TechnoLawyer

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Philip Franckel, Review Of Andrea ANC-700 USB Headset Plus Dragon Professional Tips

Edward Figlarz, Review: NView For Managing Multiple Monitors

Theodore Borrego, Our Law Firm's Advice About Moving From Windows XP To 7

Nancy Mertzel, Review: MessageSave As An Alternative To SimplyFile

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a program that tracks the time you spend in client-related email (see article below), a site that enables you to compare smartphones, a new online practice management and document assembly application, and an iOS app with a legal dictionary, settlement calculator and other such tools for lawyers. Don't miss the next issue.

Automatically Track Time Spent on Client-Related Email

Late last year, Business Insider, a publication that breathlessly covers startup companies and new technologies, admitted that the world is not changing that fast. The article noted that every minute people post 695,000 Facebook status updates (impressive), but send 168 million email messages (off the charts). Among lawyers, the numbers are likely even more skewed in email's favor. Because lawyers spend so much time in email, that's where they lose the most billable time. Did you spend 25 minutes or 35 minutes replying to your client? Most lawyers are honest so they under-guesstimate, but accuracy is not a crime. The new version of a popular time tracking program can help.

Chrometa 2012 … in One Sentence
Chrometa 2012 automatically captures and categorizes the time you spend working on your computer plus it can track offline time too.

The Killer Feature
Previous versions of Chrometa would tell you how much time you spent in Outlook or in Gmail throughout the day, enabling you to capture all that time. But it didn't list the time per message so if you read 25 work-related email messages, and sent 10 you'd have to look back at your messages and apportion the time among them -- a fair amount of work.

Chrometa 2012 now shows you the time spent per message, identifying each message by subject line, to/from/cc fields, and if applicable even the email folder name.

Chrometa 2012 achieves this feat via two free plugins for Microsoft Outlook and Gmail respectively. The Outlook plugin works with Outlook 2007 and 2010, while the Gmail plugin works with Google's Chrome browser on Mac and Windows.

"Our new Chrometa plugins for Microsoft Outlook and Gmail close the loop on email," Chrometa CEO Brett Owens told us. "Once you install our email plugins, you'll never lose another minute of billable email time or waste time reconstructing that billable time."

Other Notable Features
Chrometa 2012 captures time on Macs and PCs. It notices when you stop using your computer such as for a phone call and can ask you about it so you can also track offline time. You access and manage your captured time using a web browser.

Chrometa 2012 can automatically categorize the time it captures. For example, now that Chrometa can capture time spent per email message, you can create a rule for each client or even matter. Then Chrometa will place all email time per client or per matter into that category. The rules work for all the time Chrometa captures (e.g., time spent in Word documents). When you log into your Chrometa account, you can convert all the time captured in a category into time entries with one click.

Also new in Chrometa 2012 is the ability to create bills (invoices). In other words, Chrometa can now serve as your billing program, not just your time capture program. You can send bills directly from Chrometa via email or export them into DOC, PDF, or XLS formats.

If you already use a billing system, Chrometa offers a growing number of integrations, including Clio, FreshBooks, QuickBooks, PCLaw, and Timeslips. You can also export Chrometa time entries and import them into virtually any billing system.

What Else Should You Know?
You can choose from three versions of Chrometa (all single user) or from two versions of Chrometa for Teams (for multiple users). Pricing for Chrometa starts at $19 per month, whereas pricing for Chrometa for Teams starts at the same price per user per month. Learn more about Chrometa 2012.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 105 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

Legal Forms for the Price of a Song on iTunes?

The Most Tech-Friendly Airports and Airlines

Female Lawyers Make Their Own Tracks to Success

Law Firm SEO Is Not An Advertising Strategy

Don't miss this issue or future issues.

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to LitigationWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 66 articles from the past week worthy of your attention. Below you'll find a sample article from each section of today's issue, including our LitigationWorld Pick of the Week.

Example of a Closing Argument Using PowerPoint Slides

Relevance: The Most Important Limitation on Discovery Abuse?

Fear is Not a Valid Objection to Search Terms

Erasing the Past on Facebook Can Result in Costly Sanctions

Congratulations to Marin K. Levy of the Duke Law Journal on winning our LitigationWorld Pick of the Week award: The Inner Workings of the Federal Appellate Courts

How to Receive LitigationWorld
All practice areas evolve, but none faster than litigation. Written by successful litigators and other litigation experts, LitigationWorld provides you with practical tips related to electronic discovery, depositions, litigation strategy, litigation technology, and trial presentations. You'll also receive in-depth litigation product reviews as well as links to the most noteworthy articles in other online litigation publications so that you'll never miss anything. The LitigationWorld newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published in our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

Prevent Inadvertent Disclosures and Other Email Mishaps

The early days of the web favored large firms. Tim Berners Lee gave the world HTML, and Marc Andreessen the web browser. But if you wanted a client portal — then known as an extranet — for secure communications and document sharing you had two expensive choices: build it yourself or use overpriced turnkey solutions. As a result, small law firms and even most large law firms still use plain old email for client communications. Now, email is fine for newsletters like TL NewsWire, but it's not ideal for confidential attorney-client communications or exchanging large files. Fortunately, even sole practitioners can now afford a client portal.

Privacy Data Systems All-in-One Privacy Suite … in One Sentence
Privacy Data Systems All-in-One Privacy Suite (PDS Professional) is web communications service that enables law firms to securely exchange messages and large files with clients.

The Killer Feature
Under immense pressure, many bar associations have given their blessing to email for client communications. So you need not worry about being disbarred if you misaddress an email message, just fired and maybe sued — with perhaps negative reviews on Avvo, Google Places, Yelp, and elsewhere too. Not good. A lesser problem but still a problem occurs when you correctly send an email message but it ends up unread in your client's spam folder.

PDS Professional eliminates email mishaps. For example, if you misaddress an email message, the unintended recipient won't be able to read it because they won't have the access code. When you correctly send a message, PDS Professional provides "immediate and irrefutable" proof of delivery.

"Lawyers and their clients need to communicate quickly, and share documents with each other, but standard email systems are not secure enough to maintain privacy," Privacy Data Systems Vice President of Operations Ray Blackburn told us. "We have put together an affordable suite of privacy tools that combines security with the ease-of-use of email."

Other Notable Features
PDS Professional provides your firm with a Secure Inbox — an encrypted web page branded with your logo — that you can provide to your clients. As a result, unlike other services, your clients need not register to send you secure messages and documents. Likewise, they don't need an account or any plugins to receive messages and documents from you.

PDS Professional includes a number of bank-grade security features, including view-only documents, watermarked documents, electronic signatures, rights management settings, message recall, and biometric authentication.

For example, the eSignature technology enables your clients to sign documents electronically using a process approved by the ESIGN Act. Rights management enables you to impose controls on messages such as preventing printing, downloading, forwarding, etc. With Message Recall, you can prevent delivery of a message you have already sent. If your client has already read the message, you can prevent it from being opened again.

What Else Should You Know?
In addition to all this security, PDS Professional enables you to send large files. Each licensee receives 2 GB of storage space, which you can increase if needed. PDS Professional works in all modern web browsers. It costs either $14.50 per month, or $145 per year. You can try it for free. Learn more about PDS Professional.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published in our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

The Time Tracking and Billing System Intuit Recommends

More than one million lawyers, paralegals, and other legal professionals need to track their expenses and time. And that's just in the United States. Sensing an opportunity, Intuit launched a cloud-based billing solution a few years ago called Time Tracker & Billing Manager. But it didn't pan out so the company recently shut down the service. Rather than leave its thousands of customers hanging, Intuit carefully evaluated its competitors, and then encouraged its customers to switch to a next-generation solution by a company whose management team has years of experience developing legal billing systems.

eBillity … in One Sentence
An Intuit Preferred Partner, eBillity is a secure cloud-based time tracking and billing solution with accompanying mobile apps.

The Killer Feature
Of all the professionals who bill for their time, lawyers likely have the most diverse needs. eBillity's designers focused on customizability and flexibility to meet these needs.

For example, you can create multiple billing rates — hourly, client, matter, employee, activity, overtime, etc. eBillity displays these options on a single screen. Once you create a billing rule, you can save it for future use — and these rules can include other aspects of billing such as expenses and trust accounts. In other words, eBillity enables you to automate your billing workflow.

Other Notable Features
eBillity contains a number of technologies designed to facilitate expense and time entry. For example, eBillity provides timers, custom categories, and batch entry (e.g., record all your time at the trial with one click, and all your associated expenses with another click). Also, eBillity is available via a desktop or mobile web browser, Mac and Windows applications, and native iOS (iPhone or iPad) and BlackBerry apps. The desktop and mobile apps work offline, and automatically sync with your account once you're online again, enabling you to capture time anywhere.

eBillity contains a number of legal-specific features such as conflict checking and trust accounting that go beyond typical offerings. For conflict checking, not only can you conduct full-text searches, but you can also create ethical walls to prevent designated employees from accessing one or more matters. eBillity's trust accounting includes the "eBillity Client Portal" through which your clients can view invoices, and make payments on those invoices. Clients can view the balance and activity of their trust accounts from this portal as well. Finally, clients can view and pay invoices using a credit card or PayPal via a button on every emailed invoice.

Other features include email alerts to stay in the loop when members of your team work on specific matters, QuickBooks Online synchronization, and customizable reports. Report types include timekeepers, clients, expense, trust accounts, productivity, receivables, rates, tax, and more.

"Our clients have found, on average, that they capture 15% more billable time using eBillity," Vice President of Product Douglas Dweck told us. "Having a tool that makes it this easy to capture time from anywhere on nearly any device ensures minutes don't get missed."

What Else Should You Know?
Three versions of eBillity exist — Free (3 clients and 5 matters), Standard (20 clients and 30 matters), and Premium (unlimited clients and matters plus eBillity Client Portal and payment processing). The Standard plan costs $19.95 per month for the first user, and $9.95 per additional user. All plans include free support via telephone, live chat, and email. Learn more about eBillity.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 107 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

CES 2012 Recap: Everything You Need to Know (Probably)

Xerox Unveils Mobile Scanner (That's It's Name)

Nice Perk if You Can Get It: Law Firm Offers Free Massages

The Problem With Ambulance Chasing

This issue also contains links to every article in the January 2012 issue of Law Practice Today. Don't miss this issue or future issues.

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Neil Squillante, How To Stop Advertisements From Following You Around The Web

Edward Zohn, A New Year's Resolution For Law Firms

Robert Sidell, Review: IPhone 4S (Why I Upgraded From An IPhone 4)

Helen Wilkie, The Key To Client Satisfaction

Caren Schwartz, Review: Agent Ransack For Desktop File Searching

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Ay Uaxe, How to Migrate From GroupWise to Exchange: Two War Stories

Steven Silberman, Review: Dragon NaturallySpeaking From a Solo's Perspective

Kurt Walberg, A Fan of Multiple Monitors Offers Some Tips

Richard Schafer, Review: SimplyFile for Archiving Client-Related Email

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a new practice management system (see article below), and a new mobile scanner (article available to TL NewsWire subscribers only). Don't miss the next issue.

Practice Management Meets Document Management

Is January just another month or does the beginning of a new year deserve all the hype? While gym check-ins plummet after a few weeks, a new year can bring about lasting improvements at law firms. Most law firm fiscal years match the calendar year so there's no better time to start using a new practice management system. Without having to retroactively enter data, you'll have an entire fiscal year's worth of appointments, billed activities, documents, tasks, and everything else a practice management system organizes. One legal vendor recognizes the special nature of January. Like clockwork, it ships a new version of its popular practice management system shortly after the ball drops in Times Square.

Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2012 … in One Sentence
Released on January 3, 2012, Gavel & Gown's Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2012 is a practice management system with integrated document management.

The Killer Feature
Law firm workflow revolves around email and documents. While Outlook has a lock on email, there's no similarly dominant product for document management despite a deep hunger among law firms for a simple yet powerful solution.

Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2012 offers integrated document management via its new Documents module. Thus, you can quickly see a list of all documents associated with a client or file, and filter and sort the list based on various criteria.

Even better, you can run full-text searches for documents. Amicus Attorney uses Microsoft's Indexing Server engine, which handles all popular file formats, including of course DOC, DOCX, and PDF.

Other Notable Features
We only have one killer feature section in TL NewsWire articles, but vying for contention is the fact that Gavel & Gown has baked Google Sync into Amicus Attorney. With a free Google account, you can sync appointments and contacts in Amicus Attorney with Android smartphones and tablets, Apple's iPad and iPhone, BlackBerrys, and other mobile devices compatible with Google Sync.

In keeping with the focus on mobile, Amicus Attorney can email you your agenda every day, including phone numbers for contacts assigned to your daily events. Your agenda can take advantage of another new feature — Referrals, which enable you to see who sends you work. You can view and sort all client matter files referred by your contacts. If you also use Amicus Premium Billing (part of Amicus Attorney once you turn it on with a license), you'll also see the fees they helped you generate. You'll know for sure who merits some wining and dining at the best restaurant in town.

Other new features include the ability to output formatted information from unlimited custom fields and records, hyperlinks to files from appointments and tasks, email alerts when your assistant creates a phone message, and automated notation of returned phone messages on your phone records.

What Else Should You Know?
Gavel & Gown also shipped Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition 2012 last week — a less expensive alternative for law firms with 1-10 users. The web site provides a feature comparison chart. Both the Premium and Small Firm Editions run on Windows PCs. Learn more about Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2012.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.