TechnoLawyer: Litigation/Discovery/Trials

You don't have time to track 100 business and technology magazines and blogs. We do. Below you'll find our latest discoveries.

With E-Filing the File-Size Matters

Creating a Transparent Signature Stamp

Top Ten in [Legal] Tech

Cisco General Counsel on State of Technology in the Law

West's Tech Talk 2007 Predictions with Dennis Kennedy

West's Technology Forecast for 2007 and New York Legal Tech with Monica Bay

(A tip of the blog to Wired GC and You Will Be Forever for leading me to two of the above Posts.)

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Coming February 6, 2007 to TechnoFeature: E-Discovery and Electronically Stored Information (ESI) are at the top of many attorney's list of important topics they need to learn about — so consider this TechnoFeature E-Discovery 101. In this article, attorney and legal technology enthusiast Bruce Olson provides his top ten E-Discovery caveats, with corresponding suggestions for dealing with the identified concerns. Bruce's suggestions deal with common issues most attorneys will encounter when dealing with E-Discovery and how to avoid the major pitfalls.  If you've been wary of diving into the intricacies of E-Discovery — here's your life preserver.

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Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming February 8, 2007 to Answers to Questions: Winlock Brown offers up some helpful suggestions for finding and displaying GIS data for trial, Mark Sargis reviews the HP 4345 and provides some tips for everyday use, Michael Mulchay reviews Tabs3 for time and billing, August Landi explains which word processor finally persuaded him to "upgrade" (if you can call it that) from his 26 year old IBM Displaywriter, and Jim Grennan reviews Send2Fax for online faxing. Don't miss this issue.

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Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers an email discovery appliance, PDF software for lawyers, and a free project manager. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

PDF for Lawyers
By Dennis Kennedy

Once upon a time, lawyers were grateful for PDF simply because of its ability to preserve the layout of the original document. Legal life was good. But then lawyers became more demanding of PDF, particularly when clients, discovery requests, and other aspects of their job became more demanding of them. Legal life was not so good.

Enter Bluebeam Software's Bluebeam PDF Revu, a "complete PDF solution," which means that in addition to viewing PDF files, you can also create, edit, and comment on them.  Bluebeam PDF Revu can also convert any file to TIF, JPG, GIF, BMP, PSD, PNG, EMF, WMF or PCL.

If you use Microsoft Office, you can use Bluebeam PDF Revu to create PDF files from Office documents with one click of your mouse. Even better, within Outlook you can automatically convert attachments to PDF upon sending the message. When converting Office documents, PDF Revu offers many security features (e.g., preventing the copying of images or text) plus you can apply watermarks and stamps such as date, time, document name, path, etc.

Other useful features include the ability to print any document to PDF, add images to PDF files, create bookmarks within PDF files, create PDF booklets with the "Bluebeam Stapler," copy and paste exactly what you want ("True Text"), and work on a Tablet PC.

That's all well and good, but where is the legal love? Bluebeam designed its new version 5 with lawyers in mind. For example, litigators can apply Bates stamps. You can standardize Bates stamping in your firm by creating Bates stamp templates with a prefix, suffix, and any number of digits.

With Bluebeam PDF Revu 5, you can also permanently redact text or images. The redaction tool doesn't cover the information. Instead, it actually removes it from the file. You can black out these areas if preparing files for discovery. If you're working on a document of your own, you can replace the excised material with different material.

Bluebeam PDF Revu 5 also has features for corporate lawyers, namely the ability to compare PDF documents. Bluebeam PDF Revu sells for $149 with volume discounts available. Learn more about Bluebeam PDF Revu 5.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming January 30, 2007 to TechnoFeature: A picture is worth a thousand words — so where better to use visuals than a courtroom?  In this article, graphics consultant Nicole Matthiesen discusses why, in our increasingly media-saturated world, the lawyer who utilizes visuals in court wields a powerful, persuasive tool — and has a distinct advantage over opposing counsel.  She shares her recent experience creating graphics for the Enron case, and how they impacted the jury and strengthened the prosecution's argument. Read on to see why you should consider adding visuals to your trial bag of tricks.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers new e-discovery review tool, an online backup service, and a free blog hosting service. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

E-Discovery Goes Native
By Dennis Kennedy

The new electronic discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures sounded the alarm for many lawyers. Among other things, the new rules place a strong emphasis on review of files in their native formats. In other words, Word documents should be reviewable as .doc files, not scanned and produced as .pdf or .tiff images. Native file format is uncharted territory for many litigators.

ACCESS Litigation Support Services' NatiVIEW Analytics 2.0 seeks to provide you with a toolbox for handling native file review. In doing so, it addresses the criticism about native file review not being practical. Indeed, ACCESS claims that NatiVIEW Analytics 2.0 costs less than traditional image-scanning in cases of all sizes, including those involving a massive number of documents.

NatiVIEW Analytics 2.0 grew out of ACCESS's experience handling hundreds of millions of pages of data in large litigation matters. Built on .NET and SQL and housed in a data facility with multiple redundancies and virtually unlimited bandwidth, NatiVIEW Analytics 2.0 is a secure, Web-based tool with review, search, annotation, and categorization tools designed for the average lawyer, not just power users. At its heart lies a native file review platform for large collections of documents.

Features include a centrally-managed rules-based workflow system with complete control over access rights, "smart auto-tagging" that groups related documents, customizable workspaces that enable you to view everything you need for a given task, the ability to search specific metadata fields, one-click translators for more than fifty languages, and the ability to append comments to documents in a thread-like manner and receive alerts when someone else adds to the thread.

NatiVIEW Analytics 2.0 works like an electronic container for your documents and corresponding metadata. You can even customize a view to display a document with the relevant metadata, tags, and comments, or search specific metadata fields. Language translations are stored as comments that you can easily compare to the original text.

Administrative features enable you to set up roles and permissions to control a user's rights to work with documents, monitor workflow, and provide a secure way for multiple parties to review the data collection. Reporting and audit tools facilitate project management and tracking.

For more information about pricing, including data hosting options, contact ACCESS Litigation Support Services. Learn more about NatiView Analytics 2.0.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming January 18, 2007 to Answers to Questions: Susi Santa Maria, a former Timeslips Certified Consultant, shares her tips for getting the most out of this often misunderstood and improperly installed program, Brent Blanchard offers his take on the Word v. WordPerfect debate (our version of the Energizer bunny), Eugenie Rivers reviews a utility for archiving your Outlook email (and our publisher points to an alternative utility), Martin Dean explains why technology won't solve a general counsel's contract management needs (but our publisher points to an online service that might help), and Michael Burn reviews his experience using Microsoft Access to manage litigation documents. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming December 19, 2006 to TechnoFeature: Exhibits, witnesses, depositions ... a three-ring binder just won't cut it when it comes to organizing and preparing for trial. Luckily, we have technology at our fingertips. In this article, trial and technology consultant Ted Brooks takes a look under the hood of TrialDirector 5, the latest release from inData. Ted tells you what to expect from this robust program — pros, cons, and even some tips for maximizing the benefits. Whether you're new to litigation support software or a veteran TrialDirector user, you'll find something to like in Ted's comprehensive review.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers the new version of an integrated evidence management solution, an e-mail newsletter for digital photography newbies and enthusiasts, and a pair of software utilities for capturing streaming audio and video and converting it into virtually any format. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Your Litigation Command Center
By Dennis Kennedy
With all the focus on electronic discovery technology these days, it's important not to lose sight of the next step — preparing your cases for trial.

CaseLogistix's new version 5 of its evidence management software aims to provide you with a litigation command center thanks to its unique approach of combining electronic discovery with litigation management. And let's not forget ease of use — the company famously claims that CaseLogistix is so simple to use lawyers actually use it.

The company claims that CaseLogistix 5 enables you and your team to more efficiently handle any amount of digital evidence — from a dog bite case with a single police report to a securities case with hundreds of thousands of documents. You can search, organize, and annotate documents, and customize virtual libraries of documents using the "IntelliFolder" feature to simplify your work.

CaseLogistix worked closely with law firms and lawyers in producing this new version, which offers a re-engineered approach to handling native file formats, including PST files, and tools for annotating and redacting native files. You can extract metadata from native files and export it into CaseLogistix fields for processing and management. The new version also has enhanced tools for splitting, combining, and reordering PDF files. The Bates Analyzer analyzes specific groups of documents and generates a report showing missing numbers, duplicate numbers, and invalid ranges of numbers.

A number of other additions and enhancements exist, including improved Unicode compliance for international users that enables lawyers to view, index, and search documents in Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, and other languages and customize the program for local languages.

Also included is the ability to work offline and then synchronize your work when online again. You can also convert TIFF images to text on the fly with a right mouse click thanks to the built-in OCR technology.

CaseLogistix now handles deposition transcripts as well. You can import transcripts in TRN, PTF, PDF, TIFF, and ASCII formats, and then annotate, redact, and excerpt as needed and of course print reports.

Litigation, of course, usually requires a team. To this end, CaseLogistix now makes it easy for you and your colleagues to access multiple libraries with a single login.

Version 5 also emphasizes speed. Look for better performance in Citrix or other shared environments even when working with very large IntelliFolders, and streaming PDF technology to accelerate downloads.

CaseLogistix 5 is available in desktop, Web, or hosted versions. The desktop version uses an Outlook-based interface so popular among lawyers. Users of the Web version will benefit from a completely rewritten and improved interface as well. Learn more about CaseLogistix.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers the new version of a popular transcript management program, a time tracking solution with four versions, and an online service for tracking your favorite blogs. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Search, Annotate, Summarize, and Print Your Transcripts
By Dennis Kennedy
When you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras, right? This aphorism derives from Occam's Razor — the simplest solution is usually the correct solution. So then why do lawyers often tackle specific tasks with ill-suited tools?

LexisNexis CaseSoft's new TextMap 3 aims to bring the discipline of Occam's Razor to deposition and trial transcripts. Recognizing that most litigators perform just a few tasks with transcripts — search, annotate, summarize, and print — LexisNexis CaseSoft designed TextMap 3 to do exactly that.

Unlike previous versions of TextMap, the new version exists as a free-standing tool, not part of CaseMap. That said, you can still use TextMap with CaseMap. In fact, LexisNexis CaseSoft has improved TextMap's integration with CaseMap, including the popular "Send to CaseMap" functionality.

TextMap 3 has a new Microsoft Outlook-based user interface that most lawyers should find familiar. It also sports enhanced annotation and reporting features. For example, you can annotate (select for display in a report) non-contiguous portions of a transcript and add notes to your annotations.

When you generate a report, you can print it or save it as a PDF file. In addition to the new annotations report, you can also generate a report that shows a search term in surrounding context. And as always, you can also generate a "condensed" report with 4 transcript pages on each page.

TextMap 3 doesn't only integrate with CaseMap, it also integrates with third party products such as LiveNote and Concordance with full import/export capabilities for transcripts and your annotations.

TextMap 3 sells for less than $150 per year for a three-year subscription that includes all support and upgrades, including major ones like TextMap 4 and TextMap 5. You can try it for free for 30 days. TextMap 2 users can upgrade for free. Learn more about TextMap 3.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.