Futurelawyer

Remote Hearings And Trials - They Are Here. Are The Courts Ready?

NCSC Guidelines For Remote Hearings. I remember, in the Eighties and Nineties, I realized the impact that technology would make on lawyering, wondering when I would be able to sit at my desk in the office, and conduct hearings with the Court online. Every time I got into my car, drove to the courthouse, found the Judge's office, sat in a waiting room for an hour, spent 5 to 15 minutes in a hearing about some minutiae connected with the case, and then drove home, often in Florida humidity and summer heat, wearing a starched collared shirt, and a hot suit jacket, I thought about the waste of time and energy. While I never would have wished it, the Pandemic accelerated the process, and short hearings and some trials are now being conducted entirely online. Even in person trials now often have a hybrid mix of online and in person components. When video technology advanced enough, many depositions conducted in remote locations were played back in courtrooms. We are truly in a hybrid environment today, and the National Center for the State Courts has published a monograph that every lawyer, court administrator, judge and person interested in remote hearing and trial technology should read. The technology can be impossible to navigate for disabled individuals, and it is incumbent upon the court system to provide an even playing field for all participants. As an example, I am now a Remote Notary, and can conduct online notarization with the assistance of technology and the Internet. The structure and platform is provided by Notaryfix.com; but, there are many providers out there. But, if a person doesn't have access to a computer, camera, and adequate broad band Internet, or is too frail, elderly, or otherwise compromised to use it, the tech is useless. All members of the legal system should be helping to solve the problem of access. Read the monograph as a start.

CenterCam Is My New Favorite WebCam.

www.centercam.com . I like CenterCam so much, I ordered a second one for my home screen. If I need one while traveling in the RV, it just unplugs from a USB port, and folds into the briefcase or computer case. This image is what you will see if you call the FutureLawyer. The beach background is whimsical, and I would use a blurred or office background for official business. But, suffice it to say that this thing makes video conferencing an eye to eye experience, and I don't feel like my correspondent is looking at me staring up at the ceiling or left or right. This is an elegant solution to a real problem.

 

In The Metaverse, Nobody Knows You're Fat.

One of the things I love about setting up a FutureLawyer office in the metaverse is that I get to create myself (my avatar) any way I want. It is not photorealistic by any means; but, I get to choose my body and put my real face on top. Oh joy. Oh, happy day. I am forever a thin man, unemcumbered by the vagaries of old age. Now, I just need to find a way to transplant my brain into the computer before I die.

CenterCam - Eye Contact For Zoom Calls...Brilliant.

CenterCam - Zoom Video Cam On A Stick. I have a couple of high end video cameras that I use for Zoom calls. They cost upwards of $350 each, and they have gotten me through the Pandemic and beyond. However, a sub $100 webcam that is tiny, and hangs from the top of my screen, settling in the middle of the screen, will be my go to camera going forward. When I was learning, and teaching public speaking, and later in clinics in law school, I was always preaching about the benefits of eye contact. Eye to eye contact is the best way for humans to communicate, and it was disconcerting to realize that my Zoom calls made it look like I wasn't paying attention to my correspondents during calls. Either I was looking up at the screen, with a camera on the desk, or looking down at the screen when the camera was at the top. CenterCam is a 1080p webcam that plugs into a USB-A or USB-C port, and has a tiny camera at the end of a semi rigid cord, that clips to the top of the computer screen, and hangs down in the middle. It doesn't block enough of the screen to make a difference in viewing; but, it forces the user to make eye contact. This photo is taken while I am looking directly at my computer screen during a Zoom session. Look your clients and colleagues in the eye. They will be as putty in your lawyerly hands. (I am on vacation this week, so I thought the beach background would be appropriate.)

It's Saturday - Let's Wander Around In The MetaVerse.

I have been playing around with Spatial.io's virtual reality platform, which allows the building of VR environments in the metaverse. In the future, the metaverse will be a place you can go while wearing a virtual reality headset, and can interact with other people anywhere in the world as if you were in the same room. In fact, you are; except that the room exists in virtual space on the Internet. Broadband speeds are finally at the point where this type of interaction is possible. I have created an office in the metaverse, which I will post about in the future; but, for now, here is a walkthrough by a guy who shows how its done. Would you have a meeting with a professional in virtual space? 

 

Law Firms And Online Notarization - NotaryFix

Notary Fix. There is a lot of buzz these days about pandemic inspired interest in Zoom and other videoconferencing ideas. Remote Online Notarization (RON) is becoming more popular as the technology evolves. I was blown away by a young real estate lawyer and entrepreneur, Roxana de los Reyes, in a demo of her creation, NotaryFix, this morning. The cool and different thing about her software is that it is aimed at lawyers. For a reasonable monthly fee, she provides a platform and the technology for every law firm to have an inhouse online Notary. No more looking about on the Internet for a good service. Your firm keeps the Notarization process in house, and under your control. Deeds, Affidavits, and other documents can be notarized anywhere the signer is on planet earth, as long as they have proof of identity, and an ability to use a Zoom connection. They don't need Zoom, as the software handles those details from NotaryFix's site. Zoom is everywhere, so it is a logical system to use. If you, or your firm, have used Docusign, or Simplifile, to sign and record documents, you will be able to negotiate Roxana's system. I am signing up, and will be testing the service. Check out the site for yourself, fellow lawyers. Thanks, Roxana, for renewing my faith in the brilliance, drive, and smarts of our young lawyers. In future posts, I will be posting demos of the product for my readers. While lenders are resisting the trend for now, national standards are being considered that may open up online notarizations for everyone. In the meantime, learn RON tech, grasshopper. It is the future.

#WhyIAmASolo - A Modest Proposal For BigLaw Managers.

Are you struggling to manage lawyers and other employees in a BigLaw firm? Do you lose sleep over how to get them to come back to the office, after they have tasted the freedom of working at home? Do you despair at being able to walk down the hall and see everyone toiling at a desk or in a cubicle? Do you long for the pre-pandemic days in which you could look an employee in the eye while you criticized their work product? Well, I have a proposal for you. Just ignore them during Zoom calls. Sooner or later they will begin to fear for their jobs, and will come running back to you to slave away in your presence. Problem solved.

FutureLawyer Has A Home Office In The Metaverse.

Spatial One of the leading platforms in the Metaverse is Spatial; and, after the presentation today by Mitch Jackson, I decided to check out the site. I had forgotten that I had set up an account years ago, and it was still active. The tech has improved tremendously, and this is a photo of my Avatar and home office. I am going to play with it, and any of you who want to try out a conference with me, about any topic, let me know, and when it is ready, I will send an invite. Cool stuff.

This Is The FutureLawyer Coming To You From The Metaverse.

I have joined the metaverse, and my first stop is the room occupied by my friend and AnyLaw free research provider, Steven Tover. If you want to see the future of online meetings, it will look something like this. Like Zoom, a list of participants can be seen on the side; but, the actual event is populated by Avatars walking around in virtual space. You can have one on one or group conversations, and, since you are showing yourself in video, it is much like walking a Convention or Seminar floor in real life. I love this stuff, and predict that it will create more and better communications between humsns. I am going back now to learn about the subject of the day. Steven anticipates doing these webinars once a month.

The FutureLawyer's Next Event Might Be In The Metaverse.

Web Event - Mastering The Metaverse. Just as I prepare to give a presentation tomorrow at the Florida Bar Convention on remote lawyering from physical locations other than a traditional law office, I have received this announcement from Steve Tover, of AnyLaw, about a two hour webinar on June 30th discussing the Metaverse, a virtual world in which many persons can create an avatar and interact in real time over the Internet. The modern Internet finally has enough bandwidth to make such an environment useful, and Steve wants to show that it can be a way for lawyers to interact in a virtual environment. Is this the future of the Internet, or another fad? Watch and see. As an aside, I will be at Camping World on the 30th, with my RV, having some work done, and it is ironic that I will be working that day in a Camping World waiting area, and plan to attend the webinar while there.