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TechnoScore: 1.0
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Think you know your way around a courtroom? Jeff Roberts of the Roberts Law Firm will personally show you in his video, Jeff Roberts — Skilled Trial Attorney in Newport Beach, CA.

You may recognize the judge's chair, the witness chair, and the jury box. It's almost as if a viewer has never watched any TV ... in their life. Seriously. I hope Roberts is not really like this in front of a jury.

Here's my question: If a potential client is looking for a trial attorney online, is a tour in and around the courtroom going to convince them to pick up the phone and call you? Don't you think the viewer expects that you know where everyone is positioned in the courtroom?

"If I'm giving opening or closing statements, I will use the podium," says attorney Jeff Roberts, standing in front of, and pointing to the podium. "Myself, I am a trial attorney, and this is where I work when I'm on trial," says Roberts, pointing to the jury box. This video seems directed to the Kindergarten through second grade demographic.

What information does this video give to a potential client, and how does this "show and tell" of a courtroom distinguish yourself as a more knowledgeable trial lawyer from any other advocate in your town? Don't we all know where counsel sits? Don't we all know where the judge sits? Doesn't everyone know where the witness sits? Even if the viewer doesn't know these basic facts, ask yourself whether this information does anything to show you're the expert in the courtroom. Unfortunately, this video misses the mark by a huge margin.

Practice Tip: How to Use a Courtroom as a Prop

If you're going to use the courtroom as a prop, how about reading from some trial testimony you've recently taken? How about acting out a few lines of cross-examination in a trial you handled? Give the viewer the "set-up" of the facts of the case, and bring them directly to the point where you're now questioning the witness on the key issue in the case. Hammer home 15-30 seconds of your masterful cross-examination technique. Use this to show how you're different. Don't say "here's my chair, here's the wall, here's the door."

Not many courts would allow a lawyer to videotape within a real courtroom. It certainly would never happen in New York. If you've got the prop, use it effectively and creatively. Think outside the box, and more importantly, ask yourself what a potential client would want to know while they're on trial with you.

Here's a suggestion: When your client turns to ask you a question during the trial, and you explain to him what the judge is doing, why not put that explanation in your video? "What does it mean when a lawyer objects, and the judge says 'objection sustained'?" "What does it mean when the judge asks if you want to voir dire the witness?" "What does it mean if the jury asks for a read back of testimony?" If you are a trial lawyer and answer those commonly asked questions in your video, more likely than not, viewers will call you and not your competitor.

Practice Tip: Introduce Yourself

The camera is much too far away from attorney Roberts and the lighting is poor. I had to squint to see if it was really him talking. The audio is not that much better. There's no music, which is fine.

What bothers me the most, however, is that the attorney does not introduce himself. Yes, there's a title graphic at the bottom of the screen saying who he is. However, if your intention is to have viewers get to know you and form a bond with you while watching your videos, they won't bother to connect with you if you don't first (metaphorically) stick your hand out and say "Hi, I'm Joe the Lawyer, a trial lawyer from Smallville."

Welcome your viewer. Thank them for a moment of their time. Remember, their time is valuable too. When I produce my own video clips, I like to thank viewers for joining me in my office for a few minutes of their time. It only takes an extra few seconds, and in my opinion, makes the viewer feel like I just thanked them personally. That's the personal bond you want to try and establish.

From a performance standpoint, I will assume that this was Roberts' first attempt at video, and give him the benefit of the doubt about his lackluster performance. A bit more energy and enthusiasm would certainly have juiced up this droll 1:29 minute clip.

Every newbie has some trepidation when trying their first case, and even creating their first video. Looking back at my first video clip, I was just as stilted and formal. Only after creating my 10th and even 20th video clip, did I learn to just loosen up and be myself.

Practice Tip: Don't Promote Your Producer

The beginning of the video prominently features the production company. Another bad move for the lawyer. In my previous YouLaw video reviews I have repeatedly pointed out that there is absolutely no reason to share the spotlight with the production company you use to create your video. You should be the only one in the spotlight. If they want free advertising, let them do it with a testimonial from you, or have a small section of text after your text box. It distracts the viewer from looking for your contact information during your introduction.

Cautionary Video Tip

When creating your video, make sure you do not run afoul of your state's ethics rules. Importantly, you do not want to create the appearance of, or intend to create an attorney-client relationship with your video. Nor do you want to have a potential client rely solely on your video clip to determine what legal action (or inaction) they should take in their own matter. So far, the attorney videos I've seen (and I've viewed hundreds) have done well in this respect. Just remember, it is you who is responsible for the content in your video, not your producer. Do not let a marketing rep or sales rep convince you to add something to your video when you know it is impermissible.

The Back Bench

Certified Family Law Specialist and online video producer Kelly Chang Rickert says: "Not sure why he is giving an elementary lesson in an empty courthouse, but it isn't effective. It almost assumes his clients are all idiots. Jeff also stutters over some of the lines in his script — does not come across as confident."

TechnoLawyer publisher and online video producer Neil Squillante says: "Thank you for the courtroom tour, but what about my case? Roberts looks uncomfortable plus people don't hire lawyers based on their knowledge of a courtroom's layout. Case dismissed for insufficient evidence."

About YouLaw

YouTube offers law firms a free advertising platform with tens of millions of potential clients. But a poor video can hurt more than help. In this column, lawyer and online video expert Gerry Oginski reviews and rates the latest law firm videos. A panel of fellow experts (The Back Bench) add to Gerry's reviews with pithy remarks. We link to each new YouLaw column and all other noteworthy law firm marketing articles in our weekly BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.

About Gerry Oginski

New York trial lawyer Gerry Oginski has created more than 150 informational online videos for his medical malpractice and personal injury practice. Realizing that most video producers don't have a deep understanding of the practice of law and what potential clients look for, Gerry launched The Lawyers' Video Studio, which provides free tutorials and video production services. If you need help producing a video, please contact Gerry now.

Contact Gerry:
T: (516) 487-8207
E: lawmed10@yahoo.com

Originally published on December 8, 2008 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

I am a veteran of many a late night restoring data from the failed systems of my clients over the years. Since 1985 when I started consulting with law practices full time, I've made backup system/process recommendations to thousands of law practices of all sizes. I've had to sit and restore systems from backup media — often pulling all-nighters at client offices to nurse their systems back from the brink. I've seen it all.

From cassette tapes in the wild, wooly frontier days of the early 80's to floppies to the earliest backup tapes, through the Pre-Dark Ages (called the Colorado Memory Systems era) to the true Dark Ages (the "Travan Nightmare"), to Bernoulli disks, to Zip drives and their "Click of Death", to Magneto-Optical drives, to DAT, DLT, LTO and VXA tape, to tape libraries, to external hard drives, to modern D2D SATA systems, through the complete evolution of online options.

It's enough to put you to sleep. And it does. At many small firms, dangerous ignorance, rampant tempting of the fates and taunting "nah, nah, nah, nah, nahs" to Mr. Murphy and his famous law still seem to be the order of the day.

But while nothing is as tedious and boring to talk about as backups, it's the one technology that will one day save your law practice and your entire ability to make a living from utter apocalyptic destruction. Hence my:

Great Truths of Small Firm Data Backup

1. Why We Do It. It's not about backing up, it's about restoring.

2. Tape Is So 1990's. No one should backup to tape media anymore. "Disk to disk" or "D2D" backup is the sensible approach for primary daily backups.

3. Don't Tempt the Fates — Spread Out Your Protection. Your backup approach should have several layers of protection — never put all your backup "eggs" in one basket.

4. Bad Things Happen to Good Lawyers. Expect and prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised if it never happens.

5. Primary Backup. A full nightly automated backup of your primary server/system. That means everything, not just your view of "data" and never ever an incremental backup under any circumstances. Why? Because trying to stitch someone's system back together from a patchwork of miscellaneous incremental backups spread across multiple media is a nightmare that I never want to live through again. Full backups take the longest and require the most storage space, but they're also the fastest to restore and that's consistent with rule number 1 above.

For the best written explanation of full backups versus incremental versus differential backups, read this TechRepublic article.

6. Primary Backup Part Two. Use actual data backup software suitable for either an individual PC or a network server. When backing up networks, you'll need backup "agents" to backup open files, Microsoft's Exchange Server, and provide you with a disaster recovery function to rapidly restore a repaired system post-crash. Never use any backup software that comes built into any version of Windows. For networks using the popular Microsoft Windows 2003 Small Business Server my favorite is Symantec's Backup Exec for Small Business Server. For individual PCs, I recommend Acronis TrueImage Home.

7. Alternate Media Each Day. Alternating daily between at least five (or more) disks makes sense and minimizes the risk of having bad backup media. More is better. For example, using a 10 disk set provides two weeks of restorable "snapshots" plus you can add an 11th rotating "monthly" cartridge. An annual cartridge that never gets shelved after being backed up to on 12/31 each year is best.

8. Store the Media Out of the Office. Store it in a different building as far from the office as is practical each day. It does you no good if the backup media melts in the office fire.

9. Secondary Backup Offsite. If ethically permissible in your jurisdiction, conduct data-only backups, automated in real-time or after-hours to either Mozy or MozyPro (I like the interface for restoring and pricing) or alternatively CoreVault.

10. Image Backup to Protect Against OS Blowups on Workstations. Use Acronis TrueImage or Symantec Ghost to keep an "image" backup of each class of PC setup so you can quickly restore a blown-up Windows system (or quickly setup a nearly-identical new PC).

11. Test! The most important point — exercise your backup systems. Do a "mini test restore" from your primary backup media at least weekly. Randomly pick a couple of documents, restore them (move the originals to a safe place first). It's amazing how many people I know who backup but have absolutely no idea whatsoever how to restore files (see item number one above).

12. Dispose of Old Backup Media Intelligently. When you dump your antiquated and unreliable tape-based system, either keep the media forever or physically destroy the media to prevent unintended/unauthorized recovery of your confidential client and firm information.

13. Be Redundant! Look for other ways to protect your data or reduce the chances of expensive downtime. In servers, use a "RAID Array" of hard drives (stands for "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives"). RAID Level 1 at least for mirroring of functions between a pair of drives. RAID Level 5 adds smart error correction and rebuilding capabilities to reduce downtime if a network drive fails. Use heavy-duty SAS (f/k/a SCSI), server-intended hard drives in your server, not workstation-intended cheaper, lighter duty SATA drives.

14. Think About Spot Backup. What about critical stuff you can't afford to lose in between your multiple backup layers of protection? The Great American Trial Brief. A chapter of your long-awaited book. The greatest trust agreement in the history of the universe.

Use your word processor's emergency backup function. I set mine to auto-backup every five minutes in both Word and WordPerfect in case the software crashes. Know how to recover those .BKx files when you need to (before the disaster happens, eating your document in a puff of digital smoke). Consider emailing in-process documents to yourself at your Webmail account for "spot offsite backup" purposes. Think about keeping a hefty 4, 8 or even 16 GB flash drive plugged in and get used to double-saving key documents and emails to the flash drive as well as their regular folders. So think "spot."

I Kid You Not

I'm sure I could come up with more rules if I really thought about it but this list should keep you out of trouble. Failure to follow these field proven, hard-fought, University of Hard Knocks-learned lessons puts your entire practice in abject peril. That's no exaggeration. That's reality. I beg you to backup. Your practice depends on it.

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

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Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a Web-based litigation planning application (see article below), a site for sharing PowerPoint presentations, software that connects Microsoft Exchange and Interwoven WorkSite, an eDiscovery network appliance for collection and review, and a mobile discovery application for BlackBerry and iPhone. Don't miss the next issue.

Plan Early and Often and Win More Cases
By Neil J. Squillante

Alan Lakein once quipped, "Failing to plan is planning to fail." Litigators who fail to plan often find themselves reacting to their opponent (playing defense) rather than dictating the course of events (playing offense). But is failing to plan the fault of litigators? Not entirely. Despite the increasing complexity of litigation (eDiscovery anyone?), most project management systems focus on disciplines such as architecture, software development, etc. One company is determined to bridge this gap.

TrialSchedule ... in One Sentence
TrialSchedule is a Web-based application that provides litigation teams with a visual Gantt view of the deadlines and tasks associated with their cases.

The Killer Feature
Whether you use Outlook or a practice management application, your calendar does an excellent job of informing you about your daily activities. But what about long-range planning? Not so much.

TrialSchedule features a patented Gantt view that displays all the events associated with your cases visually on one screen. At a glance, you can see the phase of each case and important todos and milestones.

Other Notable Features
TrialSchedule provides two main screens. In addition to the Gantt chart and accompanying todos noted above, it also displays your personal todos plotted on a graph by deadline and importance so you can prioritize.

You can focus on a particular case, a particular phase of several cases, etc. by using the sorting tool. You can also print any chart, email it in PDF format, or download the data in Excel format.

TrialSchedule has a number of enhancements that further add value to the core features. For example, you can set up email triggers to remind you of todos, alert you about deadlines, and keep you apprised of work performed by colleagues.

You can also append notes and attach documents to any entry in TrialSchedule. For example, you could add the contact information for a court reporter to a deposition, or attach a court's rules on motions to a deadline for a motion.

Perhaps most importantly, you can create Phase Templates if you often handle cases in the same court. These templates incorporate the court's rules so that with one click you can set up a new case in that court with all the correct deadlines.

What Else Should You Know?
TrialSchedule works in all major browsers on Macs and PCs. Pricing starts at $57/month for up to 5 users. Every plan includes telephone support, unlimited email alerts, and all new features — plus there's no software to install. Learn more about TrialSchedule.

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Coming today to TechnoFeature: Apple's iPhone recently surpassed Windows Mobile in market share and will soon overtake the BlackBerry. While only a few legal-specific apps currently exist, Bill4Time being the most notable, this situation will likely change. In this article, New Orleans lawyer and iPhone expert Jeff Richardson shares his ten favorite iPhone shortcuts. From typing contractions without entering an apostrophe to locating a wayward 3G signal to finding the elusive .net and .org keyboard keys, even Steve Jobs could learn a thing or two from Jeff.

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Walk one block west from our office and you'll arrive at Ground Zero. Walk two blocks east and you might see Ben Bernanke entering the Federal Reserve. These two sites remind me every day about the challenges we face.

However, even closer to our office — right in our building in fact — resides Century 21, an outlet department store that remains as mobbed as ever. Notwithstanding the credit crisis and recession, it would seem that the holidays will not be canceled. Therefore, I thought I'd share with you five techno-gift suggestions that I consider a good bargain.

Make Someone's Smartphone Smarter ...

Apple and RIM devote virtually all their engineering resources to their respective smartphones. As a result, the earphones that ship with BlackBerrys and iPhones don't sound good and don't block external noise, encouraging people to crank the volume to dangerous levels.

Show someone you care by giving them quality in-ear earphones that block external noise.

A few weeks ago, I reviewed the Ultimate Ears triple.fi 10 vi, which I use with my iPhone. With a list price of $420, I wouldn't dare recommend them this year — not even at the $371 price I paid.

However, Ultimate Ears just shipped a less expensive model with the same feature set — the super.fi 5 vi. These earphones enable you to control music playback and answer and talk on the phone without having to fish your BlackBerry or iPhone out of your pocket. They sell for $190.

Enlighten Someone About Espresso Economics ...

If all espresso drinkers brewed their own coffee and invested the money they would save by doing so, we could eliminate the credit crisis without a bailout.

You think I'm joking?

A single shot of espresso at home using a capsule-based machine costs about 50 cents per cup versus $1.90 at Starbucks and other cafes. That's a $1.40 difference for the most basic espresso drink. Get fancier and the gap widens.

So why don't people make their own espresso?

Some people don't think they can make as good a cup at home when in fact the opposite is true. While a professional barista can certainly best a home machine, how many of these people do you think work at Starbucks? Yet Starbucks still uses machines that require skill. By contrast, capsule-based home machines eliminate all the guesswork.

Others balk at the up front price of buying a machine. Clearly, they have never crunched the numbers. Assuming two espressos per day, even a $1,000 machine would pay for itself in about one year (357 days to be exact).

By purchasing a machine for your favorite espresso lover, you could make these savings immediate. And you need not spend $1,000.

The Nespresso Essenza C100 and D100, which sell for $250, make the exact same cup of espresso as much more expensive Nespresso models, but lack the ability to make milk-based espresso drinks. If the person you have in mind likes cappuccinos or lattes, Nespresso will sell you a milk frother for $50 if you order it with a C100 (the frother sells for $100 if purchased separately).

How good is a Nespresso espresso? Very good. Here in Manhattan we have the only Nespresso cafe in the country. Despite charging $3.50 for a shot of espresso, the place is always packed. And the baristas use the C100.

Encourage Someone to Not Run With the Pack ...

Convergence is good when it solves a problem. Otherwise, not so much.

You may have heard about Nike+iPod, which enables you to capture the distance, pace, calories, and time of your runs and walks. You place a sensor in your Nike+ sneakers (or fasten it to your non-Nike sneakers), and use your iPod nano or iPod touch (2008 model only) to view your progress, pause your workout, etc. You then upload each workout to your Nike+ Web account so that you can view your statistics by day, week, month, etc.

It's all very cool and makes workouts addictive or at least more fun.

However, even if you use one of those armbands to hold your iPod, fiddling with it during your workout will slow you down. Plus, not everyone has an iPod. Some have iPhones and others have iPod alternatives or simply don't play music.

Realizing that Nike+iPod doesn't suit everyone, Nike recently released Nike+SportBand, which offers the same functionality in a wristwatch with just two buttons. Press the large button to check your distance, pace, calories, and elapsed time, and the small button to pause. It sells for $59.

A Good Time to Give Someone a Plasma TV ...

Timing is everything, especially when buying technology. Take TVs for example. Every January at the Consumer Electronics Show, companies unveil their new models for the year. As a result, you'll find discounts galore on this year's models right about now.

No doubt you've heard about the debate between LCD TVs and plasma TVs. Even though LCD TVs outsell plasma TVs, the latter offer a better picture. While I wouldn't place a plasma TV in a kitchen or an office, I prefer them for a typical den or living room except perhaps if the room has skylights.

Those in the know will tell you that Pioneer makes the best plasma TVs — with prices to match.

Panasonic offers a good alternative at recession-friendly prices. For a house, I like the 46 inch TH-46PZ80U, which originally sold for $1,700, but now sells for as little as $1,200. For an apartment, the smaller 42 inch TH-42PZ80U might make more sense. It now sells for about $900, reduced from its original $1,300 price.

Give an Apple to the Apple of Your Eye ...

In the introduction, I mentioned Century 21, an outlet store that sells irregular and overstocked designer clothes.

Outlet stores also exist in the technology world, including one operated by Apple, a company not known for discounting.

Apple offers both clearance items and refurbished products. Many good deals exist, but beware — Apple lists the original price of the product. In some cases, the newer version of a product sells for less than the old version did.

Of the iPod deals, I like two in particular — the 2007 8 GB nano, which sells for $99 and the 2007 160 GB iPod Classic, which sells for $249. The so-called "fat nano" sports the same screen as the new 8 GB 2008 model ($149), but in an orientation that seems more logical to me. Meanwhile, the old iPod Classic provides 33% more storage space than the current iPod Classic for the same price.

I also like two Mac deals — the previous generation 15 inch MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz laptop, which sells for $1,600 (new) or $1,349 (refurbished), and the 1 TB Time Capsule, which sells for $419 (refurbished). If you know someone like me who does not like glossy screens, the previous generation MacBook Pro is the last one with a matte screen.

On Second Thought ...

You know, maybe instead of exchanging gifts this year we should save our money and just enjoy each other's company.... Wait a second. For a moment there, I forgot that we Americans never save money. We would just end up spending more on ourselves. Never mind. Happy shopping!

Photo of Nike+ Sportband by Richard Roberson. All rights reserved.

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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. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to Fat Friday: Fraser Page discusses ProLaw and its place in the small firm market, Andrew Weltchek lists seven products he couldn't practice without, Tom Trottier shares some smartphone memory card and remote access tips, Tom O'Connor directs readers to a video with a humorous take on spam, and Hugh Roberts reviews Wrike — plus the question of the week. Don't miss this issue.

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Coming today to Answers to Questions: David Hudgens discusses his firm's switch from Time Matters to PCLaw, Andrea Phelps reviews the Herman Miller Aeron chair and her HON modular desk system, Carol Bratt reviews Timeslips tech support and the program's learning curve (and Timeslips responds), Brian Cluxton reviews Dell's on-site warranty and service, and Susan Billeaud explains how to tame iTunes on a PC. Don't miss this issue.

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Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a Web-based case management application (see article below), a mobile billing application, software that automates document drafting, a PDF annotation tool, and an add-on utility for the iPhone Mail app. Don't miss the next issue.

Case Management Hits the Web
By Neil J. Squillante

Did you feel that? No, it wasn't an earthquake. But the ground shifted. Web applications have arrived. It all started with that search box on Amazon and then Google. Webmail and online banking proved that you could manage highly sensitive information online. Law firms embraced intranets, extranets, and other lightweight applications. The next logical step? Practice management.

Caseload ... in One Sentence
Blackletter's Caseload is a secure Web-based case management system for solo practitioners and small law firms.

The Killer Feature
It's about time. Your practice that is. Not only do you bill your time, but the order in which events transpire also plays a key role.

Caseload offers lawyers a timeline-driven project management system. Every matter has its own timeline in which you and your colleagues can add events, documents, to-dos, issue outlines, and more, thus creating a dashboard from which you can see everything associated with a matter.

In ye olden days, a case file served a similar purpose — but with a fraction of the functionality. For example, Caseload displays information about upcoming deadlines, current todo items, and co-worker activity all in one place on the matter dashboard.

Other Notable Features
In addition to project management, you'll also find contact management, shared calendars, to-do lists, billing, and document management. Caseload also offers a system-wide search function for finding what you need.

All the functions integrate. For example adding an event to a matter's timeline also adds it to your calendar and vice versa. The contacts database lists the related matters for each contact. Etc.

Outlines never enjoyed mainstream success probably because most people don't write much. But lawyers love outlines because they write a lot. Knowing this, Blackletter built a hierarchical outliner into Caseload. You can quickly move items around and tag entries with issues. Like everything else in Caseload, you can attach outlines to projects so that they'll show up in your dashboard and timeline.

What Else Should You Know?
Caseload works in all major Web browsers on Macs and PCs. It does not require any up-front costs or any software installation. As you would expect, Caseload protects your data and transmissions using bank-grade encryption. Caseload offers four subscription plans ranging in price from $5/month for 3 users and 10 active matters to $50/month for unlimited users and matters. Learn more about Caseload.

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