CHARLES CHRISTIAN’s LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO WHAT’S HOT (AND WHAT’S NOT) IN LAW OFFICE SYSTEMS

LAW FIRM RAM RAIDING BECOMING AN EPIDEMIC IN INTERNET In a new report, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) suggests the overall impact IN THIS FIRST of computer crime, including the theft – EDITION… As and more lawyers focus their or ‘filleting’ – of valuable components attention on the Internet as a way of such as memory and processor chips – marketing their practices, a firm in may be costing British businesses as • Is voice mail now London’s New Bond Street has taken much as five times more than originally affordable… 3 the process one step further. thought. Thanks to sponsorship by the According to the ABI, during 1995 • “Computerise or Internet Services Group of Jeffrey Green insurance claims relating to computer die.” Ian Walker Russell (which includes a major Internet theft came to just over £200million. How- talks about case service provider among its clients) the ever when other uninsured losses such management… 4 Ernest Bevin School in South London as lost business opportunities and has become the first state school in the reduced customer service are taken into • on a , UK to establish its own site on the Inter- account, the true cost to industry is esti- US lawyers say net’s World Wide Web (WWW) pages. mated to be much higher – perhaps total- why it can make Although the school – which has ling as much as £1billion a year. sense… 6 been teaching computer studies since the The ABI goes on to say that early 1980s – plans in due course to despite an easing in chip shortages, far take over the development of its own from being on the wane, computer thefts pages, the current sponsorship deal takes are increasing faster than any other type the form of both financial assistance with of crime. ABI deputy director general Tony the set-up and running costs, as well as Baker also warns that “constant techno- technical help on the creation of the Web logical changes and increasing demand CHANCERY site at http://www.potomac.com/JGR/ for computer equipment mean that this LANE TO ernestbevin/ crime will continue to rise unless busi- ACT In the autumn of 1994 Jeffrey nesses urgently review their security pre- Green Russell was the first solicitors cautions and upgrade them if necessary.” Sources report the practice in the UK to establish its own The ABI believes one problem is Law Society in WWW site and the firm believes the many organisations “simply do not realise London is finalis- Ernest Bevin project represents another how attractive their equipment is to ing a new “more ‘first’ in terms of legal sponsorship. thieves and under-estimate the devasta- proactive” strategy Commenting on why the Internet ting impact which its loss can have on to help members Services Group agreed to sponsor the the business.” The ABI has commenced a select and acquire school, senior partner Mr Clive Whitfield- campaign to alert business to the risks computer techno- Jones said: “The firm has always had a and suggest ways hardware suppliers can logy. More details strong commitment to human resources make their products more secure. in the next edition. development and technology. As a society Meanwhile LTi sources report a we are moving into a digital era and ‘top 40’ City of London firm in the Fleet Internet access will open up new Street area is among the latest legal opportunities to the school’s pupils.” ❐ practices to have been raided. ❐

Issue No 7 ❶ 29 January 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

LASERFORM ➦ the Probate Plus package for handling CONFIRMS the accounting side of probate and the administration of estates. KESTREL DEAL Since the was launched Electronic legal forms specialist Laser- in January 1994, it has been installed in form Law has now released further de- nearly 50 firms, varying in size from sole PPS TO tails of its acquisition of the Kestrel practitioners to larger City of London REVIVE Solicitors Accounts software package firms. One of the latest orders came from MAC-LAW from the David Salway/Graham Irwin Simmons & Simmons, while Nick Buck- legal partnership (☞ see Issue No 6 for initial man of Kingsley Napley and a founder software specialists report). member of the Society for Trust & Estate Professional Pro- The package will continue to be Practitioners (STEP) is another keen user. ductivity Solutions available in DOS and Windows versions David Stonehouse, who also uses managing director and has now been amended so as to be the software in his own practice, says it is Nicholas McFarlane compatible with ’s Access data- particularly satisfying to see that it is pri- Watts (incidentally base. It is capable of handling up to 99 marily fee earners who use Probate Plus. a practising solici- fee earners and virtually unlimited clients Currently only available on DOS, tor) is to revive the and matters, as well as offering full office Law Systems are working on a Windows MacLaw associa- accounting, including bank reconcilia- upgrade to Probate Plus based on Delphi tion for lawyers tion and client accounting, including in- and a Borland Paradox database. A and legal acade- terest calculation. release date is not yet available but mics interested in The product’s pricing has been Stonehouse plans to offer the Windows exchanging news changed, with a new entry-level price of version as a free upgrade to Probate Plus and views about £650 (down from £750) for a single-user users on an annual maintenance con- the use of the PC, followed by £999 for a 5 user licence, tract. In the meantime free demonstration Apple Mac. Anyone £1499 for a 10 user licence and thereafter disks of the DOS product are available. ❐ interested should £400 for each additional 5 user licence up call ☎ 01865- to a maximum of 50 users. 201801. Manual time recording via a time- BAR SYSTEM UPGRADE sheet is included in the base price how- Following a change in Crown Prosecution ☞ Meanwhile ever on-line time recording is available at Service rules, whereby barristers instruc- speculation an extra cost of £50 per user. And, free ted by the CPS are now required to sub- continues to demonstration disks are available from mit lists of outstanding fees for payment surround the Laserform Law (☎ 01565-755154). rather than use the traditional fee note, future of Apple Turning to the future, a full 32 bit Applied Computer Expertise (☎ 0171- Computer, the version of Kestrel is under 404 5577), the leading supplier of cham- company that development, as is the full integration of bers’ administration software, has deve- developed the Kestrel with Microsoft’s Office and ’s loped an enhancement to its Infinity sys- Macintosh system. PerfectOffice suites. The suites integration tem to automate this task. Case names, Latest reports sug- should be available April. ❐ reference numbers and other details can gest Apple’s Silicon now be abstracted from Infinity’s files to Valley neighbour produce a report tailored to meet CPS Sun Microsystems MUST BE DOING IT RIGHT requirements. is now actively “We must be doing something right, after One of the first sets to try the new involved in take- two years, we are still in business and program was Furnival Chambers in Hol- over negotiations. still winning new orders,” is how Hine born, where according to senior clerk Stonehouse & Barrington partner David John Gutteridge: “Many hours have been Stonehouse describes his experiences saved in not having to manually compile with Law Systems Ltd (☎ 01326- the required data, which can now be 317529), the Falmouth-based software made available in minutes and the list house he set up to develop and market ➥ updated each time the report is done.” ❐

Issue No 7 ❷ 29 January 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

VOICE MAIL – NOW ➦ departments. However for some smal- AFFORDABLE ler practices, it could well be a cost effec- tive way of providing a round the clock, TECHNOLOGY ? 365 days a year switchboard service. Although the concept of voice mail – Also, as one of the options is to RECORD arguably a rather grandiose name for have a dedicated CallCatchers number, RESULTS what in effect is a personalised tele- this could be an attractive option for sole FOR DEC phone answering machine – has been practitioners or criminal lawyers who After a traumatic around for a number of years, the po- don’t want to give clients their home couple of years, tentially enormous capital outlay (one numbers for out of hours calls. which saw drastic set of barristers’ chambers in the restructuring on a Temple paid over £1400 per handset) ☞ Technical Note… Although there are global basis, the has not surprisingly hindered its ac- minor set-up charges, the basic CallCat- Digital Equipment ceptance. However Cheshire-based Call chers service costs from as little as £4.99 Corporation has Catchers believe they have devised an a month. The service can also be set up signalled a return approach that makes the technology in such a way that subscribers can either to financial health more commercially attractive… call the service to collect messages or by reporting record Just as high capital costs deterred have CallCatchers call them periodically. quarterly revenues the first generation of computer users For details call the 24 hour information and strong profit from buying their own systems and line (☎ 01625-862000) or check the Inter- growth. Digital say turned them towards using bureau ser- net site at http://www.sirius.co.uk ❐ a key factor has vices instead, so Sirius Voice Systems – been the growing the company behind the CallCatchers demand for its high service – is effectively offering voice mail NEW APPRAISAL SYSTEM performance Alpha on a bureau basis. US software house Austin-Hayne has systems. The basic service comprises a call just launched a UK version of its Employ- diversion system, so that when the sub- ee Appraiser software, which is designed scriber’s main telephone number is busy, to cut the time it takes to write-up staff unanswered or unattended, the caller is performance appraisals. WINFAX automatically diverted to the Call It does this through a number of PRO FOR 95 Catchers service and offered a choice of techniques including: a precedent library The Delrina up to 10 separate mailboxes in which of 600 appropriate – but user editable – Corporation (☎ messages can be left. phrases and a “manager’s notebook” 0181-207 3163) As each mailbox is in effect a which can be used to record important has launched a separate answering machine, there is events throughout the evaluation period. WinFax PRO 7.0. a considerable scope for customising the Reflecting the product’s origins in Windows 95 com- messages callers hear so that, for exam- the land of political correctness, there is patible version of ple, every fee earner could leave different even a “language scan” facility to high- its popular send messages and instructions, depending light the use of potentially damaging and receive PC upon whether they were just out of the phrases in an appraisal. software. It has an office for a few days or away on holiday Employee Appraiser can import RRP of £99 but for two weeks etc. existing appraisal forms using Rich Text users of earlier ver- A typical scenario would therefore Format file exchange and runs on all 486 sions of WinFax be that a caller is greeted by a general Windows PCs, as well as most PC net- can upgrade for message to the effect they are connected work architecture. (There is also a US- only £35. to XYZ & Co’s voice mail system and that based Mac version.) The retail price is £99 if they would like to leave a message for (inc VAT) and for sales enquiries contact Mr X press key 1 on their telephone, for either of Austin-Hayne’s UK distributors Mrs Y press key 2 and so on. Amanda House at Softline (☎ 0181-401 Clearly such a system is not going 1234) or Kumar Mehta at Technomatic to be appropriate for all firms or legal ➥ (☎ 0181-205 0176). ❐

Issue No 7 ❸ 29 January 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

BETTER GET ➦ people sitting in an office all day mak- TECHNOLOGY ing and amending entries in an enor- mous diary.” – OR DIE Ian Walker used to sit on the Lord Much has been written about the Chancellor’s ITAC (Information Techno- technical aspects of computerised logy and the Courts) committee and has case management – but what about little doubt the Judiciary is coming to the business issues for firms using grips with computing. He personally be- RJW such systems? Recently Ian Walker, a lieves you cannot run a big case without TECHNICAL senior litigation partner at Russell some form of document tracking/case NOTE Jones & Walker, spoke to LTi about the management system and knows some Russell Jones & way the firm’s Personal Injuries De- judges take the view that if law firms Walker use case partment tackled the subject, especi- don’t have the technology, they should management and ally as it has one of the largest plain- not be doing litigation work. litigation support tiff, trade union, medical negligence This may seem an extreme view software written PI caseloads in the country. (There are but Walker has little doubt we are moving and supported by also commercial, employment and cri- into a situation in which “better get tech- Alternative Team minal law departments – the last nology or die”. (☎ 0171-359 3595). named acting for Larry Trachtenberg “Solicitors,” he says, “must firstly The work types in the recent Maxwell trial.) realise what IT can do for them - for ex- covered include “The concept of having large num- ample when we installed our current liti- trade union perso- bers of highly trained, highly paid lawyers gation support system we saw the output nal injuries, carrying out personal injuries work has of our secretaries immediately increase by medical negligence gone,” says Walker. “There is a financial 25 percent. And, secondly, they must ap- and industrial deaf- squeeze on and at the end of the day you preciate that if they are using manual ness. Alternative have to accept you are unlikely to be paid methods and are up against firms with Team developed an economic rate. The only way to survive technology, they are not going to be able the systems using commercially is to rely heavily on legal to compete.” DPS from MCS (☎ assistants and junior staff. But, this in He also takes the bullish attitude 0181-882 8811). turn means you must have standard pro- that instead of waiting for the economy RJW also uses a cedures for them to follow and be able to to recover before investing in IT, firms number of “off adequately supervise and direct them. should do it now so they are in a position the shelf” DPS “This is where computers will ass- to take advantage of opportunities imme- applications. ist you in being better organised. You can diately they arise. In other words they will put all your lists of contacts and experts actually be on the bandwagon when it Starting with a 12 on the system. You can create diary re- starts rolling and are not left chasing be- month pilot minders and warnings of pending activi- hind trying to jump on. project in 1993, ties – a key element as the need to strictly As for the expense, he recognises the use of DPS has follow timetables is becoming increasingly you cannot just keep writing cheques for been expanded important in civil litigation. And you can IT and that somehow firms must be able from 13 users in build precedent libraries of documents to cost-justify their investments. But, as one office to a total and procedures for everyone to follow and he points out, with civil litigation rules of 160 users in the make use of.” becoming increasingly stringent (such as firm’s London, Walker admits he is not a ‘techie’ the new rules for striking out an action if Leeds, Bristol, and does not understand how computers you do not apply for a trial date) and Birmingham and work. Nevertheless he recognises office every slip causing indemnity premiums to Manchester offices. automation has a number of inherent go up, on these grounds alone computer- benefits: “Humans are fallible, they forget isation can probably save money! things but computers don’t. They also However although pro-IT, Ian Walker don’t take lunch, go on holiday or fall does add a note of caution to the effect sick. It is the equivalent of having two ➥ solicitors must …continued on page 5 ➥

Issue No 7 ❹ 29 January 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

NO TRAFFIC HOLD ➦ inter-departmental review group felt that Norwel alone could deliver a full UPS IN PRESTON suite of software tools they would be As part of an upgrade of IT facilities, happy to work with. ❐ the Preston firm of Whittle Robinson has gone ‘live’ with a new workflow EDIA NOW system to handle road traffic cases… NEW VOICE ECA “As a result of rapid expansion RECOGNITION COURSES With the Internet over the past five years, we had grown to Kaye Tesler & Co partner Michael Kaye is creating increasing the limit of what our old system could about to begin a new series of lectures on interest in handle. And we also wanted to move to a the ways solicitors can effectively use electronic firm-wide wordprocessing, workflow and voice recognition systems. The courses commerce, the file management system that could draw are based on his own firm’s extensive ex- UK’s old EDI client and accounts information from a periences with the technology and have Association has general database,” said Whittle Robinson proved very popular. The next lectures widened the scope systems manager Joanna Backhouse. take place on 14th & 15th February at of its activities and The firm’s solution was therefore the Great Eastern Hotel, which is next to reconstituted itself to replace its old AIM One-2-Five ac- London’s Liverpool Street Station, with as the Electronic counts package with the new AIM Evolu- sessions commencing at 10.30am and Commerce Asso- tion practice management and integrated 2.00pm on both days. Two more are plan- ciation. The ECA workflow system. This was introduced in ned for 7th March at the same location. has also taken over stages throughout 1995 and along with For details either call ☎ 0181-809 6756 or many of SITPRO’s more conventional applications, such as email Michael D. Kaye via LINK. ❐ responsibilities. residential conveyancing, Whittle Robin- For further details son also installed the ‘Evolution Road check http://www. Traffic Accident Workflow procedure’ from TECHNOLOGY OR DIE eca.org.uk AIM Professional (☎ 01482-326971). ➦ continued from page 4… ensure the Initially this will be used to systems they buy are sufficiently flexible handle claims not involving injury and to work the way they want them to do, while only having gone ‘live’ in October, rather than impose new procedures on Duncan Stackhouse, the fee earner re- the firm. TIME sponsible for its implementation is suit- “It is quite apparent the way we RECORDING ably impressed. “Despite its ability to pro- handle litigation, based on our long ex- ON ‘95 duce documents automatically, this sys- perience, is different from the way other Soho-based media tem does not generate large volumes of firms work and therefore it was essential lawyers Schilling & meaningless paper work. The individual to have a system that could readily be Lom are currently user has full control over the system and customised and adapted. Another pro- running a new the material produced by it which en- blem with a lot of case management sys- version of the sures that it operates to the client's bene- tems is the IT suppliers do not themselves Quantime screen fit at all times,” said Stackhouse. ❐ have a good enough legal background. based time record- “They seem to start from a belief ing system from you can predict at the outset how a case Applied Computer STICKING FIRM will evolve in the future and set the Expertise under After a two year review of the options stages to be followed. But litigation is just Windows 95. available to it, City of London firm Druces not that predictable. If you need to imple- & Attlee has decided to stay with Norwel ment new procedures, the system must Computer Services (☎ 0161-945 3511) allow you the freedom to do so. We feel as the supplier of its next generation of we approached IT best by starting with administration systems and Windows how we work and what we do - rather support applications for fee earners. Fi- than picking the sexiest looking all-sing- nance partner Charles Attlee said an ➥ ing, all-dancing system.” ❐

Issue No 7 ❺ 29 January 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

UNIX ON A ➦ without the clients needing to leave their own offices. By attaching the LAPTOP ? SPARCbook to an external monitor or Although the idea of Unix in the legal overhead VGA display, attorneys and back office is not new and growing clients can also be provided with what Mr numbers of firms are now equipping Womack describes as a large screen “war fee earners with laptop computers, room” environment in which to prepare from Boston in New England comes the the overall case strategy. TADPOLE following report about the 250-attor- “The challenge here is that litiga- TECHNICAL ney legal practice of Hale & Dorr, tion lawyers are often faced with volumes NOTE which has been equipping lawyers in of material which they must condense to Hale & Dorr use the its corporate and litigation depart- a usable form, both for themselves and SPARCbook 3GX ments with running Unix… for the client. The SPARCbook allows us featuring user up- The technology platform Hale & to do that in a highly mobile environ- gradable SIMM Dorr has chosen is Tadpole Technology’s ment. It’s truly a remote office in a note- memory from 16- workstation-class SPARCbook range of book,” said Mr Womack. 128MB; removable notebook computers which, according to As an example of this ability, Mr 340MB, 520MB, director of computer services Robert Wo- Womack cites one case in which witnes- 810MB or 1.2GB mack, means that partners “have full ac- ses from a high technology client required SCSI-2 hard drives; cess to all files at all times” while the firm preparation before testifying in a Federal PCMCIA slots sup- benefits from “the ability to ensure all Communications Commission matter. porting two Type these files are automatically refreshed”. Rather than sending five boxes of files I/II or one Type III By comparison, Mr Womack be- and multiple attorneys to the client site device; built-in lieves standard PC based laptops suffer to prepare the witness, Hale & Dorr was ISDN and 14.4K from the drawback that lawyers on the able to send one attorney with one data/fax modem; road can only take subsets of information SPARCbook containing several highly or- on-board Ethernet, with them, so consequently version con- ganised files. SCSI-2 plus one trol between files held centrally and those “With the SPARCbook accessing parallel and two in use locally can get out of synch. our database, we can take a huge chunk serial ports. The key to all this is Tadpole’s of information and work it into a man- NCE (notebook computing environment) ageable chunk on a portable platform. ☞ Tadpole Tech- system. This is a file synchronisation fea- This is primarily why we have had a very nology (☎ 01223- ture that enables automatic updating of good success using the SPARCbook in 428200) suggest files, databases and calendars between litigation matters,”said Mr Womack. £9,200 as the UK those on a remote machine and those on “We’re able to go into the field with a list price for a the server, so as to ensure all users with SPARCbook and an imaging system to SPARCbook 3GX access to a file are always working with work with the client in real time to deve- configured with the latest version of it. lop depositions and prepare the client for 16MB RAM and a The use of the SPARCbooks has the rigours of the trial process better than 520MB hard drive been further enhanced by supplying Hale we could through any alternative means. bundled with the & Dorr’s litigation department staff with “The attorney and the SPARCbook Solaris operating portable imaging systems. This means are it – we don’t need to have the client environment and that while visiting a client to discuss a come here when we can do anything and Tadpole’s NCE. particular case, they can collect, scan everything we need to in the client’s of- and store documents directly into the fice. This equates to getting the best re- firm’s database. sults for the client in a way that is effi- Mr Womack says this combina- cient for their time and ours,” concludes tion of “organisation and mobility” has Mr Womack. “It is not enough to give our proved very useful as it enables the firm’s lawyers something that works well. The attorneys to efficiently prepare clients for system also has to benefit our clients in depositions and court appearances ➥ the form of a more efficient operation.” ❐

Issue No 7 ➏ 29 January 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

SONY LAUNCH NEW ➦ multiple sites. For this reason the VIDEOCONFERENCE 5000 has been designed to accept three ISDN2 lines, without need for additional SYSTEM external gadgetry, such as MCUs or mul- Sony’s Broadcast & Professional divi- tiplexers. From the user’s point of view R/KYV GOES sion has just launched what it this manifests itself as a ‘quartet’ split- WEST describes as its next generation of screen facility, so the unit simultaneously Document manage- video conferencing system. And, displays speakers at up to four locations ment systems despite being a ‘rollabout’ model, it (including the self picture). specialist Ymijs could give PC-based systems a run for Ltd (☎ 0181-518 their money… ☞ Comment… What Sony says makes a 1414) has opened Called the Trinicom 5000, the new lot of sense but for video conferencing to a new office in San system complies with all the latest ITU-T really take off, we still need the price of Francisco to recommendations, including the H.320 ISDN lines to come down to a point handle its growing and H.261 standards. ☞ This means the where more firms would consider them. ❐ volume of US Trinicom will be able to communicate business. “It seems with other vendors’ models which are a bit like coals to also ITU-T standards compliant and so DEALING WITH THE Newcastle,” said overcome the compatibility problems that TECHNOLOGY LEGACY Ymijs managing used to arise when anyone wanted to Next month sees the London Marriott director Bill hold a video conference linking different Hotel hosting the 8th annual Informa- Canning, “but our manufacturers’ systems. tion Systems for Lawyers conference. move is based on To-date the most common video LTi asked this year’s chairman Martin requests from the conferencing application has been the in- Telfer, the IT director of Masons, what market. Just about tra-company meeting. For example one of was on the agenda… every month we are the biggest law firm users of Sony video “The ISFL Conference offers prac- sending someone conferencing is Freshfields, who use the tical advice and real-life experiences as off to the US to technology to hold face-to-face meetings well as visions of the future for IT in legal work on a major between their London and international practices. This year, we have recognised piece of internat- office staff. However Sony say the market that very few firms are now starting with ional litigation.” has now reached a “critical mass” and a ‘clean sheet’ and that there will be lega- that inter-company communications “will cies to deal with. ☞ The next meet- shortly assume as much importance as “Similarly, we are addressing the ing of the R/KYV intra-company meetings”. Hence the new very real problems of organisational and User Group will be emphasis on standards. cultural change which must accompany held at the offices Although Sony Broadcast & any successful implementation of IT. of Rose in Professional (☎ 01932-816000) plan to Along with some introspective sessions, London on 16th launch their own PC-based system later we are also this year delighted to have February. this year, another reason why they are some customer’ viewpoints – both exter- still backing rollabout systems (the name nal and internal customers. stems from the fact the original models “To sum up,” says Telfer, “We have were on trolleys that could be rolled from it all, what to do, why to do it, how to do room to room) rather than ‘personal’ or it and what to watch out for. If you want desktop systems (such as ’s Pro- to get the best out of your investment in Share) is to be able to cater for another IT – be there!” growing trend: the multiway conference. Whereas the original demand for ☞ The Information Systems for Lawyers video conferences stemmed from a need takes place at the London Marriott on for point-to-point communications, Sony 27th-28th February. Call Centaur Con- anticipate more and more organisations ferences on ☎ 0171-434 3711 for details. wanting to hold conferences with ➥ And see leaflet enclosed with this edition.❐

Issue No 7 ❼ 29 January 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

Alexis Byter’s ➦ the problems start to arise for while 99 out of every 100 computing “near misses” COMPUTER LORE are survivable, every so often the prover- Probably the biggest problem with modern bial !!!! still hits the fan. personal computer systems is that they A couple of years ago it was are so damned good. Of course we still get terrorist bombs, today the big bogey is the the occasional glitches in processor chips RAM raider who plunders a firm’s IT re- LEGAL and bugs in the software but compared sources. To survive that kind of disaster TECHNOLOGY with the early pioneering years of the you must have good security procedures iNSIDER Commodore Pet and machines of that ilk, and that means regular back-up runs to For editorial we are living on a different planet. DAT, tape streamer or even just floppy & subscriptions… But, the downside to all this is disks for smaller practices. Ferndale House that there is a danger of us becoming Not only that but the data must North Lopham, complacent. Think about it. Back in Ye be periodically verified to ensure it is ac- Diss, Norfolk Bad Olde Days when you thought you tually usable. This is the origin of the old IP22 2NQ were lucky to have 4K of RAM, hard disks Grandfather/Father/Son rotation of Dx: 42519, Diss were unheard of and a “security back-up disks, so you do not find you have been ☎ 01379-687518 routine” meant copying files onto audio merrily backing up onto a defective disk Fax: 01379-687704 cassette tapes, everybody fell over them- All of which brings us to the cur- Email: jcxtian@cloud selves to ensure their data files were safe. rent gossip doing the rounds in the City nine.co.uk They had to, otherwise some quirk in the of London about a certain firm that or a flaw in some sub- found its data files had not been properly Editor: standard magnetic media risked consign- verified for nine months – and then had Charles Christian ing a 58 page lease into the Black Hole to employ a team of typists who spent five that is Silicon Hell. weeks rekeying information. And they call Today by comparison, when that practice management! ❐ Next edition out: thanks to cheap, reliable uninterruptable 12th February power supplies, robust hardware, non- Mickey Mouse operating systems, well de- IN THE NEXT EDITION signed applications software, auto save • Who won this year’s Society for facilities and a host of other advances in Computers & Law Award – and why? personal computing, the office can be • Readers add their voices to the falling down around your ears yet still the Windows 95 versus NT debate. hard disk keeps on turning. It’s a won- • The latest utilities for conducting legal derful world alright but that is where ➥ business on the Internet.

ISSN 1361-1240 © CloudNine Technology 1996 all rights reserved. Reproduction without prior consent is forbidden. This newsletter may not be photocopied etc within the terms of any licence granted by the Copyright Licensing Agency. The information contained in LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER has been carefully compiled from sources regarded as reliable. While every effort has been made to en- sure accuracy no guarantee is expressed or implied as to its validity, the Publisher cannot accept liability for any loss or damage of any kind which may arise from any errors or omissions. All trademarks, product and brand names etc are acknowledged and re- cognised as belonging to their respective owners. LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER and LTi are trademarks™ of CloudNine Technology. LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER is only available on subscription. UK rate: £95 for 24 issues pa - discounts for bulk subscriptions, site licences also available. (Overseas £125 - payment by International Money Order or bankers draft in £ Sterling drawn on London.) To subscribe complete & return this form to: CloudNine Technology, Ferndale House, North Lopham, Diss, Norfolk IP22 2NQ or DX: 42519, Diss Name...... Title...... Firm/Organisation...... Address...... Post Code...... DX No:...... Tel No:...... I enclose my remittance of £...... (cheque made payable to Cloudnine Technology) Send receipted invoice...... Please invoice me...... Purchase Order Number......

Issue No 7 ➑ 29 January 1996