Putting Your CRM Database to Work for You |
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 Do you want to know how your customer relationship management database could do much of your marketing administration for you, as well as automatically ensure you target the right people with the right information at the right time and in the right way?
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Should Lawyers Tweet With Clients? |
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 It's not just for celebrities letting their fans know when they're headed to the gym or Iranian dissidents trying to duck bullets fired by the Basij. Lawyers might not be nearly as obsessed with social media as the rest of the world, but, here and there, a few have embraced some form of it. Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney IT litigation chair Francis "Frank" Taney Jr. uses Twitter for business ... and to discuss his beloved Phillies.
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 During my years as a paralegal and candidate attorney, I was frequently asked by clients the meaning of various Latin legal terms. I have compiled the following list of simple explanations of some of the most commonly used Latin legal terms, which I hope will be of assistance in explaining various terms as simply as possible.
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 Cache in browsers are generally a good thing, as they store data on your local computer, so that the browser does not have to go and download them off the web again, each time it needs the data. For example think of a logo on a page, and every page on the site has this logo, instead of fetching the logo each time, and downloaing it via the internet, would it not be faster to fetch the logo off the hard drive? Yep it would most definately be faster. Over time these become very large in file size, and for want of a better explanation the indexing of this cache can become corrupt, which will play havoc with your favourite banking site. Here are the steps to clear this area, should you encounter problems browsing, or should you run out of disk space.
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 Information overload - no matter how important your issue is, no matter how desperately you seek answers - let's face it, wads of information presented in books or lengthy, annotated articles appeal to few individuals considering the fast-paced lives we all tend to lead these days. Seth Godin, popular business author, says that the internet has unfortunately taught people to read paragraphs and not chapters, and he is right!
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Legal writing: make yourself understood by making your writing easier to read |
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 If you print your own briefs-as perhaps 99.99% of lawyers do-or just write a blog in your spare time, it makes sense to learn a bit about proper formatting, typography, and punctuation, all of which make your writing easier to read, and therefore more persuasive.
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 Very few law firms bother with backups. "It'll never happen to me" seems to be their view. The problem is that disasters do happen - for example theft of a server, fire, or disk failure. So is your firm prepared for a disaster? In this short article, I'll try and give you some logical rules for backups.
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 Finding electronic evidence has to be one of the most valuable ways to build an effective case - find information that either sparks non-electronic research, or use that evidence in court. Here Craig Ball shares tips on better discovery of electronic evidence. "ESI" means Electronically Stored Information. I must say I agree with all but one tip, which is asking the opposing party for their keywords. This article is split into two parts, use the "Read more" for the first, and click here for the second part.
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 Last month we covered getting the person/company or property details pertaining to property ownership in the Durban Ethekwini area. This month we look at the City of Johannesburg area, with help from John Webber of Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Incorporated.
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 The legal profession needs no instructions on the value of data and the information that it represents. Information is, after all, the lifeblood of the profession. With the almost universal dependence on digital data, contained on PCs, notebooks, servers and now even mobile devices, the question which looms large is whether or not appropriate measures are in place to protect that information and prevent its loss.
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How to print web pages without header and footer information |
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 This PC Tip is designed to simplify printing pages from the internet. If you would like to print web pages without the web address, title, date, etc then Internet Explorer has a feature to let you do this.
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Using technology in the courtroom - Globe and Mail |
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 This article on how technology has helped lawyers in the courtroom is old, written back in December 2004, but it has very good points on the benefit of technology when in court. It would seem that in South Africa, we are rather far behind. If your firm uses technology in court, please share your experience with us, either in the open forum, or email the editor directly. Click on the "Read more" button to see the original article.
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 Online backup enables business to backup their data automatically using the internet to pass the information securely to off-site data centres, managed by data specialists. Let's take a look at how this works, how secure and what is on offer.
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Document management: Big Firm to Solo - By Ross Kodner |
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 Lawyers in larger practices may feel they've fallen victim to the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." Thousands of lawyers have been adversely affected by the economic crisis. For lawyers who have lost jobs or whose firms have dissolved, re-employment options include landing at other large firms, taking in-house jobs or pro bono positions, or hanging up their own shingle, as solo or small firm practitioners.
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 There is a common misconception that email marketing is part of a dying breed. The advent of spam mail has further entrenched mistrust in the general emailing population.
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ABA: Finding some silver in the financial clouds: Technology Tips |
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 If you're ready to punch the next person who tells you there's got to be a silver lining to the clouds of the current economy, we hope you'll hold your fire, at least until you've read what we have to offer here. While the recession is painful, it truly offers opportunities to revamp your practice, including in the technology area.
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 Question: How Many Emails Are Sent Every Day?
Answer: Statistics, extrapolations and counting by Radicati Group from August 2008 estimate the number of emails sent per day (in 2008) to be around 210 billion.
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 Whilst the instances of software piracy have been steadily decreasing in South Africa over the years, the value of the software that is being pirated is on the increase. So whilst South Africa's current software piracy rate is 34% (down from its peak of 37% in 2007), the value of the software that is being pirated in the South African market has increased to ZAR1.9 billion.
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 Ever wondered which browser is most popular among law firms in South Africa? Or wondered if you should change to a different browser? Here is a graph which shows which browsers are currently being used by law firms in South Africa. We also looked at what screen resolution they were using.
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 I have recently acquired the Nokia e71 after owning its predecessor, the e61 for over 2 years. The e71 has everything the e61 had and more, and it is lighter and smaller than its ancestor!
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Winning at Trial with a Dynamic PowerPoint Presentation |
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 A lot is at stake—power, money, reputation, future plans, justice. You need to win this case. Your presentation materials surely will play an important role in helping the judge and jury experience the sights, sounds, and details of the case … or not. The choice is up to you, says one tech-savvy attorney. It all depends upon whether you are willing to push PowerPoint beyond its normal boundaries to maximize its interactive and persuasive potential.
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 Law Firms are agents of Banks in respect of many transactions they perform, and thus hold the personal information of those Banks customers in their electronic and paper records. Data Privacy Assessments and Audits from banks on their third parties should be expected by Law Firms who do Bank work. An assessment is a good chance to answer some difficult questions between the Business and the Information Technology stakeholders. The outcome of an assessment should be some remedial action to be taken to address weak points.
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
What is Social Media? Still considered an emerging idea, and still relatively in its infancy, social media is something that is difficult to define. Social media is a general term covering interactive broadcasts such as blogs, as well as social networking web sites (think of Facebook). Why should you use these tools in your business?
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Three tips for more effective e-mailing |
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 We have days for lovers (Valentine's Day) and for heroes (Memorial Day), so why not a day for e-mail (Information Overload Awareness Day)? The Information Overload presentation was about far more than just e-mail, but e-mail leads the deluge of information for most workers. So let's deal with the deluge, use addressing fields correctly, and look at e-mail writing from the bottom up.
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Guide to Practice Management Systems: Top Ten To-Dos Before You Take the Plunge |
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 A good article written by Kate Curfiss on whether you should change Practice Management systems or stay with what you have. Her conclusion? "I once heard a colleague of mine and well trusted legal technologist say that a practice management system is like a marriage. You do not throw it away when you hit a rough patch. Rather you forge through because of your investment. Think of the the needs analysis score card as a marriage counselor. It will help you determine whether it is worth the effort to keep what you have or find a new practice management soulmate."
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 Every day, someone is predicting a sea change in the way we conduct discovery. However, due to the dogged nature of many litigators, the old "belt and suspenders" style of discovery persists. Many attorneys adhere to the philosophy of reviewing each and every document in the order that they find them. I am not here to predict the downfall of those who are sticking to that philosophy; in fact, I am quite sure that the old methods of approaching discovery will last eternally.
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 In October 2008 Namibia's electronic communications operators (1) were hosted by the Information Communication Technologies' (ICT) Minister Joel Kaapanda to address ongoing call termination rate disputes (2) between the parties. The forum agreed to a initiate a study of termination costs, which was commissioned in January 2009 and by 1 June 2009 the Namibia Communication Commission (NCC) prescribed a new termination rate ceiling of N$0.60 (3) (down from N$1.06) with a glide path to N$0.30 by January 2011. How did this happen and can it happen in South Africa?
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 In the era prior to search engines such as Google - before the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) was fully understood by web developers and the business world - Content Management Systems (CMS) were invented to help companies large and small easily create and maintain their web sites without having to manually edit HTML code. Wikipedia is a prime example of a site that uses a CMS.
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 With the entry of blogs, and networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, into the world of online communication, the much understated Email Signature has been largely relegated to the realm of Forgotten Marketing Tools.
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 Sieg Heiriss from SK Heiriss Incorporated touched on a very valuable way of obtaining information about a property and or owner, but using mostly free government information tools. Here is a step by step process on obtaining such information in KwaZulu Natal first, we will tackle the other centres in future editions.
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SA’s future broadband scenario |
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 Seacom will boost our bandwidth from 130Gbps up to 1.28 terabits per second (Tbps). This increase in bandwidth will theoretically make it much cheaper for service providers to buy wholesale bandwidth.
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
In the current climate and with the recent news that South Africa is now formally in a recession there have been a lot of attorneys that have decided to leave the larger firms and go on their own. However, how will they be able to compete with the large firms that have all the technology they need at their fingertips?
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 Last year, Smith Tabata Buchanan Boyes (STBB), one of the leading conveyancing firms in South Africa, began investigating the possibility of upgrading their conveyancing software. They felt they needed a system that not only offered the flexibility to satisfy their unique demands, but could also cater for their multi-branch environment running over a Wide Area Network.
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 We see quite a vast array of quality and purpose with legal web sites in South Africa. What should you expect from your firm's site? Does this medium bring in business, or is the upkeep of the site more hassle than it's worth?
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Storing Your Firm's Data 'In the Cloud' |
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 Cloud computing is maturing into a plausible alternative for online data storage, according to consultant Brett Burney. When your data is "in the cloud," you are not tied down to a solitary computer -- you can access your files from any computer that is connected to the Internet.
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Eliminate process bottlenecks created by paper |
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 Streamline workflows and increase productivity by performing document imaging at the front-end of business processes. In today's challenging economic climate, the ability to automate business processes becomes essential for improving productivity and managing costs.
Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
To achieve process automation, organizations are turning to Business Process Management (BPM) - the practice of designing, implementing, executing, monitoring, and administering business processes that incorporate human and system interactions.
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 What is Linux?
Linux has been around for a number of years, and, for those who don't know, it is a free operating system originally coded by Linus Torvalds in 1991.
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Paralegals investigate social networks |
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 As technology continues to impact the legal profession, paralegals are turning to social and professional networking sites to investigate claims. These sites can provide a deluge of data, including specific communications and entries concerning parties to the action.
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Designing an effective law firm website |
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Tech advisor | Page-181 - Tech4Law
 The largest expense of a high quality law firm web site is not having a firm do the HTML coding or renting space on a web server, but indirect costs: the time spent planning what to say substantively and keeping the site updated. Before you can begin the design process you need to think carefully about how you expect the web site will benefit your firm.
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 A couple of years ago Apple announced the revolutionary iPhone. Beautiful. More advanced than anything else on the market. And so easy to use.
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Tech advisor
