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Wednesday, June 28
The definitive online resource for the latest news about legal technology...
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 28 Jun 2006 13:21 BST
LegalTechnology.com is the award winning niche web site for legal technology and online legal services news and information, which has been described by The Times newspaper as "the definitive online resource for the latest news about legal technology." Along with a searchable archive of back issues of all our publications, its facilities include: an extensive diary of forthcoming legal IT events, a jobs board for recruitment opportunities within the legal IT market and our definitive top 250 chart of which systems the UK's largest law firms are using - leading US legal publishers LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell recently described this chart as "wonderful data".
Traffic report: the Insider web site is currently averaging over 11,000 page views and 50,000 hits each week. Apparently Wednesday afternoons between 3:00pm and 4:00pm are our peak viewing times.
Friday, November 6
And then we turned into Father Jack
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 06 Nov 2009 12:00 GMT
Imagine our surprise and delight at Villa d'Orange when a courier service delivered a carefully wrapped package marked Caution – contains glass. A quick look confirmed it contained bottled liquid and was from TM Search Choice. Was it a half bottle of champagne or perhaps a fine vintage wine, along with a crystal goblet, to promote their new local authority search service?
Strange, there was a glass – nice bit of Dartington – but it was a tumbler. And that certainly wasn't vintage wine in a screw-top bottle – in fact it was a clear liquid. Ah, maybe it was vodka – perhaps to celebrate breaking free of the Stalinist grasp of the NLIS hub?
No. It wasn't vodka either – it was water – to emphasise that TM's local searches are "drawn directly from source" (Geddit?) Water! At this point we found ourselves turning into the Father Jack character out of the old Father Ted TV series... Water! Feck! Drink! Feck! Still, at least TM got their plug.
Thursday, November 5
IRIS launch pay-as-you-go service for Scotland
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 05 Nov 2009 15:05 GMT
IRIS today announced the availability of IRIS Law Scotland, a brand new, fresh and modern practice and case management system designed specifically for Scottish law. With over 200 Scottish legal firms already using IRIS solutions, IRIS has harnessed years of experience and feedback to create IRIS Law Scotland. As well as being designed specifically for Scottish legal professionals, IRIS Law Scotland is supported by a dedicated team based in IRIS’ Bridge of Allan office.
Brian Welsh, General Manager for IRIS Legal & Property in Scotland, said; “IRIS Law Scotland is designed to ensure that Scottish law firms can evolve to benefit from increasing changes in market conditions. It is a fully integrated modular solution capable of fulfilling the requirements of any practice irrespective of its size or speciality.”
IRIS Law Scotland is available as a complete solution or as a range of stand-alone case applications including wills and executry, conveyancing, personal injury and debt recovery. The solution minimises costs and maximises profitability through the efficient management of cases and the wider practice. IRIS Law Scotland is also available through a highly secure, hosted environment and presents a radically new way to access and pay for functionally rich software. Options are available for delivery on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis, perfect for smaller firms who would prefer to concentrate on their legal clients than managing an IT system. Prices for ‘pay-as-you-go’ start from £95 per user per month.
• IRIS Law Scotland is supplied by IRIS Legal & Property Solutions (Scotland), formerly GB Systems.
www.iris.co.uk/lawscotland
Bighand launch server side speech recognition
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 05 Nov 2009 15:00 GMT
At the company's EMEA user conference in London today, Bighand launched its new Server-based Speech Recognition module aimed at organisations looking to further streamline administrative overheads in the current climate, or support an upturn in work as the economy recovers. The new voice-to-text module also supports voice submission from Blackberrys and smartphones, alongside traditional dictation hardware. The Bighand server-side speech recognition add-on is part of the latest v3.3 release of Bighand’s digital dictation workflow software.
The speech recognition module (which utilises the Dragon NatuallySpeaking Speech Server from Nuance Communications) includes both a speech recognition only option, where the Transcription Server sends the resulting text back to the author, as well as a speech recognition with proofing option where the Transcription Server sends the resulting text to a secretary.
The secretary performs any corrections, saves the document and then submits a copy of the corrected document. Once submitted the server-based speech file of the original author is upgraded, improving their results going forward. The author can still correct their own speech file if so desired. Moving the correction of the speech file to the secretary completely removes the time burden from the author and enables no change to their current working practices. As a result, even though there is minimal training, the author’s speech file continues to improve over time.
In testing the Transcription Server returned a 233 word initial recording with 178 words correctly recognized (76.4%). After the first correction, the transcription server improved to recognise 226 of the words (97%), and by the third submission the server based system recognised 232 words (99.6%).
The overall total cost of ownership of the new back-end or server-side speech recognition module is estimated to be as little as one third the cost of existing client-side/desktop speech recognition solutions. The module is licensed per user or per server, with minimal training required, no client-side installation and, subsequently, no loss of billable time. Additional features include Citrix & Terminal Services compatibility, document templates & bookmarks, acoustic modeling, vocabularies configured in Bighand System Administration, default and custom speaker profiles for different users of Bighand, and support for distributed Transcription Servers.
Aside from the Server-side Speech Recognition module other new features within BigHand 3.3 include:
• Document attachments & links within the workflow
• New search engine & User Interface improvements
• Support for Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2
• 64-bit support extended to incorporate Terminal Client
• Splitting of voice files & extended external sound file support
• New & extended API for 3rd party developers
New podcast by Charles Christian
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 05 Nov 2009 09:00 GMT
Here's a link to a new podcast I was interviewed for by Charon QC of Insite Law Magazine – and yes, I'm talking all about legal technology trends...
www.insitelawmagazine.com/charonpodcast159.htm
Wednesday, November 4
GlobalX becomes third NLIS licensed channel provider
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 04 Nov 2009 11:10 GMT
Land Data, the NLIS regulator, today announced a third NLIS channel license has been awarded. GlobalX Information Services (GlobalX), the largest provider of electronic land and property searches to the Australian legal community, has been granted the license and joins existing channels SearchFlow and Thames Water in providing authoritative electronic land and property search information through NLIS, to the conveyancing profession.
GlobalX has been providing online access to title searching and other land and property search services for conveyancers via its GXS.com.au portal since 1995. The company also offers a broad range of commercial information products as well as owning one of the largest legal practice management software solutions in Australia.
Last month the NLIS Hub reduced its transactional fees to channels by 50%. This cost saving will be passed on to conveyancers making the benefits of ordering an electronic search through NLIS even more attractive.
GlobalX Managing Director, Cameron Beavis is pleased with the company being granted an NLIS channel license. “The granting of an NLIS channel license offers GlobalX a dual opportunity. Firstly it provides GlobalX’s UK operations with immediate access to the broad range of the information products it requires to compete effectively in the UK market without the need for a large fulfillment team on the ground. Secondly, it provides a single source of UK information to deliver to our existing Australian customers in support of our anti-money laundering and international information strategies.
• GlobalX Information Services commenced operations in Australia in 1995 and was the first information services company to deliver electronic land titles to the Australian market. Since then, GlobalX has developed a broad range of information products servicing a wide variety of corporate customers in the legal, commercial and property sectors. GlobalX Information Services has offices in Brisbane and Sydney.
Monday, November 2
Is this the answer to the Progress -v- SQL Server debate ?
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 02 Nov 2009 15:52 GMT
After the ongoing debate earlier this autumn on the respective merits of Microsoft SQL Server and Progress – and whether it was possible for the two platforms to co-exist, Andrew Bremner (the managing director of Focus IT Ltd) has been in touch to say "My company has recently been granted a license to sell and support a realtime Progress to SQL Server (or Oracle) tool in the UK. This tool is developed and owned by Bravepoint in the US. Called Pro2SQL, this is mature, stable and working at many Progress sites across the US. I believe this product has the potential to end the Progress -v- SQL Server debate and allow end users to have the best of both worlds with their production database on Progress and their reporting in SQL Server."
He adds "Focus IT is licensed to sell, install, support and bill in GBP for Bravepoint's Pro2SQL suite in the UK. The agreement was signed 13th October 2009 so marketing materials like the website are still in their infancy. The product itself is not in its infancy though and replicates all Progress 9 and 10 data types into SQL Server 2005. A new version that will handle the new data types introduced in SQL Server 2008, like DateTime2 that handles dates before 1753, is currently in development and a release date will be issued in due course. Pro2SQL is aimed squarely at Progress sites that want near realtime/one way replication to a data warehouse or reporting database running on SQL Server or Oracle. The replicated database can be performance tuned for reporting without affecting the Progress production database."
www.focusitlimited.co.uk + www.pro2sql.co.uk
Attached are a white paper and a marketing flyer.
 2 Attachments
Firm says SaaS option cuts costs by 80%
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 02 Nov 2009 13:07 GMT
Bath-based Virtual Practices, which delivers SOS Connect case and practice management software as a service (SaaS) to law firms, has added Scottish cash management to its outsourced legal cashiering service. Glasgow-based Cameron Macaulay Solicitors is the first Scottish law firm to subscribe.
Following a sabbatical from the business and time for reflecting upon the best way for a lawyer to survive and prosper in the modern, post-Legal Services (Scotland) Act market, managing partner Malcolm Cameron has set up his new operation to rely on outsourced services as far as possible, including IT. An independent evaluation of software as a service (SaaS) suppliers of legal software led Mr Cameron to Virtual Practices from a short-list which also included IRIS and GB Systems (now also part of IRIS). Virtual Practices was established to give start-ups and smaller firms access to case and practice management software on a monthly subscription model. In addition, Virtual Practices offers an outsourced legal cashiering service which means that the small firm can avoid the costs of employing a legal cashier.
Compliance with cash management reporting requirements in Scotland is more onerous than in England and changes were required to the software. Stephen Parry, business development director at Virtual Practices explained: ”The daily end of day reporting requirements in Scotland place stringent demands on law firms. Even the smallest practice would usually need to employ a legal cashier to ensure that the requirements are met. However due to the flexible, underlying architecture of SOS Connect, we were able to very rapidly add features which generate the reports automatically, effectively removing this administrative burden.”
Malcolm Cameron commented: “The software as a service model also takes care of back-ups, business continuity and file storage and provides round the clock access, but the single most important benefit that makes this service exceptional is the legal cashiering. All I have to do is enter the credit and debit vouchers into the system and everything else transpires on time and completely accurately.”
“Software as a service – or cloud computing – is no longer theoretical,” says Cameron. “The technology has reached a point where it is truly transformational in providing the smaller firm with a more profitable business model. I have saved around 25 hours a month which is now available for remunerative work and can organise the business around client service and quality. I have reduced overheads by over 80% and have the luxury of time to make service quality the cornerstone of my practice.”
Only one-in-four law firms make proper use of alumni networks
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 02 Nov 2009 10:00 GMT
Only one in four of the Top 100 UK law firms are making use of their alumni networks as part of their marketing reveals research by Sweet & Maxwell, the legal information provider.
Sweet & Maxwell found that just 26% of Top 100 law firms give details of their alumni network on their websites. Sweet & Maxwell says that although this is a marked increase on the just 15% of Top 100 law firms making use of alumni networks in 2006, it is still a low result for what is otherwise now such a marketing savvy sector.
Sweet & Maxwell says that professional services firms increasingly see their alumni networks either as a direct source of new business or as a source for valuable referrals. McKinsey, one the world’s most respected professional services firms, is often referred to as treating its alumni as one of its most valuable assets.
Sweet & Maxwell says that the smaller the law firm the less likely they are to properly tap into their alumni network. Whilst nine of the Top 10 law firms by turnover have an alumni page on their website this falls to just 19% of law firms ranked 11-100 and just only 10% of law firms ranked 51-100 by turnover.
Competition amongst law firms for work is becoming increasingly fierce with ‘beauty parades’ in front of selection panels now the norm. Sweet & Maxwell says that alumni connections can give a firm the edge in this process by acting as informal diplomats for that firm.
Sweet & Maxwell adds that keeping in contact with former members of staff has become much more important during the recession as law firms have made redundancies with those former employees moving into jobs at existing or potential clients. Sweet & Maxwell says that the idea that an employee that has been made redundant by a firm would in the future refer work to them may seem counterintuitive but it is actually relatively common.
Sweet & Maxwell says that a well run alumni network can help build goodwill between a firm and its ex-employees. Whilst many of the largest commercial law firms have integrated their alumni networks into their marketing strategies many smaller firms seem some way from systematically mining this source of potential new business.
Thursday, October 29
LSC get slapped wrist by NAO for £25m legal aid overpayments to law firms
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 29 Oct 2009 15:00 GMT
The head of the National Audit Office, the Comptroller and Auditor General, has today qualified the accounts of the Legal Services Commission for 2008-09 because of overpayments made by the Commission to solicitors, estimated at almost £25 million. The Legal Services Commission is responsible for the provision of legal aid in England and Wales through the Community Legal Service Fund (for civil cases) and the Criminal Defence Service (for criminal cases).
The NAO, as part of its annual audit of the Legal Services Commission, identified an estimated total overpayment to solicitors of £24.7 million in 2008-09. Of this, £6.4 million were payments made to solicitors where legal aid had been provided to claimants where there was no evidence that they were eligible to receive it. The remaining £18.3 million of erroneous payments were made to solicitors working on cases which were eligible for legal aid, but in which solicitors over-claimed for the work they did.
The highest level of financial error was in relation to solicitors working on Family and Immigration claims. Within this area, the NAO’s testing showed that 25 per cent of the claims examined were incorrect or unsupported. For many cases, the error resulted from solicitors claiming against an incorrect category of work or for an incorrect level of work carried out. For example, the NAO identified a number of instances where the solicitor had incorrectly claimed a fee for an asylum case instead of the correct, and lower, fee for immigration work.
The LSC recognises there are a number of factors contributing to this level of error, including the complexity of the fee regime, the limited controls to validate the accuracy of the submitted claims, and the quality of the Commission’s post-payment internal assurance processes. In the NAO’s view, this, together with the absence of a strict sanctions regime to deter the submission of incorrect claims, creates a risk of solicitors exploiting the payment system.
Mr Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said today: “A significant sum of taxpayers’ money is being paid to solicitors in error. The Legal Services Commission needs to build on its existing efforts to tighten its controls on payments to solicitors and on how it monitors the eligibility of cases supported by legal aid. Where appropriate, the Commission should also impose sanctions on solicitors found to be making incorrect claims.”
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