TechnoLawyer

Coming December 15, 2006 to Fat Friday: Andrea Cannavina discusses how new technologies have changed the dictation/transcription process and compares Olympus and Sony digital recorders, Jason Havens shares how you can use your Treo 600 for more than just a phone or PDA, Michael Schley explores file naming conventions for discovery documents, Cheryl Clayton discusses her use of multiple monitors in her solo practice (and we point to a seven monitor setup), and Daniel Fennick reviews his recent Dell technical support experience. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

The Georgia Civil Justice Foundation has produced a slick Web site designed to inform the general public about the legal system and help those who wish to represent themselves in small cases that may not interest a law firm. The site features clever animated shorts starring the founding fathers that explain the American legal system, and a series of videos about a mock small claims court case to discuss the various components of litigation. Nicely done! Take a look.

On a more humorous, note, does anyone know the name of this judge? In this video, "Judge Nose," as he is being called on YouTube, uses his microphone to scratch his nose. If you see a judge doing this during your opening argument, you may want to settle your case! Watch this 10 second video (click here if you don't see the video below).

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.

In today's special holiday edition of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers three new iPod accessories — the first ever in-ear wireless earphones, a Star Trek-like iPod video viewing system, and an iPod battery pack that will take you across the pond and back even if you watch videos the whole time. Don't miss the next issue.

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

Unchain Your Head and iPod
By Dennis Kennedy

Serious audiophiles and frequent fliers always rave about in-ear earphones. They like the combination of high fidelity sound and external noise reduction. If the powers that be could only figure out a way to eliminate those darn wires.

Etymotic Research, which developed one of the first in-ear systems, has introduced the wireless Ety 8 — the first and only wireless (Bluetooth) in-ear earphone system. The company claims that Ety 8 sounds just as good as its wired models. Ety 8 uses a new folding technology to reduce the size of the antenna. As with all earphones of this type, the earpieces fit snugly in your ear canal — no external support is needed. A perfect fit is critical so Etymotic provides you with a choice of 3-flange, 2-flange, and foam ear tips.

The technical specs on Ety 8 are comparable to the rest of Etymotic's products. Each earpiece weighs only ounce. One earpiece houses the battery and the other houses the antenna as well as iPod controls (play, previous/next, and volume). Expect a 10 hour battery life, with an automatic shut-off after 5 minutes if no audio is playing.

The iPod version comes with its own adapter and works with fifth generation iPods and first and second generation Nanos. Ety 8 is compatible with devices supporting Bluetooth specification 1.1 and higher and supports A2DP and AVRCP profiles for stereo listening. It comes with a USB power port for charging and a leather case.

Ety 8 with the iPod adapter costs $299. If you use a Bluetooth device other than an iPod, the earphones cost $199. Learn more about Ety 8.

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.

This week's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire will cover three new iPod accessories for you to consider when holiday shopping. Why iPod? We think it will once again reign supreme as the leading technology gift this year. Below I've placed a pick of my own.

FM transmitters enable you to play your iPod through an unused FM radio frequency. However, in large cities, finding an unused frequency may prove difficult so what you need is a transmitter with the power to jam a weak radio station.

I can't say that my Kensington Digital FM Transmitter/Auto Charger is the best one out there, but I can give you a real-life field test in a tough environment — Manhattan. Set to 88.1 FM, my iPod's signal comes through loud and clear with no static (except when I'm near the Empire State Building for some reason). You can store three frequencies, but I've needed just this one.

I also like the connection through the iPod's dock connector, which provides better quality sound than the headphone port, and enables me to control the volume with my car stereo. As an added bonus, the charger eliminates concerns about battery drain. The Kensington Digital FM Transmitter/Auto Charger costs about $80 and comes in white or black. Take a look at some photos.

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.

In which practice areas do TechnoLawyer subscribers work? Well, virtually all of them, but some are more popular than others.

Below you will find the top ten practice areas reflected by the 12,101 subscribers who have taken the TechnoLawyer Survey (we always have about 1,500 new subscribers at any given time who have not yet taken the Survey).

Litigation is the clear winner — not only does it occupy the top spot, but some of the other practice areas involve specialized litigation (e.g., personal injury).

44.0% Litigation
33.6% Business/Commercial
27.6% Real Estate
23.2% Trusts/Estates
21.4% Personal Injury
20.3% Intellectual Property
18.9% Employment/Labor
16.7% Corporate/Securities
16.5% Family
15.3% Insurance

What is the least popular practice area? Military with just 1.4% (170 subscribers).

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 December 8, 2006 to Fat Friday: Harold Burstyn discusses his law career and his experience with age discrimination, Nicholas Bettinger reviews his multiple monitor setup and two utilities that can make such an arrangement even slicker, Channing Strother discusses GPS in the car and the advantages/disadvantages of using your laptop, a portable device, or a built-in unit, Dean Birch explains why his firm's file naming convention does not include dates, and D. Paul Dalton discusses online data storage versus local media. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming December 5, 2006 to TechnoFeature: You wouldn't be caught dead using a cassette player instead of your iPod for listening to music these days, so why stay stuck in the dictation dark ages? That tape recorder has got to go. In this article, attorney Jeffrey Allen explores the realm of digital dictation and how it can benefit today's mobile lawyer. Learn how ultra-portable devices and digital media can make your dictation fast and flawless.

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.

Coming December 7, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Steven J. Best offers up his thoughts on New Jersey retainer rules and some advice for managing these fees in PCLaw 8, Sharon Kirts shares which HP printers have served her practice well and why she believes you get what you pay for, Al Harrison reviews LogMeIn for remote access (really remote — South Africa to Houston, TX), Daniel Fennick reviews how he uses PracticeMaster to manage case-related e-mail messages, and Jay Stassen reviews his office's new case management software from CIBER. 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.

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.

John Mavridis, Review: NetDocuments for Web-Based Document Management

TechnoLawyer wrote:
"If you contribute anything else, your Post will appear in our Fat Friday newsletter. Can't think of anything? How about reviewing a product you recently bought, sharing tips and techniques for widely-used products, responding to something you read in a TechnoLawyer newsletter or elsewhere, etc."

While a great deal has been written about document management systems, I have a legal consulting practice where I find that I often work from my clients' place of business. In this context, I have also worked at ensuring that I have a portable infrastructure and I prefer using Web-based infrastructure, primarily using Netsuite for time/expense/billing and accounting and Netdocuments for document management.

I first started to use NetDocuments when it was free service at the height of the dot-com boom. It was interesting then, but it has improved so greatly since then that it works very well, wherever I am. The fact that my documents are available, secure, backed-up and shareable is a big plus which allows me to have access to big-firm infrastructure with no hardware or support costs or network expenses. My more tech-savvy clients can use the net-binder services where I share documents on the fly, and for others who simply want an e-mail, it interfaces to Outlook very efficiently.

While there is always paper around, I use NetDocuments as my virtual filing cabinet, scanning documents and storing final versions.

While they do have some law firms on their system, they just struck some type of deal for LexisNexis and I would hope they get more users in our profession.

JOHN MAVRIDIS, LL.B., LL.M.
Legal Counsel/Avocat
NEWHOUSE STRATEGIC COUNSEL INC. | CONSEILS STRATGIQUES NEWHOUSE INC.

Legal and Business Consulting Services | Services-conseils juridiques et en affaires

Montreal, QC | CANADA 
www.newhousecounsel.com

About Fat Friday
Posts like the one above appear exclusively in Fat Friday, a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. You can subscribe here.