Law Office Technology Archives | Page 2 of 3

27 04, 2012

The Solution Is Templates with Userforms: What Was The Question?

2019-02-21T23:14:18+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on The Solution Is Templates with Userforms: What Was The Question?

By Tamara Portnoy
What an attorney really needs is a simple way to produce regular forms and frequently used documents which, of course, means; templates, templates, templates. Yes, there can be a learning curve to create truly useful templates but you only have to create them once. Then you just use them over and over. If something changes you only have to change it in one place. Using automatic dates, line and page numbering, internal referencing and table of contents make templates even more useful and accurate. Too often attorneys cannibalize documents and end up with something that says […]

20 03, 2012

Technology Toolbox: These are a few of our favorite things…

2019-03-19T21:48:19+00:00By Cathy L Ribble ACP|1 Comment

This week I had the privilege of participating in the virtual professionals round table discussion sponsored by The Paralegal Mentor. After hearing each other’s stories as to how we ended up as virtual professionals in the legal services industry, the discussion quickly turned to technology.

The very next day Law Technology News published the article Virtual Paralegals Move Legal Work Online. LTN’s news editor Brendan McKenna covered the bases by gathering information from at least 9 different paralegals, myself included, concerning the definition of virtual paralegal, inspiration for starting a virtual paralegal business, and the technology used. McKenna even registers the preference of several paralegals to be described as freelance rather than virtual.

Participation in both of these discussions with at least 12 other virtual paralegal professionals led me to the following conclusions: […]

13 03, 2012

Template with Document Properties

2019-03-19T21:57:03+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Template with Document Properties

By Tamara Portnoy

Attorneys avoid templates because they think templates are too hard to make and too hard to use. Templates that incorporate bookmarks are simple but have limited usefulness to a law office, especially with repeating content. When you have to type someone’s name over and over in a document bookmarks seem pointless. An alternative to bookmarks is document properties. Word documents come with a set of properties built-in but you can introduce more properties and use them to create template documents.

To view document properties choose: […]

7 03, 2012

Are Smartphones Confidentiality Risks for Lawyers?

2019-04-01T21:03:49+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Are Smartphones Confidentiality Risks for Lawyers?

Jared Correia of LOMAP posted some important factors attorneys should consider in response to a question he frequently gets: Should solos use a smartphone as their primary telephone? He pointed out a number of concerns that the lawyer should address, including the ability to “wipe” a lost or stolen phone, and Plan B for practical issues such as dead zones and dead batteries, for a mobile lawyer.

I would like to add another security issue that should be taken into account. All lawyers, including those who also have a regular land line at the office, should give some thought to this. More and more issues are surfacing about apps having unexpected access to data stored on or transmitted by smartphones. Today the Washington Post reported that “Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has called on the FTC to investigate Apple and Google after reports that smartphone and tablet apps could pick up more data from consumer’s phones than they realize.”

[…]

23 02, 2012

Are Lawyers Acting Like Elderly Aunts?

2019-04-01T21:04:48+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Are Lawyers Acting Like Elderly Aunts?

A few months ago my 81 year old aunt asked me to help her with emails on her laptop. She had finally succumbed to years of pressure from family members to get a computer. Now she could be included more in the family conversations and picture swapping. She could easily keep in touch with loved ones across the country. But she still wasn’t using her laptop.

When I sat down with her, I discovered two main problems. First, she didn’t really understand some very basic concepts, like how the mouse worked. She had trouble remembering that she needed to point and click. Second, the interface was unfriendly to an elderly person. She couldn’t keep up with where the mouse pointed, and kept losing the cursor when it zipped across the screen. With a few adjustments, I slowed down the reactivity of her mouse and made the cursor bigger and bolder so her old eyes could keep up with it. Then I “co-piloted” with her as she sent some emails, gently reminding her what to do, until she had enough practice to fly on her own. […]

16 02, 2012

Using Virtual Paralegals: Frequently Asked Questions

2019-03-19T22:43:05+00:00By Cathy L Ribble ACP|Comments Off on Using Virtual Paralegals: Frequently Asked Questions

by Cathy Ribble

This month I want to discuss the most frequent questions I receive as a virtual paralegal. Questions come from many different directions: attorneys considering a virtual paralegal relationship, paralegals interested in working virtually, and curious lay people. Ironically, for the most part, the same questions come from each group. […]

12 01, 2012

Electronic Briefs: Hyperlinking Your Way to A Positive Outcome

2019-03-19T23:13:52+00:00By Cathy L Ribble ACP|1 Comment

by Cathy L. Ribble

A few months ago, one of my attorney clients called on his way home from a hearing to discuss the briefing schedule the judge had outlined for our case. The judge had also clearly indicated his preference for electronic briefs with hyperlinks to the cited legal authorities. I docketed the briefing deadline and began to research the additional steps required to provide the judge exactly what he wanted.

The first step for any litigation project is […]

13 12, 2011

To Do or Not To Do

2019-06-25T16:27:18+00:00By Cathy L Ribble ACP|Comments Off on To Do or Not To Do

The season is upon us! You know — the season of fa-la-la-la-la, holiday decorations, greeting cards, family parties, gift buying, travel plans, winter snow storms, and year-end business. The list goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on….too much to do and not enough time. If you make it to January 1, then your knee deep in a different set of tasks headed into tax season.

So what is a smart attorney or paralegal to do? Organization is key, but who has time – or money — right now to implement complicated practice management software?

SOLUTION: Pick one of these quick, easy and inexpensive online task management solutions. Register for a free user name and pick a password. Then start listing everything congesting your over-crowded mind. Start with just the basics by listing the task and assigning a deadline. That’s it!! You can expand your vision and develop a more-rounded solution when the time crunch has eased.

[…]

3 06, 2011

Leveraging Dictation Technology to Save Time and Overhead

2019-03-21T19:30:36+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|2 Comments

Lawyers used to dictate drafts of correspondence and documents for their assistant to transcribe, in order to improve their efficiency over handwritten drafting. As word processing software became more user-friendly, however, lawyers began doing more and more of their own typing. Most found it easier to draft when they could immediately see and edit their work product. Today both solos and big firms save on overhead by using fewer, and sometimes less skilled, administrative assistants, which increases the need for lawyers to type more.

Some of those cost savings may be illusory, however. […]

6 04, 2011

Choosing Law Practice Management Software

2019-03-21T19:59:33+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|7 Comments

In a previous post (Should A Solo Buy Law Practice Management Software?) I discussed some benefits and drawbacks of investing in law practice management software. I shared my opinion that all lawyers, including solos, can benefit from practice management software because, properly used, it will significantly improve your efficiency and organization. I also warned, however, that the learning curve will first slow you down. You will probably incur additional costs for training and for consulting to get the program configured to fit your needs and to coordinate with your other software and hardware.

Now that you are considering whether to take the leap, this post will address some of the questions you may have, and point out others that you should investigate in your decision process. […]

Make an Appointment

Setting goals for
your life and career?

Make an Appointment

Setting goals for your life and career?

Setting goals for
your life and career?