Lawyers Weekly Archives

CTSource, Inc
781.639.9000
sales@ctsource.com

USA Newspaper Subscribers Only

USA Archives
(all years)

Free Opinions

Daily Alert

Practice-Area
Alert

Specialty Pages
   (cases, articles & more)
      Bankruptcy Law
      Business Law
      Criminal Law
      Employment Law
      Family Law
      Personal Injury Law
      Practice Management
      Tax & Estate Planning

U.S. Supreme
Court Decisions

Certiorari Granted

Important Docs

Law Reviews

Collection Of Special
Features

Money Judgment
Interest Rates

Services

Try 3 Free Issues

Law Students

How to Advertise

Advertiser Advantage
Alert

Help

Contacts for Story
Ideas

LW in the News

Other LW Publications

Ohio

House

From the April 28, 2003 Lawyers Weekly USA.

Feature Story

Tech Roundup

Useful Websites And Products For Small-Firm Lawyers

By Tony Wright

Doing more with less, improving efficiency and access to information are the dominant themes among the technologies that have been rolled out recently for small-firm attorneys. Software and resources exist today that level the playing field for those who may not have the resources or support staff of larger firms.

Here is just a smattering of the innovative, useful and affordable technologies that we thought were worth a mention.

TeleVantage

For small firms or sole practitioners who don't have large support staffs, time is always of the essence. And in the billable world of the legal profession, time is money.

Legal Advantage, produced by TeleVantage, is a PC-based phone system with full-featured voice mail management capabilities, remote access, Internet readiness, comprehensive reporting capabilities, and other features that would assist the practitioner in running a tighter ship.

While the software-based phone system has been available in the marketplace for eight years now, its focus on the needs of the legal sector is recent and noteworthy.

Here are some of the more innovative features:

Improving billings.

The phone rings. It's a client. You have a productive 20-minute conversation, hang up the phone, and run out the door to an appointment, making a mental note to bill the client for the call.

But it never happens.

TeleVantage automates the billing process: Same phone call. You hang up, but this time, the correct client account code is automatically assigned to the call, and the call length, date, time and name of the person who received the call are all sent to your billing system.

And according to Vince Ficcaglia of CTSource, a reseller of the product in Marblehead, Mass., the product is compatible with any existing billing system out there today.

You can always be reached.

Playing phone tag can be a thing of the past. TeleVantage will follow you everywhere - not in the Big Brother sense - but if you leave the office, you can forward your calls to your cell phone, the hotel you're staying at, your home phone, or any phone from which you would like to receive calls.

Ficcaglia said that there are no irritating pauses, beeps or clicks when you forward your calls, so the caller will have no idea that you're answering remotely. And the automated billing feature stays intact even on the forwarded calls, so you can take a billable call in your car and concentrate on the road instead of fumbling for a pen to write down the call information when you hang up.

The product also has voice caller identification capabilities allowing you to screen calls at your discretion. It will ask the caller to say her name and will ring you with the recorded name, giving you the option to take the call or send it off to voicemail.

Your e-mail becomes voicemail.

The latest feature to the TeleVantage products allows its user to also receive e-mails from any phone. But instead of reading a text message on your tiny cell phone display, the message is converted from text to speech, so you can listen to your e-mails instead.

Ficcaglia said that you could easily respond as well by speaking a message that will convert into a text message, which will then be sent to your address of choice.

Pricing depends on how many features you opt for and how many users in your office, but Ficcaglia estimated that the cost for a law office with a couple of attorneys and a few support staff would cost about $40 per person per month.

For more information, check out http://www.artisoft.com/

Daubert Tracker

Swirling about the state and federal American legal system are more than 3,000 reported "Daubert" decisions, and it is estimated that as many as seven new cases are reported every week.

With such a vast amount of authority on the issue, it's crucial for many attorneys to develop an understanding of its history and a working knowledge of the latest developments.

If you are one of these attorneys, simplify your life and check out http://www.dauberttracker.com/.

Daubert Tracker offers a searchable database of all the Daubert decisions to date, along with its progeny, Kumho Tire and Joiner, with direct links to the full text of every decision.

The database is searchable by practically any meaningful criteria, including an expert's name or discipline, by state or federal court, area of the law, party, judge or attorney name, date or keyword.

For example, if you want to search the accounting and business valuation disciplines in federal court, you can use simple drop down menus to make your selections and create your search.

The system then pulls up all relevant information, including case details, summaries, the opinion, docket information, and access to briefs and transcripts (they will cost you extra).

According to the company's website, Daubert Tracker also includes a series of web lectures delivered by "nationally recognized authorities," and an e-mail service that notifies subscribers weekly of all of the latest cases, including a summary of each.

And in case you wanted more, subscribers also receive a quarterly "Journal" with relevant articles to Daubert written by trial attorneys, academics, judges and testifying experts.

The website offers a comprehensive demonstration of how the product works, including graphic illustrations of sample search results that are worth checking out.

But perhaps the best news is the pricing structure.

Before you buy a subscription, take a two-hour test drive for $25.

You'll pay $40 for briefs instead of the $20 you would pay as a subscriber, and $60 for transcripts instead of the $30 subscriber rate, but you've invested little to get a feel for what could become a valuable asset to your practice.

Annual subscription rates are graduated based on the number of users.

For a single user, it costs $495 a year; two users, $325 per person annually; three to five users, $300 per person annually, and the rates continue to decrease exponentially as more users are added.

Quickscribe

We live in a digital world. Our telephones, cameras and cable connections have made the transition. Now digital technology is invading the law office.

Quickscribe offers the latest in digital dictation, ostensibly doing away with the analog audiocassette tape for good. The product bundles together a recorder and a player, turning your PC into a dictation and transcription machine.

It automatically saves digital audio files on your hard drive with the capability to send them over your network or via the Internet, effectively expediting the process and return of legal transcription projects.

Instead of having to put a package of cassette tapes together and sending them by courier or snail-mail to be transcribed, sending a digital file that is already stored on your hard drive is literally a click away.

And because of the digital format, all audio files are neatly archived in your computer without the need to store cassette tapes.

Drop-down menus let you save and search your audio files by subject, document name, document type, or by a case number assigned to a matter by your office.

Once a file is sent to a typist for transcription, the software is able to track exactly how much time the typist devotes to the project.

For example, if a typist begins transcription, works for five minutes, gets distracted for 15 minutes, then comes back to the work, the program records and tracks the starts and stops for the most accurate accounting of the typist's time.

Interviews can be recorded in a secure, non-tamperable file format that also includes time and date stamps every time the recorder stops and starts. This prevents anyone from accessing the audio files on your computer without your username, and it also eliminates human errors in time and date stamping.

The product also allows you to create multi-media court presentations, or, as the website offers as an example, a demand letter complete with audio and graphics. It also lets you cut and paste relevant documents right into the audio file.

Imagine giving that kind of life to your demand letters, transforming them into a dynamic, multi-media presentation that could potentially include audio excerpts from interviews or digital images in support of your position.

All you have to do is save the presentation to a blank compact disc and send it off to opposing counsel.

These are only a few of the features Quickscribe offers.

Check out the website for a comprehensive list, or take a free test-drive. http://www.digitaldictation.us/

The recorder costs anywhere from $400-$500 and the player costs $400.

Both come with all the necessary hardware and software and free e-mail support.

SocraticLaw

Consider this: you're working on a big case, preparing oral arguments in front of a judge you've never been in front of before whose reputation is less than friendly. You've heard the rumblings from your colleagues about what to expect, but still, you want to be as prepared as possible.

Keep your eye on SocraticLaw - a new research-on-demand service that is a searchable database of oral arguments.

The database exists now, but is limited to oral arguments from the Delaware Chancery Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the company will soon be adding arguments from the Federal District Court for Delaware, and has plans for continued expansion into other state and federal courts in the future.

In the areas that the database covers, it will take only a few days - or in some instances, a few hours - for Socratic Law to provide you with a searchable file on your desktop of oral argument transcripts relevant to the court, judge, opposing counsel or issue of your choosing.

Developed by Wade W. Scott, a retired litigator, and recently rolled out at the 15th Tulane Corporate Law Institute Symposium, the product sounds like a logical strategic addition to trial preparation.

The base project initiation fee is $250 per project, and the first 250 pages of transcripts cost $5 per page. The next 250 pages cost $4 per page, and anything beyond 500 pages costs $3 per page.

But contact them by June 1, 2003 and get a 50 percent discount. Socrates himself might have a hard time arguing with that kind of a deal!

Do a sample search at http://www.socraticlaw.com/.

TRACFED

While you're waiting to hear back from SocraticLaw, surf over to http://www.trac.syr.edu/ and get the scoop on how specific federal prosecutors handle their cases.

Thanks to new data on the site, known as TRACFED, subscribers can quickly examine the actual performance of individual federal prosecutors from 1986 through 2002.

Obtain case-by-case listings of assistant U.S. attorneys, including matters prosecuted, matters declined, reasons for declinations, and ultimate dispositions of cases that go to court.

Compare the sentences achieved by one prosecutor with the sentences of all prosecutors in the district or in the United States.

You can also obtain complete year-by-year case listings or get data on each prosecutor's salary.

The site is neatly presented, easily navigable and the data can be obtained for free.

Use it for practical purposes, or simply to satisfy your curiosity.

Questions or comments can be directed to the writer at: twright@lawyersweekly.com

User Agreement | Help | Our Privacy Policy
Send any questions or comments to comments@lawyersweekly.com

This site is best viewed with Internet Explorer 6 (click here to download) or Netscape 6 (click here to download)

68.166.50.50/5.46

sales@ctsource.com

781.639.9000

Telephones Boston, Telephones New England, IVR Solutions Mitel, Comdial, Phones, Nortel, Avaya, Lucent, Telephone, Altigen, Voicemail, Call Center, PBX, Unified Messaging, ACD Call Reports, Reporting, Speakerphone, AAStra, Conference Calling, Convergence Bridges Call Recording, Phone Software, PBX, Auto Automated Attendant, Tenant Services, VoIP, Voice over IP CISCO 3COM NBX, Telephones Boston, Telephone Systems, Phone Systems, Voice over IP, VoIP, PBX, AltiGen, AltiGen Dealer, AltiGen Reseller, Bizfon, Bizfon Dealer, Bizfon Reseller, TalkSwitch, TalkSwitch Dealer, TalkSwitch Reseller, Telephony, CTI, Computer Telephony Integration, Unified Messaging, Converged Communication, Call Center, Voice Mail, Auto Attendant, Autoattendant, Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, MA New England call center software, Telephone system, Telephones for Real Estate, Voice recognition, Speech recognition, Call center solutions, Telephones for Law offices, Vertical Telephone, Call Center Reports, VoIP, Contact Center Reports, Call Center Phones, telephones for call center, telephones for call centers, Call center phones, Call center telephones, call center telephone system, call center telephone systems, CRM telephones, CRM phones, Telephone system sales Boston, telemarketing system, telemarketing systems, call center software, Telephone system, Telephones for Real Estate, Voice recognition, Speech recognition, Call center solutions, Telephones for Law offices, Vertical Telephone, Call Center Reports, VoIP, Contact Center Reports, Call Center Phones, telephones for call center, telephones for call centers, Call center phones, Call center telephones, call center telephone system, call center telephone systems, CRM telephones, CRM phones, Telephone system sales Boston, telemarketing system, telemarketing systems, telemarketing systems tools , IVR ACD IVR ACD IVR ACD

AltiGen, AltiGen Dealer, AltiGen Reseller, Bizfon, Bizfon Dealer, Bizfon Reseller, TalkSwitch, TalkSwitch Dealer, TalkSwitch Reseller, Telephony, CTI, Computer Telephony Integration, Unified Messaging, Converged Communication, Call Center, Voice Mail, Auto Attendant, Autoattendant, Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, MA New England