Futurelawyer

CaseSoft | TimeMap4 - Facts Graphing Made Easy

Link: CaseSoft | Case Analysis Made Easy. The CaseSoft team has done it again. With Version 4 of TimeMap (free trial download available)  the Company has made fact chronologies graphable, and "picture-perfect". Like any great software, it is easy to use for basic timeline graphs, but the deeper you delve into it, the more complex and feature-rich it becomes. The FutureLawyer has found himself using it for beginning interviews, and it is amazing how a case takes on a personality as the facts are chronologically mapped before your eyes. Try it out this weekend. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

WiMAX

Link: WiMAX. Recently, the FutureLawyer was blogging about the emerging 3G networks that permit high-speed broadband Internet access in a wireless environment. The EV-DO network by Verizon is an example of this build-out. EV-DO is coming of age because it is now available in 32 major metro areas, and is expanding rapidly. In addition, in areas where high-speed is unavailable, a drop-back to CDMA dial-up like speeds is available using existing cell-phone towers. The new boy on the block, WiMAX, will be coming available in 2006, and will bring broadband high-speed wireless Internet access to the rest of the country, including rural areas. Using towers, WiMAX promises throughput distances of up to 100 miles with line of sight, and up to 25 miles through obstructions. Thus, a small group of towers could wirelessly connect an entire community out in the boondocks. Intel is leading an alliance of leading WiMAX providers who are focusing on making broadband access ubiquitous. It's all good.

The Common Scold

The "feisty" (her word)  Monica Bay, Editor-in-Chief of Law Technology News, the American Lawyer Media, Inc. publication that serves as a wonderful  legal tech resource for the FutureLawyer, has added FutureLawyer to her weblog list, and I am flattered. I have added the Common Scold to my list, and recommend that readers check it out. Monica has modeled herself after the outspoken women who frustrated Puritan elders with their plain talk, and got dunked in cold water as a reward. The tort, a common law cause of action that survived into the 20th Century, is an apt name. Her blog is full of interesting stuff, not all tech related, but pretty cool, nonetheless. The FutureLawyer loves this content-rich, newsy rant by a truth-telling, opinionated blogger. A law-blog with attitude. We need more of them.

Legal Technology - Tyco Trial Shows Benefits, and Limits, of Technology

Link: Legal Technology - Tyco Trial Shows Benefits, and Limits, of Technology.
The use of technology in trials was on display at the recent Tyco trial, in which both the prosecution and defense used computer technology to examine millions on documents, including emails, memos and the like, stored on hard drives and other electronic media. Litigation discovery firms were used to retrieve and analyze the massive amounts of data. Litigation systems were used to retrieve and display documents for the lawyers, Judge and jury. At the end of the day, however, the jurors focused on the quality, or lack thereof, of the testimony of the key witnesses. Check out John Bringardner's article in Law Technology News for more.

Treo 700w officially announced - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Link: Treo 700w officially  announced - Engadget - www.engadget.com. Here is a photo of the Treo700W, a windows based Treo announced today at Noon Eastern time by the three heads of Palm, Inc., Microsoft, and Verizon. I am a Palm guy, but I aM CERTAIN I will want to play with this one! It is scheduled to come out sometime next year, which gives us some time to speculate. I am a fan of Verizon Wireless EV-DO broadband wireless, and hope the Treo 700w will access using that 3G network. More as the story develops.

Paralegal Association of Florida, Inc. Dedicated to promotion of the paralegal profession

Link: Paralegal Association of Florida, Inc. Dedicated to promotion of the paralegal profession.
The FutureLawyer spent an enjoyable Saturday afternoon speaking to the Paralegal Association of Florida about privacy, electronic discovery, security and gadgets in downtown St. Petersburg. These dedicated legal professionals put lawyers to shame in their willingness to give up their weekends to understand and get better at their chosen profession. The Futurlawyer's best audience are these hardworking people who labor in the trenches at lawfirms everywhere. Thanks to you all.

Palm Teams With Microsoft for Smart Phone - Yahoo! News

Link: Palm Teams With Microsoft for Smart Phone - Yahoo! News. Well, the Mountain has finally come to Mohammed. It looks like Palm, Inc.  is going to make the Treo 700 a Windows Mobile machine, and abandoning the Palm platform next year. No word on what it will look like, but the multitasking and compatibility with Windows desktop and notebook machines is a development to be watched. For now, I will use my trusty PalmOne Treo 650, and wait and see.

Friday Musings

Well, it is Friday, and I know everyone is waiting to get on with the weekend. So, just a few meandering thoughts:
1. The morning St. Petersburg Times has an article about the Sami Al Arian case, in which the Judge has allowed the use of WebSite pages stored on the Defendants' hard drives as evidence by the prosecution. Some of the problems with this are evidentiary, but what about the issues of: a) whether cached web pages on a personal computer have been read? b) Who downloaded them? c) What was in the user's mind when they were downloaded? Do you see other computer or evidentiary issues?  Check out the article at Article .
2. On the security issue, what is in your computer's cache? Do you erase the history of your website visitations? Even if you only visit websites containing innocent material, many sites containing questionable content can be accidentally loaded. Have you investigated the Options and security settings of your web browser lately? Do you know where your computer has been?
3. Is it just me, or is there a flavor of "subpoena the librarian for the books you have read lately" here?
4. On the data security front, what sensitive client materials are stored in your computer? Are they accessible? When files are deleted by the Windows operating system, they stay on the hard drive until overwritten. Get the free program, "eraser", and use it. Eraser free download .
5. Okay, now that you are sufficiently warned, go have a nice weekend.

E-Transcripts and Real Time Court Reporting

 Are you still getting paper transcripts of your depositions? If you are, you are missing one of the best new tools that tech can bring you as a practicing lawyer or paralegal. You may have received, as a complement to a paper transcript, an electronic file on disk containing the transcript in digital form. However, modern technology permits the delivery of the electronic transcript in computer searchable form, and litigation support systems such as Summation I-Blaze, reviewed in a prior post, can take electronic text and index it for later search. The most-used software in this area is RealLegal's E-Transcript. A free viewer is available for download at RealLegal's website-  RealLegal .  RealLegal, a division of LiveNote, Inc., focuses on providing litigation and transcript management tools to law firms, courts and court reporting firms. Next time you take a deposition, ask for an E-transcript file, and see how effective computer-based searching of transcripts can be. A newer technology, real-time transcription, allows the lawyer to see the questions and answers as they occur, and can be fed, with the right equipment, to remote locations so that you or other lawyer's in your firm can view and comment on the performance of another lawyer in the firm. Some Court Reporters are also now able to provide video depositions with synchronized text transcripts side by side. Taking clips from such a deposition, and showing it to a Judge or Jury can be powerful persuasive tools in litigation. If your case is important enough to file, and to win, it is important enough to spend some money on the tools that technology can provide. It's your move.

Word, Excel & PowerPoint files on your smartphone or handheld

Link: Word, Excel & PowerPoint files on your smartphone or handheld. Documents to Go 7, at $40 street, is a wonderful addition to the Treo 650 Palm arsenal. It reads and displays plain text, PDF, Word, and PowerPoint files, and , while editing on the tiny keyboard can be a pain, is a wonderful way to have all of your documents in the palm of your hand, wherever you go. It is a document reader, and you can load any text file on the Treo 650's SD card, for future reference. The FutureLawyer has a copy of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, among many other files, available for instant reference anywhere. Naturally, a notebook computer with a full-size keyboard is preferable; but, when it is impossible or inconvenient to pull out the notebook, the Palm Treo 650 is a serviceable way to have documents available for use. DataViz even provides a free utility that loads most of the hefty little program on the SD card, preserving 3 megabytes of the precious on-board memory of the Treo 650. (It has 32 megs). Now that PDF files have become the standard document format for web transmitted documents, Documents to Go 7 is a great way to store and view them on the Treo 650, the best smart-phone in the universe. It will synchronize with any folder on your computer or laptop, and I use it to store many of my more commonly used legal forms. It is great to have these documents available in or out of court.  There are a lot of free ebook readers out there, and they are fine for reading ebooks on the fly. However, if you need to read AND edit, Documents to Go 7 is the way to go. Enjoy.
Rick