Georgia Law Blog

My Firm Website & Blog

My Firm website is located at www.jackclay.com. I also maintain a website that discusses workers’ compensation and personal injury issues. While it is designed for clients and potential clients, I plan to add a section in the near future to help attorneys. It will include forms and other information. With a little bit of time and willingness to write, any attorney can start a blog. I have written extensively on my Blog. It is called the Georgia Law Blog (www.georgialawblog.com).

What’s on the Horizon

Quite honestly, I could use more advanced technology in my law practice. I am currently investigating the use of RAID drives which are basically several removable hard drives that mirror each other. They can be removed and taken home or put in a safe on a nightly basis. There is software used by law firms every day that will scan and OCR all of your documents. I find the OCR technology to be fascinating. OCR stands for Optical Character Resolution. It gives you the ability to scan a document that was prepared by someone else and cut and paste the information into a usable program such as Microsoft Word or Word Perfect. While Adobe has a built-in OCR feature, it can be time consuming as each document has to be separately scanned. The OCR feature is very useful as I can scan an opposing attorney’s request for discovery and cut and paste my responses fairly quickly. I have also considered going to Windows Small Business Server 2003. However, I do not think I need it quite yet. I have also considered using a computerized dictation system such as Nuance’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 9. I will be testing it in the near future. For me, I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking in the past but the error rate was too high.

I also make it a practice to help other lawyers with any technology needs they might have. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me or e-mail.

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Digital Dictation Works

A few years ago, I changed to a digital dictation system. Personally, my dictation goes in spurts. However, I am a firm believer that an attorney that dictates is much more efficient than an attorney that types or hand writes his or her own documents. It has taken me a long time to get comfortable with the idea of dictating complicated briefs and articles instead of writing them. I will tell you that I dictated this whole article. While I believe I may be a better writer if I type or hand-write my documents, I find I am a quicker and clearer writer when I use dictation. I use a hand-held dictation unit by Olympus. The model number is DS4000. Once again, it was an investment to purchase the hand-held dictation unit and transcription software for my staff. It has paid for itself many times over.

My hand-held dictation system will hold up to 100 different dictation files. Also, I have eliminated the use of tapes in my office. My dictation system has never (knock on wood) deleted a dictation file. More importantly, all I have to do is place my dictation unit into a cradle which is attached to my computer. Then, the project will appear on my employees’ computer screens to be transcribed. Another advantage to using electronic dictation is that it maintains a record of dictation you have done forever. I will often review the dictation I have done with a staff member. I can cue the dictation module to the exact place at which there is a mistake or if something needs to be added to the document.

Some of the other technological items that I use in my practice include USB thumb drives and a Dell projector. Thumb drives are useful in that they can be carried to and from court. Recently, I purchased an HP DV9000 series laptop. The laptop is fast and efficient. It has 2 GB’s of RAM, a fast processor, and 200 GB’s of hard drive space. I tend to keep my laptop computers for many years, so it is important for me to make an initial purchase of a laptop that has good specifications and that is easily upgradeable.

I decided to purchase a projector to view documents, pictures, and other evidence. It is a wonderful tool. I would recommend a projector with at least 2500 lumens. I have used my projector at trial and mediation on numerous occasions. If there is any natural light that cannot be eliminated where you are using your projector, you and others will appreciate having a bright projection to view.

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My Law Firm’s Hardware & Software

I prefer to use a simple networked computer system and digital dictation. Currently, I have a paralegal and legal assistant employed in my firm. Our system works well. We also use McAfee business anti-virus and internet firewall software. I have used several other systems in the past, including AVG. It is all a matter of what will work for you and your computer system. I have found that McAfee has some good features, especially in their business software line-up.

For tracking time and keeping costs, I use a software system called TimeSlips. Because I do not handle very many hourly cases, TimeSlips is mainly a system I use for tracking expenses on cases. At the end of the case, it is very nice to present the client with a professional and detailed costs ledger.

I also have a copy of the full version of Adobe that I use for editing, combining, and separating PDF documents. Although the Adobe program is somewhat expensive (retailing for about $400.00), I found it is very useful and gives me an edge in my paperless system. When I dealt with paper files, I had a habit of using a lot of “sticky” notes and flags for different documents. I found that Adobe allows me to do the same thing, just on my computer screen. Also, if I have to print the documents for court or a deposition, I can choose to either include my notes and flags or to print the documents without my annotations.

I use other software in my law practice as well to a lesser extent. For investigative purposes, I use a service from Lois Law which can be found at www.loislaw.com. I have also used Accurint in the past (www.accurint.com). These databases allow me to search and find individuals, particularly, defendants and witnesses that I need to track down in cases.

I have also evaluated a software system called CaseMap which is made by Lexis-Nexis. CaseMap forces you to view issues and cases in a categorical and organized fashion. Basically, if you have ten issues in a particular case, it enables you to merge facts, which can be drawn from countless sources, to each relevant issue. This is especially helpful on large cases. While I have not used CaseMap extensively, I try to accomplish the same thing using Amicus Attorney.

In Amicus, I have fields for writing notes regarding different topics for various cases. For example, my workers’ compensation custom fields are extensive and provide me a place where I can always look for a quick and useful synopsis of my case. I have a special note section for items that come up in workers’ compensation cases such as Average Weekly Wage, current medical treatment notes, past medical history of my clients, etc. For my personal injury cases (which are mostly auto accidents), I have sections for items such as past and future special damages, liens and subrogation issues, degree of disability resulting from the incident in question, lost wage information, litigation time frames, and discovery deadlines, etc.

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