TechnoLawyer

Coming March 24, 2006 to Fat Friday: Kevin Thompson reviews his new Acer Travelmate C200 Tablet PC, Kevin Grierson adds his two cents to the attorney-client e-mail debate, Larry Kasoff shares his five favorite Web sites, Meg Spencer Dixon writes in with an important correction regarding Neil's review of the Tanita BC533 scale, and Edward Brooks tests our publishing limits — see what he dared us to post. 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 March 23, 2006 to Answers to Questions: William Weiswasser reviews Skype as a teleconferencing option, Robert Rice shares his experience with IBM tech support, Jeffrey Franklin compares GoToMyPC to Windows Remote Desktop, Miriam Jacobson discusses a new twist on the Word versus WordPerfect debate — which is better for collaboration, and Erin Baldwin reviews PCLaw in her 6-person firm. 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, tech expert Jill Bauerle covers a unique tool for personal injury lawyers and other litigators that automates future earnings and other calculations, a feature-rich time-billing application (free for solos), and an outliner for managing all those deep thoughts of yours (or perhaps just your grocery list). Don't miss the next issue.

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

What's Your Case Worth?
By Jill Bauerle
Practice management software does just about everything these days — except crunch numbers. The folks at WorthMORE Software noticed this void and filled it with CaseWORTH, a new software tool designed to help personal injury and other litigators make short work of calculations such as lost income, medical expenses, subrogation payments, and more. Armed with CaseWORTH, you'll have plenty of ammunition at a settlement conference or trial (regardless of which side you represent). You can use CaseWORTH in conjunction with practice management software such as Time Matters and Amicus Attorney or as a standalone tool. After entering the claimant and case information, you can begin calculating whatever the case demands. For example, the "Future Earnings" module can extrapolate future lost income from past history, and calculate their present value. Similar tools exist for past medical expenses, subrogation source payments, past earnings, future medical expenses, travel expenses, burial expenses, legal expenses, liens, and more. The "Damage Summary" screen enables you to see a running total in one place with the ability to drill down for closer inspection. With the "Math Worksheet," you can use the numbers from the modules to evaluate different scenarios. Even more impressive, the "Settlement Calculator" tracks all demands and offers (you can scan and attach the corresponding documentation for quick retrieval). This tool has a number of nifty features — the "Required Settlement" calculator shows you the settlement amount required to cover the claimant's expenses, the "Actual Settlement" calculator shows you how a settlement amount would be distributed, and the "What If" calculator enables you to adjust any of the numbers to evaluate the consequences. When you finish all your number crunching, you can print a "Settlement Statement" ready for the claimant to sign. CaseWORTH runs on Windows 98/2000/XP. Pricing begins at $1,000, which includes one lawyer license and two paralegal licenses. You can purchase additional lawyer and paralegal licenses for $300 and $100 respectively. Learn more about CaseWORTH.

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.

TechnoFeature: Review: The SmartDraw Legal Solution
By Jill Bauerle

TechnoScore: 4.8 (Rated by 4 Users)
1 = Lowest Possible Score; 5 = Highest Possible Score
www.smartdrawlegal.com

Introduction

SmartDraw.com's SmartDraw Legal Solution enables legal professionals without any design expertise to create professional-looking graphics to persuade clients, judges, juries and even opposing counsel. The SmartDraw Legal Solution includes more than 1,000 templates and 50,000 images for accident reconstructions, crime scenes, maps, medical diagrams, Gantt charts, organizational charts, timelines, and more.

Though just a year old, the SmartDraw Legal Solution has the feel of more mature software thanks to the fact that it was built atop SmartDraw, a business graphics program launched in 1994 and now at version 7. According to the company, more than half of the Fortune 500 use SmartDraw.

Pricing for the SmartDraw Legal Solution starts at $449 with discounts and volume licensing available. You can also find it bundled with other legal software from time to time. It comes with a 30-day money back guarantee.

For this review, we interviewed four SmartDraw Legal Solution users who rated it and discussed its use in their practice as well as its pros and cons. What did they think? Read on to find out.

Coming March 13, 2006 to IP Memes: You'll learn about what product naming trend has caught the "i" of Apple's legal department, the copyright implications of a new CD-swapping service, a video sharing Web site trying to play nice with the MPAA, and the most interesting point about the recently settled RIM/NTP case.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Mondays, IP Memes is a biweekly newsletter that explores emerging technology-related intellectual property issues — or "memes" as we call them. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming March 17, 2006 to Fat Friday: Thomas Workman discusses the real reason most IT professionals don't like Macs, Daniel Eichorn reviews Amicus Attorney's e-mail management tools, James Zuffoletto reviews his Nikon digital camera purchases, Harold Goldner explains his file naming system in detail, and Catherine Bianchi shares her thoughts on the strategic importance of executive bios on legal vendor Web sites. 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 March 16, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Seth Rowland discusses the differences between GoToMyPC and Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection, Alan Kassan reviews Time Matters in his 9-lawyer firm, William Brown scores some major points in the ongoing debate about the legality of using an open WiFi network, George Allen reviews 3M's Ergonomic optical mouse, and Mark Kleiman explains how to use the Bates-stamping abilities of Acrobat 7.0. In addition, this issue features links to 9 additional Posts in the TechnoLawyer Archive. 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, tech expert Jill Bauerle covers a new place on the Web where you can share your legal or other expertise, a service that enables you to search specific sites and save those searches, and a personalized virtual desktop accessible from any computer — all free. Don't miss the next issue.

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

Use a Lens to Improve Your Firm's Visibility
By Jill Bauerle
Wikipedia relies on many experts in a given field to cover one topic. Squidoo takes the opposite approach by inviting experts to set themselves apart rather than collaborate. If you haven't already created a free "lens" (a Web page on steroids) on Squidoo, what's stopping you? Maybe you already have a blog or an "about" column on your Web site, but one more item that increases the likelihood of prospective clients finding you through Google couldn't hurt, right? Join Martha Stewart and others on this blog-meets-wiki mashup for sharing your knowledge, increasing your profile, and pointing traffic to your Web site. Each Squidoo lens consists of "modules" — building blocks. A number of different modules exist for different types of content — text, links, tags, feeds, etc. Thus, on your Squidoo lens, you can list your latest blog posts, link to court opinions involving your firm, provide an overview of your legal expertise, and much more. Each lens you create comes equipped with an RSS feed to which people can subscribe. Squidoo ranks its lenses daily according to frequency of updates, traffic, inbound and outbound links, and user ratings. Just as fun as it is to share your skills, Squidoo also teaches you new ones. Squidoo features lenses ranging from learning Mandarin to figuring out which colors work best on the Web. Squidoo promises a new feature soon that will earn royalties for you or your favorite charity — plus frequent flyer miles and hotel points. Squidoo is free. Learn more about Squidoo.

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.

On July 1, 1997, we asked the following question of TechnoLawyer members:

What is your best estimate of the amount of time you spend actively using your computer during a typical day of work?

Today, we're asking it again. Please take our TechnoPoll.

We'll compare your answers with those from 1997 in the next issue of TechnoGuide. Please take this TechnoPoll by March 16, 2006.

SmartDraw.com's SmartDraw Legal Solution enables legal professionals without any design expertise to create professional-looking illustrations to persuade clients, judges, juries and even opposing counsel. The SmartDraw Legal Solution comes with more than 1,000 templates and 50,000 images for accident reconstructions, crime scenes, maps, medical diagrams, Gantt charts, organizational charts, timelines, and more. For this review, we interviewed four SmartDraw Legal Solution users who rated it and discussed its use in their practice as well as its pros and cons. What did they think? Read this TechnoFeature to find out.

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.