Software As A Service - Is It For You?

Link: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for Litigation Support. I received a very nice email from Jack Newton at Clio, who advised me that the objectionable provisions of the Terms of Service Agreement only protected the API from unsavory types who might trash the service, and that the issues lawyers are concerned about will be dealt with when the service goes live. This brings up a host of issues that lawyers need to consider when using beta software for mission critical tasks; but, I digress. Gene Albert, of Lexbe, a wonderful SaaS litigation support service at LexBe, has a good agreement that could be used as a model for future service agreements for lawyers on the web. To prove that I am not opposed to SaaS in general, I even agreed to post a sidebar link to Lexbe at this site. My principal gripe with these services is that the data must remain usable to the lawyer, even if the service is discontinued or cancelled, by either party. This, of course, is easier with Gene's service, since the documents uploaded to Lexbe come from the lawyer in the first place. I will be discussing the issues that lawyers (and SaaS providers) should consider in coming posts. They include: 1) Who owns the data? 2) Is is still available to the lawyer, in usable form, after the marriage is over? 3) Security, security, security 4) Do documents and data remain privileged under ABA standards for third-party service providers? 5) How is backup data maintained? 6) What is the service-level promised? 7) For what reasons can the SaaS provider terminate the attorney's access to his or her data?
I look forward to a productive and continuing dialogue on this important issue. Thanks to Larry Port, at RocketMatter, and to Jack Newton, at Clio, for agreeing to participate.

Comments

[Larry Port]

Awesome job, Rick in spearheading this dialog. We'll take a good hard look at LexBe's terms and your ideas here.

[Gene Albert]

Rick,

I think it’s a great idea to get some public discussion of terms of use of SaaS’ designed for the legal community. There are some particular issues as you posted, like privilege maintenance. We look forward to any comments that you or your readers may have.