2010 ABA Legal Technology Survey ... cont.

To follow up on our previous post, the next two volumes: Litigation and Courtroom Technology (vol. III) and Web and Communication Technology (vol. IV) of the 2010 ABA Legal Technology Survey are now also available at the American Bar Association (ABA) website.

Some of the highlight of the survey include:

Courtroom Connectivity - Respondents report using their PDAs/smartphones/BlackBerrys in the courtroom to check for new e-mail (64%, compared with 52% in the 2009 survey), followed by sending e-mail (60%, compared with 49% in the 2009 survey), and calendaring (46%, compared with 39% in the 2009 survey).

Virtual Lawyering - When asked whether they have a virtual law office/virtual law practice (i.e., do not typically meet with clients in person, and primarily interact with clients using Internet-based software and other electronic communications software), fourteen percent of respondents responded affirmatively.

Net Note Taking - Twenty-two percent of respondents report the availability of research notebook software such as Evernote, OneNote, or Circus Ponies Notebook at their firms. Among the brand names mentioned, respondents most often listed Microsoft OneNote (62%).

Saving Surprise - Nearly all respondents (98%) report that they generally save incoming e-mail related to cases or client matters. When asked how they save such e-mails, fifty-eight percent of respondents reported saving incoming e-mail to folders in an e-mail program; however a staggering 49% continue to print out hard copies.

2010 ABA Legal Technology Survey

The ABA has recently released the 2010 Legal Technology Survey.

[It] is an annual project of the ABA's Legal Technology Resources Center (LTRC); the premier provider of information on technology and its use by the legal profession. The report comes in PDF format in six separate volumes.

The first two volumes, Technology Basics (Vol 1.) and Law Office Technology (Vol. 2), are available for purchase.

New Addition to the Science and Technology Blogs at USA.gov

The Science and Technology Blogs at the USA.gov has been recently updated by a new link to NASA blogs. Check it out yourself. Also, don't forget you can subscribe to updates at USA.gov via email or RSS feeds.

New Additions to LLRX

Law and technology resources for legal professionals (LLRX.com) added new guides to its collection during the October month of 2009.

The following are some of those included:

• Pretexting, Legal Ethics and Social Networking Sites (By Ken Strutin)
• Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide - Updated and Revised October 2009 (By Sabrina I. Pacifici)
• Legal Implications of Cloud Computing - Part One (The Basics and Framing the Issue) (By David Navetta, published in September 2009)
• Legal Implications of Cloud Computing - Part Two (Privacy and the Cloud) (By Tanya Forsheit)
• The Government Domain: A Handful of Classics (By Peggy Garvin)

Microsoft Windows 7 For Students

Via Telegraph.co.uk, Microsoft Windows 7 Will Cost £30 For Students.

Microsoft is offering college and university students a reduced price version of its Windows 7 operating system. Both the Windows 7 Home Premium edition and Windows 7 Professional edition will be available for £30 each, compared to the normal retail prices of £79.99 and £189.99 respectively.

Via Ars Technica, Microsoft Offers Windows 7 to students for $30.

[On September 17, 2009] Microsoft announced students would be able to purchase upgrade versions of Windows 7 for a significantly reduced price until January 3, 2010 at 12:00am CST. A valid e-mail address given by a college or university must be used. An e-mail will be sent telling the student if he or she qualifies for the discount. Eligible students are allowed to purchase one copy of either Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional from the online store.

Click here to find more information.

New on LLRX: 5 Things Lawyers Should Know About Social Media

On July 11, 2009 Nicole L. Black published an article on LLRX.com titled Five Things Lawyers Should Know About Social Media. Nicole Black is an attorney in Rochester, New York and the founder of lawtechTalk, a company that educates businesses about emerging legal technologies and Internet and Web 2.0 technologies.

[S]ocial media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It’s a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one to many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM). — Source, Wikipedia.

Five Things To Know:

1. Social media is useless without goals
2. Different social media sites serve different purposes
3. 'Social media' is a misnomer
4. People want to hire other people, not businesses
5. Lawyers cannot afford to be left out of the loop

Read the full article to get the full scoop. And let us know your thoughts.

New on LLRX: Blackberry Apps for Lawyers

On June 30, 2009 Nicole L. Black published an article on LLRX.com titled Blackberry Apps for Lawyers. Nicole Black is an attorney in Rochester, New York and the founder of lawtechTalk, a company that educates businesses about emerging legal technologies and Internet and Web 2.0 technologies. As she writes it took some time to conduct the research.

First, there is a number of apps consisting of databases of federal and state laws, which allow lawyers to carry relevant laws and rules in their pockets in an easily accessible format.

From the developer “The Law Pod,” lawyers can purchase the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, Federal Rules of Evidence and the U.S. Constitution.

And much more, check out the full article for more applications that might be useful to you.

Technology in Courtroom

Via New Orleans Metro Real Time News, Paul Purpura in an article titled Video Coming to Gretna Courtroom reports that the 24th Judicial District's 16 courtrooms are being equipped with $1.1 million in audio-visual equipment such as television displays, control monitors and digital video disc players to speed up trials and reduce overtime costs.

The article reads,

The way juries and judges view evidence during trials in the Jefferson Parish Courthouse is about to change, and lawyers and jurists will have to change with it.The system includes wall-mounted, 62-inch plasma televisions to display photographic, transcript or even physical evidence such as pistols for juries.

Further,

Each courtroom will have five monitors, including annotation monitors, which, for instance, will allow a witness to use a finger to mark on a photograph appearing on a monitor where he stood when he saw a crime. After the jury sees it, that image can be printed out by a clerk and filed into the case record, Murphy said.

Read the full article, it is worth it. What about all you attorneys out there, would you like to have technologically equipped courtrooms, so you don't have to make multiple copies of all evidence for the jury? Would you like to present evidence digitally? Share your comments.

Wonder About Your Power Usage?

Via Law.com Legal Technology, an article titled Green Gadgets to Exorcise Power Phantoms, the author Joseph Howie writes about the phantom power usage, which he describes as power being used/drawn even when devices are supposedly off. He mentions few examples of energy waste (listed bellow). He continues saying that the first step to energy savings is to be able to measure how much energy is being consumed; therefore he lists few tools/gadgets that can help you measure, calculate and project power usage.

There are 168 hours in a week, but most devices are used no more than 50 hours, so it's easy to see how a significant percentage of a law firm's electrical usage can be wasted by having devices drawing power all the time.

Instances when power is used without knowing:

• computers can be configured to blank their screens when they're not being used, but the computer can still draw substantial power;
• printers and copiers can take several watts of power just to be ready to print;
• servers can draw a substantial amount of energy even when users are not accessing them. In fact, the cost of running a server can be a significant percentage of its original cost. Older servers may be very inefficient, costing hundreds of dollars a year to operate;
• cell phone chargers can draw power even when the phone isn't connected, or when it is connected but fully charged;
• coffee makers that can make coffee in an instant may do so by always keeping the water warm and ready to brew.

Tools/Gadgets (read the full article for descriptions):
Kill A Watt
The Energy Detective
Smart Strip Power Strip
Energy Orb
Solio Charger
Wagan Tech

A large office might find it relatively easy to cut a kilowatt per hour for the entire year, resulting in saving almost a thousand dollars of electricity, four and a half tons of coal and about 10 tons of CO_²!