Al Nye The Lawyer Guy

The 2008 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide

For some reason, I wrote several book reviews last year that never got posted to my blog. Here’s one:

 

The 2008 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide

Critical Decisions Made Simple

By Sharon D. Nelson, John W. Simek, and Michael C. Sasschke

American Bar Association

$79.95, paperback, 145 pages, 978-1-59031-970-3 (2008)

 

One of the things I like about this book is that it packs a lot of information into relatively few pages.  The chapters include: Computers and Operating Systems, Monitors, Computer Peripherals, Printers, Scanners, Servers, Networking Hardware, Miscellaneous Hardware, Productivity Software, Security Software, Case Management, Billing Software Document Management, Document Assembly, Collaboration, Remote Access, Unified Messaging, High-Speed Internet, Utilities, and Tomorrow in Legal Tech.

 

Phew!  That's a lot to cover in just 145 pages – and the authors do a pretty good job of it.

 

This book is outstanding for its limited market of the solo practitioner or the small office.  This is especially so if you're newly entered into the practice of law and looking to outfit your office, or if you're a small firm wondering if there's something you could be using to be more productive in your practice.

 

            Another thing I like about this book is its concrete advice.  As the authors note in their introduction:

 

We have no dog in the hunt – we have no financial or other interest in the advice we give.  We could be wrong – dead wrong – but we are honest as the dickens.

 

            No-nonsense writing like that endears me to this book.  

 

            This is the authors' recommendation for a desktop computer:

 

Computer Model:         Dell OptiPlex 745 Mini-Tower Computer

Processor:                    Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz

Memory:                      1-GB DDR2 667 Mhz RAM

Video Card:                 128-MB ATI Radeon X1300 Graphics Card

Hard Drive:                  80-GB SATA II 3.0 Gb/s with 8 MB DataBurst Cache

CD/DVD-ROM           16X DVD=/-RW Drive

Network:                      Broadcom 10/100/1,000 Mbps Ethernet Adapter

Other:                           PS2 Serial Port Adapter, 9 USB Ports

Hardware Warranty:     3-Year Next Business Day On-site Parts and Labor Warranty

 

            Is this the perfect desktop computer for you?  It depends. 

 

            Are you working solo, do you have a secretary, are you networked, are you in a small firm, do you have case management software, if so, what computer is it loaded on, what type of Internet access is available to you – all these and many other questions go into what type of desktop computer is appropriate for you.  So depending on your circumstances, I might argue that you need more memory, or a larger hard drive, or a faster video card.  But in general, I concur with the authors.

 

            And one of the things I really appreciate is the author's recognition that the "sweet spot" in buying computers is always changing and that their recommendation might be a little out of date soon.  As such, they offer an e-mail address for you to write for current recommendations.

 

            Another great thing about this book is the section on Utilities with various software programs that assist lawyers in their practice.  There are lots of programs that are new to me, plus standbys that I use daily (like my favorite: Anagram).

 

            The book also comes with a complete glossary so that you can easily tell the difference between, for example, a router, a hub, and a switch.  Soon enough, you'll sound like the office geek.  Dude!

 

The only major fault with this book is that its limited space doesn't allow the authors to deal with any topic in great detail – only the very basics are covered.  Even so, for the vast majority of lawyers, the basics are enough to get you up and running.

 

In summary, if you're looking for a book to tell you where to begin in your quest to have the complete office – look no further than this book to set you on the correct path.

 

Buy it on Amazon here.

 

For folks unaware of it, there is a new 2009 guide available here.

 

35 Valuable Articles for Lawyers To Read About Twitter

These articles either explain Twitter generally or more often than not, provide lawyers with helpful advice about using Twitter. Enjoy!

1. e-book on Social Networking for Lawyers: The How, What, Why and Importance of NOW!

2. The Ultimate Guide for Everything Twitter

3. Eight Tips for the Twitter Beginner

4. Useful Twitter Articles and Tools

5. Much Chatter About Twitter

6. Tweeting For BusinessIs Twitter a Valuable Networking Tool or Just for the Birds?

7. Twitting With Grandma

8. Tweeting For Business

9. 100 TWITTER TOOLS N TIPS

10. How to effectively use Twitter to build business relationships (and make friends at the same time)

11. Tweet 16: 16 Ways Lawyers Can Use Twitter

12. Should lawyers be afraid of Twitter? No.

13. Twitter for Lawyers

14. To friend or Not to Friend – Social Media for Lawyers Part 4: Twitter for Lawyers

15. Social networking opens attorneys to fresh world

16.  

    WEB WATCH: Let Twitter Sing

17.  

    To Tweet, or Not To Tweet?Lawyer 2.0

18. The Legal Case for Web 2.0

19. Your Social Media Profiles Can And Will Be Used Against You In A Court Of Law.

20. 50 Terrific Social Sites for Law Students and Lawyers

21. Lawyer Twitter Practices: 29 Do’s and Don’ts

22. 20 Twitterers Lawyers Should Follow on Twitter

23. TWITTER - NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND HEADACHES FOR COMPANIES

24. The First Law School Seminar Paper on Twitter: Twitter and Employment Law Issues

25. TWITTERING FOR LAWYERS

26. Legal Marketing, Statistics and Hard Work

27. 10 Awesome Ways to Integrate Twitter With Your Website

28. A Lawyer’s Guide to Social Networking

29. Are You Considering Twittering? Ways to Cut Through the Noise

30. Tweets Create Legal Issues for Lawyers and Employers

31. Twitter client development success stories - lawyers and legal professionals chime in

32. Social Networking for Lawyers (Part One of Two)

33. Social Networking for Lawyers (Part Two of Two)

34. 140 Characters in Search of Some Meaning

35. LexisNexis Offers 10 Internet Marketing Tips for New, Small-Law Firms

Social Media for Lawyers – What Are You Waiting For?

You've heard the hype. Print media is dead. The Yellow Pages are passé. You have to be on-line to survive.

 

Websites aren't enough. After all, everyone has a website – big deal. The only thing a website provides is an on-line brochure of your firm. The typical website provides little or no ability to interact with current or potential clients.

 

You need something more. So what should it be – a blog perhaps? Or what about all those popular social networking sites you've heard about, like:  Facebook, My Space, LinkedIn, and Twitter?

 

Do lawyers really need to do that stuff?

 

They do if they want to survive. I've read estimates that over 80% of people begin their search for a lawyer by using one of the popular search engines like Google or Yahoo. If someone searched for a lawyer on-line under your specialty, would your name come up at the top of the listings?

 

Even if you have a great website, the likelihood is that you need to do more to attract new clients and consistently be at the top of the search engines.

 

The lesson is clear: lawyers who ignore social media do so at their peril. Your legal competitors are on-line and using social media and are gaining new clients that in the past might have come to you. So stop what you're doing, become a little tech-savvy, and start getting involved in things. Now. Time's a wasting.

 

Oh, I hear your response.

 

"I don't even really know what social media is – how am I going to be part of it?"

 

I'll wager you know more than you think. Remember listservs, email groups, and message boards? Ever heard of wikis – like Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia that anyone can edit?

 

Well, those are the precursors of social media. After that came blogs – which as many of you know are basically websites that can be updated anytime using simple software. Blogs also allow comments to be made by readers. There are millions of blogs on the Internet – and thousands written by lawyers on every imaginable legal topic. 

 

"I can't possibly do all those things and still have time to practice law, can I?"

 

 Yes, you can. And if you want to succeed, you'll have to.

 

Just as surely as computers have replaced typewriters, as email has taken over as a routine means of communication, and as legal research has gone from going to the law library to going on-line, social networking is here to stay. And if you don't participate, you'll be left behind – wondering why you don't have as many clients as you used to, why your bottom line keeps getting worse every year, and why your practice is slowly dwindling.

 

Social networking is not just a passing fad. It's being used by millions of people every single day – and it's being used by your current and potentially future clients too.

 

Social networking is just an extension of listservs, email groups, message boards, and blogs. But unlike those methods of communicating, it's often faster, more interactive, and provides quicker feedback between the participants.

 

LinkedIn, for example, allows lawyers to put up their resume and have it act sort of like a website where other can be invited to "connect" with you. You can send and receive recommendations, write email, join groups that interest you, ask and answer on-line questions, and in general be part of a wide-ranging professional social networking site.

 

Less professional and definitely more social, are sites like Facebook and MySpace where lawyers can post more personal information about themselves and let others – including clients that might be on the sites – get to know them better. They're often informal places where it's easy to discuss non-legal topics: interesting movies or on-line videos, local or national politics, favorite restaurants, the latest N.Y. Times bestseller … whatever.

 

The latest and (at least at this writing) most popular social media site is Twitter. On this site you post just 140 character messages about anything that interests you. Like other social networking sites, you have "followers" and interesting people you follow so that it becomes easy to follow what they're doing as you post what is happening in your life.

 

Twitter has been described as something like being at a big party with everyone talking at once. You're in the center of the room and have the opportunity to pick out a few folks at this huge party and carry on a conversation with them – while still being aware of all the hubbub going on around you.

 

Of all the social media tools, Twitter is the most immediate. It's sort of like instant messaging to as many followers as you have (which for some people is in the thousands) and seeing who responds. From there, the conversation can go anywhere. Hopefully, if you make enough connections, it'll lead to legal work.

 

Ultimately, all these social media sites are just another way for you to interact with people and promote yourself. Each site has its own rules or etiquette needed to fit in. But it's not much different that joining your local Rotary club, Chamber of Commerce or being a volunteer at the soup kitchen or any other involvement in your community. You become a part of a group to be part of a group, help your local community, make new business contacts, do something that is interesting, and hopefully meet some new friends.

 

With social media sites you do the same thing – only you do it on-line. So what are you waiting for?

Maine Appeals Blog

I have long been remiss in not mentioning an excellent Maine blog written by Catherine Connors over at Pierce Atwood.  The blog is called Maine Appeals Blog and focuses on, well, Appeals and the Appellate law practice in Maine.

If the blog is so good, you might ask, why haven’t I mentioned it before since it has been around for almost a year?

The truth is that I haven’t known about it. Not because it isn’t a great resource for that area of practice — because it is. The reason it hasn’t been on my radar is that I just don’t do many appeals. So, unfortunately, I’ve overlooked it.

My mistake.

If you have any interest in the area of appellate practice, read and learn from someone who clearly knows the ropes. 

How to Choose a Personal Injury Lawyer

How to Choose a Personal Injury Lawyer

 

One of the worst things that can happen to a person is to be involved in a serious accident – especially if it's not your fault.  You may have never dealt with an insurance company in your life (other than to pay your premiums).  But now, the insurance company is demanding that you do all kinds of things before they'll help pay your medical bills.  Fill out forms, see certain doctors, and have your property inspected by their recommended expert (your automobile, for example).  They may want to tape a telephone interview with you and any manner of other things.

 

And after doing all that you've been told to do, the insurance company may still not be willing to pay for all your bills and properly compensate you.  Or they may offer an immediate check that sounds tempting at first, but might not be in your best interest if you have lingering injuries.

 

Many lawyers would advise you not to do or say anything without having a lawyer by your side.  For relatively minor injuries, that's probably not necessary.  But I do agree that the more serious your injury, the better it is to see a lawyer before negotiating in any detailed way with the insurance company. 

 

Despite your best efforts at working with the insurance company, you may be forced to hire a lawyer for any number of reasons.

 

So how do you choose the right lawyer?

 

As a lawyer myself, the first thing that I'd recommend is that you NOT automatically hire the lawyers that constantly advertise on TV or the radio.  These lawyers are typically not held in high regard by other lawyers.  Sometimes, these types of firms seem to mostly be ready to settle your case, not litigate it.

 

I'm not saying that some of the lawyers you see advertising all the time on TV aren't good lawyers.  Like all things in life, some are better than others.  The important thing to know is that you have options.

 

First, personal referrals are better than any advertisement.  Ask around.  Talk to friends, family and neighbors and ask them if they've used a personal injury lawyer or someone they know has used one.  Take down any names that come up and see if anyone is mentioned more than once.

 

Check on-line.  Look carefully – and with a somewhat of a skeptical eye – at a lawyer's or law firm's website.  Don't forget that the site was made by the lawyer or firm specifically to help generate business.

 

You often see the suggestion to call the local or state bar association for referrals.  My experience is that this advice is unjustified.  I've never heard of a bar association that would recommend a couple of lawyers and indicate that "they're the best."  At best, they provide you will a list of lawyers – but not much more information than you could get from the phone book or on-line.

 

Take a look at some of the legal sites that rate lawyers: Avvo is the most well known, but others like LawyerRatingz and uReview.net also exist.  You can also find lawyers in martindale.com – but those listings don't have reviews and are sometimes little more than another legal website for the firm.

 

You can also look in the yellow pages – but again I would caution against assuming that the bigger the ad, the better the lawyer.  (Often the same lawyers appearing on TV and the radio all the time are the same lawyers with the big yellow page ads.)  Your primary goal is to find lawyers with lots of experience in handling your type of case – whether it is an auto accident, a workplace injury, medical malpractice, a slip and fall or any other type of injury.

 

Once you have several lawyers you think my be appropriate, call them up and schedule an appointment.  The initial meeting should be free and it's your opportunity to evaluate both the lawyer and his or her practice.  Does she practice out of her home, or is the firm so large it takes up half a downtown building?  Some people feel more comfortable with having a small firm handle their case.  Others want to know that the firm has dozens or perhaps hundreds of lawyers that can be available to review and consult on the case.

 

Above all else, see how you are treated by the staff the attorney that you meet with.  I have people talk to me all the time about how unhappy they are with their lawyer.  My immediate advice is "change lawyers."  There are too many lawyers in this country – good lawyers – for you to put up with a lawyer that isn't doing what you want or expect in your case.

 

And you don't need to put up with shoddy service from a lawyer.  If your attorney isn't returning your calls, isn't answering your questions, doesn't respond to your emails promptly – heck, even if you find that something about your lawyer's personality grates on you every time you speak with him – fire him!  Find someone else that suits you. 

 

But keep in mind that justice often moves at glacial speed – in other words, so slowly that it seems that nothing is happening.  Often your lawyer doesn't immediately accept or return calls because there is nothing new to report in your case.  Still, your attorney should be able to take a minute and bring you up to date.

 

When you speak with each lawyer, find out how much experience he or she has in cases like yours.  Ask the attorney to estimate what percentage of her practice is devoted to personal injury cases.  If the answer is less than 50%, keep looking.

 

You also want a lawyer that has gone to trial a number of times.  Anyone can settle a personal injury claim.  But if the case requires a trial, you want to be sure that you lawyer has done more than just settle hundreds of cases.  In my experience, there are very few lawyers who are excellent litigators. 

 

Lawyers generally handle personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis.  What this means is that the lawyer pays all the major fees associated with your case and then collects those expenses and a fee based upon a percentage (typically 1/3) of what your case settles for or the judgment you receive at trial.  This contingency fee agreement should be put in writing and signed by you and your lawyer.  If the attorney you speak with isn't willing to do this, again, keep looking for someone else.

 

Hiring the right lawyer is a decision that will have a profound impact on your case.  Take your time and choose wisely.

 

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This article was written in association with Personal Injury Experts.

Why It's Great To Be A Lawyer

Ten Things To Love About Being A Lawyer

They seem about right to me.

Presentation Mistakes As Seen From The Audience

If you do presentations — especially if you do them infrequently — these tips from the perspective of someone attending your seminar are good advice.

Tags: presentation+tips

Maine Sex Offender Registry: Illegal Or Not?

The Portland Press Herald has an article in today’s paper about the legality of the Maine Sex Offender Registry. 

As described on the website:

The Sex Offender Registry Web Site is maintained by the Maine State Police, State Bureau of Identification and is intended to provide the public information concerning the location of registered offenders currently within Maine.

The Registry does not contain information on all individuals that have been convicted of a sex crime. Information is only provided for those individuals that are required to register pursuant to Title 34-A MRSA, Chapter 15. Registration is limited to those individuals sentenced for a requisite offense on or after January 1, 1982.

The legality of the site is being challenged before the Maine Supreme Court.  Opponents of the site argue that it is unconstitutional because the 1999 law applies retroactively to convictions going back to 1982, and because it labels (on the Internet for all to see) some people as being dangerous who are not.

Proponents say that it’s just putting forward public information that is available for anyone to review at the courthouse.

What do you think?

Metadata Matters In Maine

I’m honored to be helping Ross Kodner today in presenting a legal seminar: Metadata in Maine.  Maine has a new Board of Bar Overseers Ethics Opinion dealing with metadata and I believe this seminar is very timely.

For those who know little about metadata, look here.  Lawyers may want to look here for an informative article by Jim Calloway.

Gifts Not To Buy

Tired of all those lists of gifts to buy this holiday season?  Rob Pegoraro in the Washington Post has an article on gifts not to buy.  They include such things as blu-ray players, satellite radio and e-book readers like Amazon’s Kindle.  Read here for more.