Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page Puritas Springs Software Law Office Computing
VOLUME 2017, NO. 1 $ 7 . 9 9 PURITAS ABA Cites Puritas Springs SPRINGS SOFTWARE Software Tops in Family Law GPSolo magazine began its firms, and general practition- INSIDE THIS ISSUE: existence under the name The ers, as well as articles related ABA Accolades for PSS 1 Compleat Lawyer in 1983 and to technology and practice is now published by the Solo, management. 30th Anniversary 1 Small Firm, and General Prac- Digital Inklings 4 tice Division of the American We are calling your attention to Sexless Forms/Web Forms 6, 7 Bar Associa- GPSolo be- Child Support 8 tion. cause we Spousal Support 10 GPSOLO received an Family Law Documents 13 GPSolo is unexpected devoted to honor when Probate Forms 14 themes of we were listed as publisher of YouTube 16 critical importance to law prac- “the best software and apps U.S. Estate Tax (706) 17 tices, and each issue contains for family lawyers”. GPSolo U.S. Income Tax (1041) 18 articles exploring a particular Magazine, Volume 32, No. 4. OH Fiduciary Tax (IT1041) 19 topic of interest to solos, small (Continued on page 2) Ohio Adoption Forms 20 OH Guardianship Forms 21 OH Wrongful Death 22 Loan Amortizer 23 Our 30th Anniversary DIY For Law Offices 24 Deed & Document Pro 25 Apart from the GPSolo article When first asked about his Bankruptcy Forms 26 referred to above, Puritas reaction to the GPSolo article, Law Office Management 28 Springs Software was fea- Zore’s response was that he OH Business Forms 30 tured on the front page of Ak- was hearing about it for the Business Dissolutions 31 ron Legal News, Volume 94, first time. GPSolo had not Living Trust/Estate Plan 32 No. 184. The article, written by contacted PSS in connection Richard Weiner, an Akron with the article and Zore had HUD—Settlement Stmts 33 attorney and legal news report- yet to see the article. Inbox 34 er, was based on his discovery In Good Humor 36 of the GPSolo article. As a Zore is a 1978 graduate of Scamples 37 result, he visited the Puritas Cleveland-Marshall College of Technical Support 38 Springs Software offices and Law. He started PSS in 1986 Mini Backups—XCopy 42 interviewed owner/attorney publishing income tax software Ernie Zore. (Continued on page 3) Security & Remote Storage 44
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OneNote Best Family Law Apps Con’t
(Continued from page 1) the necessary documents—from We were chatting with an attor- The family law applications re- initial petition to final decree and ney the other day and he hap- ferred to in the article were: most everything in between— pened to mention an application with maximum efficiency and called OneNote. OneNote is a Revised Ohio Child Support proficiency. component of Microsoft Office. Guidelines. This is the league It’s not a high-profile Office leader in child support calcula- Of the companies mentioned in component because it's over- tion software. First published in the GPSolo article, Puritas shadowed by giants like Word, 1994, it's our oldest and best- Springs Software is the only Excel, Publisher and Power- selling family law application. publisher of family law applica- Point, but the attorney said Over two hundred county courts tions devoted exclusively to something to the effect that and family law agencies are Ohio. OneNote is a great organizing counted among our users. For tool, especially for young attor- savvy practitioners, it stands No Hidden Costs. Excepting neys who may be starting new alone as the first and best OSSC, our family law apps carry law offices. choice—unmatched in quality no maintenance fees, subscrip- and price. tion charges, up- On that basis we decided to date costs, or take a look. One thing that dis- Ohio Spousal other periodic tinguishes OneNote is that it Support Calcula- expenses. Every- can be downloaded for free tor (OSSC). This thing's free during even if you don't own Office. If is our second best the useful life of you're interested, here's a link: seller in the family the application— law lineup. For usually four to six www.onenote.com attorneys who years. don’t want to Our first question was--what spend big bucks Free Technical exactly is OneNote? Here's for this type of Support. Each Wikipedia's answer: software, OSSC call is handled by levels the playing an experienced "Microsoft OneNote is a com- field by being technician. No puter program for free-form affordable for medium and small telephone menus. No waiting on information gathering and multi- firms. With this essential tool, hold. No delays while the sup- user collaboration. It gathers you have an alternative to acqui- port technician solicits their su- users' notes (handwritten or escing to the court's sometimes perior for the answer to your typed), drawings, screen clip- inflexible formula. This app pro- question. pings and audio commentaries. vides you with the documenta- Notes can be shared with other tion you need to be an advocate. Big Firm Software For A Small OneNote users over the Inter- Clients like it when you do that. Firm Budget. That's our winning net or a network." formula and how we stayed on Uniform Domestic Relations top in the volatile computer soft- Free-form note taking and me- Forms. Completely rewritten in ware market where a company's dia handling capabilities sound 2016, the collection of forms life expectancy can be shorter good, but ultimately we wanted encompasses nearly 150 pages than Verne Troyer’s inseam. to know how that would trans- of domestic relations forms. Not Case in point. Who remembers late into something that saves every case you handle assumes the law office leading word pro- us time or makes life easier in a Kramer vs. Kramer proportions. cessor of the 1980s before law office. For the cases that don't, this WordPerfect came along and (Continued on page 13) application allows you to prepare bumped it from the desktop? PSS
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 3 Favorite 30th Anniversary (con’t.) Free Utility For the third year in a row we (Continued from page 1) Child Support Guidelines— find TeamViewer (successor to for the Tandy Color Computer.— provided the impetus for creating LogMeIn) the most convenient, known then as Radio Shack. additional applications. Choosing not to mention free, utility app for other areas of development was law offices. When the Ohio child support an instinctive process—to identi- guidelines were passed in 1987, fy other areas where computer If you’ve ever fantasized about Zore wrote an application for his applications would improve his being in two places at once, personal use to calculate and own practice. The motivating TeamViewer lets you do just print the “new” child support concept: who would have better that. Start TeamViewer on your worksheets. A few years later, insight into software designed for home computer and connect to the decision to publish the appli- attorneys, than an attorney? your office computer. It’s as easy cation came after being repeat- as that. Voila! Your home com- edly asked by puter screen displays your office court and computer screen. counsel about his pre-printed If you’ve never given it any child support thought, that can be handy in a worksheets. law office in a variety of ways. The ability to remote connect to It was appar- a second ent there was computer an interest in can save the applica- money by tion, so Zore eliminating took immediate steps the need to to “clean the program purchase a up for prime time.” Its second copy initial publication came of an appli- in late 1993. cation. It depends on With the expansion of conven- his software develop- Getting ience. It may not be practical to ment efforts, it be- in on work this way with a mainstream came necessary—or the app that you use every day, all at least appropriate— ground day long, but for applications to select a business floor that are used regularly and infre- name. Because all of the early and constantly developing new quently, this could be a cost- development was performed in apps became the means to suc- saving alternative. the basement of a west side cess. Thirty years later, the PSS Cleveland residence located on catalog expanded to just over 20 Another use we’ve found for the site of Puritas Springs apps. TeamViewer is instruction. You Park—an amusement park that can remotely train a staff person was built in the late 1800s and The game plan is obviously how to do a particular computer operated until the mid-1950s— working because in the volatile task from the comfort of your Puritas Springs Software was realm of software development, easy chair—without leaving your a natural choice. there are few companies that home or office. From your stand- can boast of a 30-year history. point, it’s as good as being there The success of the child support On reflection, Ernie commented and a thousand times better than application—Revised Ohio (Continued on page 20) (Continued on page 33)
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Recovery Disks Bacon Savers Digital Here at Puritas Springs Soft- ware it happens every three to November 11th, my birthday, It goes without saying that that seven years after we buy a com- was a morning to remember. didn't work. Next step. When puter. Something stops working Arriving at the lab, I noticed the obvious solutions fail to remedy (most often the hard drive) and main development computer the situation, turn the computer it’s time to do some repair work. was displaying the log-in screen. off and reboot like they recom- The first thing to decide is Our computers are on 24/7 and mend on the hilarious BBC IT whether it’s worth fixing. With the they are set to update automati- Crowd comedy television se- cost of a decent, entry-level, cally, so it's not unusual to arrive ries (highly recommended). This business desktop computer in the morning and find that they often works, but unfortunately around $360, if you’ve got poten- have updated and rebooted. To not in this case. tial labor costs of $100 and parts say that this happens at least costing another $100, you’re once a month would not be an The next line of attack was boot- investing more than half of what exaggeration. I assumed Mi- ing Windows in Safe Mode a new computer would cost. For crosoft had performed an update (repeatedly pressing F8 during example, at the time of this writ- in the wee hours. the boot). That allows the com- ing, a HP Pavilion 110 Desktop puter to start with only a core set with 21.5 Inch LED monitor Bun- I entered the password and left of drivers and services (the KISS dle (AMD A4-5000 Quad-Core to get my morning coffee. When principle) in order to create a Processor, 8GB DDR3 RAM, I returned, the log-in screen was potentially repair-friendly envi- 1TB Hard Drive) was $359 on still displayed. It was early and I ronment. As great an idea as Amazon—and that wasn’t the hadn't finished my first cup yet, that was, it was a disappoint- cheapest one we could find! so anything was possible, but I ment because the computer still was reasonably sure that I had wouldn't start. If the problem is a hard drive already entered the password. that needs reformatting or Whatever. There was little to do I was beginning to feel a little replacement, you’ll save your- but re-enter the password. By warm by this time. I was troubled self a couple hundred or more now my spider senses were by the fact that I couldn't remem- by making sure you’ve got tingling, so this time I continued ber a time when rebooting in recovery disks. These days to watch. What I observed was Safe Mode didn't work. The next computers are sold without in- that after about 15 seconds of step was to go back to the F8 stallation/recovery disks and hourglass, the log-in screen Startup menu, ignore Safe somewhere in the meager print- reappeared. Mode, and choose System Re- ed materials you received with covery Options. I opted to re- your computer you’ll find some Blues artists Magic Slim and Joe store the system from the latest fine print advising you to create Carter have a song titled "That date (11/8). The restore com- a set of recovery disks or a re- Ain't Right." Those were my menced and I left it to its work. covery USB. thoughts exactly. Now what? I did what any veteran computer When I returned an hour or so This is good advice, and if you user would do—I checked the later, there was an error mes- fail to follow it and you need to cap lock and re-entered the user sage on the screen—what reinstall Windows, it’s too late. name and password a dozen else—”system restore failure.” You’ll either need to repurchase more times hoping that simple At this point I began to fully ap- the Windows operating system repetition might bully me past preciate the gravity of my predic- or contact the manufacturer’s the log-in screen. This is akin to ament. Sure we have redundant representative (in Malaysia, no raising the hood on your disa- backups, but the whole process doubt) and try to find out how bled automobile and staring at from diagnostics, to repair, to you can get one (they’ll usually the engine hoping it will fix itself testing is a day-killer and often make you pay for it). because you don't know a damn more. I figured I had little to lose (Continued on page 5) thing about automotive repair. by choosing the next earliest
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Bacon Savers Inklings Continued date (11/1) and retrying to re- this skill any more than I already (Continued from page 4) store the system. Again, the had, so I made sure to turn off So if you’re reading this article, restoration process crapped out, automatic updating. chances are you’re in a position but this time with a different error where you can still take the message—did not complete When I searched the issue, the necessary steps to prevent successfully. best advice I found was to leave disaster (or major inconven- auto-updating turned off for a ience). I didn't want to spend the bal- while and give Microsoft time to ance of my birthday doing this, publish a fix for the problem. I've For starters, you’ll need a however, while I contemplated always found that doing nothing memory device. We purchased my next move, the computer is the easiest advice to follow, so a 32GB USB memory stick for rebooted automatically and I was that's what I did. I let a few about $10. If you’ve got Win- back in Windows. weeks pass, after which I turned dows 10, plug the stick in and auto-updating back on, and make sure it’s formatted for Although Windows appeared to crossed my fingers. I'm happy to NTFS instead of FAT32. Then, be repaired, the restoration pro- report that everything turned out follow these steps to create a cess was not a complete suc- fine. recovery disk/USB. cess. Most noticeable was the fact it "recovered" some data There are two reasons for this In the Run (Ask me anything) folders which were missing files story. The first is to emphasize box, type Recovery. Then se- and changes which occurred the importance of backups. I lect Recovery from the search after 11/8. Those had to be re- recommend periodically check- results. The Recovery app will constituted from separate back- ing that the backup process is start and you’ll see the Create a ups and the discovery/recovery actually happening (as opposed recovery drive screen. Click procedure was another some- to being scheduled and not be- Next. After a few moments what lengthy process. ing executed). I've encountered (maybe a few minutes), you situations where the backup was should see your memory stick Sadly, that's not the end of the scheduled but wasn’t being com- as the target device (if there is story. I checked another Win- pleted, i.e., out of external hard more than one choice), make dows 7 computer in the lab and drive space. Another test is to sure the correct one is chosen. it was also stuck on the log-in restore one file just to make sure Then click Next. The process screen. Obviously this was a you can do it when and if you will take a bit of time depending Windows 7 issue because our need to. The second reason for on the content of your drive. Windows 8, Windows 10 and this story is to court the misery You’ll see a progress bar giving Windows XP machines were not loves company principle by you an idea of how things are affected. Therefore, I had to letting you know that however going. When the process is repeat the procedure for the big or small the business, how- ended, put the memory stick in second computer, although now ever sophisticated or informal, a safe place and hope you nev- that I knew the drill I was able to they all have computer problems er need it. do it in half the time. My relief at at one time or another. having escaped disaster evident- If you’re using Windows 7, the ly clouded my judgment because On a related note, sometimes process is more involved. Too I didn't think to turn off automatic things get so bad that restoration long to describe here. Read the updates. As a result, the next is not an option (i.e., a defective following wikiHow article for the morning when I arrived at the lab hard drive that must be re- illustrated steps: I was welcomed by the log-on placed). In those instances you’ll screen. Curses. At least I was want to check out the recovery http://www.wikihow.com/Create- experienced at performing the disk article in the sidebar on a-Recovery-Disc-in-Windows-7 fix. I had no intention of honing page 4 of this issue. PSS PSS Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 6 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 Disarming Sentence Ohio’s New Sexless Forms
After a lengthy trial, Defendant On June 26, 2015, same-sex paging through the document to Pete Armstrong was found guilty marriage in Ohio was endorsed see who signed it. In other of breaking and entering with via the U.S. Supreme Court words, the plaintiff/petitioner 1's intent to commit a theft offense. ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, a financial information would ap- Mr. Armstrong was found guilty landmark decision in which the pear in the "You" column of his/ and at the time of sentencing, court struck down Ohio's statuto- her affidavit, and likewise, the counsel for the defense conclud- ry and constitutional bans on the defendant/petitioner 2's financial ed by addressing the judge as issuance of marriage licenses to information would also appear in follows: same-sex couples. As a conse- the "You" column of that party's quence, many of Ohio's forms— affidavit. "Your Honor, before passing particularly those using the sentence I ask you to consider words "mother", "father", So, while the identity of the par- the fact that my client did not "husband" or "wife"—required ties can still determined, it break into the house. The undis- modification. Accordingly, the seems unnecessarily confusing puted evidence showed conclu- Ohio Supreme Court published in light of the fact that the parties sively that he never physically revisions to the Uniform Domes- can be uniformly referred to as entered the premises. Instead, tic Relations Forms and guardi- "Plaintiff/Petitioner 1" and he discovered the living room anship forms. "Defendant/Petitioner 2." Form window had been left open. He 16, the Separation Agreement, then put his right arm through Although we've only had a lim- may be the worst because it the window and removed a few ited time to study the updates, starts out referring to the parties trifling articles that were on a from what we've seen so far of as "Plaintiff/Petitioner 1" and table near the window. I submit the domestic relations forms, the "Defendant/Petitioner 2", and to this court that my client's arm changes seem hastily made. We later uses "Name" and "Spouse's is not the statutory equivalent of believe some confusion arises Name." his person entering the premis- from ambiguous references to es. On that basis I don't feel he the parties. For example, in do- We also noticed some ill-placed should be punished for an of- mestic relations cases the par- page breaks which resulted in fense essentially committed in ties are usually referred to as some questions having multiple part by one of his limbs." either plaintiff and defendant in answer fields the first few of divorce cases or petitioner 1 and which appear at the bottom of Not to be put off, the judge re- petitioner 2 in dissolution cases. one page with the remaining sponded as follows: While this nomenclature is used lines continuing on the succeed- in the revised domestic forms ing page—without any reference "Your unique case is very well some of the time, it is not used to the question to which they argued, and I will follow its tenu- consistently. The affidavits for belong. Granted, it's a small ous logic. Therefore, considering example refer to the parties as matter, but there was always the points you so capably raised "You" and "Your Spouse". sufficient space to include all the in your client’s defense, I hereby answer fields with the question sentence the defendant's right While this makes sense in the to which they belong. arm to one year's imprisonment. context of the affidavits, it’s im- He can accompany the arm or precise because it's not in con- Regardless of these criticisms, not as he chooses." formance with party references the new forms carefully avoid in the remaining forms, and also gender-based references and Whereupon the defendant calm- because both parties are "You" you'll see these new forms in our ly removed his artificial right arm, in their respective affidavits; Uniform Domestic Relations handed it to the speechless therefore, a reader is usually Forms - Version 2 (UDRF2) judge, and walked out of the unable to ascertain at a glance and Ohio Guardianship Forms courtroom with his lawyer. PSS which party is “You” without (OGF5). PSS
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 7 pens, the ability of a dedicated app to reopen the file, make a change, and print the updated Apps vs. Web Forms form(s) in seconds is a substan- tial advantage over the court’s Why do I need a form-filling Form 12.1 (Certificate of Trans- Internet forms. application when the court fer), and Form 13.1 (Receipts & forms are free on the Internet? Disbursements). The same is Internet Problems. Web forms true for basic information like are subject to the vagaries of the That's a good question and there names, addresses, date of Internet such as File Not Found are some compelling reasons death, next of kin, etc. This infor- errors, web site problems ("Page why dedicated applications beat mation populates across all Not Available"), and Internet web forms hands down in law forms, not just a form. In the issues in general ("Can't Con- offices. case of the web forms, all this nect To Internet"). This is never information must be retyped, a problem with dedicated apps. Mathematical Deficiencies. If reentered, or copied and past- They're resident on your comput- this isn't the biggest drawback to ed—a waste of time that clients er and always accessible. the Internet forms, it's one of dislike paying for. them. The web PDF forms are Current Forms. Internet forms referred to as "dumb" templates. Limited Saving. Not all Internet are sometimes not up to date. One reason is that the forms forms have a save function, and For example, recently the don't do math. They can't even the ones that do can only save amended Certificate of Transfer add a simple column of num- the information on that particular had not appeared at all the vari- bers! On an inventory or ac- form. At a case's conclusion, you ous local Probate Court web count, when a client brings in end up with dozens of files. In a sites (or even the Ohio Supreme forgotten, unknown, or updated dedicated application, everything Court's web site) as of May information, the new information is stored in the same file. Think although the law became effec- changes the subtotal of property of the way a tax application tive January 1. of that type as well as the grand saves the entire complement of total for all property. With web taxpayer's forms in one file—not Incorrect Forms. Surprisingly, forms, the retotaling must be 50. sometimes the web forms do not done manually. Usually this comply with the Supreme Court's means completely retyping the Difficult Modifications. Of mandatory typographical specifi- form or using messy white out. course, if you can't save your cations. One oversight is the use With an application, you enter files—and not all court web of serif fonts when the Supreme the change and everything else forms do—modifications may Court's rules require sans serif updates automatically. Ready to require the use of correction fonts. There are many others. print in seconds. fluid. If you are able to save your files, you'll be able to enter the Missing Forms. Because the Repetitive Information. If lack change, but if the change is web forms are designed to be of math smarts isn't the most related to common information, generic and to be used by non- persuasive reason for avoiding like the spelling of a name, you'll attorneys, in many instances, web forms, perhaps it’s this. be required to make the correc- Judgment Entries or other forms With a dedicated application, tion over and over again in every used by law offices are missing. you enter repetitive information location and in every file in which once. A good example is a it occurs. In a dedicated applica- Bottom line. The Court's web lengthy legal description of real tion you make the change in a forms are not designed for fre- estate. Once entered in a dedi- central location and the change quent, professional use. Using a cated application, a simple perpetuates everywhere else dedicated app to prepare these mouse click allows you to send automatically and instantly. If forms has all the advantages the legal description and/or val- clients were perfect, they would mentioned above. Think about ue to Form 4.0 (Application for provide all the relevant facts and using a word processor instead Authority to Administer), Form documentation in the first inter- of a typewriter to draft a 40-page 6.0 (Inventory & Appraisal), view. Because that never hap- appellate brief. Which would you
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Feature Summary Free downloadable up- Ohio Child Support Guidelines grades.
A familiar look and feel—no See our YouTube demonstra- errors amounting to over learning curve. tion video. Search “puritas $1,000 in an annual order! ROCSG10 does it all and better. Works in all versions of Win- child support”. That’s why it’s Ohio’s number 1 dows including Windows 10, child support calculator. Windows 8, Windows 7, Cited by the American Bar
Vista & XP. Also available in a Association as the best soft- Cash Medical Support Mac OSX version (10.8 or ware for family lawyers. See page 1. higher; MS Word required). The worksheets were designed Short form worksheets— Compatible with Windows 10, to respond to Ohio’s increasing everything on one page. Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista number of families that couldn’t and Windows XP; Mac OSX afford health insurance on their Detailed error checking and 10.8 or higher (Microsoft Word children. As a result, the USDA’s alerts. is required for the Mac ver- Expenditures on Children by Shared Parenting Devia- sion). Families is used to estimate the tion—supports every imagina- cost of health-related expendi- ble adjustment algorithm. 200+ tures that a family incurs. These estimates are homogenized by Three statutory table lookup You're in good company when the Ohio Department of Job & methods. you purchase Revised Ohio Family Services into a table that provides a “cash medical sup- Annotated, statutory and Child Support Guidelines— port obligation.” The calculation abbreviated worksheets. Version 10 (ROCSG10). Our users include more than 200 of cash medical support also No annual subscription or courts, and government, educa- requires reference to the U.S. update fees. tion and non-profit agencies Department of Health & Hu- including domestic relations man Services Poverty Guide- Integrated instruction vid- courts, juvenile courts, probate lines to establish a limit on the eo—previously available for courts, child support enforce- amount that can be assessed as CLE credits, now free as a ment agencies, Department of “cash medical support.” As usu- noncredited training video. Human Services, Department of al, ROCSG10 does it all auto- Automatically calculates or- Job & Family Services, and matically—it’s all built into ders for combined incomes prosecutor's offices. ROCSG10 and updated auto- over $150,000. matically. The sidebar to the left covers Income Annualizer—from quite a bit, but it doesn’t cover Leave The Driving To Us paystub to annual income. everything ROCSG10 can do. Local Tax Calculator. For example, in order to give you Anyone attempting to complete an accurate calculation of the the worksheet by hand might Support Scheduler—track child care credit (line 19), com- think it’s more than a bit confus- and calculate payments, ar- plete federal and state income ing. Rightfully so. Don't worry rearages, and interest. tax calculations are built in. about it. ROCSG10 will save That’s right. ROCSG10 performs you hours of research and Performs Line 8 and the 5.6% federal/state income tax calcula- preparation time by doing all self-employment adjust- tions automatically. An app the collateral calculations and ments automatically. without this ability can make more. PSS Sends forms to your word processor for review, format- ting, printing, emailing, faxing, making PDFs, etc. PSS
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 CHILD SUPPORTLaw Office COMPUTATION Computing WORKSHEET Page 9 SOLE RESIDENTIAL PARENT OR SHARED PARENTING WORKSHEET
Name of Parties: JAMES SAMPLE & MARY MARTIN Case No. 13 DR 2341567 Number of Minor Children: 2 Date: April 25, 2017 The following parent was designated as residential parent and legal custodian: Sole Residential: -Mother -Father Shared: -Mother Obligor -Father Obligor
Line No. Father Mother Description Father Mother
INCOME Overtime & Bonuses (Line 1b) 1a Employment 55,000.00 25,900.00 O/T bonus year 3 0.00 0.00 1b Includible O/T 0.00 0.00 O/T bonus year 2 0.00 0.00 2a Gross receipts 0.00 0.00 O/T bonus year 1 0.00 0.00 2b Ordinary expenses 0.00 0.00 Average of 3 years 0.00 0.00 2c 5.8% of AGI 0.00 0.00 2d Adjusted AGI 0.00 0.00 Annual Contributing Cost Differential (Line 7b) 3 Interest/dividends 200.00 250.00 0.00 0.00 4 Unemployment comp 300.00 900.00 5 Workers comp 400.00 900.00 Adjustment For Resident Minor Children (Line 8) 6 Other income 500.00 900.00 Number of other children 1 2 7a Total gross income 56,400.00 27,500.00 Federal tax exemption 3,950.00 3,950.00 7b Health insurance max 2,820.00 1,375.00 Support Received 1,900.00 3,800.00 Local Taxes (Line 11) ADJUSTMENTS Income subject to tax 55,000.00 25,900.00 8 Other resident children 2,050.00 4,100.00 Tax rate 1.50% 2.00% 9 Support for other children 700.00 750.00 10 Spousal Support 900.00 950.00 Health & Human Services Poverty Guidelines (Line 14b) 11 Local taxes 825.00 518.00 Federal poverty level 11,670.00 11,670.00 12 Work deductions 0.00 0.00 150% of fed poverty level 17,505.00 17,505.00 13 Total adjustments 4,475.00 6,318.00 14a Adjusted gross income 51,925.00 21,182.00 Table Lookup Options (Line 17) 14b Cash medical support max 2,596.25 1,059.10 Low/Interpolate/High $13,194/$13,256/$13,267 15 Combined Income 73,107.00 Over $150,000 comb income No Limit No Limit 16 Percentage attributable to... 71.03% 28.97% Child Care Expenses (Line 19) OBLIGATION Total child care expenses 1,200.00 2,400.00 17 Basic obligation 13,255.68 Qualifying expenses 0.00 0.00 18 Annual obligation 9,415.51 3,840.17 Earned income 55,000.00 25,900.00 19 Child care expenses 1,200.00 2,400.00 Joint filer’s earned income 0.00 0.00 20a Marginal costs 1,900.00 1,950.00 Adjusted gross income 55,500.00 26,550.00 20b Cash med support 2,007.00 0.00 Number of children 2 2 Choose one: ADJUSTMENTS WHEN HEALTH INSURANCE IS PROVIDED Ignore low income limits Yes Yes 21 Additions 3,089.81 898.07 Use these tax liabilities No No 21 Subtractions 898.07 3,089.81 Federal tax liability 0.00 0.00 22 Annual obligation 11,607.25 0.00 State tax liability 0.00 0.00 23a Obligor’s obligation 11,607.25 0.00 Perform tax calculation No No 23b Non-means tested benefits 0.00 0.00 Filing status S S 23c Actual annual obligation 11,607.25 0.00 Deduction (standard/itemized) 0.00 0.00 Exemption 0.00 0.00 ADJUSTMENTS WHEN HEALTH INSURANCE IS NOT PROVIDED Alternate minimum tax 0.00 0.00 24 Additions 1,704.72 0.00 Foreign tax credit 0.00 0.00 24 Subtractions 911.69 0.00 Include Ohio credit 0.00 0.00 25 Obligation after adjustments 10,191.16 0.00 Calculated child care credit 0.00 0.00 26a Line 25a or 25b 10,191.16 0.00 Deviation (Line 27b) 26b Non-means tested benefits 0.00 0.00 Manual No No 26c Actual annual obligation 10,191.54 0.00 Amount 0.00 0.00 27a Deviation sole 0.00 0.00 Other options Yes No 27b Deviation shared -3,840.17 0.00 Offset obligations Yes No Time vs line 17 No No DECREE With Insurance Without Insurance Percentage 0.00% 0.00% 28 Final child support 7,767.08 6,350.99 Time vs line 23c/26c No No 29 For decree 660.21 539.83 Percentage 0.00% 0.00% 30 Final cash medical support 0.00 2,007.00 Include adjustments No No 31 For decree 0.00 170.59 Zero obligation No No
WEEKLY/MONTHLY BREAKDOWN Per Week Per Month Health Insurance Provided Per Child Total Per Child Total Child Support Obligation 74.68 149.37 323.63 647.26 Cash Medical Support 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Processing Charges 1.49 2.99 6.47 12.95 Total 76.17 152.36 330.10 660.21 Health Insurance Provided Child Support Obligation 61.07 122.13 264.62 529.25 Cash Medical Support 19.30 38.60 83.63 167.25 Processing Charges 1.61 3.21 6.96 13.93 Total 81.98 163.94 355.21 710.43
Short Form Example. This form contains all the information from six pages of statutory worksheets as well as all the collateral information required to perform the calculation. It also allows direct data entry so you can prepare a worksheet in seconds without tabbing, scrolling and paging.
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 10 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 Ohio Spousal Support
Cited by the American Bar income equalization analysis to support or argue against the Association as best software that is accurate to 1/100 of a court or opposing counsel’s posi- for family lawyers. See page 1. percent. tion, here’s the third place to look. In addition to our Windows 2. Support v. Lifestyle version (compatible with Win- 4. Set Spousal Support dows 10, Windows 8, Win- This report summarizes the dows 7, Windows Vista and information contained in the This screen lets you deviate Windows XP), this application ITSE form across a range of 28 from formulas and algorithms is also available in a native different spousal support and set your own spousal sup- Mac version (OSX 10.8 or amounts! We call it the Lifestyle port amount to be used in the tax higher) form because it provides an calculations, child support, and instructive comparison of each expense comparisons. You’re in Think of it as a pretrial/trial prep- party’s ability to meet essential control of the calculation, not aration tool because it does a lot and nonessential living the other way around. more than simply calculate expenses at various levels of spousal support. spousal support. You’ll also find 5. Child Support & Taxes this report to be one of the Spousal Support/Alimony most revealing. In cases where Included in OSSC is a child sup- spendable income doesn’t meet port calculator that is based on Following ORC § 3105.18(B), living expenses, the analysis the one in Revised Ohio Child Ohio Spousal Support Calcu- may benefit by distinguishing Support Guidelines. It’s fully lator (OSSC) provides a range between essential and nones- integrated into the spousal sup- of potential spousal support sential expenses. Because the port calculation and, while calcu- amounts with a tax analysis broken family necessarily impos- lating child support, it evaluates and income equalization con- es financial hardships related to its impact on spousal support siderations. A complete child supporting two households on and the tax consequences of the support calculation and needs- the income that previously exchange. All this information is based assessment of ability to supported one, categorizing incorporated into OSSC’s re- pay and sufficiency is also in- expenses as essential or ports, i.e., the ITSE and Lifestyle cluded. You can review the nonessential assumes increased forms. The Tax Issues section facts, results and rationale by importance in an assessment of has a breakdown of tax infor- viewing its 40+ pages of forms a party’s needs as it relates to mation related to who should and reports. the sufficiency of a suggested take the dependency exemp- spousal support amount to the tions and how it affects both 1. Income, Taxes, Support & recipient and the ability of the parties. Finally, from the Child Expenses (ITSE) obligor to pay. A sample is on Dependency Exemptions vs. the Demos/Downloads page of Taxes report, you can tell how A comparison of the parties’ our web site. best to split the exemptions. income along with personal and living expenses (essential and 3. Statutory Considerations Instructional Video nonessential). Both before-tax and after-tax information is More like a brief than an ac- OSSC includes a companion provided. Note that you can set counting spreadsheet, this report instructional video that was part a specific/agreed spousal sup- sets forth the ORC § 3105.18(B) of a course previously approved port amount and OSSC will give criteria and relates the particular by the Ohio Supreme Court for you the same analysis on this facts and circumstances of the 3.0 total CLE hours. Sorry, no form. See the facing page. Note case to each consideration. If CLE credits are available at this also that OSSC performs an you’re looking for a factual basis time. PSS Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 11
Husband: Ernest Clesample Case No.: 13-9384 Wife: Patricia Clesample Date: 4/25/2013 2014 Income, Taxes, Support & Expenses
Description Husband Wife Total
This page was calculated using the following support amounts: Spousal Support Obligation 12,129 0 Child Support Obligation 6,888 0
Income Taxable Payroll—Wage/Bonus/Commission/etc. 0 30,501 Other Taxable Income Spousal Support (this marriage) 0 12,129 Spousal Support (prior marriages) 0 0 Other 70,916 0 Total Taxable Income 70,916 42,630 113,546 Percentage of Total Combined Taxable Income 62,456% 37.544% Nontaxable Child Support Received (this marriage) 0 6,888 Child Support Received (prior marriages) 0 0 Other 10 0 Total Nontaxable Income 10 6,888 Total Income 70,926 49,518 120,444
Taxes & Support Payments Taxes Federal 6,484 2,329 Earned Income Credit 0 0 FICA/Medicare 0 2,333 State 1,714 974 Local 0 410 Total Income Taxes 8,198 6,046 14,244 Support Payments Spousal Support This marriage 12,129 0 Prior marriage(s) 0 0 Child Support This marriage 6,888 0 Prior marriage(s) 0 0 Total Taxes & Support Payments 27,215 6,046 33,261
Total Taxable & Nontaxable Income Adjusted for Taxes & Payment of Spousal & Child Support 43,711 43,472 87,183 Percentage of Total Taxable & Nontaxable Income with Adjustments 50.137% 49.863%
Essential Personal & Living Expenses Lodging (except lawn/snow service) 0 4,800 Utilities (except cable tv, cellular srvc, long distance) 0 3,600 Food & Household 0 9,000 Transportation Car Payment 0 0 Other (lease, gas, oil, maintenance, bus, etc.) 0 8,400 Health (including health insurance) 0 0 Other insurance (excluding auto, home & health) 0 0 Child-related (i.e., tuition, books, not including support) 0 0 Miscellaneous (i.e., clothing, education, insurance) 0 2,280 Debt (i.e., loans, credit cards) 0 0 Total Essential Living Expenses 0 28,080 28,080 Percentage of Total Essential Living Expenses 0.000% 100.000%
Income/Deficit After Taxes & Essential Living Expenses 43,711 15,392 59,103 Total Nonessential Living Expenses 0 1,320 Income/Deficit After Taxes & Nonessential Living Exps 43,711 14,072 57,783
These figures are based on yearly spousal support of $12,129 as indicated in the gray title at the top of the page; however, you can analyze any level of support by manually setting the support amount. On this page the tax consequences to the obligor and recipient should be obvious. In addition, you’ll see if the support recipient is able to meet necessary living expenses at that level of spousal support. And just as important, whether the obligor is able both to make payments and still meet his or her necessary living expenses. Other potentially vital infor- mation is the comparison of the relative ability of the parties to meet not only necessary expenses, but also ordi- nary but nonessential expenses. The above figures are for illustration only and may not be mathematically cor- rect for a given calendar year.
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 12 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 Missing Favorites Uniform Domestic You've installed your free Win- dows 10 update—wise if you Cited by the American Bar an end in itself, but producing had Windows 8, probably other- Association as best software forms more quickly and efficient- wise if you had Windows 7—and for family lawyers. See page 1. ly allows you to focus on what is now you're trying the new Edge important to you. browser (successor to Internet In July 2010, the Ohio Supreme Explorer) and wondering where Court adopted domestic rela- Features the Favorites bar went. (Come tions forms which enabled judg- to think of it, wasn't the Favor- es and attorneys to enjoy state- •Works in All Windows. Devel- ites bar hidden by default in wide uniformity in the reporting oped in and optimized for Win- Internet Explorer?) No matter, of financial information, health dows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 we found the Favorites bar to insurance, and other child- and Vista, UDRF2 runs in all 64- be one of the handiest features related information in family law or 32-bit versions of Windows. of Internet Explorer by providing proceedings. See the Product UDRF2 comes in a Mac version access to frequently visited sites Information page of our web that requires OSX version 10.8 in one click. Sure, there's tabbed site for which forms are included. or higher and Microsoft Word. browsing, but there are times In 2013, those forms were ex- •General Information Work- when you've got more sites than panded to include almost all sheet for assembling and auto- would be appropriate for sepa- commonly used DR forms from matically completing the com- rate tabs. And sometimes having petitions for dissolution and com- mon, repetitive fields. too many "open" tabs can bog plaints for divorce to final judg- down your browser. Conse- ment entries. •Auto-Text-Fit. If you've got a bit quently, the Favorites bar be- more information than will fit on came one of our most-used In- Better Looking Forms Faster a line, UDRF2 will automatically ternet Explorer features. Would you prepare a 40-page shrink the font size until it fits. brief on your typewriter instead of your word processor? Of •Exports all forms (blank or Thankfully, Microsoft didn't get course not. One of the primary completed) to your word pro- rid of it. They simply hid it— advantages of word processors cessor for printing, faxing, again. Here's how to get it back: is the ease with which you can emailing or making PDFs (PDF- make revisions. If clients were making functionality dependent 1. In Edge, click on the More perfect and brought all the infor- on your word processor or own- Actions drop-down menu—it's mation you needed in the first ing Adobe Acrobat). the "..." icon in the upper right appointment, and never exag- corner. gerated or omitted any infor- When it comes to drafting do- mation, you could probably muck mestic relations forms and docu- through with a typewriter. But the ments, UDRF2 is way ahead of 2. Choose Settings from the real world isn’t like that. Uniform whatever's in second place. After drop-down menu. Domestic Relations Forms— all, not every domestic case you Version 2 (UDRF2) allows you handle requires high mainte- 3. Toggle the Show the favor- to make changes, corrections nance. More often it's in the ites bar option to On. and additions quickly and client's best interests to resolve easily without messy white- their domestic relations issues out, or mismatched or misa- with a minimum of anxiety and That’s it. You’re back in business ligned typewriter fonts. With cost. In uncontested cases this with all your frequently-visited UDRF2 you just type and print. usually means completing a sites just a click away. PSS case expeditiously with an ap- Saving Time Means Saving $ propriate investment of time The creation of professional while maintaining the highest looking forms can be considered (Continued on page 13)
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 13 Relations Forms OneNote
(Continued from page 12) claim, affidavits, separation (Continued from page 2) level of quality and professional- agreement, judgment entry, In OneNote, a note is essentially ism. That's where UDRF2 parenting plan and more. All in a page and any number of pag- shines. Here’s how. one file. By contrast, web forms es can be grouped in a folder can only be saved as individual (although folders cannot be Avoiding Arithmetic. In hun- files. That means your client placed within other folders). It's a dreds of places, throughout over information is scattered in differ- familiar paradigm, so there's little 150 pages of forms, UDRF2 ent files. In fact, it’s often neces- or no learning curve. does all the math. Change a sary to save files on a page-by- number and UDFR2 updates all page basis so that the infor- When we tried it out, we found the dependent subtotals and mation in one form may be scat- that what we thought might be a totals instantaneously. tered in several files—easy to waste of time (like having a solu- make mistakes and easy to lose tion and looking for a problem), Automatic Continuation Pag- information. That never happens turned out to be handier than es. If you've ever used the with UDRF2. expected. We began by taking court's web forms, you know that all the paper notes and lists we space is at a premium. UDRF2 Changes. Changes can involve had laying around and type them avoids the problem by providing messy correction fluid or reopen- into OneNote. These notes were over 50 continuation schedules ing the file (if you could save it in on quarter-size sheets and usu- for overflow information. The the first place). If the change ally consisted of a few words or court's web forms have none; involves dollar amounts, things a sentence or two. We also in- you’ll be forced to create your get more involved because the cluded notes we had created as own and integrate them textually Affidavits in particular usually small, individual word processing and mathematically. involve categorizing, subtotaling documents. They were scattered and totaling monetary amounts. on the desktops of several com- Single Entry System. Another With web forms you'll need to puters and selected folders. major league advantage is hunt down all the dependent UDRF2's handling of repetitive fields and continuation pages If re-typing your existing notes information. UDRF2 transfers and update their totals. With seems more trouble than it’s this information (like party UDRF2, you simply make the worth, notes can be dictated with names, case numbers, and a change and press
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 14 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 Sending Basic Ohio This article should interest both veteran and rookie users of our Web Forms 3. Using web forms is slow probate apps including Basic and mistake-prone. It goes Ohio Probate Forms, Cuya- We’re sometimes asked what without saying that if you can hoga County Probate Forms, the difference is between our make one change instead of a Franklin County Probate probate app and the court’s web dozen, you can work faster. As Forms, Ohio Guardianship forms. It’s a legitimate question we mentioned, with WBOPF you Forms, Ohio Adoption Forms, and the answer in two words make one change and it updates and Ohio Wrongful Death and is—speed and efficiency. All all the other occurrences. There- Minor's Claims. successful probate practices, fore, when you’re not re-typing, large and small, use software to you don’t risk making a mis- Of course all the apps listed prepare their forms. Here’s why: take—get it right once and above can produce print-shop- you’re good to go. perfect forms that are ready to 1. With the court’s web forms, be signed and filed with the changes made after a form is 4. The Court’s PDF forms can- court; there are, however, a few completed are time- not be saved when completed. tricks you can employ to make consuming and difficult to Unless you own Adobe Acrobat your forms better looking and make. Perfect clients are few ($500), you usually can’t save easier to read. For inventories and far between. The infor- completed web forms; you can and accountings this can be a mation clients bring in is some- only print them. Even with Ado- decided advantage. times inaccurate and needs to be, only individual forms can be be corrected, or trails in late and saved easily. So at the end of Because a picture's worth a must be added. With the court’s the probate case, you have your thousand words, we're saving web forms, if you need to make client information scattered in 40 approximately 2,000 words by changes, you have two choices: different files! With WBOPF, all providing links illustrating two either do it over or white it out your probate data is in one file. It sample guardianship ac- and correct it on a typewriter. can be saved, copied, and trans- countings. They're identical in With WBOPF, it’s like using a ported easily. content, but you’ll appreciate at word processor. Make the a glance that one is much easier change and press
you change a value, all relevant probate forms and worksheets. Method 2. The items in this subtotals and totals update auto- You won’t need training or in- accounting were sub-arranged in matically and instantly. It’s so structional videos. Just start at (Continued on page 15) simple it only takes a second. the top and work to the bottom. Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 15
(Continued from page 14) chronological order, but were Probate Forms grouped in asset-order as shown in the link below:
Next of Kin & Legatees. Over single-entry system that avoids https://www.puritas-springs.com/ half the standard probate forms retyping. help/ogf5/account_example_2.pdf involve the spouse, kin and lega- tees, so your probate program Capable of sending forms There's nothing "wrong" with should complete all the neces- to your word processor for Method 1. It's simply that Meth- sary notices, consents and review, formatting and printing, od 2 is an obvious improve- waivers. WBOPF does exactly or spell-checking, grammar- ment. Here's how we did it. that. If you have 40 beneficiar- checking, emailing, faxing, ies, WBOPF completes all the making PDFs, etc. The function- Carriage Returns. It's all about appropriate notices, consents ality of your word processor is carriage returns. By placing two and waivers, etc. with a mouse the only limitation. If you’ve nev- carriage returns (that's the click. er used this function, you don’t
In recent years, we've recog- Chapter 1 - Introduction (5:31 Deviation (17:07 minutes): nized that the Internet can be minutes): https://youtu.be/BjGkNUpYWZw used to make support infor- https://youtu.be/7W3Iqy_Kel0 mation available to our users Final Decree (3:28 minutes): 24/7. Specifically, the develop- Chapter 2 - Getting Started/ https://youtu.be/1rSUaRLzMKk ment of YouTube in 2005 made The Start Screen (10:49 publication of educational mate- minutes): Income (21:20 minutes): rials readily accessible. https://youtu.be/a4enBpNxGxU https://youtu.be/x6U7IhoL2rw
With the addition of our latest Chapter 3 - Income (8:52 Introduction (2:38 minutes): instructional video related to minutes): https://youtu.be/uJkWEPxk8x8 Uniform Domestic Relations https://youtu.be/iqb9TT05Aqc Forms, we decided it was time Main Window (4:55 minutes): to issue a directory of videos that Chapter 4 - Adjustments to https://youtu.be/0-fCwQHa0BU are currently available. Income (16:40 minutes): https://youtu.be/0kY021_F_pY With Insurance (7:58 minutes): Although we are including the https://youtu.be/Wa7U3C1TkQo links to these videos in this arti- Chapter 5 - Addendum to cle, the links are long and com- Chapters 1 through 4 (17:11 Without Insurance (2:38 plicated because the URLs gen- minutes): minutes): erated by YouTube are com- https://youtu.be/uuF1QNOCDrI https://youtu.be/ZD8_CBznXeI posed of randomly generated characters and numbers. There- Chapter 6 - Adjustments to Demonstration Videos fore, you may find it easier to Child Support (14:19 minutes): locate them by visiting YouTube https://youtu.be/e5kGMd3__f0 Ohio Uniform Domestic Rela- (www.youtube.com) and search- tions Forms (14:39 minutes) ing “Puritas Springs Software.” Chapter 7 - Deviation (11:52 Demonstrates a few key features minutes): of Version 2 of our UDRF app: Training Videos https://youtu.be/Z5MtscrREl8 https://youtu.be/cj8CuH7Tr5M
Revised Ohio Child Support Instructional Videos 2016 Ohio Spousal Support Guidelines (ROCSG) Calculator (11:27 minutes) This set of videos is directed at Revised Ohio Child Support A quick tour through a simple beginning users who are new to Guidelines spousal support calculation us- our child support application or This set of videos closely follows ing 2016 OSSC: to the child support worksheets the training videos listed above. https://youtu.be/-lK2drIUOA8 in general. They are excellent With some variations, their con- videos for training law office tent is nearly identical; therefore, Ohio Child Support Calcula- personnel in the use of the child if you’ve watched the training tion Software (9:43 minutes) support calculation application. videos, you can skip these in- A brief walk through a typical Users of the current Version 10 structional videos and vice ver- child support calculation using will note that although the sub- sa. ROCSG: ject matter is in accordance with https://youtu.be/slpIFifz4S4 current law, portions of the video Adjustments to Income (29:52 are taken from a video which minutes): Revised Ohio Child Support was creating using screen shots https://youtu.be/s-_doUJaeoM Guidelines—Version 10 (10:36 from a prior version. Regardless, minutes) A demonstration of the the principles and procedures Caption (6:26 minutes): latest version: are applicable to Version 10. https://youtu.be/r6Avp4iPoSY https://youtu.be/Y6s-nQ2BxFs
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 17 Marital U.S. Estate Tax Maxims
With U.S. Estate Tax (P706), we All calculations are per- She's on her way to Reno, the followed the Puritas Springs formed dynamically and land of the free and the grave of Software philosophy—create an automatically. the home. easy-to-use, reasonably priced program for small- and medium- Includes the new Form 8971 ----———— sized law offices. P706 is the for reporting distributions to beneficiaries. She's suing for divorce because other component of our Probate the man who was once her Combo. The Combo is de- Includes Schedules A suitor no longer suits her. signed to let you import infor- through R-1, worksheets mation from our probate pro- (Ln 9 & TG), and 20 custom ----———— gram into P706. This lets you continuation pages for better He wants a divorce on the complete your probate forms organization and ground that her upkeep is his and estate tax more professional downfall; he was fast on the return from a single looking printouts. deposit, but she was quicker on set of entries! If Worksheets for the draw. there was ever a probate time saver, beneficiaries, ----———— the Combo is it. assets and debts. See the products Each worksheet His ground for divorce: for their and prices listed on allows you to work anniversary she gave him a set the inside back with centrally locat- of luggage--packed. ed information that you can cover for the discounted pack- ----———— age price. effortlessly enter and change. She's not divorcing him be- Check Return reviews nearly Windows 10, Window 8, cause there's another man in 100 IRS rules and reminders Windows 7, Vista & XP com- her life. It's just that she's deter- for testing a tax return before patible. Also compatible with mined there will be. Mac OSX (10.8 or higher and filing. PSS MS Word required). ----————
Produces print-shop-perfect They're in divorce court be- forms on any printer. cause they regard their mar- riage tie as a forget-me-knot.
----————
In Good Humor They forgot that in "wedding" the "we" comes before the "I."
Actual Testimony following the Friday in November ----———— before referred to, communicate Attorney: Did you, or did you to your wife the information ac- She was unhappily married, but not, on the aforementioned day, quired and repeat the conversa- now that she's begun receiving Friday, November 4th, felonious- tion overheard on that occasion spousal support she's happily ly and with malicious afore- with the result that the gossip of unmarried. thought listen at the keyhole of your wife gave wide and far ----———— the tenth-floor front condomini- currency to the overheard con- um, then occupied as a resi- versation before mentioned? Did No sooner did they say “I do” dence by the defendant in this you, or did you not? Answer yes than they started to look around action on Eighty-Sixth Street or no. to see if they could do better. near West End Avenue, and did PSS you not also, on the Wednesday Witness: Huh? PSS Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 18 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1
OneNote U.S. Income Tax for Estates & Trusts
(Continued from page 13) Windows 10, 8, 7 & Mac OSX Mandatory Electronic Filing computer, or a list that we left on compatible (Mac Version re- A return is considered filed by a a desk on a different floor or in a quires MS Word). tax return preparer if the prepar- different building. No problem. er “submits” the return to the IRS With OneNote, your notes are How can we sell a Form 1041 on the taxpayer's behalf. In the saved automatically and are program for $49.99? words of the IRS: available on all your computers-- including tablet and phone devic- Because we designed it specifi- The act of submission includes es. We found the free phone app cally for preparing returns of the preparer dropping the return very convenient. small- to medium-sized estates in the mailbox for the taxpayer and trusts, U.S. Income Tax for but does NOT include acts Media Compatibility. You can Estates & Trusts (P1041) is such as providing filing or deliv- type text into a note. You can perfect for handling the types of ery instructions, an addressed insert a picture into a note. You returns that law offices and non- envelope, postage estimates, can draw on a note. You can professionals typically prepare. stamps, or similar acts designed drag a file onto a note. And you P1041 gives you the ability to to assist the taxpayer in the tax- can dictate a note. All these can prepare great looking forms with payer's efforts to correctly mail things can be done without much a minimum software investment. or otherwise deliver an individual restriction. We found that when The reality for most law offices is income tax return to the IRS. we dropped a file into OneNote, that complicated returns are it made a copy of the file. This is typically referred to accountants These acts do not constitute great if you’re at a different com- anyway, so why spend big bucks filing by the tax return prepar- puter and wish to open an Excel for an app designed to handle er as long as the taxpayer actu- or Word file that you normally those types of returns? For the ally mails or otherwise delivers wouldn’t be able to access. The other 99% of commonly-filed the paper individual income tax downside is that if the original returns, P1041 is perfect! return to the IRS. PSS file were updated, the OneNote copy would not have the chang- es. We found it handy nonethe- less. Included Forms & Schedules
Global Searching. A nice extra Forms & Schedules Worksheets was the inclusion of a Find com- Form 1041 U.S. Estate & Trust—Page 1 Form 1041-ES Estimated Tax mand that searches through U.S. Estate & Trust—Page 2 Schedule D Unrecaptured Sec 1250 Gain your collection of notes and dis- Schedule A Charitable Deduction Schedule D Tax Worksheet plays the results. Schedule B Income Distribution Deduction Schedule D Qualified 5-Year Gain Schedule G Tax Computation Schedule D Capital Loss Carryover Is there really a need for an ap- Schedule I Alternative Minimum Tax Schedule D 28% Rate Gain plication like this? We think the Schedule J Accumulation Distribution ... answer is yes. We’ll keep using Schedule K-1 Beneficiary’s Share Continuation Schedules it and let you know what we think Form 1041-A Informational Return Form 1041 Line 1 Interest Income after a few months in our month- Form 1041-ES Estimated Tax Vouchers Form 1041 Line 2a Dividend Income ly email version of Law Office Form 1041-QFT Qualified Funeral Trusts Form 1041 Line 15a Other Deductions Computing. If you don’t already Form 1041-T Allocation of Estimated Payments Form 1041 Line 15b Subject to 2% subscribe, visit our web site and Form 8949 Sales & Other Dispositions ... Form 8949 Sales & Other Dispositions ... click on the Join Email link. PSS Miscellaneous Complete published IRS Instructions for Form 1041 & associated schedules. Complete IRS Publication 950-Introduction to Estate & Gift Taxes Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 19 OCR Ohio Fiduciary Tax Forms
Windows 10, Window 8, Win- sion list in the preceding para- I'm unable to print the OCR dows 7, Vista and Windows graph, it should file a return. forms in Ohio Fiduciary Tax. XP compatible. As a practitioner, you can per- The short answer is to print one Also available in a Mac OSX form an analysis as to whether a page at a time from PIT1041 version (Mac Version requires tax return is required, or be safe instead of preview/printing all OSX 10.8 or higher and MS and protect your client by filing a the pages simultaneously. Word). return. The long answer is that comput- Who Must File? For most trusts and estates it er-generated tax forms have makes sense to file a return. evolved from mono-spaced, 80 The Ohio Department of Taxa- character wide, substitute forms tion provides: A Return In Seconds of the 1980s (requiring about 4K of memory), to facsimiles that In general, all Ohio estates If you have prepared a return duplicated the look of the pub- having any taxable income using companion app U.S. In- lished form (raising the memory must file an Ohio Fiduciary come Tax for Estates & Trusts threshold to around 100KB), to Income Tax Return. (P1041), preparing a print-shop- OCR forms which can be "read" perfect, profes- by optical character recognition Trusts. All trusts sional-looking hardware (sometimes requiring meeting ANY Ohio return takes up to 8MB of memory)! ONE or more of only seconds the following because you can Why the OCR requirement? Its requirements import the rele- purpose is to allow the ODOT to must file: vant tax infor- assimilate returns into their mation from the system without the man-hour The trust re- companion feder- investment which would require sides in Ohio, al app (P1041) manual data entry. or directly into Ohio Fiduciary Tax The bottom line is that these The trust earns or receives (PIT1041). "larger" forms require signifi- income in Ohio, or cantly more printer resources The trust earns/receives lot- There’s no learning curve. than is typically needed to print tery winnings paid by the Ohio PIT1041 resembles our ever- letters or briefs, for example. Lottery Commission, or popular United States Income Unfortunately, often printers Tax for Estates and Trusts. It's found in law offices are not The trust otherwise has a perfect for completing the kinds designed for or purchased for nexus with or in Ohio under of returns that law offices typical- the purpose of handling the U.S. Constitution. ly handle. Budget-priced at graphics, and therefore do not $49.99, it pays for itself with the always possess the requisite Note that certain trusts are ex- first return you prepare. memory. That’s why printing cluded from the filing require- one page at a time works. ments: grantor, charitable re- Note that PIT1041 can print the mainder, retirement, funeral, and entire basic form set (including The future? The OCR format a few other trusts. the required OCR forms) and may already be outdated by performs all calculations auto- digital formats that allow a A good rule of thumb is that if a matically. PSS form’s content to be transmitted trust “resides” in Ohio, has in- electronically, thus replacing the come, and is not on the exclu- paper form entirely. PSS
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 20 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 30th Continued Ohio Adoption Forms (Continued from page 3) there were no secrets. Long Ohio Adoption Forms Exports all forms (blank or hours played a big part, espe- (Adopt4)—a good choice for completed) to your word cially in the beginning. “I was preparing adoption probate processor for printing, faxing, putting in 12- to 16-hour work forms. emailing, spell-checking, days, seven days a week, but if grammar-checking, or mak- FEATURES you’re fortunate enough to love ing PDFs. what you’re doing, it doesn’t Adult Adoption Forms In- seem like work and it doesn’t For Windows 10, Windows cluded – Forms 19.0, 19.01 wear on you like a job you dis- 8, Windows 7, Vista and XP. and 19.1 are included in addi- like.” Also available in a Mac ver- tion to the standard probate sion (OSX 10.8 or higher and adoption forms. See the com- MS Word is required). Zore observed that there are plete list of forms below. many talented attorneys in prac- Future minor upgrades are tice, and many brilliant program- General Information Work- downloaded and installed mers, and he believes his mod- sheet for managing, assem- automatically at no cost. est level of success was predi- bling and automatically popu- For the distinct advantages cated on his unique skill- lating common general infor- of our smart forms vs. the web combination as a programmer mation to the adoption form forms, see page 14. PSS and an attorney. set.
Accounting Work- “I was lucky from the standpoint sheet. Easier to use that my transition from law office than ever before. to software development compa- ny did not require taking any Auto-Text-Fit. If drastic steps. I was able to do you've got a bit more what in music production is information than will called a cross-fade—one part fit on a given line, fades out while another fades in. Adopt4 will automati- cally shrink the font Ernie says he’d like to think the size until the text fits creation and development of the designated field PSS happened in accordance to give your forms a with some pre-arranged busi- clean, professional ness plan, but such is not the look. case:
“I began developing software because I was fascinated by it in Included Forms & Schedules light of my science background in college. I never thought it General Information Worksheet Form 18.9 Petitioner’s Account would evolve to be my main Form 18.0 Petition for Adoption of Minor Form 18.9 Petitioner’s Account Con’t Pg business.” Form 18.1 Judgment Entry Setting Hearing Form 19.0 Petition for Adoption of Adult Form 18.2 Notice of Hearing Form 19.01 Judgment Entry ... Being in the right place at the Form 18.3 Consent to Adoption Form 19.1 Final Order of Adult Adoption right time also helped in a big Form 18.4 Judgment Entry Finding ... Petition of Foreign Adoption way. The desktop computer was Form 18.5 Interlocutory Order of Adoption Consent to Name Change introduced in October 1981 and Form 18.6 Final Decree of Adoption … Affidavit of Adopted Person by 1986 Zore had developed the Form 18.7 Final Decree of Adoption … HEA 2757 Certificate of Adoption (Continued on page 22) Form 18.8 Adoption Certificate for Parents Adoption Expense Worksheet Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 21 Handling Ohio Guardianship Forms Co-Guardians
Years of Free Upgrades? Auto-Text-Fit. OGF5 will How do you handle co- automatically shrink text to fit guardians in Ohio Guardian- That's what Ohio Guardianship in the allotted space. ship Forms (OGF5)? Forms—Version 5 (OGF5) users received when they pur- Exports all forms (blank or We designed the OGF5 forms to chased OGF5. Of course, we completed) to your word comply with the typographical can't guarantee that the guardi- processor for printing, faxing, specifications that are set forth in anship forms won’t be over- emailing, spell-checking & Rules 51 and 52 of the Ohio hauled next week, next month or grammar-checking, or mak- Supreme Court's Rules for the next year, but if the version his- ing PDFs. Superintendence of Common tory means anything, you'll get Pleas Courts. The specifications excellent mileage from OGF5. For the advantages of our are quite particular about the During the extended life cycle of smart forms over the court’s look and layout of the forms. Our prior versions, we were happy web forms, see page 14 of goal is to follow those specifica- and able to provide our custom- this issue. tions as closely as possible, and ers with free upgrades and no those forms have only one sig- annual maintenance fees. A Don’t Repeat This! nature line for the guardian. very consumer-friendly rec- ord. Over the life of Version 4, Enter basic information once. Because we must adhere to the the annual cost of ownership OGF5 automatically completes Supreme court’s specs, we can’t was about $24 per year! Can the forms based on your entries simply add more signature lines. you beat that for top notch legal (i.e., guardian and ward’s name, Therefore, we recommend com- software? address, etc.). Enter assets and pleting the guardian's fields on expenses once. Send the the General Information Work- Features entries to the appropriate forms sheet, i.e., name, address, by pointing and clicking. That phone, etc., with information of For Windows 10, Windows means entering lengthy real both guardians, separating the 8, Windows 7, Vista and XP. estate legal descriptions and data with a pipe (|), slash (/) or Also available in a Mac Ver- similar items only one time. similar character, for example: sion (OSX 10.8 or higher; MS "John A. Smith | Mary T. Wil- Word is required for Mac ver- Virtually Unlimited Form Cop- liams." sion only). ies and Continuation Schedules. Complete, display This works out well and there is Attorney Fees. OGF5 keeps and print nearly limitless usually plenty of room for the co- track of your time and services multiples of most waivers, guardians to sign next to each and prepares an Application notices, bank certificates, etc. other on the signature line above for Attorney Fees with sup- The same goes for continuation their printed names. porting itemized statement. pages of the inventory and accounting forms. In some jurisdictions, we've been One click access to on-line informed that the court allows stock and mutual fund valu- Want A Discount? You can only one address. So the tech- ations. now purchase OGF5 as part of nique described above may not our Probate Combo or Probate be necessary for the address Conservatorships – including Triple Pack and receive an ad- and phone fields. Check with the Forms 20.0 through 20.2. ditional discount from the al- clerk's office to be sure. PSS ready low price. See page 47 Revised worksheets for (the inside back cover) of this processing financial infor- issue for price information. PSS mation. Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 22 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 30th Continued Wrongful Death & Minor’s Claims
(Continued from page 20) Here’s a short list of handy fea- Auto-Text-Fit. If you have a programming skills necessary to tures that make Wrongful Death bit more information than will write his own applications. At & Minor’s Claims—Version 5 fit in a form’s given space, that time there wasn’t the in- (Minor5)—an excellent choice Minor5 will automatically tense competition there is now, for preparing your probate forms. shrink the font size until the where certain areas of develop- text fits. ment—i.e., income tax soft- FEATURES ware—have been largely taken For the many advantages of over by mega companies like Automatic form completion– our smart probate forms over Intuit, the publishers of Turbo you complete our worksheets, the court web forms, see page Tax. and Minor5 completes the 14 of this issue. forms, including both text and “That’s not an inherently bad math. Network Versions Available thing. Some areas can best be at a discount. Call for details. addressed by a large company Time & Services Work- with unlimited resources. In the sheet—prepares a computa- Download minor updates same way that large law firms tion of attorney fees with item- free automatically. See web may be better equipped to han- ized statement and Applica- site for free upgrade eligibility dle certain types of cases. tion and Judgment Entry. details. Smaller companies like mine adapted by moving toward nich- Export forms to your word Windows 10, Windows 8, Win- es. processor for spell- dows 7, Vista and Windows checking, grammar- XP compatible. Also available “The key was giving attention to checking, printing, faxing, in a Mac OSX version (Mac areas that were not profitable for emailing, editing or making version requires OSX 10.8 or a company that requires a larger PDFs. higher and MS Word). PSS market in order to recoup devel- opment costs and maintain sup- port resources. Small companies succeed by focusing on products Included Forms & Schedules and/or services that are difficult for larger companies to execute. Wrongful Death Form 22.1 Waiver & Consent Our ability to perform remote Form 14.0 Application to Approve … Entry Approving Settlement assistance on a moment’s notice Form 14.0 Kin Continuation Page Verification of Receipt … at no cost to customers allows us to solve even the most stub- Form 14.0 Claimant Continuation Page Verification Continuation Page born issues in a fraction of the Form 14.01 Entry Setting Hearing Report of Distribution time it would normally take.” Form 14.1 Waiver and Consent Miscellaneous Form 14.1 Continuation Page General Information Wrksht That’s the story of our 30-year Form 14.2 Entry Approving Settlement Settlement Accounting Wrksht ride from a Cleveland basement Form 14.3 Report of Distribution Time & Services Worksheet on the site of Puritas Springs Form 14.3 Net Proceeds Continuation List of Medical Expenses Amusement Park to this 48- Form 14.4 Entry Approving Report … List of Suit Expenses page catalog with over 20 legal and tax applications—and we’re Fiduciary List of Time & Services sticking to it. PSS Form 15.7 Application for Authority … Retainer Agreement Minor’s Claims Application for Attorney Fees Form 22.0 Application to Settle … Judgment Entry … Form 22.01 Entry Setting Hearing
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 23 Letter Of Loan Amortizer The Law Before a Pennsylvania-Columbia Everything a law office wants Balloon Payments game at Baker Field a "happy" and needs in loan amortizing group of Penn students were software. Amortizer2 handles balloon maneuvering a topless jalopy up payments better than most and down the sidewalk, bran- Previewing/Printing amortization programs. Instead dishing a jug and cheering for of scanning page upon page of Penn. That was until a Manhat- If you’re preparing real estate hard copy to determine the bal- tan policeman stopped them, documents and want to amortize ance on a specific date, Amor- reached into the car, and re- a loan to obtain the monthly tizer2 has the balloon amount moved the keys from the igni- payment amount, you may de- up top where you can see it. tion. Too nonplussed to protest, pend on Loan Amortizer— the boys obeyed his order to get Version 2 (Amortizer2). You Consumer Friendliness out, and meekly followed him to won’t just get the bottom line a nearby stationery store. numbers like some calculators Here’s a neat feature. Click the provide. Amortizer2 gives you Impact of making extra mort- "Got a buck?" he asked. They an itemized spreadsheet view of gage payments button and produced a dollar and the officer each and every payment with you’ll see a dialog like the one bought a stamped envelope. running balance in the entire below. Enter the amount of an "Let's see yer drivers' license." schedule. It’s compatible with all extra payment and Amortizer2 The boys handed them over. Windows word processors. will tell you how much you save The policeman put the ignition over the life of the loan. PSS key and licenses in the enve- Excellent Length of Ser- lope, wrote the owner's vice name and address on it. Then he walked outside, Owners of earlier versions dropped the whole thing in enjoyed eight years of free the mailbox—and went upgrades with no annual back to directing traffic. maintenance fees or other PSS charges. Effective Cost of Ownership—under $5 per year.
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 24 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 DIY For Law Offices
If you've spent any amount of Microsoft Publisher, that's not a effort to make the issue repro- time in a business office, you minor issue. It's an major road- ducible. In the context of our should be able to consider any block in the workflow. HP, the problem would occa- piece of hardware or software— sionally disappear for extended almost without exception—and Constant Contact periods of time. However, note identify some shortcoming. that even issues appearing to Sometimes the fault may be a Constant Contact is the widely occur randomly often have the minor annoyance; in other cases used and nationally advertised same cause, and that makes it may be a near fatal flaw. bulk email service. We've seen them repeatable (at least once less crashes at a demolition the cause is discovered). Hewlett-Packard Printers derby. Simply using the bold and italics commands in too Overheating is a good example. You’ll find HP printers in almost rapid succession causes a crash A computer that overheats may every law office, so you’d be and reload of the page. After you appear to shut down randomly, justified in expecting their perfor- lose your work a few times, but the cause is the same--at mance to be nearly flawless. you're primed to kill! If this only some point the computer gets Oddly enough, we’ve found that happens once per session, we too hot and the CPU shuts off not to be. Case in point is that considered ourselves lucky. the computer as a self- we've had two HP laser printers preservation measure. in a row beset by the same prob- Those are three common exam- lem. At some seemingly random ples and we've got many more A solution is usually easy to find time, the printer would display contending for honorable men- once you identify the problem. In "Initializing ...". That's it, until you tion, but why continue? You’ve the case of overheating, you can restarted the printer. Worse still, got the drift and can probably lower the CPU temperature by the first HP printer eventually add your own items to our short purchasing an external fan went one step further by return- list of complaints. So what can ($11.95). We did just that with ing to the “Initializing …” screen you do about it? In answer to one of the computers in our lab. immediately after restarting. Of this question we’ve got some Once the fan was in place, the course, that was the end of the good tips. mysterious—seemingly ran- road for the printer because the dom—shut downs ceased. Per- cost of repair was ill-advised In the Information Age, being a haps an easier to diagnose ex- when compared to the cost of a detective is not that difficult. ample of reproducibility is: "the new printer. You can imagine Sometimes it’s rather easy to app crashes every time I use the our reaction when the replace- ferret out solutions with a mini-
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 25 Political Deed & Document Pro Quotables Windows 10, Window 8, Win- two. Now you can move freely St. Paul Mayor, Jim Scheibel: dows 7, Vista and Windows from field to field without needing I'm not indecisive. Am I indeci- XP compatible. Also available to proceed question by question. sive? in a Mac OSX version (Mac Enter your client information ——————- version requires OSX 10.8). directly on the form and move Both Windows & Mac versions on. If you don't know what goes New York Governor Mario require MS Word. where, each field has an at- Cuomo: If an offer [for an ap- tached help button that supplies pointment to the Supreme The Cost of Ownership. About the same information that was Court] were made, I would an- $1 per month; actually $13.94 previously provided via the wiz- swer the question so swiftly that per year which is not a bad price ard. You can complete the fields every one of you in the media, for about 150 pages of deeds in any order that's convenient for and especially talk-show hosts, and other essential legal docu- you. would write, "This, surely, is the ments that are hand picked for most decisive man in America. sole practitioners and small Easier Template Modifica- Reporter: Would you accept the firms. That's what it cost users tions. Make it "your" Deed6 by offer? who purchased Version 5 in customizing any and all of the Governor Cuomo: I don't know 2010 and received free updates deed and document templates. what the answer would be. until the release of Version 6 in Any changes you make become ——————- 2016! a permanent part of President George H.W. Bush: Updated Deed6. Let me be clear, I'm not in favor Forms. We of new taxes. I'll repeat that reviewed, YouTube over and over and over again. updated and Demo. If And this one compromise that-- reformatted you'd like to where we begrudgingly had to the entire see Deed6 accept revenue, revenue in- collection of in action, creases, is the exception that commonly we've pub- proves the rule ... used deeds lished a Reporter: What rule? and docu- short, 10- Bush: The rule that I'm strongly ments, in- minute vid- opposed to raising taxes. cluding es- eo showing ——————- tate planning documents like a what it can do and how it can power of attorney, living will help you generate deeds and Secretary of Homeland Secu- declaration, durable power of other legal documents more rity Michael Chertoff: When a attorney for health care, wills, precisely and quickly. storm hits, the best place to be trusts and more. The complete is out of the path of the storm. list of forms is too long to include Microsoft Word. Deed6 is de- Senator Bill Frist: [This is] the here, but you'll find a complete signed to work seamlessly with most expensive redevelopment index on the Deed & Document Microsoft Word. And because project the country has ever Pro (Deed6) product information that's where you do all your final seen. I would think, and predict, page of our web site. editing, formatting and printing, that it is going to cost money. you'll feel right at home in the ——————- New Interface. Instead of sepa- law office application you know rate wizard and document win- best—your word processor. After President George W. Bush dows, we've continued the evo- all is said and done, the best (looking at a map): Wow! Bra- lution of this document genera- learning curve is no learning zil is big. Russia's big and so is tion application by merging the curve. PSS China. PSS
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 26 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 DIY Official Bank
(Continued from page 24) Windows 10, Window 8, Win- is an area where you enter infor- quest for a solution is using dows 7, Vista and Windows mation and then wonder how the Google or Bing to search the XP compatible. Also available application is going to use it) or exact wording or number of in a Mac OSX version (Mac worksheets. You simply select the error message. In many version requires OSX 10.8 or the schedule you wish to com- instances, as you begin to type, higher and MS Word). plete (A through J) and enter the the search engine will suggest information where you want it to exactly what you were intending Bank9's Main Window is your appear in the completed petition. to type. That's a good indicator MapQuest roadmap for pro- Of course all the math is per- you're on the right track in your cessing an individual bankruptcy formed automatically and you quest to locate users who have petition. From top to bottom, have direct access to exemption had the same problem. If you're from beginning to end, the out- law (to help with Schedule C) lucky, the answer will be right line or tree view (the shaded and the master creditor data- there among the first few hits panel on the left side of the base (for pasting common credi- and merrily you'll roll along. screen) logically organizes the tor information like name and data entry process by building address). Again, page totals, In the case of the overheating on information entered in prior subtotals and summaries all computer, we didn't have a spe- levels. complete themselves. cific error message which made things more difficult; however, 1. Voluntary Petition—This link 5. Statement of Affairs—This we searched the issue "my provides access to the Voluntary step provides access to every computer shuts down ran- Petition. Information that is re- and any page of the multi-page domly." By the time we typed peated on other schedules and statement (Form 107). Like the "my computer shuts," Bing sug- forms (i.e., the debtor's name(s), schedules, there's no worksheet gested "my computer shuts the bankruptcy court, etc.) auto- or black boxes. Just do it! down randomly." Bulls-eye! matically populates the remain- The very first search result was ing forms. Of course, that's why 6. Statement of Intentions— an article about overheating with this Step 1—an excellent place Like the Statement of Affairs, suggestions of what to do about to start. you make your entries directly it. on Form 108. 2. Name and Save File—A rule Step 3. YouTube It about saving is "early and often." 7. Means Test—This link is your That's why this second step gateway to Forms 122A-1, 122A If a search engine doesn’t pro- reminds you and provides ac- -1 Supplement, 122A-2, 122C-1, duce the desired results, try cess to the Save As dialog. and 122C-2. Associated statis- YouTube. In the last 60 days we tics published by the Internal found YouTube videos that 3. Select Exemption File— Revenue Service and the U.S. taught us to perform an uncom- Before you start on the sched- Census Bureau are handled plicated repair to a lawn mower ules, it's a good idea to select an automatically. with a dirty carburetor (probably exemption file to be used when saving about $40 to $60) and to completing the remaining forms, 8. Miscellaneous Forms—This diagnose a problem with a ma- especially Schedule C. step provides access to those rine engine that wouldn't start other forms you'll need to include (saving much time and about 4. Schedules—The schedules when you file your petition, i.e., $100 to $300). What's that got to are the heart of the bankruptcy. Form 101A & B regarding pend- do with law office computing? A They set forth all the debtor's ing evictions, Form 103A & B lot because these two incidents property, claimed exemptions regarding waiver of bankruptcy serve as typical examples of and outstanding debts. There fees, Form 121 concerning confi- (Continued on page 27) are no black boxes (a black box dential social security number
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 27 ruptcy Forms DIY information, and 423 - the debtor Have Claims Secured by Proper- (Continued from page 26) course certification. ty & continuation pages how you can save money by doing simple things yourself • Form 106E/F—Creditors Who 9. Select Any Form— Regard- before calling in the cavalry. Have Unsecured Claims & con- less of how organized you and tinuation pages your client are, you'll always YouTube has become so helpful need to review and correct a • Form 106G—Executory Con- that sometimes we search it form or two. This link allows you tracts and Unexpired Leases & before using Bing or Google. to view and modify any or all of continuation pages Heck, if a picture's worth a thou- the forms in the Bank9 collec- sand words, a video’s got to be • Form 106H—Your Codebtors worth quite a bit, right? For tion. You'll find it handy for jump- & continuation pages ing to individual pages of multi- many, it's easier to learn by page forms as an alternative to • Form 106I—Your Income watching rather than reading. After all, today’s computer users repeated paging. • Form 106J—Your Expenses were brought up on television; • Form 106J-2—Expenses for 10. Electronic Filing—This final reading is fast becoming a for- Separate Household of Debtor 2 step lets you create your PDF gotten art. file (assuming you have Mi- • Form 106Sum—Summary of crosoft Word or an alternative Your Assets and Liabilities and As far as YouTube is concerned, PDF-making application), as well Certain Statistical Information Bing seems to have the edge over Google (at least in terms of as creating the creditor matrix, • Form 106Dec—Declaration and the ECF file (if your jurisdic- presentation) by including mini- About an Individual Debtor's graphic YouTube videos in its tion requires one--and most Schedules don't). search results. Not only will Bing • Form 107—Statement of Fi- show you a still from the video, Included Forms nancial Affairs for Individuals but if you hover your mouse over Filing for Bankruptcy the image, it will play an excerpt from the video clip. Nice. • Form 101—Voluntary Petition • Form 108—Statement of Inten- for Individuals tions for Individuals Filing Under Finally, don't be satisfied by • Form 101A—Initial Statement Chapter 7 relying on a search engine (i.e., About An Eviction Judgment • Form 121—Statement About Bing) to provide YouTube search Against You Your Social Security Numbers results. YouTube has its own search engine and it will always • Form 101B—Statement About • Form 122A-1—Statement of yield more than a Google or Bing Payment of an Eviction … Your Current Monthly Income search. • Form 103A—Application for • Form 122A-1Supp— Individuals to Pay the Filing Fee Statement of Exemption from We hope we’ve given you some in Installments & Order Presumption of Abuse new tricks and possibilities as to • Form 103B—Application to • Form 122A-2—Means Test what you can do to resolve com- Have the Chapter 7 Filing Fee Calculation puter and technology problems. Waived & Order Good luck. PSS • Forms 122C-1—Statement of ——————— • Form 106A/B—Property & Your Current Monthly Income continuation pages Noteworthy Quote: • Form 122C-2—Calculation of • Form 106C—The Property You Your Disposable Income Don’t worry about avoiding Claimed as Exempt & continua- temptation. As you grow older, it tion pages • Form 423—Certification About a Financial Management Course will avoid you. • Form 106D—Creditors Who PSS Winston Churchill
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 28 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Management
Law Office Management (for all utilities, etc. Finally, BillB5 pre- 6. Subtotals any “attached” versions of Windows) is made pares monthly/periodic billing: itemized time/service state- up of three components: ments (up to 10); 1. ClientBase5 (CBase5) 1. Prints your personal letter- 2. BookBase5 (BBase5) head on each bill; no pre- 7. Calculates a balance due; 3. BillBase5 (BillB5) printed stationery needed; 8. Posts a new balance for- Component Overview 2. Balance forward is automati- ward for next month’s bill; cally transferred from the and CBase5 is a name and address prior month’s bill; database that stores client 9. Prints the entire bill and item- names, addresses, telephone 3. Prints client’s full name and ized time/service statements. numbers and like information. address positioned for stand- BBase5 is an income and ex- ard window envelope; If you’d like more information or pense database that manages see a printed bill, visit our Prod- law office receipts and disburse- 4. Lists client payments and uct Information web page ments (client-related payments expenses since the last bill; where we’ve included several and expenses), and also trans- downloadable PDF files contain- actions unrelated to clients such 5. Includes up to 10 optional, ing screen views and sample as payment of the office rent or user-defined fields; printed billing statements. PSS ClientBase
CBase5 is your starting point in Here are some highlights. Visit Sorting. Standard Windows Law Office Management. Of our web site for more info. behavior allows you to alphabet- the many name and address ize or reverse-alphabetize by programs, what sets CBase5 List View/Table View. Use one clicking a column header. apart is its integration with or both windows for viewing BBase5 and BillB5. clients in customizable ways. Hiding Columns. Too much information? Any of the 16 fields can be hidden.
Copy/Paste. A special copy/ paste function works with any other Windows program—except that CBase5 formats as a com- plete mailing address for inser- tion in a letter, etc.
Labels. Addresses in two stand- ard Avery label formats.
Fast Find. Zero in on a record in just a few keystrokes. No compli- cated searches or filters. Just hit
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 29 Check Printing. BBase5 can print checks in a standard con- BookBase figuration. Customizable. BBase5 comes BBase5 logs all financial trans- Filters/Exporting. One of the with income/expense categories actions regardless of whether most powerful tools. Filters and that are tailored to law offices, they are client-related. exporting are the gateway to but you can add your own. BBase5’s extensive exporting No Complexity. Two windows – capabilities, i.e., sending data to Fast Find. Zero in on a record in the Income Window for income Excel. Samples at our web site. just a few keystrokes. PSS and receipts; the Expense Win- dow for expenses and disburse- ments. That’s it.
Sorting. Both the Income and Expense Window allow you to arrange your transactions on any field by clicking the column title.
Hiding Columns. Screen too busy? Hide any columns you don’t want to see.
Intelliguessing. BBase5 has Quicken-style incremental searching that speeds up data entry considerably. BillBase
BillB5 is a billing module that creates next month’s file auto- ically. These statements can be integrates with CBase5 and matically. After that, you only attached to the monthly bill. BBase5 to form an automated add new bills and update the billing utility. Now the monthly monthly set. Calendar. BillB5 has an acces- billing will take only seconds. sory calendar. You can assign BillB5 also includes an itemized any calendar item a client num- statement function for preparing ber and the itemized statement and adding itemized statements can import that item. to your monthly billing state- ments. It also has a calendar Personalized Billing. Brief and produces daily/weekly/ memos remind your clients monthly printouts. Printing/Previewing. One at a about upcoming events or pay- time or in monthly/periodic sets. ment reminders. Client Histories. Change one field in the billing record and you Itemized Statements. Not all Interest. Charging interest on can create precise histories. clients are charged flat fees. For overdue balances adds an in- time-based bills, there’s an item- centive to timely payment. Do it Autopilot Billing. Once you set ized statement function. Items with one click of your mouse. up your monthly billing, BillB5 automatically arrange chronolog- PSS Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 30 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 Monthly Bargains Ohio Business Forms Consumer Reports’ product Ohio Business Forms (OBF3) research experts, who monitor 525A Reinstatement & Appoint- can be thought of as the Secre- ment of Agent prices, have discovered that tary of State’s business forms on 525B Reinstatement deep discounts for certain prod- steroids. These super forms 520 Biennial Report ucts go by the calendar. By us- have two substantial ad- 561 Certificate of Dissolution ing the month-to-month infor- vantages: (1) They eliminate mation in this article, you’ll be redundant typing like retyping Limited Liability Company: able to snag the best deals on a the name of the corporation a variety of products. Another dozen times per form; and (2) 533A Organization/Reorganization good idea is to check for special they allow for clean, easy chang- 543A Certificate of Amendment sales and coupon codes before 521 Statutory Agent Update es and corrections. No messy purchasing. Here are the best 525 Reinstatement whiteout or retyping. deals, month by month. 562 Certificate of Dissolution
Included Forms January Limited Partnerships: Bedding, linens, toys Treadmills and ellipticals For Profit Corporation: 531A Application for Registration TVs, winter clothing 542 Certificate of Amendment 532A Initial Articles of 521 Statutory Agent Update Incorporation 525 Reinstatement February 521 Statutory Agent Update 563 Certificate of Cancellation Humidifiers, indoor furniture 540 Certificate of Amendment by Treadmills and ellipticals Directors Limited Liability Partnerships: 541 Certificate of Amendment by Shareholders March 520 Biennial Report 561 Certificate of Dissolution Digital cameras, humidifiers 525B Reinstatement Small consumer electronics 525A Application for Reinstatement 567 Statement of Denial/ (DVD and Blu-ray players) Dissociation/Dissolution TVs, winter sports gear Not For Profit Corporation: Name Reservation: April 532B Initial Articles of Incorporation 521 Statutory Agent Update Notebook computers 534 Name Registration 541 Certificate of Amendment by Desktop computers 524 Name Registration Update Shareholders Digital cameras, lawn mowers 522 Continued Existence Certifi- Spring clothing cate Trade Mark/Service Mark: 560 Certificate of Dissolution by May Members 555 Trade Mark/Service Mark Athletic apparel and shoes 525B Application for Reinstatement Application Camping and outdoor gear 523B Renewal Carpeting, lawn mowers Partnerships: 558 Change of Ownership of Mattresses, small consumer Name 524B Registration Update 521 Statutory Agent Update electronics 567 Statement of Denial/ June Dissociation/Dissolution Camcorders, carpeting Computers, indoor furniture Professional Associations: Windows 10, Window 8, Win- Pots, pans, dishware dows 7, Vista and Windows Small consumer electronics 532C Initial Articles of Incorporation XP compatible. Also available Summer sports gear, swimwear 540 Certificate of Amendment in a Mac OSX version (Mac 521 Statutory Agent Update version requires OSX 10.8 or 561 Certificate of Dissolution (Continued on page 31) higher and MS Word). PSS Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 31
(Continued from page 30) July Camcorders Law Office Potpourri Indoor/outdoor furniture Swimwear The better search engine There were some interesting Google or Bing? ideas in your desktop organi- August zation article (see Law Office Air conditioners, backpacks If it's not the first thing you do Computing Vol. 2015, No. 1), Dehumidifiers, outdoor furniture when you sit down at your com- but burying commonly used Snow blowers puter, it surely ranks at the top of icons in subfolders doesn't the list—searching. This is espe- seem like a good idea. September cially true for law offices that are Bikes, digital cameras, gas grills (or should be) busy exploiting It might not be, but don’t lose Lawn mowers, shrubs, trees the Information Age for the ben- sight of the fact that speed and Smaller consumer electronics efit of their clients. Assuming you efficiency are the goals of desk- Snow blowers agree, it would be helpful to top organization. The sugges- know which of the many availa- tions we presented were just October ble search engines is best. Alt- that—suggestions. We generally Bikes, computers, hough we’ve got links to the top mean performing a function in a Digital cameras, gas grills 10 at our web site (which in- minimum of keystrokes or Lawn mowers, winter coats cludes some you’ve probably mouse-clicks. As your question never even heard of), ultimately implies, putting icons in subfold- November you’ll be using either Microsoft’s ers contradicts the single-click Baby products, bikes Bing or Google—the philosophy, how- Camcorders, gas grills big Kahunas of the ever there are GPS navigators, toys, TVs search genre. We did instances where a bit of investigating subfolders may December and here’s what we be the better Bikes, camcorders, gas grills found out. organizational GPS navigators, home applianc- alternative. es, small consumer electronics, Spoiler Alert: There toys, TVs isn't a discernible Case in point. difference between Today's wide- In addition to these tips, keep the two, although Bing screen desktop your eye on apps, e-mails, and has an obvious edge if monitors have circulars. The best time to save you're searching for room for hun- money isn’t always when you’ll graphics (i.e., pictures, clip art, dreds of icons. find the best selection. Sales etc.). What we did discover is Our 21" monitor could hold about often occur when a season is that the subject you're research- 300. So, if you find yourself coming to an end and invento- ing may be the most important wasting time looking for one icon ries are thin. PSS factor in making your choice. For among many, the one-click test example, if you're looking for a may not be the best and subfold- ——————————— law, consider using Findlaw ers are probably the way to go. instead of Bing or Google. This is especially true of comput- Milan Jacovich, Cleveland PI ers that are used by more than In assessing the relative merits one person. Windows makes a If you’ve got the time, and you of Bing and Google we came bad situation worse by placing enjoy reading mysteries, try any across an interesting site— newly installed or updated appli- in the series of Milan Jacovich BingItOn.com. Using BingItOn cation icons in the first open novels by Les Roberts. They’re you can do the same search space it finds. Many prefer the set in Cleveland and written in simultaneously in Bing and added privacy and clean look of the style of Raymond Chandler Google and see the search re- the desktop sans icons. Ask Mac and Rex Stout. If you’re not sults presented side by side. owners. PSS familiar, you’re missing out. PSS
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 32 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 Dealing With Shortcuts Living Trust & Estate Planner Years ago a user called in with a slick way of handling the pensive, complicated packages desktop icons when she in- Word Processor Compatibility designed to plan Rockefeller- stalled a new version of our sized estates. If you’re looking child support application. While WTrust lets you do all your for- for trust software for your small- we've passed the tip along to matting, previewing and printing to medium-sized law office that many users we've talked to from your word processor. Char- serves ordinary people, you’ll during technical support calls, acter formatting (i.e., Old English need to look long and hard, and we can't recall ever publishing it fonts), special paragraph format- you won’t find much! for mass consumption. ting, page breaks, spell checking and grammar checking, are all a WTrust was created to fill the First, this tip applies when you piece of cake when you’re using chasm between these two ex- install a new major update of an your word processor. tremes. We think it’s an extraor- application as opposed to a free dinary program designed for minor version update of the Breaking the Code ordinary estates. same app. What we mean is that when you upgrade from WTrust permits users to go into Document Wizards Version 7.30 to 7.31, for exam- the program to customize docu- ple, this tip would not apply. ments. If, for example, you al- You won’t struggle with WTrust. However, if you're upgrading ways use special language in The Document Wizard takes from Version 7 to Version 10 of your revocable living trusts, you through each document, and the Revised Ohio Child Sup- WTrust gives you access to the provides examples of the infor- port Guidelines, it would apply. program templates. By modifying mation required. It can also sug- In other words, if the number to the templates, you can insert gest answers based on your the left of the decimal is differ- your handcrafted clauses. Then, worksheet entries. WTrust ana- ent, this tip is the ticket. every new document includes lyzes hundreds of places in the your language automatically. documents where there are Second, even though we're nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc., and presenting this tip in the context Setting the Defaults makes sure that every insertion of our child support application, is grammatically correct. One of it works for any application in Templates are definitely handy, the most common problems with similar circumstances (i.e., a but it also helps to “pre-seed” lengthy documents like trusts is major upgrade). templates with information that that law offices have worked with does not change from document them for so long and so often, And Now ... to document. A typical example the documents are nearly im- may be an attorney’s name, mune to proofreading. Further- Our tipster's advice was short address and telephone number. more, spell-checkers don’t know and sweet— To expedite this process, when the word “of” is misspelled WTrust lets you set default infor- as the word “or.” Consequently, After you install the new ver- mation as part of the document it’s easy to overlook grammatical sion, delete the desktop icon fields, but not part of the tem- errors when preparing these of the prior version. plate. That way you needn’t re- documents. WTrust solves that enter unchanging information. problem by giving you a com- We think this is a savvy recom- plete document you can—well, mendation because (1) deleting The Problem & Solution trust. That saves you from em- the desktop icon does not unin- barrassment when a client reads stall the application, it merely Most living trust software falls the document at home and finds deletes the desktop icon; (2) by into two categories: (1) bargain mistakes, however incongruous. deleting the desktop icon she basement stuff that’s largely PSS (Continued on page 33) useless, and (2) extremely ex- Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 33 Dealing With HUD Forms Shortcuts (Continued from page 32) Windows 10, Window 8, Win- Infinitely modifiable forms— eliminates the chance of mistak- dows 7, Vista and Windows Because all your forms are pre- enly starting the old version XP compatible. Also available viewed in MS Word before print- when she meant to start the in a Mac OSX version (Mac ing, your printed forms are as updated current version; and (3) version requires OSX 10.8 or extensively modifiable as any if she wants to start the old ver- higher) MS Word is required word processing document sion (because she was working for both the Windows and Mac would be. on a Motion to Modify or Appeal versions. and needed to know what the Fields for "paid outside clos- calculation was in 2010, for ex- No doubt, you are probably al- ing" (POC) amounts. ample), she can navigate ready aware that the old Hous- through the Start menu and ing and Urban Development Ghost Prompts—-to assist in access the old version any time Forms 1 & 1A were replaced by data entry, in certain fields you'll she wants. But she'll never go Consumer Financial Protection see gray text suggesting the there accidentally. In the words Bureau forms which became type of entry that is expected for of Jimmy Durante, “Thanks Ms. effective August 1, 2015. The the field. Once you complete the Calabash wherever you are.” replacement forms are the Loan field, the ghost prompt disap- PSS Estimate and Closing Disclosure pears. They are invisible when a forms. form is printed.
Features: Quick Help—Wondering where answers are originating? Right- TeamViewer Completely redesigned data click on many fields and you get Continued entry screens—our new help as to the data source for the screens are as easy to look at as field in question. (Continued from page 3) they are to work in. The tree a phone conversation alone. view keeps all forms one mouse Flexible Data Entry—-most click away and the background applications as a form of error- Another task TeamViewer can shading and screen fade-ins trapping force you to enter a expedite is technical support. make text reader-friendly. The number where a number is ex- Support technicians have been input screens duplicate the pa- pected. Not HUD4. If you want to hip to this for years. In many per forms, the goal being—zero enter text where the form ex- small- and medium-sized law learning curve. We have screen pects a dollar amount, go right offices, an attorney or selected illustrations at the product infor- ahead. staff person is the de facto IT mation page of our web site. person. TeamViewer gives that Print-Shop-Perfect Forms—all person the same tool the profes- Included forms—HUD Settle- form previewing and printing is sionals use. We use ment Statements Forms 1 & 1A, done via MS Word for profes- TeamViewer for that purpose HUD Good Faith Estimate, sional-looking forms on any pa- every day. If someone is de- CFPB Loan Estimate, CFPB per size, unlimited formatting, railed by a computer problem Closing Disclosure, Settlement and the ability to access special and doesn’t know what to do, Check, Tax Proration Table. print functions. we can help get them back on track—without leaving our lab. Addendum forms—for includ- PDF File Conversion, Email- On many occasions we use it ing entries that won't fit on the ing, Spell-Checking—once simply to avoid the walk from government forms. Especially your documents are previewed one floor of the building to an- handy for offices that told us in MS Word, all these functions other. Try TeamViewer; you they never had enough blank and more are readily available won’t regret it. PSS entry lines. and easily accessible. PSS
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 34 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 Client Worksheets Inbox
I use your Uniform Domestic Thanks PSS: As with all legal software, Relations Forms—Version 2 we like to be quick and thorough (UDRF2) app in an effort to Congratulations on the finding by when acting on user issues relat- leverage technology for the the American Bar Association. ed to tax applications. Thanks purpose of completing DR It's nice to see that they recog- for calling the matter to our at- forms as efficiently as possi- nize the efficiency and expertise tention and taking the time to let ble. Toward that end, I'd like that we subscribers have been us know everything worked out. to give my clients a custom- 'used to' for these past years. ized worksheet in the initial ------appointment that they can J.W.H., Attorney complete at home. Does your Cleveland, OH Aloha application have that capabil- ity? PSS: We were as gratified to That worked. J.C.D., Attorney receive your kind words as we M.L., Attorney
were to learn of the American Princeville, HI This is a great question and the Bar Association's endorsement answer applies to more than just of our domestic relations appli- PSS: Glad to hear it. UDRF2. Because most of our cations as "best software for applications send their output to family lawyers." Thanks. Other One Liners your word processor for pre- viewing and printing, it's easy to ------Thank you so much. pick the forms you want to use as client worksheets, send them More Kudos B.L., Attorney to the word processor, and do a Circleville, OH quick and simple search and Congratulations on being named replace to remove any unwant- the best. Some of us have ------ed text. known you are the best for dec-
ades. Thanks. I appreciate the time In your question (which was and thought. edited for space considerations) M.G.H., Attorney you were referring specifically to Akron, OH J.B., Attorney the General Information Work- Westerville, OH sheet and the Affidavit of In- PSS: Thanks. The ABA's acco- More of the Same come and Expenses. When lades took us a bit by surprise. you "print" these forms they are We only learned of it when a Thank you! previewed in MS Word prior to reporter phoned and asked us B.H., Attorney printing; however, the affidavit's for a comment. It was a thrill and West Chester, OH monetary fields contain the text an honor and your email made it "0.00" which renders them, if not that much nicer. ------unusable, at least less suitable for use as a client worksheet. Our Pleasure Thank you, thank you, thank
you! Here’s how to remedy the situa- I downloaded the U.S. Estate Roz, Attorney tion. In MS Word you should: (1) Tax update and it worked great!! Bellefontaine, OH press
(Continued from page 34) place All button.
Inbox You can perform the entire operation in less than 5 sec- onds and 146 occurrences Thank you for your response. I click on the folder you wish to will be replaced, leaving you appreciate the usefulness of set—maybe it's the Deleted with perfectly formatted client your software in my practice. folder—and select Properties. worksheets. Your options are there in the
D.D.T., Attorney Properties dialog on the Auto- By the way, you referred to Dover, OH Archive tab and they are pretty "customized" worksheets and much self-explanatory. See the that could be done without ------illustration below. much difficulty by putting the
case caption information on Thank you. ... I appreciate the the General Information fast response and the phone Worksheet prior to printing. call letting me know the re- That way, the UDRF2 forms/ vised program was placed on worksheets would be custom- the web site. ized for a particular client. Very personal. N.R., Attorney
Cincinnati, OH If you didn't want the customi-
zation, a variation of the ------theme would be to save the
resulting Word document Is there a way to manually (sans caption customization) archive old or deleted emails in Outlook without waiting for under the name "Client Work- sheets." Then, when you need autoarchive? a set of worksheets, you
wouldn't even need to start J.P.C. UDRF2. You could simply Cleveland, OH open the worksheet Word doc While this explains the autoar- file and print it. If you didn't want While many use free web-based chive configuration settings and to print them out each time you email (i.e., gmail, hotmail, etc.), how to set to them, it does not most businesses and law offices exactly answer your question of needed them, you could also make several photocopies of use a more powerful email- how to manually trigger an ar- the set and keep them in the handling application like Mi- chiving event. Here’s how it’s your file cabinet to be handed crosoft Office's Outlook. If you’ve done: out as needed. ever searched for an old email and discovered that Outlook had 1. Click on the File menu. This technique works just as already taken out the trash—so 2. Click on the Tools well with selected forms from to speak—you might be interest- (sometimes labeled Cleanup ed in something Outlook refers our Ohio Spousal Support Tools) button. Calculator, i.e., the Personal to as archiving. Living Expenses form, and it 3. Select Mailbox Cleanup from Archiving determines two things: wouldn’t even be necessary to the available choices. replace the "0.00" text because (1) what happens to old emails zeroes are already suppressed and (2) when it happens. To set 4. In the dialog box that appears, by the app when forms are sent archiving options follow these click the AutoArchive button. to the word processor. steps—they're similar in all ver- PSS sions of Outlook, so while your Thanks for your interesting version may differ, you should question. PSS still be able to follow along. Right Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Page 36 www.puritas-springs.com Volume 2017, No. 1 Using The Default File In Good Humor There are dozens (maybe Job Application Actual Transcripts more) places on the bankrupt- Question: cy petition and schedules that Attorney: Can you explain what I complete with the same in- You are driving down the road in "state-dependent memory" refers formation from one case to your Corvette on a wild, stormy to? the next. Is there a way to night, when you pass by a bus avoid all this repeat typing? stop and you see three people Witness: Yes. If a law student is waiting for the bus: drinking while studying for the Like the worksheet question on exam, he would do well to bring page 34 of this issue, this is 1. An elderly lady who looks to beer into the examination, be- another great question whose be in distress. cause he'll be better able to re- answer applies to more than just create whatever it is he studied if the bankruptcy program. The 2. An old friend who once saved he's in a similar state of intoxica- answer can be summed up in your life. tion. two words: default file. 3. The perfect partner you have Court: That's a novel thought. Each and every one of our legal been dreaming about. and tax applications has a de- Witness: You see why I'm no fault file the purpose of which is Which one would you choose to longer teaching at the law to seed all newly created client offer a ride to, knowing that there school. files. Therefore, when you start could only be one passenger in ————————- Bank9 or use the New com- your car? mand, Bank9 is making a copy Attorney: I take it that before of the default.bk9 file and open- Analysis: this accident happened you lived ing the copy for you to begin with your brother in-law and working. In that way, the default This question was actually used sister for about six months? file primes the entire collection of in a job application. The dilemma forms with any information it being that you could pick up the Witness: Yes. contains. Once that's done, old lady and possibly save her you’re left with an untitled file to life. Or you could take the old Attorney: You got to know him which you can add and save friend to repay the debt of grati- quite well? your new client information using tude. Finally, you may never be a file name of your choosing. able to find your perfect mate Witness: Yes. again so now may be the time to So, how do you set the de- act. Attorney: And you saw him faults? interact with your sister, and I Winning Answer: believe they had one child? It's easy when you understand that the default file is simply an The candidate that was hired out Witness: I didn't see the actual empty bankruptcy client file like of 200 applicants answered as interaction, but they did have those that you create, work in, follows: one child. and save. I would give my car keys to my First, you open the default file. old friend and let him take the Remember that when you start elderly lady to the hospital. I Anonymous Quote the app or use the New com- would stay behind and wait for mand, you’re not in the default the bus with the partner of my It is not enough to succeed. In file, you’re in a copy of it. Any dreams. addition one’s friends must fail (Continued on page 37) miserably.
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 37
(Continued from page 36) information you enter in the Scamples copy will be saved when save and name the copy.
Claim Your $50 Reward for personal information like birth Second, once you’ve opened dates, social security numbers or the default file, complete any There are many similar legiti- credit card information. If you fields that don't change from mate offers—often related to have any doubts, it only takes a one file to the next. Good exam- signing up for a credit card— minute or two to perform a Bing ples are the court caption, coun- which makes it easy for this one or Google search. Use part of ty name, preparer information, to slip by your defenses. The tip- the subject line as your search and like fields. Note that any offs for us were that we were key. The search results should field on any page of any form getting several of these emails make it clear whether the offer is can be set. A good rule of every day; we were getting the legitimate. thumb is that if you complete a same offer from different ven- particular field with the same dors; the sender's domain did And In The End … information in more than half the not match the named vendor. time, you may as well make it a There are a lot of very clever default. After all, just because The identities the posers were scam emails out there. We get you’ve entered a default, using most were WalMart, KMart them nearly every day. Some doesn’t mean you can’t erase or and Amazon. look very authentic using well- change it. recognized company logos and How Does It Work? such. Some are quite believable Third, click the Save button to like the FedEx ones that claim save your customized default Clicking the link in the email they were unable to deliver a file. If you don’t save your de- takes you to a start screen that package. fault information, it won’t be- solicits your name, address and come a permanent part of the date of birth. Once you've There are too many examples to default file. "logged in," you're led through a list, but the precaution you must customer survey that begins with take is always the same: Finally, click the New button in normal shopping preference order to get out of the default questions and transitions into Never click on an email link file. This does two things: (1) it more personal information. prevents you from accidentally In the past we never advised working in the file and setting When you complete the survey, clicking on an email unless fields that you don't mean to your reward of a $50 gift card is you’re absolutely certain the set; and (2) it lets you verify that "out of stock" and you are in- source is legitimate. This isn’t your new defaults are appearing structed to choose one of sever- even good advice anymore be- properly. That's because the al substitute products of ques- cause legitimate sources can be "new" file you're looking at tionable utility, for example, wrin- hacked and the emails that you should contain the default infor- kle cream. In some instances the get from them contain potentially mation you just entered. goal of the scam is to promote harmful links. the substitutes. In other cases We received some feedback it's to secure personal infor- When in doubt, you’re better off from our users about this tech- mation that can be used for iden- making a quick telephone call to nique and were told that it tity theft. check on the email’s authentici- saved about 40 minutes of ty. It may take an extra bit of data entry every time they Your Best Defense time, but it’ll save the time and started a new file. expense of purging malware Be skeptical of all emails and from your system. PSS So keep in mind that all Puritas keep your eyes open for clues Springs Software legal and tax like the ones we mentioned. applications have a default file. Reputable businesses don't ask Try it out. PSS
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Do you have a program that will automatically index case law, statutes, etc. in briefs as To: Technical opposed to manually cutting and pasting which is very time consuming? If you do only becomes clear once you do bibliography entries are some- not, do you know if one exists some hands-on testing. From what generic. and how it can be purchased? that standpoint, we think we can Thank you. reduce the learning curve by In our opinion, this tool performs D.J.C., Attorney giving you a few insights, tips best when used to create the Powell, OH and illustrations that are missing table of authorities after your from the available help. document is finished, as op- The short answer to your ques- posed to creating and inserting tion is "no." We do not publish From here on we're going to citations into the table during an application that will manage describe how to manage legal drafting (although that's not citations like the ones you find citations in Word 2016 because, 100% true as will be explained in in briefs and other legal docu- while it may not be the prevalent a moment). In general, it seems ments. And if that was all there version in use, it is the “current” best to finish drafting your docu- was to it, this would be the end of Word at the time this article ment and then "mark" your cita- of it and your email would not was written and from our limited tions. Finally you would create be appearing here. However, observation we didn’t find a the Table of Authorities at the your question is interesting whole lot of difference in this desired location in the docu- because you and most law offic- feature from one version of Word ment. es already have an app that to the next. does exactly Here's an example. what you ask. It's Let's assume called Microsoft you've got a fin- Word and it typi- ished document cally comes as with citations. Next, part of the Mi- highlight each crosoft Office citation and select suite of business Mark Citation in applications. the Table of Au- thorities section of We believe this the tool ribbon. The feature of Word key combination goes undiscov-
2. Always Update after mak- ing changes to the body of Support the document. Update by highlighting the table and clicking the Update Table Use the Category button to For practical purposes, simply button on the tool ribbon. select the type of citation it is, accept the defaults and see what i.e., case, statute, journal article, you get. A Table of Authorities Don't be put off by the length of etc. When Word builds the Table should appear at the location of these instructions. Once you of Authorities it first divides the your cursor. The key fields in the give the Table of Authorities a entries into categories. Then, dialog above are self- spin, you'll see it's reasonably within each category it arranges explanatory. The Modify button easy to work with. the entries—the Long cita- allows you to modify existing tions—in the order in which they categories or add eight new ——————— first appear in the document. ones. Mark Citation brings up the Mark Citation dialog and My law office uses your Ohio If your Show/Hide function is in cancels the insert table process. Spousal Support Calculator the Show state when you click (OSSC) and we sometimes the Mark button, you’ll see that When you click Ok a table is like child support to be zero Word inserts a field behind the inserted in the format: and perform the spousal sup- selected text. It uses the infor- port calculation without it. mation in this field when you Long name ….....pg reference(s) The reason I ask is that every later wish to build a time we try a different table or index of au- spousal support thorities. The field text amount we find it nec- can be hidden by click- essary to change the ing the Show/Hide line 27 child support button on the tool deviation in order to ribbon. You need to make child support be familiar with this come out to zero. Is function because there an easier way? you must hide the fields before updat- There is a way to ac- ing the Table of Au- complish this without thorities in order to tinkering with the child assure a proper page support deviation reference. amount. It's quite easy. Just go to the General That's how you mark a Information Work- citation. Now, go sheet and uncheck all through your document highlight- You can modify the Long the Parenting Arrangement ing and "marking" each one. citation (the text that appears checkboxes. Now OSSC will in the table) by finding its first skip the child support calcula- When you’ve marked all your occurrence and changing the tion and crunch all the numbers citations, you build the table— text in the field's inserted text. without child support. usually at the end of the docu- ment—by placing your cursor at You can add citations as you In addition to setting child sup- the point where you'd like the go along using the same port to zero, your comments table to appear and clicking the technique described above. indicate that on occasion you Insert Table of Authorities Just remember two things: may prefer to set child support button. (Don't forget to use the to a specific amount and force a Hide function first.) When you 1. Always Hide fields before calculation in the same way as do, you'll see the dialog shown updating, and when you fix spousal support to on this page. (Continued on page 40)
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(Continued from page 39) a specific amount. We don't have a quick fix for that issue, From: Technical but look for the next OSSC update to incorporate your sug- gestion. Access Violation if you open a file from anywhere other than your own computer ——————— Infrequently, but with some regu- (and that happens a lot around larity, we get a call from a user here), the file you open is in a My IT person just reinstalled who received an access violation read-only format. You can't the probate app and now when starting one of our apps. make changes in the file without when it starts I get a 2203 Unfortunately, access violations enabling an Edit command, and error--Database Registry key are often show-stoppers, and as even still you can't save it unless not properly created. a result, the app can’t be started. you rename the file. For our T.M.J., Attorney purposes—and we're pretty sure Cincinnati, OH The issue proved to be a bit of a the same goes for you—that is mystery at first because we an unacceptable interference This occurs because a techni- couldn't duplicate it in our lab. In with the way we work with files. cian often installs an app under many cases that’s a sign the their own administrative ac- problem is unique to the user's We don't mean to infer that Mi- count. Because Windows has a system. We did note that the crosoft is wholly to blame for this separate registry for each ac- access violation—which gives no user-unfriendly behavior; we count, and because the probate clues as to the cause—seemed have virus and malware writers app makes entries in the regis- to be related to a graphics to thank for that. Personally, we try during installation, the actual adapter issue. We also noticed considered this protection to be user's registry does not contain that it occurred in apps that used an unwelcome restriction on our the necessary keys to start. special effects like screen fade- computing liberties. ins. One solution is to uninstall the Thankfully, Microsoft provided a application and reinstall it using We can thank Trent Bower, IT way around this obstruction. The the user's account instead. If for Bower Law Offices in Mil- problem is they didn't make it that is not possible (because the lersburg, Ohio for the solution: very obvious. By the way, user has no installation rights), although we didn't notice this you can create the necessary 1. Go to the Advanced tab of behavior until upgrading to Of- registry entry manually: the System Properties dialog fice 365 (which contained Word and click the Settings button in 2016), we've discovered that you Registry Key: Computer\ the Performance section. You'll could bump into this same limita- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ see a long list of options hnear tion with earlier versions of Word Software\Puritas Springs Soft- the bottom of the list. Locate and as well. ware\WBOPF7\Params\ Data- uncheck "Use visual styles on baseDir windows and buttons." Follow these steps:
Value: C:\Puritas\ 2. An alternative fix is to go to 1. Run the version of Word that Device Manager, select your is experiencing this problem. Two more points: 1) If you no- Display Adapter and perform a This means that if you've got tice that many of the width pa- check to make sure you've got multiple copies of Word exhibit- rameters have a value of zero, the latest driver. You should find ing the same behavior, you must delete those keys. Also, make a button for that purpose labeled perform these steps on each sure the probate app is turned Check for updates. copy individually. off when doing so. 2) Any valid path will work for the Data- Word Docs—Read Only 2. Click the Office button in the baseDir value. The important upper left-hand corner and se- thing is that the key exists. The If you've updated Microsoft Word lect Options. In our version of value is irrelevant. PSS lately you may have noticed that Word 2016 this translated into
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Answer: Okay, that's the em Support dash," you observe. "But what about the en dash? clicking the File menu and then print about 500 more copies out Reply: You ask too many ques- selecting Options. of a toner cartridge that reported tions. itself as needing replacement. 3. In the Options dialog, select You can sometimes use the Soft Line Feeds the Trust Center link (it's in the shake, rattle and roll technique left pane or frame). two or three times. While we're on the subject of hidden word processing key 4. You should see a button or Hyphens & Dashes in Word combinations, if you've done another link that is labeled Trust any word processing or worked Center Settings. Click on it. If you're an aspiring grammarian, with Internet-related text, you’ve you'll respect the difference be- probably encountered a situa- 5. In the Trust Center dialog tween a hyphen (-) and a dash tion where pressing the
If God wanted us to vote, he As fans of The X-Files television xcopy is that it copies entire would have given us candidates. series already know, the letter folders—-including subfolders— "X" connotes mystery. In our unlike the copy command which Jay Leno case, the DOS/Windows xcopy is restricted to copying a single command had a few mysteries file. The problem with political jokes of its own. is they get elected. Of course you could make a A law office can't afford to be regular practice of dragging and Henry Cate, VII cavalier when it comes to back- copying a folder to a safe loca- ups. For that matter, most busi- tion and accomplish the same We hang the petty thieves and nesses that utilize computerized thing, but what's unique about appoint the great ones to public recordkeeping have the same the batch file technique is that office. concerns. Our own distrust of you can set it to run from Win- backups has evolved a practice dows Task Scheduler. That Aesop of keeping redundant backups. makes the backup process auto- matic and you don’t need to If we got one-tenth of what was In June 2016, we included an remind yourself every evening or promised to us in these State of article in the every week to the Union speeches, there monthly elec- do the drag wouldn't be any inducement to tronic version and drop. go to heaven. of Law Office Computing After years of Will Rogers about keep- using the ing a mini- command Politicians are the same all over. backup. We this way, we They promise to build a bridge were refer- examined the even where there is no river. ring to a per- backup and sonal, cus- noticed that Nikita Khrushchev tom backup there were an of certain excessive When I was a boy I was told that files that was number of anybody could become Presi- made separate and apart from files included in the backup that dent; I'm beginning to believe it. the more extensive backup didn't require backing up and we maintained by the IT person or wondered whether there was a Clarence Darrow the main backup. The mini- way to perform the same backup has a few advantages. backup but exclude certain Why pay money to have your One is that it doesn't rely on files. family tree traced; go into politics dedicated software to restore a and your opponents will do it for file or folder. Another is that After doing a bit of research we you. special skills/privileges are not discovered that the answer was required to perform a restoration. yes. It's called the exclude flag Author unknown and it works like this. Create a If you missed the June article, separate text file in Windows Politicians are people who, when we described a process whereby NotePad. In that file list the files they see light at the end of the we created a simple batch file. It or folders you wish to exclude. tunnel, go out and buy some included several DOS xcopy It’s that simple and straightfor- more tunnel. commands that performed a ward and there's also a wildcard John Quinton quick backup of certain designat- feature that can prove quite use- (Continued on page 43) ed folders. What's special about ful.
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 43 The XCopy Command ...Quotables (Continued from page 42) Here's an example. We wanted xcopykC:\Source\*.*kZ:\ to backup a particular folder with Backupk/Sk/Yk/ Politics is the gentle art of get- its subfolders, but we wanted to Exclude:C:\exclude_list.txt ting votes from the poor and exclude certain subfolders. We campaign funds from the rich, by also want to exclude files of a Note that the above command is promising to protect each from certain type regardless of which wrapped across three lines be- the other. folder or subfolder they were cause of space limitations, but in located in. This is the xcopy the actual batch file it is only one Oscar Ameringer command we had used for line long. Also, it assumes that years: we saved our exclude file in the I offer my opponents a bargain: if root of the C drive (C:\). they will stop telling lies about xcopy C:\Source\*.* us, I will stop telling the truth kZ:\Backupk/Sk/Y That's it. about them.
This command copies the You might ask if there are any Adlai Stevenson Source folder of our C: drive to disadvantages to using this the Backup folder on the backup technique. We can think A politician is a fellow who will mapped Z: drive. The S switch of three: lay down your life for his country. tells xcopy to include subfold- ers, and the Y switch tells it to Space—Backup applications Tex Guinan skip all overwrite prompts so that usually compress the file they the copy process can complete create so that it takes up less I have come to the conclusion without stopping each time to space. Unless there’s some that politics is too serious a mat- ask whether to overwrite a file switch we haven’t yet discov- ter to be left to the politicians. that’s already on the backup ered, the xcopy command does drive. not have this capability. Charles de Gaulle
To make use of the Exclude Security—Typical backup appli- Instead of giving a politician the switch we wrote a text file listing cations allow you to encrypt the keys to the city, it might be better the files and folders we wished backup which xcopy doesn't to change the locks. to exclude. Here are the con- allow. tents of our three-line file—we Doug Larson called it exclude_list.txt: Not being incremental— ———————- Backup applications make incre- \Express\ mental backups. That means Anonymous \Patch Hx\ they only backup the files that .dcu have changed since the last He’s full of promises that go in backup, and when they backup a one year and out the other. The three lines of this file tell file that has changed, they keep xcopy to skip any subfolders a copy of the earlier version. He shakes your hand before the named Express or Patch Hx Xcopy does not have that flexi- election and your confidence and any file with the extension bility. after. dcu regardless of the folder in which the dcu file is located. We've not found any of these He refuses to answer many three limitations to be deal- questions on the grounds it may After creating the text file in breakers. In fact, we found that eliminate him. NotePad, we appended the Ex- the reliability and ease of restor- clude switch to our previous ing individual files more than He fills the air with speeches and xcopy command: offsets these disadvantages. PSS vice versa. PSS
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On June 16, 2015 we received got to assume that it has cata- involved greater than 30,000 the following email from strophic repercussions to com- records. LastPass: panies whose business it is to protect confidential information, It’s a formidable list, and we’ve Dear LastPass User, i.e., law and medical offices. heard of several massive securi- ty invasions since this table was We wanted to alert you that, According to the email we re- compiled. Sadly, these mon- recently, our team discovered ceived (quoted in full above), strous breaches don't even and immediately blocked suspi- email addresses and password comprise 10% of the known cious activity on our network. reminders were stolen, but actu- hacks. The one listed in the No encrypted user vault data al passwords were not compro- table as American Businesses is was taken, however other data, mised. It’s probably time to start known as the "Massive Ameri- including email addresses and getting nervous if your password can Business Hack" and in- password reminders, was com- reminder was something from cludes 7-Eleven, J.C. Penney, promised. which your password could be Heartland, Dow Jones and other guessed—like "my birthday." high-profile businesses. We are confident that the en- Company Records Breached Company Records Breached cryption algorithms we use will sufficiently protect our users. To Anthem 80,000,000 Home Depot 58,000,000 further ensure your security, we Ebay 145,000,000 JP Morgan Chase 76,000,000 are requiring verification by email when logging in from a Target 70,000,000 AOL 2,400,000 new device or IP address, and will be prompting users to up- Adobe 36,000,000 Evernote 50,000,000 date their master passwords. US Businesses 160,000,000 Zappos 24,000,000
We apologize for the inconven- Court Ventures 200,000,000 Sony PSN 77,000,000 ience, but ultimately we believe this will better protect LastPass U.S. Military 76,000,000 TJ Maxx 94,000,000 users. Thank you for your un- derstanding, and for using One wonders what LastPass In light of all this, it might be LastPass. was referring to when they in- prudent to think carefully before cluded "other data" in their list of storing your client's confidential Regards, stolen information. In the words information in the cloud. It may The LastPass Team of one pundit: "if you entrust all be that your security is better of your passwords to LastPass, than the U.S. Military, or J.P. This hack of LastPass customer now would be a terrific time to Morgan Chase, or Home De- data—email addresses, pass- change your master password." pot, but we doubt it. word reminders and other da- ta—made us question how safe And while you’re pondering that, A programmer’s axiom that it was for law offices to store think about how many and how bears consideration is—if there's confidential client information on often similar breaches have a security protocol that can be remote servers—what you and I occurred. You hear about it reg- devised by a programmer, might think of as the "cloud." ularly in news broadcasts, but it's there's a programmer out there easy to underestimate the extent that can hack it. If you'd like to If you're inclined to think that a to which the forces of evil have get an idea of what's possible, hack is bad for business when it undermined the system. watch an episode or two of the involves a commercial enter- The table on this page is a very now-discontinued Fox television prise like Home Depot, you've short list of data breaches that series 24.
Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office Computing Page 45 Remote Storage
If we've succeeded in souring ● Do not use personal creden- ● Position monitors and printers you on the idea of remote stor- tials for authentication to provide so that others cannot see or age, in particular the cloud, let’s other individuals with access to obtain confidential or sensitive add to the confusion by consid- any information systems contain- data. ering an article by Wells H. An- ing confidential information. derson from The American ● When entering or collecting Bar Association web site on the ● Maintain up to date software sensitive information from a subject of on-line backups and and install all appropriate securi- website make sure that a se- remote storage: ty updates in all computer work- cure connection has been es- stations and laptops and soft- tablished. Close your browser "In my opinion you have an obli- ware applications. and start a new session by gation to maintain secure off-site starting your browser again backups of your clients' electron- ● Install and maintain antivirus before accessing an insecure ic data and documents as one of software in all computer work- site. This will prevent others your ‘reasonable steps’ to pro- stations and laptops and set from accessing non-public infor- tect your clients and your prac- them to auto-update to install the mation which may be stored in tice. This opinion, from a lawyer latest antivirus signatures. the browser's cookies. and consultant who has used and studied backup devices and ● Keep portable equipment and ● Log out, shut down, or lock services since the 1970s, is storage devices such as CD, the system when leaving your based on opinions interpreting DVD, Zip disks, tapes, floppy computer unattended at any the Rules of Professional Con- drives, USB drives or other re- time. duct and on the fact that backing movable storage media in an up computers to off-site loca- appropriately access-limited ● Physical safeguards (keys, tions has become the norm in location. cipher locks, passwords, etc) the legal profession as well as which are used to secure confi- dential information should be the business world." ● Do not leave computer equip- changed occasionally, and ment or portable storage devices should be changed every time So what to do? It should be obvi- unattended. someone who formerly had ous that whatever you choose, authorized access either leaves you'll have plenty of support. ● Use boot-up (BIOS) pass- university employment, no long- Take comfort in knowing you words for all computer systems er has job requirements which can't make a wrong decision. In and set strong authentication for require access, or a key secur- the event you choose remote all user accounts, including any ing such access is lost, stolen or storage, here are some guide- accounts with administrative unaccounted for. lines that were prepared by Cali- rights. fornia State University in San ● Take particular care at home Bernadino. Some recommenda- ● Enable screen savers with to keep the system and sensi- tions are obvious, but you may authentication (locking pass- tive data secure from unauthor- find one or two interesting be- words) for all computer systems. ized access. PSS cause they may not have oc- curred to you before. ● Use caution when accessing —————— email, and do not trust any unex- ● Do not share or disclose per- pected emails. Never open an sonal authentication credentials, attachment without first verify- * For testing individual files (like such as user-ids and passwords ing its type and checking it email attachments), there are few or other forms of electronic au- with an antivirus program.* If better measures you can take than thentication with others. in doubt, delete it, and/or contact using the VirusTotal.com scanner. It’s free. Try it. PSS the sender first.
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In Good Humor About Two young businessmen in Co- lumbus were sitting down for a Get advance notice of updates break in their soon-to-be-opened www.puritas-springs.com and new releases including new store in prime downtown changes in related areas of commercial property near the Product Information the law. courthouse. There is a massive amount of How To Subscribe As yet, the store's merchandise information at our web site. Ex- hadn't been received, so only a haustive product information is You can join our email subscrib- few shelves and display racks available for each of our pro- er list by visiting our Home page had been set up. grams. Many of the Product and clicking on the Join Email Information pages include com- link on the menu bar near the One said to the other, "I'll bet plete lists of included forms and top. There is no registration and that any minute now some nosy screen and printout illustrations no personal information is re- attorney is going to walk by, put in the form of PDF files that you quired. Simply enter your email his face to the window, and ask can view and examine. address in the text input field what we're selling." and click the Submit button. Price Information Don’t forget that if you have Sure enough, a moment later, a security or spam prevention curious attorney walked by on We make our price information software, you may need to add his lunch break, came up to the readily available. Always one us to your white list. window, rapped on the glass, click away. Be suspicious of web and asked in a loud voice, "What sites that hide the price or insist Product Upgrade Info are you selling here?" on a sales call. We no longer print current ver- One of the men replied sarcas- Technical Support sion information here because, tically, "We're selling idiots." by the end of the mailing cycle, In our Support section you have most of the information is out-of- Without a moment's hesitation, access to back issues and tech date. It’s better to visit our web the attorney replied, "Business support logs which contain tech- site: must be good. Only two left." nical information in hundreds of areas covering our products as www.puritas-springs.com/currvers.aspx. Moral: Attorneys. Don't mess well as general computing hints with them. They didn't get where and tips of interest to law offices. It’s updated daily and there is they are by being stupid! PSS much more information than we Monthly Issues of ———————— could fit on a printed page. Law Office Computing More Cop Quotes Automatic Upgrades We can’t emphasize enough the "You know, stop lights don't importance and benefits of get- For most apps, updating is not come any redder than the one ting on our email list. an issue because Puritas you just went through." Springs Software applications Our new style makes each download and install updates "Relax, the handcuffs are tight monthly email a jam-packed- automatically. because they're new. They'll mini-issue of Law Office stretch after you wear them a Computing. YouTube Videos while." Some special discounts and Take advantage of our demon- “If you run you’ll only go to jail deals are only made available stration, training and instruction- tired.” PSS to our subscribers. al videos. PSS Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165 Volume 2017, No. 1 Law Office ComputingPurchaser Information Page 47 Order Form Name: Address:
City, State ZIP: Puritas Springs Software Telephone: The Cleveland Trust Bldg. Card No. & Exp Date: 645 McKee Trail Card Security Code: Hinckley, Ohio 44233-9202 Email Address: 330-989-3165/330-485-3165
Quantity Software Title Price Total Official Bankruptcy Forms (Bank9) Mac version U.S. Estate Tax (P706) Mac version U.S. Gift Tax (P709) Mac version U.S. Income Tax for Estates & Trusts (P1041) Mac version HUD Settlement Statement Forms (HUD4) Mac version Living Trust & Estate Planner (WTrust) No Win10 or Mac version Loan Amortizer (PSSLA) No Mac version Law Office Management Pack (OffMgt) No Mac version Ohio Programs Revised Ohio Child Support Guidelines (ROCSG10) Mac version Ohio Spousal Support Calculator (MA) Mac version Uniform Domestic Relations Forms (UDRF2) Mac version Basic Ohio Probate Forms (BOPF) No Mac version Cuyahoga County Probate Forms ($99 with purchase of BOPF)* Franklin County Probate Forms ($99 with purchase of BOPF)* Hamilton County Probate Forms ($99 with purchase of BOPF)* *The three county-specific apps above are not available in Mac versions Ohio Guardianship Forms (OGF5) Mac version Ohio Wrongful Death & Minor’s Claims (Minor5) Mac version Ohio Adoption Forms (Adopt4) Mac version Ohio Fiduciary Tax (PIT1041) Mac version Deed & Document Pro (Deed6) Mac version Ohio Business Forms (OBF3) Mac version Ohio Business Dissolution Kit (OBDK2) Mac version Combination Discount Packs Family Law Combo (ROCSG10 & MA) Mac version Family Law Combo 2 (ROCSG10 & UDRF2) Mac version Family Law Triple Pack (ROCSG10, MA & UDRF2) Mac version Probate Combo (BOPF & OGF5) or (BOPF & P706) Probate Triple Pack (BOPF, OGF5 & P706) Probate Complete (BOPF, OGF5, P706, P709, Adopt4, Minor5, P1041, PIT1041) Practitioner’s Legal Suite (Every program in our library)
Ohio residents and businesses must include sales tax for their county. Prices assume a Subtotal single-user license. Call for multi-user/multi-machine licensing and price information. All prices are subject to change due to modifications that occur Sales Tax between newsletter/catalog production and distribution. All applications are Windows 10 compatible and available in S/H Mac versions except as specifically noted above. Total
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645McKee Trail
Hinckley,Ohio 44233
TheCleveland Trust Building Puritas Springs Software Springs Puritas In This Issue American Bar Association recognizes Puritas Springs Software— Just in time for its 30th birthday, Puritas Springs Software received the recognition of the American Bar Association as best software for attorneys.
Our 30th Anniversary— How we started; how we got our name; how we made it from a basement in Cleveland to a nationally rec- ognized software development company dedicated to making software for attorneys.
Digital Inklings— Details about Microsoft’s dirtiest trick of late and what steps law offices can take about it.
Product Information— The specifics on all our apps, Mac releases and Windows 10 compatibility.
DIY for Law Offices— A blueprint for solving technological problems in the law office and avoiding potentially costly hardware repairs and IT expenses.
And More— Ethical considerations related to security and remote storage; technical support tips specifically adapted for law offices; cheap, quick, personal backups for convenient extra safety, and a liberal sprinkling of law office humor. Call us at (330) 989-3165 or (330) 485-3165