TechnoLawyer: TL NewsWire

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a Windows time and billing application (see article below), a software solution for early case assessment, a Mac time and billing application, a new suite of productivity software, and a mobile reference app that contains the entire Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Don't miss the next issue.

Bailout Your Lost Billable Time
By Neil J. Squillante

Still waiting for your bailout? Don't hold your breath. You're small enough to fail so the government doesn't care about you (except when you run payroll). You're going to have to save yourself. To do that, you need to prevent billable time from slipping through the cracks.

Easy TimeBill ... in One Sentence
EasySoft's Easy TimeBill is a desktop application that enables you track and enter billable time, create bills, receive payments, and manage your bank accounts.

The Killer Feature
Do you plan to break free of the billable hour and charge flat fees instead? Good for you. But you'll still need to track your time.

Easy TimeBill enables you to track time for fixed fee matters so that you can assess their profitability. Eventually, you'll be able to adjust your rates so that you earn more than if you billed by the hour.

Other Notable Features
If you still need to bill your time, Easy TimeBill can handle that as well other forms of billing such as contingency. It also manages retainers.

Multiple timers enable you to track your time as you move from one task to another and back again. You can post time entries individually or on a weekly basis.

Although each lawyer at your firm can use Easy TimeBill, your firm can alternatively use just one license to enter time for an unlimited number of timekeepers.

Easy TimeBill also offers basic accounting features. You can reconcile bank accounts, create and print checks, record, payments, etc. If you use EasySoft's Easy Trust software, you can also view balances in client trust accounts.

What Else Should You Know?
Easy TimeBill runs on Windows. The first license costs $199. Each additional license costs $99. You can download a demo before buying the software. Learn more about Easy TimeBill.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a practice management system (see article below), billing software for BlackBerrys, and three holiday time wasters. Don't miss the next issue.

What's in Your Law Firm's Wallet?
By Neil J. Squillante

Law firms should always have a good understanding of their business, but it's especially important nowadays. Enter the practice management dashboard. It shows you how much clients owe you, how long it takes them to pay you, the status of your open cases, who's working hard and who's slacking off, etc. While some law firms can access this information in various places, few can do so in one place.

Virtual Bottomline Firm Management Solutions ... in One Sentence
Virtual Bottomline Systems' Virtual Bottomline Firm Management Solutions is a practice management solution that includes an accounting and billing system, a contact and case management system, a document management system, document drafting tools, and network faxing.

The Killer Feature
A holy grail is something cherished but unattainable. Like a winning lottery ticket. Or better yet painless billing for disbursements.

Virtual Bottomline Firm Management Solutions can transform this pipe dream into reality thanks to its intelligent disbursements technology.

For example, whenever you print or fax a document, receive a fax, print postage or an overnight courier label, or scan a document, Virtual Bottomline Firm Management Solutions asks you if you would like to bill that disbursement to the client. One click and you're done.

Other Notable Features
Virtual Bottomline Firm Management Solutions can also handle your hourly billing no matter how complex. For example, it handles fee splitting, includes timers, enables you to apply rates by both timekeeper and task, and much more.

Virtual Bottomline Firm Management Solutions also features trust accounting, including automated deposit slips, check production and control, and reconciliation and statements.

You'll also find everything at your fingertips because of the automation and linking technologies. For example, you can create templates for documents you frequently draft. When you create a document, it's automatically filed in the matter. If you email it to a client, the email message is also filed in that matter. Etc.

Other features include network contact management, network faxing, customizable reports, conflicts checking, and much more.

What Else Should You Know?
Virtual Bottomline Firm Management Solutions sells for $699, but is currently on sale for $349, including the network fax option. It runs on Windows. The company offers remote installation and training. Learn more about Virtual Bottomline Firm Management Solutions.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a practice management system, billing software for BlackBerrys (see article below), and three holiday time wasters. Don't miss the next issue.

Automatically Capture Time Spent on Calls and Email
By Neil J. Squillante

You may think you get paid for your legal work, but that's not really true when you think about it. No. You get paid when you record the time you spent performing legal work and send your clients a bill. If you don't bill, you don't get paid. Here's the thing though. What happens when you get so busy serving your clients that you don't have time to serve your own needs?

Time+Expense ... in One Sentence
Post Time Solutions' Time+Expense automatically captures the time you spend on email and phone calls on your BlackBerry, and enables you to create other time entries as well.

The Killer Feature
Do you and your BlackBerry spend a lot of time together? How much time? "Uhm ..."

Yes, that's a painful question for many lawyers. It's painful for managing partners who want to maximize revenue, and it's painful for associates trying to hit their billable targets.

Time+Expense prevents this time from slipping through the cracks. After every phone call, it displays the time you spent and asks you if you want to create a time entry. It performs the same function for email messages you send.

Other Notable Features
In addition to capturing time spent on your email messages and phone calls, you can also record other time entries in Time+Expense so you need not wait to get back to the office.

To get started, you set up clients and matters, which you can change anytime. You can also set up a schedule and have Time+Expense email your time entries to your PC in an Excel spreadsheet. From there, you can post them to your billing system.

Time+Expense does not require an accompanying server. It resides only on your BlackBerry, which means you can use it with any BlackBerry, not only those tied to BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

What Else Should You Know?
Time+Expense sells for $150 plus an annual support fee of $25, which includes unlimited updates and technical support. You can try it for free for one week. Learn more about Time+Expense.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a Web-based litigation planning application (see article below), a site for sharing PowerPoint presentations, software that connects Microsoft Exchange and Interwoven WorkSite, an eDiscovery network appliance for collection and review, and a mobile discovery application for BlackBerry and iPhone. Don't miss the next issue.

Plan Early and Often and Win More Cases
By Neil J. Squillante

Alan Lakein once quipped, "Failing to plan is planning to fail." Litigators who fail to plan often find themselves reacting to their opponent (playing defense) rather than dictating the course of events (playing offense). But is failing to plan the fault of litigators? Not entirely. Despite the increasing complexity of litigation (eDiscovery anyone?), most project management systems focus on disciplines such as architecture, software development, etc. One company is determined to bridge this gap.

TrialSchedule ... in One Sentence
TrialSchedule is a Web-based application that provides litigation teams with a visual Gantt view of the deadlines and tasks associated with their cases.

The Killer Feature
Whether you use Outlook or a practice management application, your calendar does an excellent job of informing you about your daily activities. But what about long-range planning? Not so much.

TrialSchedule features a patented Gantt view that displays all the events associated with your cases visually on one screen. At a glance, you can see the phase of each case and important todos and milestones.

Other Notable Features
TrialSchedule provides two main screens. In addition to the Gantt chart and accompanying todos noted above, it also displays your personal todos plotted on a graph by deadline and importance so you can prioritize.

You can focus on a particular case, a particular phase of several cases, etc. by using the sorting tool. You can also print any chart, email it in PDF format, or download the data in Excel format.

TrialSchedule has a number of enhancements that further add value to the core features. For example, you can set up email triggers to remind you of todos, alert you about deadlines, and keep you apprised of work performed by colleagues.

You can also append notes and attach documents to any entry in TrialSchedule. For example, you could add the contact information for a court reporter to a deposition, or attach a court's rules on motions to a deadline for a motion.

Perhaps most importantly, you can create Phase Templates if you often handle cases in the same court. These templates incorporate the court's rules so that with one click you can set up a new case in that court with all the correct deadlines.

What Else Should You Know?
TrialSchedule works in all major browsers on Macs and PCs. Pricing starts at $57/month for up to 5 users. Every plan includes telephone support, unlimited email alerts, and all new features — plus there's no software to install. Learn more about TrialSchedule.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a Web-based case management application (see article below), a mobile billing application, software that automates document drafting, a PDF annotation tool, and an add-on utility for the iPhone Mail app. Don't miss the next issue.

Case Management Hits the Web
By Neil J. Squillante

Did you feel that? No, it wasn't an earthquake. But the ground shifted. Web applications have arrived. It all started with that search box on Amazon and then Google. Webmail and online banking proved that you could manage highly sensitive information online. Law firms embraced intranets, extranets, and other lightweight applications. The next logical step? Practice management.

Caseload ... in One Sentence
Blackletter's Caseload is a secure Web-based case management system for solo practitioners and small law firms.

The Killer Feature
It's about time. Your practice that is. Not only do you bill your time, but the order in which events transpire also plays a key role.

Caseload offers lawyers a timeline-driven project management system. Every matter has its own timeline in which you and your colleagues can add events, documents, to-dos, issue outlines, and more, thus creating a dashboard from which you can see everything associated with a matter.

In ye olden days, a case file served a similar purpose — but with a fraction of the functionality. For example, Caseload displays information about upcoming deadlines, current todo items, and co-worker activity all in one place on the matter dashboard.

Other Notable Features
In addition to project management, you'll also find contact management, shared calendars, to-do lists, billing, and document management. Caseload also offers a system-wide search function for finding what you need.

All the functions integrate. For example adding an event to a matter's timeline also adds it to your calendar and vice versa. The contacts database lists the related matters for each contact. Etc.

Outlines never enjoyed mainstream success probably because most people don't write much. But lawyers love outlines because they write a lot. Knowing this, Blackletter built a hierarchical outliner into Caseload. You can quickly move items around and tag entries with issues. Like everything else in Caseload, you can attach outlines to projects so that they'll show up in your dashboard and timeline.

What Else Should You Know?
Caseload works in all major Web browsers on Macs and PCs. It does not require any up-front costs or any software installation. As you would expect, Caseload protects your data and transmissions using bank-grade encryption. Caseload offers four subscription plans ranging in price from $5/month for 3 users and 10 active matters to $50/month for unlimited users and matters. Learn more about Caseload.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a mobile Web portal for Time Matters (see article below), an online backup solution, a tool for creating Web forms, a utility for saving YouTube videos, and a freeform database for the iPhone. Don't miss the next issue.

Take Time Matters Everywhere You Go
By Neil J. Squillante

It's nice to squeeze your own orange juice or brew your own coffee, but you don't always have time. Similarly, you may not always have time to synchronize Time Matters with your smartphone. And depending on which smartphone you use, you may not be able to sync all your Time Matters data, just the portions that Outlook understands.

MobileTM ... in One Sentence
Developed by Data Equity and sold by OTB Consulting, MobileTM is a Web portal that enables you to access your Time Matters data in real-time on any Web-enabled smartphone.

The Killer Feature

The smartphone revolution presents Time Matters users with a problem. For example, although you can use Outlook as a conduit for synchronization, it doesn't support many of the data types in Time Matters. Furthermore, wireless synchronization requires an investment in software such as BlackBerry Enterprise Server or Microsoft Exchange.

MobileTM addresses this problem by focusing on Web services. You don't install any software on your smartphone nor do you need to sync. Instead, MobileTM makes your Time Matters data available securely over the Internet. You simply access it from your mobile Web browser. As an added benefit, your firm need not standardize on one smartphone.

"A firm that uses Time Matters cannot afford to be without MobileTM," OTB Consulting Managing Partner Tom Rowe told us. "Real-time access to data is essential in today's on-demand world."

Other Notable Features

MobileTM resides at your firm, and does not require Microsoft Exchange or any software or hardware other than your existing Time Matters installation.

MobileTM is compatible with the major Web-enabled smartphone platforms, including BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile.

You can choose up to 16 record types to make available to your mobile users, including user-defined records in Time Matters 9. You can also customize the manner in which the information is displayed.

MobileTM supports both quick searches and full-text searches. It will begin presenting a list of hits as you type. If you pull up a contact or matter, you can see all related records such as events, notes, phone calls, and todos. You can also dial phone numbers directly from MobileTM.

What Else Should You Know?
MobileTM costs $300 per year for the server and administration tools plus $100 per user per year. You need not purchase a license for every Time Matters user in your firm, only those who need mobile access. For example, five MobileTM users works out to $160 per user per year. Learn more about MobileTM.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers an online court rules service for small law firms (see article below), an application for reviewing discovery documents, a 24 inch monitor, a financial calculator for iPhone, and an information service for BlackBerrys. Don't miss the next issue.

If You Know the Rules, You Won't Lose Your Cool (or Clients)
By Neil J. Squillante

In a perfect world, courts and legislators would work together to create a simple set of procedural rules so that lawyers could spend more time on the key issues in their cases and less time worrying about arcane requirements. Here's a news flash — we don't live in a perfect world. That's why we have technology. When it works, it can simplify complex data sets such as court rules.

SmartRules.com ... in One Sentence
Practice Technologies' SmartRules.com provides step-by-step instructions for handling procedures in state and federal courts throughout the country.

The Killer Feature
Figuring out which rules apply to a given scenario such as filing a motion to dismiss often requires consulting multiple sources — civil procedure, rules of evidence, standing orders, local rules, etc. — some of which may conflict with each other or be out of date.

SmartRules.com eliminates the need to make sense of all these rules sources individually. Instead, just enter your jurisdiction and select your task. SmartRules.com then provides you with a SmartRules Guide — a step-by-step checklist for that particular task, including up-to-date drafting and filing requirements from all applicable rules sources.

Other Notable Features
SmartRules.com is not a 1.0 product. For the past six years, over 50 of the largest law firms in the country have used SmartRules firm-wide to manage their litigation portfolio. What's new is a Web version for small firms and sole practitioners.

SmartRules.com covers all courts in the country (state, federal, trial and appellate), with premium SmartRules Guides available for California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia and Federal District Courts.

Two forms of membership exist — Basic and Premium.

The Basic Membership gives you access to all the applicable codes, courts, and forms for every civil trial and appellate court in the United States. It also provides you with subpoena guides for most states as well as SmartRules Alerts to warn you in advance about rule changes.

The Premium Membership gives you access to SmartRules Guides for thousands of topics, which obviates the need for you to research the various rules.

What Else Should You Know?
The SmartRules.com Basic Membership is free. Premium Membership is sold on a subscription basis based on jurisdiction. A Daypass is available too for one-time needs. Learn more about SmartRules.com.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a contract management application (see article below), a CLE courseware program, a cost recovery system, anti-virus software, a voice recording application for iPhone, an online store for BlackBerrys, and a case management application for Windows Mobile. Don't miss the next issue.

Cut Through the Mumbo Jumbo
By Neil J. Squillante

Management. The most overused word in legal software? First came case management. Then knowledge management. Contact management. Client relationship management. Etc. Cliche or not, this word underscores the growing need of the legal profession to, yes, manage disparate types of electronic information. Well, it's time to add new one to the list — contract management.

Mumboe ... in One Sentence
Mumboe is an online application that enables you to manage existing agreements and also store and share templates from which to create new agreements.

The Killer Feature
Most contracts drone on for pages and pages. This level of detail is necessary, but some details are more important and more likely to be referenced than others. Also, some details exist in virtually all contracts regardless of subject matter.

When you upload contracts into Mumboe for storage, Mumboe extracts the most critical data so that you can review it at a glance and also compare it across other contracts. It even extracts this data if you upload a scanned contract thanks to its built-in OCR technology.

What does it extract? The parties, addresses, term, choice of law, etc. You can review the data extracted and make corrections and remove details you don't want to track before saving. Mumboe refers to this information as "contract intelligence."

Other Notable Features
Like most online applications, Mumboe provides a dashboard from which you can access all of Mumboe's functions. For example, you can search for an agreement, view all agreements, and create an agreement.

Mumboe offers simple and advanced search. You can search the full text of agreements or just extracted data. The advanced search mode provides you with Boolean operators, date ranges, and other tools to narrow the results.

Mumboe also enables you to create reminders for important milestones, create tasks and assign them to others, bookmark agreements for quick access, and import contacts so that you can more easily populate agreement templates.

What Else Should You Know?
Like most online applications, Mumboe offers a free "gateway" version, Mumboe Express, which provides you with storage for 10 agreements. Mumboe Pro costs $24/month for 250 agreements. You can purchase additional storage at a rate of $12/month per 100 agreements. Learn more about Mumboe.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a telephone broadcasting service, a social network for patent lawyers (see article below), and a social network for marketing your firm. Don't miss the next issue.

Reinvent Your Patent Practice
By Peter R. Olson

Did you know that two of America's founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, were accomplished inventors? Among other things, Franklin developed bifocal glasses and the lightening rod while Jefferson invented a dumb waiter. Both men refused to patent their inventions, preferring to provide for the public good rather than personal profit. Fortunately for you, most inventors feel otherwise.

Patent Buddy ... in One Sentence
Patent Buddy is a social network for patent lawyers and patent agents designed to facilitate networking, recruiting, and client development.

The Killer Feature
More than the work product created by lawyers in other practice areas, patents can serve as an excellent marketing tool for patent lawyers.

Patent Buddy enables you to create a professional profile in which you can list your qualifications and list patents that you have successfully prosecuted. Because your profile resides on the Web, you can link directly to the patents so that prospective clients or other law firms can review your work.

Other Notable Features
In addition to professional profiles, Patent Buddy offers three other core services — job hunting, networking, and research.

The Opportunities feature enables you to stay on top of actual and possible patent job openings in your area. For example, Patent Buddy notifies you when a patent lawyer leaves a firm. By acting quickly, you could apply for that vacated position before the firm begins seeking a replacement.

If you're a managing parter, you can use a similar feature to keep track of the activity of competing firms — who they hire, which patents they file, etc.

Patent lawyers who often work with other firms that don't have any patent lawyers can use the networking features to stay top of mind with such firms. You can receive email notices from Patent Buddy showing when and how frequently people have accessed your profile.

Patent Buddy also provides a career news blog and job posting board. You can search for jobs by location, specialization, education, experience, and job type.

What Else Should You Know?
Patent Buddy claims to track 39,072 patent lawyers and agents and 12,967 organizations as of today. You can join for free, but you must have a USPTO registration number. Learn more about Patent Buddy.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a remote control service (see article below), and two new time-billing programs (one for Mac and one for Windows). Don't miss the next issue.

Work at Your Office Without Being There
By Neil J. Squillante

Sometimes you can't avoid working late. But that doesn't mean you can't make the best of a bad situation. Why stay in your office and ignore your hunger pangs when instead you can take a well-deserved break and finish up your work at home? Oh, that's right. Your computer at work has everything you need and your computer at home doesn't.

LogMeIn Pro ... in One Sentence
LogMeIn Pro enables you to access and control your work PC securely over the Web from any Internet-enabled PC.

The Killer Feature
USB thumb drives, file servers, and even the vaunted "cloud" have their limits. These technologies enable you to transport or access important files, but these files won't do you much good if you don't have the programs to run them.

Because LogMeIn Pro enables you to remotely use your work computer, you can use the software on that computer not to mention access any connected file servers.

Thus, you don't have to spend thousands of dollars outfitting your home computer with the same software you have at work. Plus you can use any computer, not just your home computer. The bank-grade 256-bit encryption keeps your sessions secure.

Other Notable Features
LogMeIn Pro features a simple set up that does not require the use of a consultant or an understanding of jargon like "VPN." You just create an account and download a small software component onto your office computer. Then, when you're at home or anywhere else you need access, you log into LogMeIn Pro using your Web browser.

In addition to remote access, LogMeIn Pro includes several other useful features. For example, "remote-to-local printing" enables you to print documents on your remote computer to your local printer.

You can also copy files and folders back and forth. In fact, if you need to send a large file to a client, you can create and email a LogMeIn file share link for that specific file.

Other features include online meetings with desktop sharing, file synchronization, mapping of remote hard drives to your local PC, remote sound (listen to your music collection), and a customizable ribbon menu to which you can add your favorite functions for one click access.

What Else Should You Know?
For the target PC, LogMeIn Pro supports Windows Vista, XP, Me, 2000, and Server 2003. You can access the target PC from any Web browser that supports Java. LogMeIn Pro is priced on a per PC basis with volume discounts for two or more PCs. Pricing for an annual subscription starts at $69.95. Learn more about LogMeIn Pro.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.