet your firm s short and long term needs Also get references from the vendor and mak
31. dle in the paperstack will be far easier Although most software can OCR handwritten documents the results vary based upon the legibility of the writing and sophistication of the software Consider this real life example from my own law practice In a recent case plaintiff s counsel had suddenly named a new expert Although he worked for the same company as another expert we could not fathom why his testimony would have any more relevance than the previously named witness I opened up my Adobe Acrobat index and searched for the witness name Lo and behold his name appeared once in about 5 000 pages of documents Where In one document in which another witness had cited the newly named expert s treatise which of course supported plaintiff s theory of recovery Obviously when he identified this witness plaintiff s counsel had intended to use this treatise to bolster his case without ever disclosing that little fact beforehand Needless to say we promptly filed a Motion in Limine to preclude testimony by this new witness Jumping ahead your work is concluded Now what When you close the file if you have saved copies of the documents on your computer you can burn a CD store it with the files on it and dispose of the documents You will require far less physical storage space and should the need arise you can quickly retrieve the documents from your computer or an archive or directly from the CD you stored with the file Now t
32. e it is the rare law office that uses typewriters which have been replaced by PCs or Macs loaded with word processing software Some firms embrace technology others fight it The latter might end up relying on dated methods or denying that computers can make them better lawyers and in the process shortchanging their clients The legal profession has debated the question of what constitutes competent representation for years without reaching a consensus And while many states have CLE requirements none mandate that lawyers become competent in the latest law related technology Medicine provides an obvious analogy Twenty five years ago MRIs CT scans bypass surgery and stents were either brand new or didn t exist But today there is no question that a physician who refused to use these and other advances would be considered incompetent and would be the target of numerous malpractice lawsuits if he or she still held a license Yet we do not hold lawyers to an analogous standard With the advent of electronic discovery and electronic filing lawyers are being forced to use technology in their offices for certain tasks Yet these same lawyers may not feel obligated to use technology during depositions while handling discovery or at trial Those lawyers who choose to stay well behind the technology curve do so at their own risk While a reluctance to take advantage of cutting edge or even mainstream technology may not be unethical it
33. e sure you know all of the costs including annual fees upgrade fees and costs for customizing program features Don t assume that a cloud based product is the best alternative While it may be sometimes traditional prod ucts have better features and are more appropriate In addition many tradi tional products now offer cloud based solutions or web based versions that may fit your firm s needs even better Evaluate them all and then make an informed decision There is no doubt that cloud based MORE ON LAW FIRM TECHNOLOGY Ovisit the Web pages below for additional information AAJ SECTION Sole Practitioner and Small Firm Section www justice org sections AAJ LITIGATION GROUP Practice Development Litigation Group www justice org litgroups LITIGATION PACKET Running a Small Firm Management from Start up to Trial www justice org litigationpackets AAJ EDUCATION PROGRAMS 2012 Annual Convention E Discovery 2011 Annual Convention AdTrack Advocacy Through Technology Session 411 T01 www PlaybackAAJ com CMS can revolutionize your office s day to day operations Buying a CMS program like any major purchase requires careful thought research and planning With clear cut goals and a firm wide commitment to its success cloud based CMS can increase your firm s efficiency productivity morale and bottom line a Daniel J Siegel is a practicing attorney and president of Integra
34. e airline and flight number into Google you can obtain the current flight status for that flight An example would be united 1892 Package tracking information To obtain tracking information about a package or letter enter the tracking number into the Google search window Google will determine the identity of the carrier and include a link you can click on to track the item For example if you type 1Z 999 999 99 9999 999 9 the search result will include a link that allows you to track this Get the most out of Google package on the UPS Web site Google is an extremely powerful and often underused research tool If you ve been limiting the potential of your online research by simply tossing a few search words into Google s search bar try some of these easy delimiters guarantee you ll achieve better faster results And really don t you have better things to do with your time The views expressed in this article are the author s and do not constitute an endorsement of any product by Trial or AAJ Daniel J Siegel is the president of Integrated Technology Services in Havertown Pennsylvania He can be reached at trial techlawyergy com Notes 1 See e g Net Applications Search Engine Market Share Mar 2011 http tinyurl com 9z8kd4 Byron Acohido Google s Search Market Share Slips As Bing Rivalry Heats Up USA Today May 14 2010 http tinyurl com 3a6w6hu The American Association for Justice 777 6th Street
35. e connects to approxiniately 400 sites covering law government business Medicine and much more For an additional annual fee you can join Jenkins and have access to a wide range of other services No matter where you work the Jenkins Law Library is an excellent source of information Without question the Intemet contains a wealth of resources for attomeys and law lirms that make performing research easier and more effec ive Using just one of the sites mentioned above will save you time and money So go ahead and get started The views expressed in this article are the author s and do not constitute an endorsement of any product or service by Ttial or AAJ Daniel J Siegel is the president of Integrated Technology Services in Havertown Pennsylvania He can be reached at tlial techiawyergy com The American Association for Justice 777 6h Street NW Ste 200 Washington DC 20001 800 424 2725 or 202 965 3500 2012 AAJ Feature May 2006 Volume 42 Issue 5 Take a case load off with the right software Is your desk hidden under a mountain of paper Case management software can help you get your records and your schedule under control and keep them that way Choose carefully to find the package that s right for your firm Daniel J Siegel Phone numbers addresses trial deadlines discovery deadlines time billing correspondence medical reports client records finances You na me it lawyers need to keep t
36. e the information for every user in your firm E mail Most law offices use Microsoft Outlook Novell GroupWise or similar programs Many also use these e mail systems to maintain their calendars keep address books of contact information schedule appointments set up to do lists and progr am reminders and many other functions If these are working for you you might wonder Why use a CMS system at all The answer is simple Many firms lack a central electronic storage location for this information and individual staff members often cannot or do not get the information they need from an up Page 3 to date central database For instance if a client moves or ge ts a new e m ail address only one user may put that change into his or her Outlook database Even if that person sends out a firmwide e mail announcing the news there s no guarantee that everyone else will make the change to their individual databases That s when you get problems A staffer may attempt to contact a client at a stale address or worse send a birthday card to someone who has died Most C MS programs work atleast to some degree with standard e mail p rograms ike Outlook and Nove Il Make s ure y ou ask every CMS vendor you talk to how its program integrates with your e mail system and whether it allows easy sharing of users information One product for example lets you use either its own proprietary e mail program or Outlook but not both
37. ed Internet access and providing staff with access at home and other remote locations Finally firms must evaluate the hid den costs of maintaining their inter nal infrastructure While firms may not need to upgrade individual workstations as frequently with a cloud based system as with a traditional one they still must consider the baseline costs associated with cloud based products and compare them with the cost of traditional onsite systems Firms need to be careful Some prod ucts cost more on an annual basis than comparable desktop based products It is important for prospective customers to compare the total cost of licensing and ownership of each system to avoid sticker shock Cloud based CMS is a service When you buy cloud based products you are generally purchasing access to an online service and not a physical product as you would with traditional software Traditional CMS is installed on every user s computer and is licensed on an annual basis with updates pro vided based on the developer s guide lines Cloud based software either plugs in to other products on your computers such as Microsoft Outlook or is accessed remotely In most cases you pay for cloud based CMS by the user or by usage such as the amount of data you store on the CMS provider s servers Of course there are also issues about how easily you can transfer your data should the firm discontinue using the cloud based produ
38. ement software is its ability to index documents and store unique document information Vv Storage Document management systems provide for uniform storage protocols for documents including where and for how long they are stored and when or if they are destroyed v Retrieval Retrieving documents easily is one of the most important functions of this software While it sounds simple retrieval of electronic documents can be complex Thus the ability to search easily for documents is very important v Security Document management systems generally have very advanced security features that allow administrators to restrict who can retrieve and store various types of documents and under what circumstances Thus for example highly confidential documents may be handled very differently from routine correspondence In sum you want to use less paper Even if you don t purchase document management software you can accomplish most of these changes by yourself as long as you and your staff are consistent in how you handle your documents electronically The Less Paper Office The paperless office Remember that concept Like the idea that paper checks would disappear the promise of a paperless office remains a pipedream for virtually every business After all the mail still comes faxes continue to fly out of the machine and those e mail printouts never seem to end right While an office without paper is probably not a reality for
39. ents Internet Explorer helps you get around the Internet and PowerPoint is what you use to do courtroom presentations We all know what these programs are and what they do but you may not know all that they can do for you Most lawyers never use the software programs installed on their computers for more than the basic tasks they can perform nor do they ever try to discover some of the other things the programs can do to make their computing lives easier That s a mistake All software programs have shortcuts designed to make using them easier For example you can customize most software programs by right clicking on their toolbars and selecting Customize This will give you a dialogue box with lists of various program features Highlight the particular feature you want to put on the toolbar by left clicking on it then drag and drop it wherever you want it on your toolbar Putting commonly used shortcuts on your toolbar will put the feature right in front of you and save you a great deal of time Here are some other tips on how to get more functionality from common software products you already have But don t stop there Instead dive in and explore your software to find even more shortcuts on your own Windows XP How much time do you spend searching your computer for program icons you use all the time Instead put those icons at your beck and call Take control of the taskbar If the taskbar at the bottom of your desktop is overflowing wit
40. ers witnesses opp osing counsel medical providers a ndot herp eople connected to the case e mail both external with full or partial integration with e mail programs already in use and internal either through a CMS specific program or the firm s own e mail software and in all inst ances permitting e mail messages to be stored automatically and linked directly to cases in the CMS database Page 2 automated document creati on to e asily produce letters memoranda p leadings settlement packets medical records investigative reports and other paperwork and the ability to link documents and other items with each client s case standard andcu stomizedr eports tog et quic kin formation abouts tatutes o f limitations gov ernment no tice requ irements c ase aging how many files have been open for various periods of time case activity showing all the work that has been or needs to be completed for one case selected cases or all cases in the database and potential con flicts o f interest and al soto create mailing lists and labels based on various criteria such as zip code occupation or voting district checklists including pre litigation and litigation to do lists daily reports of all items scheduled on a particular date or within a specific time period central storage of all notes correspondence and memoranda for a part icular case allowing easy access and review by all staff integration w ith leg al resea
41. h icons you never even look at you can easily tame that beast Although Windows XP automatically hides the icons it deems to be inactive you can tell it to always hide or display whichever icons you select Right click on the Start menu Select Properties Click on the Taskbar tab Click Customize to see a list of all your current and former taskbar icons Hold the cursor over the icons and use the drop down menu to change the ones you want to Always Hide or Always Show Place icons on your desktop You can also place a shortcut to any program or file on your desktop TRIAL Locate the program or file icon in My Computer available in the Start menu e Right click on it and select Send To Highlight Desktop create shortcut and a shortcut to the program or file will appear on the desktop Create your own application toolbar Put the icons you regularly use in one list Create a new folder on the desktop by right clicking on an empty spot selecting New gt Folder and naming the folder My Apps or whatever you choose Fill the new folder by right clicking on a desktop icon you want in the new toolbar and selecting Copy then right click on the new folder and select Paste Repeat these steps for each icon you want to add Right click on the taskbar and select Toolbars gt Select New Toolbar Highlight the folder you created and click OK all the shortcuts will be placed in a My Apps list on the taskbar allowing quick a
42. hat you have read what to do to reduce the paper in your office the question remains how to do it The answer is by using a scanner a CD burner a tif viewer and PDF software which most offices already have In smaller offices with only one or two staff members the idea of going paperless may seem particularly daunting For those offices I recommend implementing these steps progressively In most instances once you begin the transition to electronic storage it becomes second nature Regardless of how much of this process you adopt you must also backup your computer regularly Scanners Scanners have become a necessity in most offices A scanner analyzes a document or other image and processes it in a way that allows you to save it on your computer If the document contains text a scanner can perform an OCR thus allowing you to search and depending on your software use the text in other applications If the document contains an image picture the scanner can save it in a manner that allows you to alter or enhance the image print it out or use it elsewhere In recent years scanning technology has improved dramatically Sheetfed scanners have become far more common and much more affordable and allow you to scan large documents at the push of a button For around 300 00 you can purchase a scanner such as the Fuji Scansnap or Xerox Documate with a 35 to 50 page sheet feeder which is sufficient for most small to mid size offices In
43. he entry for Shepard s citations on Wikipedia at http en wikipedia org wiki Shepard 27s_Citations http www justice org cps rde xchg justice hs xsl 10850 htm 7 9 2010 10 30 21 AM Tr c 2011 the American Association for Justice formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America Reprinted with permission TECH BRIEF June 2011 Volume 47 No 6 Get the most out of Google Daniel J Siegel Everyone uses Google Well almost everyone According to reports between 64 percent and 85 percent of all Web searches are done on Google Yahoo and Bing Microsofts search engine continue to slowly gain market share but Google is far and away the most popular Here are some reasons why e Google searches and indexes billions of Web pages making it more likely that its results will provide the information users want e The search engine is easy to use and isn t filled with lots of clutter and distractions e Google displays results quickly e Google makes it easy for users to distinguish search results from ads and other paid promotional content which appear in a column on the right side of the page Also ads tend to relate to the content of search results and are not distracting e Google does not sell placement of search results meaning a business cannot pay Google to have its Web site display in the top 10 search results e Users can view cached saved copies of Web pages often in less time than it takes t
44. he time and cost of paper shuffling and the inevitable search for lost paper Every lost piece of paper costs a business 120 Imagine that In fact 15 percent of all paper handled in businesses is lost according to the Delphi Group a Boston consultancy group and 30 percent of all employees time is spent trying to find lost documents In 2000 consultants for the Connecticut based Gartner Group the same folks who reported the lost paper cost estimated that by 2003 the average professional would waste 30 percent to 40 percent of his time on document related non value added tasks i e paper shuffling Now some of that wasted time has moved from paper to electronics with the volume of e mail projected to rise 30 percent a year through 2008 Let s figure that the average professional makes at least 1 000 a week that s 15 600 to 20 800 wasted dollars per year per worker Keep on multiplying A company with 100 professionals could lose more than 1 5 million a year Canadian analysts calculated in 2002 that poorly managed information was costing the Canadian government 870 million a year in wasted time And in America consultants found we re no better at managing our time Professionals lose 2 1 hours of productivity a day to unimportant interruptions and distractions That s 588 billion a year according to Basex Inc a research and consulting group in New York But from a personal perspective it s even worse D
45. however you can accomplish much more For example Adobe Acrobat easily performs an OCR on a document allowing you to search its text export it to Microsoft Word or use it in other applications Adobe Acrobat is relatively expensive ranging from 300 to 500 per user license depending on the version other companies offer less expensive alternatives but without all of Adobe s bells and whistles My favorite feature in Adobe Acrobat is its ability to index documents Adobe calls it a catalog In the example above the index encompassed over 400 documents ranging from pleadings to exhibits to legal research to correspondence It took about three seconds for Adobe Acrobat to find the one instance in which the newly designated expert witness name had appeared in any of the documents Without the index we might not have learned until trial about the witness treatise While Adobe is the standard for pdfs the world of images tifs bmps jpegs etc is far different and requires image software called a viewer A viewer is a program that displays the contents of an electronic digital file A viewer may be a stand alone program or a component within a larger program Generally stand alone viewers are more versatile than those contained in other programs however you cannot OCR an image Thus viewers are not an inexpensive alternative to pdf software Windows PCs come with Microsoft s viewer which is extremely basic If you
46. isorganization on the job makes people stressed according to another study from the office supply company Esselte Ltd and office stress sends out ripples of difficulties Getting on top of the clutter The financial and psychological costs of disorganization by Jane M Von Bergen The Philadelphia Inquirer February 26 2006 Think about it Paper equals clutter and every time you or your staff handle a piece of paper you are wasting time and losing money That is why it so important to reduce your reliance on paper There are many ways to create The Less Paper Office but the key is learning to do virtually everything you have done on paper with your computer At its core this means document management at its best it means an integrated plan that encompasses everything you and your business do What is document management Document management is nothing more than the ability to store locate and retrieve documents using your computer You can devise a system yourself or you can deploy a document management system DMS i e a computer program or set of programs designed to track and store electronic documents and or images or copies of paper documents Either way a document management system will typically focus upon the creation of uniform procedures for Y Storing documents y Retrieving documents Y Organizing documents Securing documents to prevent loss tampering or destruction y Handling sensiti
47. le you want Corel WordPerfect Here s something WordPerfect can do that Word can t Print directory listings One of the more frustrating aspects of Windows is how difficult it can be to print a list of files in a particular directory Windows just does not allow it But WordPerfect does Go to File gt Open as you would if you wanted to open a saved document Navigate to the directory you want Click on File gt Print File List You will then have the option of printing the list of files on your printer viewing it in WordPad or copying the list to the Windows Clipboard and pasting it into the application of your choice If you highlight a few file names you can print only those entries Or you can print the entire list and include a listing of the subdirectories displayed Unfortunately you can t include the folder trees for the subdirectories you must print each subdirectory by itself Word and WordPerfect Here s a fix for another frustration your word processing program might be causing you Create perfect captions Formatting the captions of pleadings can be annoying Most people type the caption using tabs spaces and anything else they can think of to locate the names of the parties with colons or other markings centered between the party names and the name of the court and the docket number The information will often move depending on how long the names are You wind up spending more time formatting the document
48. ling or at home These CMS programs have become all encompassing allowing lawyers to track virtually every aspect of their files in one place Not too long ago concepts such as the Internet smartphones and iPads which allow lawyers to access information remotely were unheard of Because of the rapid growth of mobile technology law offices no longer have to rely exclusively on their internal networks as the sole method for storing and sharing data In particular remote access and cloud technology now permit law firms to view their case data from anywhere and to share information regardless of where ie is located What Is the Cloud The term cloud computing refers gen erally to the concept that information whether it s client related financial or any other type of data and related services are delivered and stored on the Internet also known as the cloud The information is not stored at the firm s physical location but is stored on serv ers central computers at another location While cloud computing seems mys terious to some the concept has been around for a long time When email first began and services such as AOL and CompuServe were popular email was Trial January 2013 29 LAW OFFICE MANAGEMENT Case Management in the Cloud not stored on the user s computer it was saved on the email provider s comput ers That is essentially how cloud com puting works your data are stored on
49. logy makes things easier they are stubbornly clinging to the belief that the old way of handling paper and managing their time is still the best and most efficient method of doing business In fact by doing their work the old fashioned way it takes longer to accomplish most tasks And every time they handle a piece of paper they are actually wasting time Rather if they used just a bit of the technology available they could probably do 90 minutes of work in 60 minutes Consider the following well known example If your time is worth 150 00 per hour and you can save just 6 minutes per day by using technology a 1 500 00 technology investment will pay for itself in less than five months 6 minutes x 5 days per week x 50 work weeks per year 25 hours 3 750 00 Although this makes economic sense many businesses simply refuse to take the leap of faith required to accomplish this goal Train Train Train Learn Learn Learn Were you trained to drive a car Do you take continuing education courses and attend seminars and programs to enhance your professional knowledge Do you want to learn more so that you can do your job more effectively Hopefully the answers to each of these questions is yes The same answer applies to technology Perhaps you have received training in some specialized job specific programs you use but have you been trained how to use Windows Word Outlook and the other programs that you rely on perh
50. most people there are options that will reduce the amount of paper you use while increasing your and your firm s efficiency None of the suggestions I offer requires radical changes to your office s procedures and most merely require hardware and software you probably have or may not even realize you have in fact most of these suggestions can be easily implemented with a scanner preferably one with a sheet feeder and a CD burner What you also need is the willingness to tweak the way you and your staff do things Consider a typical client customer agency file It is organized into sections perhaps correspondence memoranda contracts etc Regardless you should have all of these scanned to your computer or your server and named so that you or anyone else can locate the documents easily There are two reasons to do this First it is all too easy to misplace documents and scanned copies serve as insurance Second when the client calls you no longer have to place the client on hold get up from your desk search for the file and then once you find it rummage through the morass of papers to locate the document you need Instead you simply locate the document on your computer open up the file and you are ready to discuss the document in seconds You are more efficient and your client is impressed by your ability to discuss the document and their project case at a moment s notice Let s jump ahead a bit Suppose you are invol
51. n requires the legal knowledge skill thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation Comment 6 of the rule Maintaining Competence states that to maintain the requisite knowledge and skill a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice engage in continuing study and education and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject emphasis added According to the ABA Web site Competence in using a technology can be a requirement of practicing law Requirements for technological competence may appear as part of rules for professional conduct continuing legal education CLE programs and malpractice insurance premium credits Surprisingly it is in the area of practice that many lawyers are deficient Technology allows lawyers to find and review documents more quickly annotate transcripts more efficiently stay abreast of changes in the law with the click or two of a mouse and re create and present evidence in ways that give juries and judges deeper insight into how events transpired It can also help them avoid situations that can lead to legal malpractice Despite these benefits many lawyers continue to practice as though computers do not exist They ignore the advent of high tech courtrooms and could be leaving their clients and cocounsel at a significant disadvantage Ensuring competence In a thought provoking ke
52. n your computer in a host of formats including pdf and tif If the fax is unimportant you can delete the email without ever wasting the paper to print it If it is important however you can save it to a client s file and if necessary print a hard copy Most electronic fax programs also allow you to send faxes but for most users the real convenience is the ability to receive and review faxes on their PCs Backup Software This article has focused on ways to reduce paper by storing more data on your computer If you intend to do so and even if you do not you must backup your data in case of a system crash Although it is harder to lose an electronic file than a paper one accidents happen and you must backup your data daily and religiously to avoid arriving at the office only to learn that all of your data in essence all of your work has been reduced to a large useless heap of metal Regardless of how large or small your office performing daily backups is a necessity It is unlikely that most businesses will ever have a truly paperless office Instead many can and should have an office with less paper If implemented correctly a proper backup solution provides insurance against a hard drive crash and more importantly gives you the peace 13 of mind to know that when and if you go paperless everything you need is just a moment away on CD There Are Many Types of Time Saving Software amp Hardware Among the
53. ncrease your firm s efficiency productivity morale and bottom line Attorney Daniel J Siegel is the president of Integrated Technology Services in H avertown Pennsylvania He can be reached at trial itsllconline com The views expressed in this article are the author s and do not constitute an endorsement of any product by TRIAL or ATLA Reprinted with permission of Trial Magazine May 2006 Copyright The American Association for Justice formerly The Association of Trial Lawyers of America Copyright 2013 The American Association for Justice formerly he Association of Trial Lawyers of America CASE by DANIEL J SIEGEL January 2013 Trial ou name the type of infor mation and lawyers need to know and track it and do so efficiently This includes calendars clients email phone numbers addresses trial dead lines discovery deadlines time billing court documents statutes of limitation accounting correspondence and con flicts of interest Before they had computers lawyers used index cards Rolodexes and note books to keep track of this information Eventually many offices graduated to rudimentary computer programs More recently lawyers have begun to use more advanced software gener ally called case management software CMS although many law firms still cling to less high tech systems As technology evolved so did CMS which has been transformed into a MIXA CO LTD
54. o display a current page e Search results include site related information to make it easier for users to determine whether a result is what the user is looking for e Search terms are highlighted in the results e Google continually updates its results so the information users get is rarely stale Although Google is widely used it isn t necessarily used well When looking for something on the Web most searchers rarely do more than type a brief query a word or short phrase into the search box on the main Google page But you can obtain better more tailored results by tweaking your queries just a little Here are some of my favorite search shortcuts and features sample queries appear in boldface Specific phrases When you place quotation marks around a group of words like book shelf Google will display only results that include that phrase Of course by default the results you get will be based on the order of the words you entered So if you search for shelf book instead your results will differ Similarly when you place the plus sign in front of one word without a space Google will display results that include only the word you typed For example a search for siegel will display only those Web pages that include my last name Get the most out of Google Specific pages in a site The query word phrase site before a URL a Web address allows you to search for something within a specific Web site Google
55. o longer provides the Social Secutity number of anyone who died within the past 10 years And it is no longer free but it is a valuable resource Personal Injury Statute of Limitations http law freeadvice convresources personal_injuly_statute_of_limitations htm This Web site provides a list of the personal injury statutes of limitation for every state along with the applicable statutory code citation it also links to each state s Web site so you can verily the data The site is easy to use and comes in handy when you aren t sure about the statute Lega Search Engines www vitlual freesites com search legal htnl This site provides links to more than 1 000 specialiaed legal search engines and is organized into roughly 50 Categories It is a great place to star when you know the category of information you want but not the location Court Locator www uscourts gow court_locator aspx This site contains an easy to use interactive map that allows you to view all the federal court Web sites in a particular state or region along with links to every court and to key people in the cour No longer do you have to do searches for each circuit or each individual cour 4 808 SERVE EM www 1 300 setve em com This commercial site contains one of the most comprehensive databases of the mules for service in the United States and throughout the wold For international service the site separates countries based on which treaty if any govems sevi
56. o you need the software vendor to do it If the latter how much will it cost and how long will it take Reports are ag ood example Most case managements ystems can put toge ther standard reports on generic issues such as statutes of limitations trial dates and marketing data But at some point your firm will want a report that is not part of the standard package What happens then Can you create the report by yourself Is there a wizard a help feature in the program to help you along Can your IT department handle it The answers to these questions mean time and money for you If you can easily write the reports great but if not how much will it cost to hire someone outside the company to do it Page 7 and what is the turnaround time One CMS program requires users to create custom reports using SQL a complex database programming language that is difficult to learn actually saw users cry trying to write these reports A firm using this particular CMS must rely on it s IT staff if the firm is fortunate enough to have an IT staff and in particular a person who knows SQL programming or on the software vendor or consultants This brings up one factor t hat CM S b uyers o ften overlook technical support There are numerous questions to ask Is there a fee for it Are you required to sign a contract for it If you do not purchase technical support as a package what does the vendor charge for per incident support
57. r should assess each user s skill level before and after training is done Since lawyers are notorious for making excuses about why they can t attend a class the firm must emphasize that training is not optional Compatibility and customization There are ot heris sues to consider be fore you write a check for your new C MS One is compatibility Besides integrating with the Microsoft Office Suite and similar programs some CMS programs work with research services suchas Westlaw and Lexis and others with medical records retrieval services Ask vendors which programs generally called ad d ons work with the software In many cases add ons can be enormous time savers and beca use the companies have worked together to develop them the possibility of program incompatibility is small Another important and often overlooked aspect of CMS is customization Very few people use software exactly the way it was installed Whether the tweak is sm all or large users make changes so that software works better for them Consider almost any piece of software you use Did you change the bac kground Did you change the way the items appear on the screen Did you add features Did you customize the toolbar Almost certainly one of your answers is yes The same is true for CMS Few firms use it as it comes out of the box When you need to make changes will users or the firm s information technology IT department be able to do this or d
58. r of users than conventional search sites many Deep Web sites do not have staying power or their content is not updated regularty One site that tends to be up to date is the WWW Virtual Library http www vlib org which is well organized and easy to use but has somewhat limited law related resources If you need scien ific information consider Scirus http www scirus com which claims to be the most comprehensive scientific research tool on the Web with more than 410 million scientific items indexed For example searching for medical malpractice at Scirus generated nearly 600 000 hits The first result that appeared was a 2010 article enti led Study Debunks Medical Malpractice Myth from Dartmouth Medicine magazine Another excellent Deep Web directory is OAlster http oaister world 20cat org which says it can help you find the pearls among millions of digital resources from thousands of contributors OAIster is a massive collection of resources and a great place to find facts and its interface is simple compared to similar Deep Web sites OAIster selects information from open archive collections and museums worldwide the site also allows libraries throughout the world to work together to build the catalog Just entering the word law into OAlster provides more than 238 000 results A more specific query such as hospital errors yields results hat include studies and other information tha
59. rack of it And they need to do so efficiently Not long ago most of us used index cards Rolodexes notebooks and rudimentary computer programs to stay on top of our cases Now it seems that every software company has the solution to streamline all this paperwork case management software CMS Designed to permit convenient storage and retrieval of client and case information CMS has become a necessity for most la w firms S etting up a CMS programisone of the most important and may be one of the most expensive decisions your firm will make There are many CMS programs to choose from and one size does not fit all A system that works wonderfully for one firm may be disastrous for another To select the best one you need to k now each program s major features and how well they would meet your firm s specific needs Core functions CMS vendors are reluctant to admit it but most case management programs perform similar functions and they all do so pre tty efficiently Where the programs differ is in their emphasis Some focus specifically on the needs of li tigators ot hers are designed for transactional attorneys and still others try to be all things to all lawyers In general all CMS programs will include a calendar showing appoin tments filing deadlines trials court appearan ces depositions to do lists and reminders a database of the names addre sses an d p hone num bers o f client s insuran ce adjust
60. rch services such as Lexis and Westlaw business and trust accounting software and time billing software remote access capabilities so that you and your staff can use the CMS while traveling or at home These functions work together to ease the retrieval and sharing of information Soon after you implement a CMS program your firm will see significant benefits A good program will save you time and money simplify routine tasks attract and retain talented employees who want to work with cutting edge technology and i mprove efficiency without increasing staff size It will become ea sy to g enerate reports create mailing lists an d ensure that a Il documents that come from your firm have a professional and uniform look and feel These features boil down to four functions that are the hallmark of any good case management program client information e mail calendars and document management Client i nformation In my experience the more information a CMS program can store the better Having ke yi nformation phone n umbers add resses background medical and employment histories and so on at your fingertips makes every aspect of handling a case easier A good progr am will als os tore in formation ab out oppo sing coun sel insuran ce companies witnesses and other people relevant to your cases And when you get updated information say an address ornew cell phone num ber making one change tothe CMS database will automatically updat
61. results to include one of a few words use the word OR in all capital letters Google will display results with one or more of the desired words You can also use the symbol instead of OR For example sotomayor OR scalia or sotomayor scalia will display pages containing one of those names or both Definitions If you type define at the beginning of a query Google will return sites that include a definition of the word or words you entered Note that the definition will be of the entire phrase you entered not just the first word For example define summary judgment will return a list of several Web sites that offer a definition of that phrase Words in URLs The term allinurl at the beginning of a query yields a display of sites whose Web address includes the specific words entered Try querying allinurl justice department to see what mean Synonyms If you place the tilde symbol immediately before a word in a query Google will display Web sites that include synonyms for that word An example vehicle parts Saved versions of Web sites Typing cache along with a URL with no space between the two will display the page as it appeared the last time you visited it the cached version To see your cached version of Google s home page type cache www google com Web site links Placing link before a URL will display pages that have hyperlinks clickable links to the specified page Try this link www justice org
62. saving forms Until now Adobe Reader users could fill in forms but never save them so if you wanted to preserve a form you had to print it With Version 8 you can save the document electronically However the person who created the pdf form must enable usage rights by going to Advanced gt Enable Usage Rights in Adobe Reader you cannot change these settings yourself in Adobe Reader Most programs on your computer include numerous keyboard shortcuts and other features designed to make using them easier All it takes to discover these hidden advantages is a bit of curiosity and the willingness to try http www justice org publications trial 0801 me 50 fObBr1M 1uV29Wv3btpGl nkxZN9bjoGj1vY 20KXs4 5 of 6 1 2 2008 4 30 14 PM TRIAL something new Attorney Daniel J Siegel is the president of Integrated Technology Services in Havertown sPennsylvania He can be reached at trial itsllconline com The views expressed in this article are the author s and do not constitute an endorsement of any product by TRIAL or AAJ back to top Notes 1 Move the pointer a little and its shape will show how the item will be formatted For example if you clicked on the right side of the page the pointer shape will provide the Flush Right icon 2 You can include subfolders using the same steps My Links toolbar for example has a main folder named Legal with subfolders for Federal Courts State Courts and Organizations To create a similar
63. sessment will lead to the conclusion that your office needs CMS What s next Page 5 First setup a committee that represents a reasonable cross section of your firm including attorneys paraleg als secre taries computer support s taff and accounting s taff Give the committee a timetable and specific g oals You c ould hirea legalt echnology cons ultant instead of using a committee but don t give him or her carte blanche to make decisions The next step is to assess your firm s infrastructure that is its current hardware and software If your firm has more than one location the committee should consider how the various offices communicate with each other and how each will use the CMS It must then determine whether ane w CM S pro gram will require upgrading the firm s hardware includin g net works and servers and operating systems and the cost of doing so Third the committee should list the CMS features your office requires Some firms prefer a stand alone produ ct others w ant one that integrates with its existing programs and some want a program that does everything Decide which will work best for you Next evaluate the options Most vendors will allow you to test their products with a limited number of users in y our office be fore you make a decision This is i mportant bec ause not every program operates as advertised and you need t o feel confident that the system you choose can withstand your firm s p
64. setup simply highlight the Legal folder before you click Add New Folder To receive a copy of my legal links toolbar with detailed installation instructions send an e mail to trial techlawyergy com 3 If you have not upgraded to Version 8 1 do so now by going to www adobe com Send your comments and questions about the online version of TRIAL to us at trial justice org American Association for Justice e The Leonard M Ring Law Center Contact Us 2006 AAJ Terms and Conditions of Use Privacy Statement http www justice org publications trial 0801 me 50 fObBr1M 1uV29Wv3btpGI nkxZN9bjoGj1vY 20KXs4 6 of 6 1 2 2008 4 30 14 PM
65. t attomeys need Conversely a Google search of this topic leads primarily to news articles which may or may not provide links to the underlying data Infomine http infomine ucr edu which is one of my favorite sites tends to be more current than some o her sites and its results are well organized and easy to analyze Infomine which boasts that it is a scholarly Internet resource encompasses numerous subject areas including business law economics and cultural diversity The site is easy to use and can help you find good information that can be cited It also clearly delineates which results are free and which require payment Another popular option is IncyWincy http www incywincy com which calls itself the Invisible Web Search Engine The site is simple to use and its interface is similar to Google s The results are well organized although they include more commercial sites than some other Deep Web sites For attomeys seeking scholarly articles Deepdyve http www deepdyve com is a newer site that claims to be the largest online rental service for professional and scholarly research articles This site claims it has compiled millions of articles from thousands of journals from numerous publishers including Springer Nature Publishing Group and Wiley Blackwell Deepdyve charges users a monthly fee but allows them to browse and preview any article for free If the user wants to view more than the abstract and read the full
66. t or like To halt the ones you hate Go to Tools and pick AutoCorrect Options Select the AutoFormat As You Type button Uncheck the boxes for the features you don t like many Word users like to leave Ordinals Fractions and Hyphens checked Make friends with styles If you re like me you either ignore styles or use them sparingly often lamenting Word s lack of the handy Reveal Codes feature of WordPerfect But if you use a certain format over and over for example if you always indent and single space citations and quotations creating a new style to do this automatically is relatively easy and it saves you from having to reformat your paragraphs every time you prepare a brief To create a new style in your document e Select the text from which you want to create your style make sure the paragraph and fonts are formatted the way you want them to appear Press Ctrl Shift S and fill in the name of your new style in the highlighted box that appears on your toolbar Press Enter Then every time you want to format a paragraph a certain way just place your cursor in the paragraph and either http www justice org publications trial 0801 me 50 f0bBr1M1uV29Wv3btpGI nkxZN9bjoGj1lvY 20KXs4 2 of 6 1 2 2008 4 30 14 PM TRIAL select the style you want from the drop down box on your toolbar or go to Format gt Styles and select a style from the menu that opens Your paragraph will instantly convert to the sty
67. t there To make doing this easier print a thumbnail list of all your slides for a handy reference with each slide s number included To print the thumbnails choose File gt Print In the Print menu box under Print what select Handouts from the drop down menu then set the number of slides you want to appear on a page Shorten your presentation Have you ever been in a situation where you have to end a presentation immediately even though you have 18 slides left Assuming the last slide is your conclusion just hit the End key and you ll jump right there Don t make the mistake of hitting the Home key which will take you to your first slide Run other programs from your presentation Presenters are not limited to using only PowerPoint s pictures text and special effects In a PowerPoint presentation you can link the slides to other programs and have a far more versatile presentation Highlight the text on a slide that you want to link to another program Right click and select Action Settings A dialogue box will appear that allows you to hyperlink to another slide run a program or play a sound Check the desired feature to link then click on Browse to select the program s start up file The program also offers two options With Mouse Over when your mouse hovers over the spot the program begins with Mouse Click you have to click on the link to activate the link sound or program suggest using the default
68. ted Technology Services in Havertown Pa He is a regular contributor to Trial on technol ogy and can be reached at trial techlawyergy com NOTES 1 See Daniel J Siegel Take a case load off with the right software Trial 42 May 2006 which discussed the issues and concerns that firms should consider when purchasing case management software Most of the non cloud based consider ations and even many of the cloud based considerations remain the same 2 See e g Pa Bar Assn Comm on Leg Ethics amp Prof Resp Formal Op No 2011 200 Nov 2011 Iowa Bd of Prof Ethics Op 11 01 Sept 9 2011 Mass Bar Assn Comm on Prof Ethics Op 12 03 May 2012 All of these conclude that attorneys may use cloud computing provided they take reasonable safeguards to protect confidential client information Trial January 2013 31 Reprinted with permission of TRIAL January 2008 TRIAL Copyright American Association for Justice formerly Association of Trial Lawyers of America ATLA Law office management January 2008 Volume 44 Issue 1 Old software new tricks Keeping a law office equipped with the latest technological gizmos is an expensive and nearly impossible task Before you consider that next system upgrade make sure you re getting everything you can out of the software you already have Daniel J Siegel Windows runs your computer and Word and WordPerfect are the programs you use to type docum
69. than you do typing its substantive content Creating a borderless table with separate sections for each piece of information is an easy solution In either Word or WordPerfect create a table with three columns and three rows that looks something like the illustration above this is step one Then enter the required information step two Finally remove the borders step three In Word Remove the table borders by highlighting the entire table Right click and select Borders and Shading On the Borders tab click None In WordPerfect Remove the borders by highlighting the entire table right clicking and selecting Border Fill Click each Cell Lines box and change the entry to an X then click OK To line up the v in the second row of the table in either program Highlight the cell where the v appears Seta tab stop go to View gt Ruler and move the top marker on the horizontal ruler where you want the v to appear in the cell Your caption will then print as it appears in step three Internet Explorer Simplify your research by organizing how you store bookmarks Use the Links toolbar If you plan to visit a site more than once you should save it Most Web surfers who save URLs such as www justice org simply add them to their Favorites folder and are left with a giant collection of http www justice org publications trial 0801 me 50 fObBr1M 1uV29Wv3btpGl nkxZN9bjoGj1vY 20KXs4
70. upon going less paper ruminates about the good old days with all those piles of files 15 Copyright 2009 TRIAL Magazine Reprinted with permission of the American Association for Justice formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America Trial TECH BRIEF November 2009 Volume 45 No 11 Are you ethically bound to be tech savvy Y Daniel J Siegel Lawyers are required to maintain their skills in the practice of law yet many attorneys fail to keep up with technological innovations that affect how they handle cases That leads to the question Are lawyers who refuse to use technology representing their clients competently In other words by failing to use the latest technology do lawyers violate their obligation to act competently on behalf of their clients In a recent civil trial involving a brutal rape the defense lawyer used advanced technology to re create the incident and show the jury other salient facts The plaintiff lawyer by contrast used a cardboard model to show where the incident occurred and essentially eschewed the use of technology Following a defense verdict members of the jury said the defendant s use of technology in the case was an important reason why they ruled against the plaintiff which makes you wonder whether the plaintiff received competent legal representation Rule 1 1 of the American Bar Association s ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct says Competent representatio
71. ur firm uses Word don t waste time evaluating a program that doesn t integrate with it If your firm does little or no time billing it is immaterial whether a CMS program integrates well with time billing software Many firms keep their case management and accounting components completely s eparate from e ach other buts ome o ffices may want to gran tt heir employees limited access to accounting data such as case costs If that s true for your firm make sure your accounting software will work with your CMS If youbuythe right case management prog ram ev ery part of your firm s opera tions will improve So will your st affs morale Lawyers wh ohavesetup good case management systems consistently say it was one of the best decisions they ever made On the other hand buying a CMS program in haste can lead to disaster One midsized firm know of purchased a program based on the recommendation of one partner who had used it before Unfortunately the software was hard to use the vendor provided little training and the system had many flaws As a result most of the firm s staffers either don t use it or use it at such a rudimentary level that it is practically worthless This story brings up another important point The biggest problem with your new CMS program may come from wit hin If members of y our s taff resist u sing it because t hey were never consulted about it they hate the product they never learned how to use it properl
72. ve information Y Protecting documents from fires floods or natural disasters y Retention and or destruction of documents v Distributing documents y Creating efficient workflows Y Collaborating on documents y Authenticating documents In addition document management systems commonly have additional features including y Metadata Metadata is information about data and may describe for example how when and by whom it was received created accessed and or modified and how it is formatted In a document management system metadata is typically stored for each document Some document management systems may extract metadata from documents automatically or prompt a user to add it Some use optical character recognition on scanned images or perform text extraction on electronic documents so that the extracted text can be used to enable users to locate documents by keyword or full text search capability v Integration Many document management systems integrate document management directly into other applications such as case management programs so that users may retrieve existing documents directly from the document management repository make changes and save the changed document in the repository as a new version v Capture Most document management systems use Optical Character Recognition OCR software to convert digital images into machine readable text this process is called capturing v Indexing A hallmark of document manag
73. ved in a project in which you have to review voluminous records encompassing dozens if not hundreds or possibly thousands of pages In a traditional setting you would look through hard copies of every document That is a lot of dead trees Imagine if the records were electronic indexed and searchable so that you could locate any item in literally a click of the mouse Why receive records electronically There are numerous reasons Your computer generally comes with the basic software needed to review these files so you are already set up to do this In addition when you need to review the file if you only print and highlight the truly relevant documents they will be much easier to find instead of having to fumble your way through reams of paper Thus I recommend doing an initial review of the documents on your computer and printing only the pages that may be necessary For my nickel every document should also be scanned and OCRed optical character recognition This process not only renders the documents searchable it generally also allows you to copy portions for use when preparing other documents As a bonus if you misplace a document which of course will never happen there is a copy readily available One of the most important reasons to scan documents is the ability to OCR each one simultaneously With the right software and little effort you will be able to search virtually all of your documents in one pass and finding that nee
74. will display any page at that site that contains the searched word or phrase For example the query siegel site www justice org will return every page or link on AAJ s Web site that references my last name Specific file types Google can display results for a specific word or phrase in a document that exists in particular format including Microsoft Excel xls Microsoft PowerPoint ppt Microsoft Word doc Microsoft Works wks wps wdb portable document format pdf postscript ps rich text format rtf Shockwave flash swf and Text ans txt For example siegel pdf displays only documents in pdf format that contain my last name Excluded terms If you include a minus sign without a space before a word Google knows that your results should exclude Web pages that contain that particular word Google also knows the difference between the minus sign and hyphenated words For example former presidents carter will display Web sites discussing former presidents not named Carter Wild card searches The asterisk or wild card instructs Google to treat the symbol as a placeholder for unknown words and display only the most relevant results Unlike other programs in Google the asterisk works only on whole words not on parts of words For example attorney jones will search for Web pages with contain the words attorney and jones with a word or name between them like attorney Cyrus Jones OR If you want
75. y or some other reason it won t do you much good When a CMS program fails the culprits are usually lack of planning and poor acceptance in the firm Choosing a C MS program require s time patience and care ful preparation Don t buy one based on what friends or colleagues say because if their needs are not the same as yours you could end up wasting time and money Also don t rely solely on a cons ultant s advice especially if he or she is affiliated with one CMS vendor Remember too that CMS may not be necessary for every practice Some small firms with relatively basic needs may find that Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Access Corel Quattro Pro or a similar program is all they need t o manage client in formation schedules and deadlines These prog rams can handle ba sic case management If y our firm has bee n using one however you should ev aluate whether it is meeting your needs and will continue to do so one three and five years down the road Or perhaps your office is alread y using an older CMS program that has not been updated in years or maybe your firm has outgrown the older system Whatever the reason it may be time for an overhaul Steps to a new system In most cas es the advantages of utilizing CMS great ly outweigh the adv antages of using Outlook or a generic database In addition the larger your firm the less likely it is that you are operating efficiently without CMS Thus for most offices an honest as
76. ynote address at the annual law and technology conference LegalTech in New York U S Magistrate Judge John Facciola questioned whether current CLE requirements can really ensure that lawyers are competent in their particular areas of practice Facciola offered many examples of technical incompetence for instance a lawyer who agreed not to use e discovery and a criminal defense attorney who admitted that he didn t understand this computer stuff These stories are alarming not only because of the lawyers conduct but also because of its impact on the lawyers cases The solution to this situation is not simple Still lawyers clearly must adapt to new technologies to better serve their clients As times change so does the definition of competence When graduated from law school 25 years ago we performed legal research using books and used electric typewriters to create documents Westlaw and Lexis were in their infancy but many of us couldn t use the services anyway because we had limited access to computers Some of you may remember Shepard s pocket parts those annoying pamphlets that came in a seemingly endless variety of colors and that were the de facto method of verifying that the cases we were researching remained good law I d be shocked if any attorneys still use the pocket parts As technology advances so do our expectations of how lawyers will use these advances to benefit their clients For exampl

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