Futurelawyer

IPhone Or Android - Which Will You Choose?

The recent podcast on Lawyer2Lawyer, which contains my arguments for the Android OS, and Jeff Richardson's arguments for iPhone, is up here. The debate was spirited, and I can speak for myself and for Jeff in saying that no minds were changed. However, the main advantages and disadvantages of both platforms were adequately discussed; although, I expect that our hosts were sorry that they turned the microphones over to Jeff and me. We are great friends, and I love his blog, and he loves mine, since we are both tech geeks. I have agreed to overlook his complete lack of judgment about phones, and he has agreed to overlook mine. You, of course, need to make up your own mind, before making your own choice. Hopefully, the information in our blogs, and the discussion we had, will help you to make your choice. 

Google It! FaceBook It! Put These Powerful Search Engines To Work In Your Practice!

I am in Ft. Lauderdale today and tomorrow to take part in a seminar for the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section of the Florida Bar. I will be speaking on the use of social media in litigation. More and more, competent practitioners must be expert in the recovery of discovery from many different sources, and social media is a rich mother lode of information about witnesses, jurors, parties, and others with whom the lawyer must interact in a trial. Here is the bare outline of the presentation. If you want the whole thing you will have to buy the video from the Florida Bar.:-). 

 

Is Your Law Firm Data Secure?

Ride The Lightning: The Deplorable State of Law Firm Security. Before we continue the discussion of whether law firms should be storing documents and data in the cloud, perhaps we should be discussing the state of law firm security. This excellent blog post by Sharon Nelson is a good place to start. Have you done a security assessment at your firm lately? Do you know what your vulnerabilities are? Do you know where your data resides? Can you call it up anytime? Who has access to your most secure data? Are you doing backup to local drives, kept offsite? Are you using the cloud for backup? Have you investigated the security at the remote host? If you don't know the answers to these questions, you need to do a security assessment, and take some preventive action.

HTC ThunderBolt, the Ferrari of smartphones | TechRepublic

HTC ThunderBolt, the Ferrari of smartphones | TechRepublic. Yesterday's Android versus iPhone debate on LegalTalkNetwork was fun; and, I had a spirited discussion about Android and iPhones. However, as this review about the new boy on the block, the HTC ThunderBolt, shows, I have a lot of reasons to like my new Android super phone. This bad boy is faster than anything out there; and, if you don't think that makes a difference to the lawyer on the move, I suggest you try one for yourself. Seeing is believing, and the combination of the "big" screen, the HTC Sense UI interface, and the fast processor and 4G LTE is the most satisfying and great mobile phone experience I have ever had. The really cool thing about this phone is that, with the click of an app, I can share the fast Internet speed with 5 friends on notebook computers. And, I kid you not, the WiFi Hotspot access is as fast as my home DSL line. You would need to plug this puppy in to get more than 4 hours of battery life; but, connected to power, you could use it for your home network. Apple won't have a 4G phone until the Fall, if the pundits are to be believed; so, if you want fast access now, the TBolt is your best choice. For the budget minded, the Thunderbolt is $50 cheaper than iPhone 4. At $249 with a 2 year contract with Verizon Wireless, it is a bargain.

 

ThunderBolt vs iPhone 4 - Which Is Better For Lawyers?

ThunderBolt vs iPhone 4 - Hardware, Specs, Pricing, Design (Video) | TechnoBuffalo. I will be taking part in an episode of Lawyer2Lawyer, on the LegalTalkNetwork this afternoon, and the topic will be iPhone versus Android, and which phone is better for lawyers? I can tell you the answer right up front; it doesn't matter, because the smartphone you use is a matter of personal taste. Each lawyer has to measure their needs versus the feature set of the phone they are looking at, and, while I prefer Android for a lot of reasons that I will discuss this afternoon, others prefer Apple's iPhone for their own reasons. Here is an 8 minute video that is Part One of a Two Part examination of the two phones, side by side, by Noah Kravitz. The second video will discuss speed; but, there is no question that the new 4G LTE network from Verizon makes the HTC Thunderbolt the fastest phone on the planet. The disadvantage is that the 4G speeds make battery life an issue in the TBolt. On the other hand, you can swap out the battery of the TBolt, and you can't on the iPhone. Back and forth, you get the picture. If you want more, watch this video, and catch the show.

Public Records And Court Dockets - Portal To The World - Courtport

Public records, court dockets - Free Trial - Court port. I am on a legal research and court records research roll right now. Yesterday, I showed you how to research the law cheaply and efficiently, without a subscription to an expensive legal research service. (You know who they are). Today, we shift focus to over 10,000 court records databases, including full docket searching in the entire Federal case database. Criminal records searches, records in all State, Federal, State, County, and Municipal databases. Licensing and disciplinary records for every kind of professional, and detailed records about just about anyone. For $10 a month, the lawyer can know anything that is material to his client, witness, opponent, or do complete legal research for a fraction of the cost of more expensive systems. 

CiteStack - Make Your Google Scholar Research Sing

CiteStack - Overview. Readers of this blog may notice that a new advertiser has appeared, CiteStack. While it is nice that a new advertiser wants a place at the FutureLawyer's table, it is even nicer when the product is one that I heartily endorse, and use every day. Since discovering this research add-on to Google Chrome, I have used it to cut and paste snippets from case law that I find in my Google Scholar legal research. It puts an automatic pin-cite to the snippet, and creates a stack of citations, with the pertinent text, and actually will write pre-trial memoranda for you. I have even presented a CiteStack report to a Judge as an adjunct to my motion practice, with excellent results. The software is inexpensive, at $69.99 a year; but, you can get it for under $10 a month if you don't like long term commitments. When paired with Google Scholar, which is totally free, it is like having a law clerk at your beck and call. I really like the fact that accurate citations are as easy as cut and paste; in the past, I would have to spend hours poring over memoranda and briefs to make sure I typed the citations accurately. I would tell you to try the 7 day free trial of this product, even if they weren't advertising on FutureLawyer and even if I didn't get free accesss to the product. This isn't your Daddy's legal research.

They Took The Kodachrome Away, But Kodak Still Lives And Prospers

Kodak Wins a Round in $1 Billion Apple, RIM Patent Dispute - Bloomberg. When digital cameras started to become popular, it was the common view that Kodak would no longer be pre-eminent in the photographic world. Its film business died, and it's cameras became the souvenirs of a bygone era. Its film patents lost value as film died, and, when Kodachrome stopped being manufactured, millions of us shed a tear. But, fear not, brave photog. Kodak wasn't sleeping through the digital revolution. While the company became just another player in the digital camera world, its scientists and engineers were still the best in the business, and nobody has better R & D. So, it should be no surprise that Kodak owns the patents to processes that are essential to modern digital photography, and that Kodak will win some patent suits from companies using that technology. Kodak is very much alive, and one of the best known American trademarks is probably a very good stock buy right now.

Google Calendar is THE ANSWER to Lawyer Scheduling.

The Greatest American Lawyer: Google Calendar is THE ANSWER to Lawyer Scheduling.. This is a great post from the Greatest American Lawyer blog. It shares my sentiments about the benefits of Google Calendar. No more syncing errors between various software solutions. No more wondering whether you are looking at the current calendar data. I used to have fits trying to get Outlook, Amicus Attorney, PcLaw, my smartphone, and whatever else I was using to manage the practice. I have lost some case management functionality by abandoning the other stuff; but, for calendaring, email, task management, and essential stuff, Google Calendar is the way to go. It is free to try, free to use, and seamlessly integrates into your law practice. And, if you have to have a cloud solution to billing and matter management, both of the leading solutions, RocketMatter and Clio, now have Google Calendar integration.

PDF Converter Professional 7 - Forms Creator From An Unlikely Source

Nuance - PDF - N.com Indiv Product Header Contributor Data File. I was an early lover of PaperPort. I loved the way it organized scanned documents in folders, and put thumbnail images on screen. However, its acquisition by Nuance some years back was a nightmare. Draconian install procedures, bugs in the software, and constant requests to activate or limits on times to reinstall the software caused me to drop the product and recommend others. Recently, however, in upgrading to the latest version of WordPerfect, I found that PaperPort SE came with the product, and the new version of PaperPort (PaperPort 12) worked great. So, for quick PDF scans, I started using it again, and the connection with the WordPerfect product bypassed Nuance activation and non-existent or inaccessible tech support. PaperPort SE comes with a great and easy to use PDF reader, PDF Plus, and I started using it to view and print PDF files. Then, when looking for ways to automate forms yesterday, I discovered PDF Converter Professional, and took a flyer on it. Surprise, surprise, it works great, and can convert any PDF file into a fillable form, or a text document. You still have to go through hoops to register and activate it; but, for a product that works as well as this, it is worth it. If you try this, take all of the Court forms you have to fill in the blanks for, scan them into PaperPort, and convert them into fillable forms. I may finally be able to get rid of that typewriter.