PDF for Lawyers

PDF workflow in law schools

PDFs seem to be underutilized in the legal profession.  But while lawyers are not flocking to PDFs in the way that they should, perhaps law students will start the trend.  One way this might happen is if the students start using a product called ecasebriefs, which provides digital briefs (e.g. PDF files) of cases in popular legal text books.

Let's say you are taking Civil Procedure and the professor has assigned Friedenthal, Miller, Sexton & Hershkoff as your textbook.  For $27 a student can download a PDF set of all the cases in the textbook, highlighted and with commentary balloon notes inserted by attorneys.  Since most law students have laptop computers these days this product can be a great convenience.  And law students love to buy stuff like this, or at least they did when I was in law school.

Ecasebriefs has PDF briefs for every legal textbook used in the core curriculum of law schools, and I'm betting that with low printing costs (PDF) and cheap distribution (Internet), the company will be aroudn for a long while.

I haven't seen the product firsthand, but from looking at the screenshot it seems like someone might be able to avoid buying the more expensive textbook by getting this product. In any event, the ecasebrief has a number of useful features that printed textbooks can't offer.  And if the student had the full version of Acrobat they could add their own notes and highlighting on top of the pooped out notes by the ecasebrief authors.  If many law students get used to using PDFs as part of their workflow then it will be a lot more natural for them to use PDFs in their workflow when they practice law.

Novel way of rating lawyers

Avvo.com is a new online rating service for lawyers, and as with all bold new ventures it's stirring up controversy.  The service is only available in nine states (as of this post), but hopes to expand steadily over the next few months.  The Florida Bar has recently raised questions about how Avvo operates.  No doubt there will be strict scrutiny from other bar organizations as Avvo expands its online presence and attempts to breathe new life into the process of rating lawyers.

Proving PDF documents in court

Dunno if this is helpful, but someone asked this question on Google Answers and here is the resulting response.

ABA Journal's new website

Check out the ABA Journal's new website.  Very impressive new look!  Also note that the Journal is now listing legal blogs (which they term 'blawgs'), including this one.

Casemap Seminar in Los Angeles

Most litigators by now know about Casemap, an invaluable case organization tool. On May 8th there will be a CaseMap user summit at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. This is not a training seminary, but rather a series of sessions on best practices in the use of CaseMap, TimeMap and TextMap.  The attendees will be lawyers and legal professionals who use Casemap daily; so this is a truly unique learning opportunity.  The registration fee is $395, and attendance will earn 6 hours of CLE.  For more information email Nancy Smith or call 904.276.1028.

ABA Opinion re: ethics of examining metadata

The American Bar Association has released Formal Ethics Opinion 06-442 which establishes that lawyers are free to examine hidden metadata in email and other electronic documents that are received from opposing counsel.

Online Seminar on Trial Presentation Software

What are your options if you are going to trial and want to use new technology to present your case?  Perhaps you've been embarrased carting foam boards into court for your closing argument, only to see your opponent dazzle the audience with a highly interactive Powerpoint presentation.  If you want to learn more about your choices in presenting your case at trial sign up for the ABA's online CLE program scheduled for Thursday, November 2nd.  Paul Unger is one of the people who will be talking, and I can say from personal experience that he knows his stuff. He was a practicing attorney for many years, so he understands technology from the viewpoint of the lawyer who uses it.

Travelling with a laptop

If you travel a lot and carry a laptop then the recent terrorist threats may affect your ability to tote your computer with you.  Here's a good article to read if you are planning on checking your laptop as luggage.

Rate a federal judge

A new website called The Robing Room allows attorneys (and litigants) to make assessments about federal judges.  There is no secure verification process, and the assessments are anonymous.   So there's definitely opportunity for mischief that would undermine the credibility of this service.  Still, it will be interesting to see if the site catches on with lawyers and what effect it will have if it does.

Fortune 500 GC starts a blog

Sun Microsystems' General Counsel, Mike Dillon, has a weblog.  I'll be reading it regularly, along with Peter Lattman's posts at the Wall St. Journal's law blog.  I get the feeling that one day soon weblogs are going to start to appeal to serious business people. 

Wink

Florida Bar Board of Governers Calls Looking at Metadata an Ethics Violation

The Florida Bar News reports

The Bar Board of Governors is asking whether an ethics opinion or Bar rule is needed to regulate mining of metadata from electronic documents, but in the meantime, governors didn’t want to leave any doubt how they felt about it.

The board, at its December 16 meeting in Amelia Island, voted unanimously for a motion to express its sentiment that metadata mining is something lawyers should not do.

“I have no doubt that anyone who receives a document and mines it . . . is unethical, unprofessional, and un-everything else,” said board member Jake Schickel, who made the motion that the board express its disapproval at the practice.

This report reads like something from The Onion--

“Our state needs to be on the forefront of this,” said board member Scott Hawkins.

This seems absurd to me. If a party produces a document with a routing slip attached to it, is it unethical to examine the routing slip to find out who viewed the document? The article basically says that the president-elect of the Board got burned by Word ("track changes" anyone?) and it sounds like he is freaking out over it.

On what planet is this an ethics problem?

~~ Dave

Corporate Law Information

Here's a new corporate/business law blawg that looks promising. It’s LeapLaw’s Blawg, which deals with the practical reality of doing business with the 50 secretaries of state.   Even in this age of rapid technology, corporate practitioners still have to make phone calls to paralegals or service companies asking “Can we fax file in [you name the state]?”  “Can we get this merger document precleared?” etc.    Their experts keep that information at a reader’s fingertips, and they keep it current, of course.

Business mediator

I have a post over at my personal weblog about David Guerry. If you ever need an excellent mediator to handle your business dispute then you should read that post and consider hiring David. David is also an excellent trial attorney.

Law Firm Economics

Interesting article by Adam Smith, who writes about the economics of law firms. One day a lot of lawyers are going to wonder why they didn't appreciate sooner the things that Adam Smith is pointing out now.

General Tech Tips

Okay, this is not for you power users (then again you never know). But some of you out there just want basic information about your computer to help you tweak it just a tad. If you fit that description click here for some tips from the ABA that may make your computing life a little easier.

Ask a juror: was it good for you?

Lawyers who try cases would love to know more about how jurors decide cases and how they feel about the trial process. In some jurisdictions you have to ask permission if you want to interview jurors after a trial. Interestingly, the weblog phenomenon is likely to lead to more jurors spontaneously offering their views for all the world to see. Here are two examples from Ted Leung and Dave Winer. I'm sure more are soon to follow.

Word Processing Tips

Some lawyers do a lot of word processing, to the point that they know all of the wonderful shortcuts that usually only secretaries know about. Some lawyers, however, only do a little bit of word processing. If you are in the latter group and would like to know just a few really key word processing shortcuts then these tips from the ABA are just the ticket. They include tips for both Word and Wordperfect users.