Why Have A Remote Lawyering Backup Plan? Ask The Hurricane.

After a day and a half of plus 75 mph winds, 24 inches of rain, downed power lines, and worse, I now have a real example for other lawyers who tell me that I don't need redundancy in my Internet and computer use. BTW, we in Pinellas County got the weakest part of the storm. South of us there is true devastation, and we should all be thinking of our colleagues there. I have 3 options for shelter during a storm. My home, My office, and the RV parked at the office. I have 3 methods of connection to the Internet, my cable modem at the office, my smart phones and smart hotspot from TMobile, and the Starlink Satellite dish on top of the RV. In this case, the power went out at the office, but stayed on at home. So, we rode out the storm at home. Had the home power gone out, we would have gone to the office; and, finding that power out, would have powered up the RV generator, which provides power for AC, lights, the Starlink dish, and charging capability for the smartphones. An 1800 watt solar powered generator acts as a backup to the gas generator on the RV. As long as cell service is available, I can use the TMobile hotspot for up to 100 gigs of bandwidth, and each smartphone supplies another 20 gigs if needed. The cost of all of this is not as much as you might think. The TMobile hotspot is $50 a month. The Starlink RV plan is $135 a month. The generator is powered by the sun, and has a 100 watt solar panel that folds up with a handle. Solar panels on the house keep the monthly electric bills manageable. My next big purchase will be a whole house solar battery for the house, which provides some backup to power outages at the house. I have several small backup batteries that can charge a notebook computer and smartphones up to 5 to 10 times. We can't control what fate brings us in the way of natural disasters; but, we certainly can prepare for them. Now, since I will be working from home the rest of the week, I am going to light a cigar, pour a couple ounces of single malt, and chill out in my chair. Enjoy the suck.

 

Comments

[Jay]

Redundancy is great, but I think I’d just take the day or two off. 😀

Glad you made it through unscathed.