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Law Technology

The Connected Lawyer

Advances in legal technology and the effects that it has upon the practice of law.
By Bryan Sims, Esq.

Post Frequency: 1.4/day

Last Entry: July 20, 2010 at 10:58:37

Avoiding Ethical Pitfalls with Redaction

Posted on July 20, 2010
I recently noted that I had co-authored an article on metadata. The second part of that article has now been published by the State Bar of Wisconsin. This portion focuses on redaction. You can find links to both parts of the article here. I wantto give a big thanks to my co-author Nerino Petro for [...

I Co-Authored an Article on Metadata

Posted on June 16, 2010
The State Bar of Wisconsin recently published an article on metadata that I co-authored with Wisconsin Practice Management Advisor Nerino Petro. Nerino and I have spoken on this topic before on a couple of occasions. This is a topic that far too many attorneys remain in the dark about...

My Review of Chrometa

Posted on June 14, 2010
Last week Technolawyer published my review of Chrometa. You can download a copy of my review from my Files page or download it directly here. If you are not familiar with Chrometa, it is a utility that keeps track of active windows that you are working in and how much time you spend in each window...

Trust but Verify

Posted on May 12, 2010
I am fascinated by this story in which a person managed to persuade at least five television stations to put him on the air to demonstrate his prowess as a yo-yo champion. I understand that producers for morning shows have to fill their air time and I understand the desire to fill that air time [...

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Multiple Monitors Does Not Mean Multitasking

Posted on May 11, 2010
I am a big proponent of using multiple monitors. Given this, you might be surprised that I agreed with much of what John Heckman had to say in his recent post Dual Monitors and Multitasking–A Contrarian View. John explains: I recently reorganized my office and wound up with an extra monitor...

What Going Paperless Means to Me

Posted on May 05, 2010
One of the problems that I have when describing my paperless practice to others is the fact that my practice is not really paperless. I use plenty of paper. In fact, a couple of days ago, I mailed out close to 100 pages of paper in court filings and courtesy copies...

Renumbering Your PDFs

Posted on May 04, 2010
I work with PDFs a lot. I can’t tell you the last time I pulled a paper file to look at a document in it. Instead, I look only at my electronic copy of a file. Navigating in a PDF, however is not always the easiest thing to do, especially if the creator did not [...

Second Monitors Allow You to Work Smarter

Posted on May 03, 2010
I know that I have written about this concept a lot. Thus, rather than blathering on about how much a second monitor can increase your efficiency, I will point you to an excellent post from Laura Calloway, the PMA for the Alabama State Bar. She begins: If you?re not already doing so, one of the most [...

Fighting Crime Through Facebook

Posted on April 30, 2010
I don’t practice criminal law. However, in the event that a future criminal stumbles across my website, let me offer a piece of advice: Don’t steal someone’s phone, take a picture of yourself, and upload that to the internet. Yes, I realize that the phone was set to automatically upload photos to facebook when the [...

HP Buys Palm. Yawn

Posted on April 30, 2010
Today, in response to the news that HP has bought Palm, Futurelawyer said: There was a time when I salivated at every new Palm product, and greedily grabbed one for myself. There was a time when a Palm was part of my wardrobe, and accompanied me every waking moment...

My Latest Acquisition: Samsung P2570HD

Posted on April 28, 2010
I have written before about how I believe multiple monitors can improve your efficiency. Last week I was working at home and the second monitor I had was not cutting it. The resolution did not allow me to see enough to work properly. Consequently, I jumped on to Amazon and started checking out their monitor [...

Metra: The Way to Really Not Work

Posted on April 26, 2010
In the Chicago metro area, our public rail transportation to and from the outer suburbs is provided by Metra. Overall the service provided by Metra is pretty good. Traffic in Chicago can get pretty congested during the construction season (approx. January through December)...

Maybe Blago?s Attorneys Should Have Attended an ISBA CLE

Posted on April 23, 2010
At Law and Conversation, Helen Gunnarsson is reporting about the motion recently filed by attorneys for Rod Blagojevich. The motion, which seeks to subpoena the President, was supposed to contain redacted information. The information, of course, was not actually redacted, and, instead, was simply covered by black boxes...

Security & Social Media

Posted on April 22, 2010
I use Twitter. However, I don’t usually post a lot of tweets. To be honest, this is mostly because I am usually doing something else and really don’t think about it. However, one of the questions I have always considered is how much information am I giving away...

Why Newspapers Are Going Out of Business

Posted on April 21, 2010
I am not one of the people who ran out to buy an iPad when it was released. However, given how much I like my Kindle2, I believe that there is a market for a device like this. One of the useful features of a device such as the iPad is the ability to read [...

True Mobile Computing

Posted on April 20, 2010
Both myself and my wife grew up in West Virginia. Before Easter went went to visit our families. Despite the fact that I can access all of my case information on my computer, it is still challenging when visiting the family because we do not have convenient access to high speed internet...

New Jersey and Virtual Offices

Posted on April 19, 2010
I know that I am late to this party, but I have been watching the debate over the joint opinion from New Jersey’s Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics and Committee on Attorney Advertising (note that this link is to a PDF copy of the opinion)...

After Only a Decade, The Cook County Law Library Enters the 21st Century

Posted on April 16, 2010
Recently, Solo in Chicago alerted the world that the Cook County Law Library in the Daley Center finally added wi-fi. For the first time ever, I can now actually work in the law library the way that I work every where else. As a nice bonus, not only do I have a wi-fi connection, but [...

Saving Time by Going Paperless

Posted on April 15, 2010
As usual, Ernie the Attorney has it exactly right: The advantages of being paperless are many, but it’s hard to appreciate them until you stop storing information in paper and learn to be comfortable with digital information. �Once you do, you’d never go back to dealing with paper...

Some Great Web Site Advice

Posted on April 13, 2010
Amber Sparks provides some great website advice. In a recent post, she said: I tell anyone I meet?are you selling something? Then get a goddamn website. It?s not hard to do. In fact, it can be free. And yes, if you are a writer you?re selling something...

Legal Technology for Non-Techies

Posted on April 12, 2010
On April 16, 2010, from 1 to 5:15 pm I will be one of the speakers at a CLE on Legal Technology for Non-Techies. The CLE is through the Illinois State Bar Association and is sponsored by the Standing Committee on Legal Technology and the Senior Lawyers Section...

Using Social Networking to Avoid an Arrest Warrant

Posted on February 24, 2010
Social networking often takes a beating about the fact that it allows people to track you down, wherever you are. That, however, is a good thing sometimes. From Scott Ealy comes a great tale of a client who had not shown up for a court appearance. Scott explains: I called Client?s cellphone...

Two Lessons I Learned Last Week

Posted on February 22, 2010
Last week I learned two lessons that I plan to apply in my practice going forward. To understand these lessons, a little back story is needed. Part of my practice is doing mechanic’s lien work. In order to properly prepare a mechanic’s lien, I have to have a title company run a tract search for me...

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2009
Here’s the best geek Christmas song (Chiron Beta Prime by Jonathan Coulton) put to a Christmas light show. Tweet This Post Related posts:And Now for Something Completely Different: Jonathan CoultonGood Grammar is ImportantMerry Christmas Related posts:And Now for Something Completely Different: Jonathan CoultonGood Grammar is ImportantMerry Christmas

Faxing

Posted on December 14, 2009
When I talk people in the business world, I find that hardly any of them deal with faxes on a regular basis anymore. They don’t deal with mail either. Almost everything is done electronically. Of course, the legal world is lagging behind the rest of the business world...

Free Software Training from HP

Posted on December 04, 2009
One of the problems that most people run into is that they have never been properly trained on the software that they use. Proper training is typically expensive in terms of both time and costs. Based on a comment in a Technolawyer newsletter, I learned of the HP Learning Center...

Readability

Posted on December 03, 2009
There are some websites that drive me crazy with all of the flashing animation and ads that surround the text that I am trying to read. Recently I discovered a tool called Readability that can help with that problem. Simply go to the Readability web site and drag the bookmarklet to your browser’s bookmark toolbar...

Incorporation by Go Daddy

Posted on November 24, 2009
Erblawg reports that GoDaddy now offers incorporation services in all 50 states. according to the owner of Go Daddy, the service allows customers to “launch a legitimate business without having to hire a lawyer.” I agree with the poster at Erblawg, however, that this really isn’t the case...

Case Law on Google

Posted on November 23, 2009
The big news that broke last week was that Google Scholar now allows you to search state and federal court opinions. The official announcement is here. I think this is awesome. In general, I believe that making information more available is a good thing...

Good Grammar is Important

Posted on November 23, 2009
I had a submission published on the blog of The society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. This was a sign in a parking garage where we parked when I went to a Jonathan Coulton concert recently with a friend. The worst part was that this was not an isolated sign...

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