TechnoLawyer: Utilities

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a hosted e-mail service for small and mid-sized law firms, a new expert witness online research service, and a free Firefox plug-in that enhances Google. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Got E-mail? Get Archived.
By Dennis Kennedy
Still managing your own e-mail server? Or perhaps you host your firm's e-mail at an ISP. If so, your e-mail may lack advanced applications such as BlackBerry support and archival and search capabilities.

Here to help small and mid-sized law firms and legal departments is NTT America, a division of NTT, the world's largest telecommunications company (more than $100 billion in revenue).

NTT America's new service, Email Archiving Solution, aims to provide law firms with peace of mind with regard to all aspects of e-mail infrastructure. In addition to providing traditional POP and MAPI e-mail, Email Archiving Solution coupled with hosted Microsoft Exchange also provides for wireless e-mail via RIM's BlackBerry and Microsoft's ActiveSync (Treo and other Windows Mobile smartphones).

You also get the benefit of the latest in anti-spam and anti-virus protection (say goodbye to the deeply flawed Bayesian filters and highly annoying challenge response technologies of yesteryear).

Living up to its name, Email Archiving Solution also provides you with advanced archiving capabilities, which you can configure by mailbox (both incoming and outgoing messages). NTT America claims that this service can meet any regulatory or internal compliance requirements.

Even if you have no compliance needs, this archiving technology has other benefits. For example, a powerful search engine enables administrators to search for and retrieve lost messages and entire mailboxes — much faster and with more certainty than restoring a backup.

Email Archiving Solution also addresses another problem with traditional e-mail systems — storage costs. Thanks to some nifty technology, NTT America has figured out how to reduce such costs and pass along the savings to law firms. For example, its "single-instance" technology means that it stores just one copy of an identical message (such as those group messages sent to everyone in your firm).

NTT America's service level agreement (so-called "SLA") guarantees a 99.9% uptime thanks to its secure and highly redundant data centers. When you do need help, you can get it 24/7. Email Archiving Solution does not require any software, licensing, or maintenance fees, IT staff, or on-site servers. Instead, you just pay a low monthly subscription. Learn more about Email Archiving Solution.

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.

Coming August 24, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Jason Havens reviews Windows Desktop Search and the improvements he'd like to see in later versions, Jeffrey Schoen reviews his experience with Symantec products, Jay Solomon explains how to create case-specific e-mail archives with Acrobat 7 Pro, Steven Schwaber joins the open WiFi ethics debate, and Richard Hutchins reviews his recent Amicus Attorney purchase. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a discount online store for inkjet cartridges and laser toner among other supplies, a utility that runs Windows on your Mac, and presentation software for your iPod. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Alternative Fuels for Your Inkjet and Laser Printers
By Dennis Kennedy
Ink and toner are as essential for the operation of today's law firms as gasoline is for running our cars. Unfortunately, the prices of inkjet cartridges and laser toner cartridges can give us the same sense of sticker shock as seeing $3/gallon gasoline at the pump.

Databazaar.com is one of the industry leaders in providing inkjet cartridges, laser toner cartridges, copier and fax supplies, paper, and projector bulbs at discount prices. You'll also find cables and printers at Databazaar.com.

Inc. magazine recently mentioned Databazaar.com in an article on "business bargains." Databazaar.com carries cartridges for almost every brand or make of printer, including HP, Brother, Canon, Epsom, Dell, Imation, Lexmark, Samsung, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, and Xerox/Tektronix.

Databazaar.com sells genuine new inkjet and toner cartridges as well as compatible cartridges in factory-fresh retail boxes — the same ones sold by manufacturers and big box retailers — at deeply discounted prices. Plus you get free shipping on all orders. All orders ship within 24 hours, except on weekends and holidays.

Databazaar.com offers a comprehensive, well-organized Web site. You can check and compare prices. Even better, the site offers RSS feeds for you to stay apprised of new products and special offers without visiting the site. Learn more about Databazaar.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.

Coming August 10, 2006 to Answers to Questions: William Kellermann discusses why there's more to metadata than meets the eye, Caren Schwartz offers advice for those looking to sync the new Treo 700 with Time Matters, D. Paul Dalton reviews his experience using LogMeIn for remotely troubleshooting computers, Andrew Simpson suggests a Google Desktop utility for searching image-only PDFs, and Shawn McKee reviews his Amicus Attorney-Outlook integration. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a service that can prove the sending, receipt, and content of an e-mail message, an online backup and document management tool, and an e-mail add-on that can convert attachments into secure PDF files. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Proving You Sent that E-Mail Message
By Dennis Kennedy
"But I never got your e-mail!" "That's not what your e-mail said!" "You never gave me that advice!" With today's overly-aggressive spam filters — not to mention less than honest adversaries and even clients — you need a simple and secure way to confirm and archive legal advice and other information sent via e-mail.

In technical terms, law firms realize they may need to show proof of sending, proof of delivery, and even proof of content (it's easy to edit an e-mail message after receipt) for important e-mail messages to prevent disputes.

The Registered E-mail® System available from BlumbergExcelsior offers a solution to protect senders of email, and it works whether or not the recipient has enrolled in the System. The service generates and returns a "Registered Receipt™" to the sender. All information necessary to verify the Registered Receipt™ and to reconstruct its original content is embedded within the receipt itself.

Each receipt contains an audit trail of information, including recipients and their email addresses as well as their e-mail servers and client programs. Receipts also contain a "digital fingerprint" — the time delivered, received, and opened, a copy of the original message with any attachments, and other information about the transmittal. These Registered Receipts conform to statutory requirements and prove both delivery and content. The Registered E-mail® System does not store any e-mail with a third party, making it truly secure.

You buy the service on a per use basis (starting at 79 cents per use) with stamp-like package plans available in which you can pre-pay for a pack of Registered E-mail® units for use by anyone within your firm. A free trial enables you to send 10 e-mail messages at no charge.

Learn more about the Registered E-mail® System.

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.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers an easy-to-use Bates stamping utility, a search engine that digs through user forums and message boards, and a nifty pair of wireless iPod headphones. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

The "Easy Button" for Bates Stamping
By Dennis Kennedy
The original Bates stamper was patented back in the 1890s. Since then, Bates stamping has served as the primary method of sequentially marking and numbering documents or images as exhibits in discovery or trials. You might be surprised to learn that this long-lived technique has become a leading tool for law firms transitioning from paper discovery to electronic discovery.

For the many litigators searching for the electronic version of a Bates stamping machine or labels, Easy Bates by Rennie Glen Software provides a simple and flexible software tool for Bates stamping today's digital evidence.

Easy Bates focuses exclusively on Bates stamping. It stamps Bates numbers onto PDF and TIFF documents. It also can print labels for paper documents. Easy Bates gives you seven choices of fonts. You can use both letters and numbers, and even create multi-line stamps.

You simply drag and drop your document files into the Easy Bates document list and they get electronically stamped.

Easy Bates sells for $199 with significant volume discounts. An unrestricted ten-day free trial is available. Adobe Acrobat is not required. The company has a history of providing free upgrades, and intends to continue this practice as long as possible.

What's keeping you from moving into electronic discovery? If it's the lack of an easy-to-use bates stamping tool, you may no longer have an excuse.

Learn more about Easy Bates.

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.

Coming June 23, 2006 to Fat Friday: Hanneke Smulders discusses desktop search tools and potential security concerns (plus we found an incredible comparative review of all the major desktop search tools), Richard Schafer reviews a password management utility, and Sean Tierney reviews his iPod must-haves for business and pleasure. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 16, 2006 to Fat Friday: Caren Schwartz explains how to choose billing software, Nicholas Bettinger reviews several desktop search options, Kelly Lupo reviews using McAfee Anti-Virus software in conjunction with the open source ClamWin and how this combination compares to Symantec AntiVirus, Andrew Paterson reviews his experience with Dell customer service, and Kath Gilliam reviews her favorite iPod speakers (and admits to a guilty musical pleasure). Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

P. Douglas Folk, Tip: Acrobat Professional or Standard; How to Offset the Cost of Acrobat

TechnoLawyer member Michael Commins asks:
"I was recently told by a local legal support vendor that Acrobat Professional is the only version of Acrobat to consider using in a law office. Before he told me this, I had purchased 3 licenses for Acrobat Standard for our firm. Should we move to Professional?"

Professional has some annotation features that are not included in the Standard edition that are a must if you use it for document mark-ups and send files to clients and other users who don't have Acrobat (e.g., those using the free Reader). We purchased Professional for the lawyers in our office who are doing contract reviews and other more intense mark-up work on their files.

You can offset some of the added cost of buying Professional (or Standard for that matter) by using some of the freeware or shareware PDF file converters available in the marketplace for your secretaries or other people who don't need to do anything more than convert a scanned image of a document, or Word or Excel files, to a PDF file before e-mailing it somewhere. Several capable utilities are available as freeware or shareware from www.tucows.com, although I notice one of the more popular ones, AAbby Finereader, is now sold as a commercial program for $299, which is about what you pay for Acrobat.

P. Douglas Folk
Folk & Associates, P.C.
Phoenix, AZ

About Answers to Questions
Posts like the one above appear exclusively in Answers to Questions, a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. You can subscribe here.

Coming June 8, 2006 to Answers to Questions: David Hudgens reviews the pro and cons of PCLaw and Time Matters, Robert Lee suggests a way to easily convert a PDF file to Word, H R Kloppenburg reviews his experience using ISYS search software, Frank Feilmeyer shares some open source options for secure instant messaging, and David Silverman suggests a few ways to improve Timeslips performance (while also declaring his love for a certain spyware utility). Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.