Chapter 17
Using Technology in Law
IN THIS CHAPTER
Understanding (as much as you need to) how computers and networks work
Applying cool software applications in the law office
Catching the wave of online law resources
Taking advantage of technology in the courtroom
Recent technological advances have forever changed the way that law offices function. A typical law office 30 years ago communicated with telephones plugged into the wall. Without the invention of voicemail, office assistants took written messages and put them in the appropriate receiver’s office box. Legal secretaries took dictation and typed up letters and legal documents on typewriters until the 1980s when word processors finally eliminated the need for correction fluid and carbon paper. Almost every law office contracted with a local courier service to file legal documents with the courts before e-filing allowed for almost instant delivery.
One of the more significant technological advances involves the way legal professionals conduct legal research. In 1973, Lexis Advance began offering computerized legal research as a subscription service. In 1975, West Publishing began a competing service called Westlaw. Prior to these innovations, attorneys and law clerks researched the law in law libraries using multivolume series of statutes and cases, the way it had been done for more than a century. Only in the last few decades have these computerized legal research resources been made widely available through a friendlier pricing structure.
In this chapter, we introduce you to the ways that computer technology has enhanced the efficiency of law practices. We show you how cloud networks, specialized software, Internet resources, and laptop computers and tablets have revolutionized the way law offices conduct business.
Operating Computer Hardware and Networks in the Law Office
In addition to the computer that occupies your desk (and the ones that occupy the desks of everyone else in your office), your office probably has access to a server. The server may be actual computer hardware with a powerful processor and large storage capacity, or your firm may store files and backups in the cloud. Firms use servers to store large amounts of data that can be accessed by all members of the firm.
A company server provides three important services:
- It’s a place where you can save files. The server is a place to store important files that’s safer than your PC’s hard drive.
- It allows multiple users to access a file that’s saved to the server. For example, if you’re working on a memo with another paralegal, you could begin the document and save it to the server. Later, your colleague could access the document and finish writing it. You could make any necessary changes and alert the attorney working on the case that you’re finished. The attorney could then view the document and request changes, if necessary. The document moves among multiple staff members, but in reality it always resides in a central location on the server.
- It provides updated virus protection and a firewall. When you’re working on your home computer, you have your own virus protection. Your Internet provider usually gives you the pipeline to the Internet but doesn’t protect you from the things that might come down that pipe. Law firms invest thousands of dollars in computer equipment and have to protect confidential information, so they install firewalls and advanced virus protection software on their servers to keep viruses and hackers from infiltrating the system.
If you work for a small firm that doesn’t use a server, you’re probably responsible for backing up data and updating virus protection software on your own computer. Make sure that you keep on top of these tasks, or you could lose very valuable information or expose confidential information to hackers.
Getting Savvy on Software Applications for the Law Office
Computer hardware doesn’t vary much, so if you’re familiar with your own PC, you’ll be comfortable with any office’s setup. You may not be completely familiar with the kinds of software that are loaded on the law office computer, however. Attorneys make wide use of traditional, well known software programs (such as the Microsoft Office programs and Google products) for most of their daily office activities. But just as an engineering firm may use a special drafting program and a medical office takes advantage of specialized software for managing patients’ accounts and records, law firms may have unique software programs that handles client records and billing, conflict detection, filing deadlines, and other matters that are crucial to the successful practice of law. Potential employers expect you to know the basics of standard software programs and may be more apt to hire you if you’re familiar with the law-office-specific software programs.
Sticking with standard office software
In addition to law-specific software, law offices trust the more familiar programs that are absolutely essential to the practice of law. You use these tried-and-true programs for standard activities like these:
- Word processing
- Working with data
- Sending emails
- Making presentations
- Keeping track of deadlines
Processing lots and lots of words
Probably the most important computer application for law offices is the one that has replaced the typewriter: word processing. Word processing offers the same advantages to law firms that it does for everyone:
- You can make changes to a document without retyping it.
- You can save commonly used forms and clauses as templates to use over and over again. In most areas of law, you apply the same wording repeatedly in standard documents, so this feature comes in handy.
Law offices commonly use Microsoft Word to process their documents and some offices use Google Docs. The features of the word processing programs resemble each other, so if you’re familiar with one, you should easily be able to pick up the attributes of the others.
Become familiar with word processing programs and their important features, like creating templates, which allow you to automatically format commonly created documents like memos, filings, motions, wills, and bankruptcy forms. If you take the time to create a template for each type of document you produce, you can save yourself valuable time and the clients valuable dollars in terms of hourly billings. Who knows? You may share your templates with lawyers and other paralegals and become the toast of your firm!
If you’re not already familiar with commonly used word processing programs, take the time to read the latest edition of Microsoft Office For Dummies by Dan Gookin (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).
Organizing data
Spreadsheets and databases systematize information so that it’s easily assessable. You can store data like billable hours and client contact information in either type of program. Spreadsheets (like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets) tend to be easier to set up and use, but database programs (like Airtable) allow for more flexibility. The advantages of both programs are simple:
- They organize and make accessible essential facts. And they do a better job of it than a paper file system, because the data are at your fingertips instead of in a file cabinet.
- They save space. Storing paper files can get out of hand, but handling a growing database is as easy as adding more memory to the server.
- They save time. You can import information like addresses directly from a database or spreadsheet into documents, which helps you avoid typos. You enter data only once and then transfer it where it needs to go.
Because many law offices rely on standard spreadsheet and database programs, you may be able to get by just knowing how to use Microsoft Office programs or Google apps. However, specific software created for law firms manage client information even more efficiently than standard spreadsheets and databases. We talk about these programs in the “Navigating special software for law firms” section, later in this chapter.
You can find out more about the Office programs in Microsoft Office For Dummies by Wallace Wang (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).
Communicating online
Email can be a great timesaver in the modern workplace. It can also be a great timewaster. Communicating by email instead of telephone allows you to respond to and contact people on your time schedule. You don’t have to wait for that person to get back from lunch to ask a question, and you can wait until you’ve enjoyed your lunch to answer someone else’s questions of you. Plus, email gives you a written record of your correspondence, so you have proof of what other people have said.
The emails you transmit may be saved by your law office (or the people you send the messages to) forever, so make sure you think carefully before you send. (For tips on writing professional emails, see Chapter 16.)
For all its benefits, email has some drawbacks. You can be bombarded with a ton of emails every day, and without a system to organize them, you may find yourself wasting away the time that online communication is supposed to save you.
To maximize the advantages and minimize wasted time, you need a convenient program to maintain control of your email messages. Spam control on your office’s email server allows you to automatically filter out pesky advertisements and other unsolicited communications. And your email system should allow you to sort email in categories (for example, by client) and mark emails that require future attention. Again, standard email software like Microsoft Outlook does an adequate job of filing emails and keeping track of contacts. But many law offices, especially the larger ones, incorporate their email programs into the client management database so that communications by clients become part of the case history.
Presenting the evidence
Other common programs, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Prezi, provide paralegals with an easy way to display and analyze tangible evidence. You can easily create impressive presentations of evidence, complete with sound, to inform your clients and supervising attorney and display to the court during the trial process.
For more information on how to use presentation software, check out Microsoft Office For Dummies by Wallace Wang or Prezi For Dummies by Stephanie Diamond (both published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).
Maintaining calendars
A law practice requires following a series of deadlines, so you must maintain an accurate and reliable calendar to keep track of important cutoff dates mandated by your supervising attorney and imposed by the court. Missing a deadline by even a little bit can jeopardize the client’s case. The legal team you work for may use computerized calendars, paper ones, or a combination of both. (You can find out more about law office calendars in Chapter 18.)
Computerized calendars appear in many types of software programs, like Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook, but, again, many firms make the calendar part of their case management software. More sophisticated computerized calendars set deadlines automatically based on preprogrammed case schedules and customized due dates for each member of the legal team.
One of the first tasks to master when you start working within a legal team is the office calendar system. When you have the calendar system down, you stay on top of crucial office deadlines.
Navigating special software for law firms
Unique software created just for law firms brings together the functions included in other separate software programs so that everything works together. You can manage law office responsibilities — such as client billing, conflict detection, and case management — with one complete program tailored not only to the practice of law in general but also to particular areas of law. Legal professionals enter important data in one place and the software applies to all the applicable areas. The specialized software programs usually integrate with standard word processing and accounting software so that the entire computerized operation runs smoothly.
Here are just a few of the tasks a complete legal software program can accomplish:
- Managing billable hours: A law office bills the client for the hours that attorneys and paralegal spend working on a case. Special software programs keep track of the duties you perform for a particular case and transfer the total hours to accounting software for client billing. You then verify the hours before the software generates an invoice.
- Providing case management: The case manager inputs the duties required for the successful development of each case and assigns these duties to the responsible member of the legal team. The software alerts each team member of her duties and deadlines and allows the case manager to check everyone’s progress. The software also links together databases containing case notes, client files, and documents so you have integrated access to the materials involved in the case — a great help when you’re researching a case or drafting memos and motions.
- Detecting conflicts of interest: Because the program controls and links all office data, you can search the system for conflicts involving former or current cases you’re involved in. An important ethical consideration for you as a legal professional is to avoid conflicts of interest. This feature is especially important for large firms who deal with many cases. You may find yourself working on a case where one of the opposing parties happens to be a former client.
- Keeping track of important dates: Specialized software programs contain calendar systems developed specifically for legal professionals and the areas of law they work in. Often, these programs set deadlines automatically depending on the procedural rules of your state and legal specialty.
Although learning all the possible specialized legal programs will probably help you land your dream job, it’s probably not practical. If you have a good understanding of standard word processing, database, spreadsheet, email, and accounting programs, you can quickly pick up the ins and out of specialized legal programs.
If you want to introduce yourself to some of the law software programs currently available and maybe try a demo or two, check out the links at www.dummies.com/go/paralegalcareer2e.
Surfing the Net: Online Resources for Legal Professionals
You likely access a vast quantity of information from the Internet on your phone, tablet, or laptop continually throughout the day to shop, plan travel, or resolve the dispute with your friend over which musical group sang that hip hop hit from the 90s. The legal profession takes advantage of the Internet in specific ways, like conducting investigation and research and communicating face-to-face over long distances.
Researching the globe
Attorneys present two kinds of information in court: the facts of the case and the applicable law. To find out the facts of the case, you have to act like a private investigator. You may interview witnesses, gather evidence, and piece together the events that make up your client’s case. (You can find more about how you do this in Chapter 11.) Through legal research, you’ll also assist with uncovering the law that applies to the client’s case, the law that demonstrates why the client should prevail. You can use the Internet to uncover both the facts and the law.
Websites give you information about a person’s assets and current residence. The Web also provides you with free and paid access to federal and state statutes and case law, which makes your job as a paralegal much easier than it was in the days before the Internet.
For instance, as we discuss in Chapter 13, attorneys need to validate every case they find through legal research to find out if it’s still good law. This job usually falls in the lap of the paralegal. With the help of online law libraries, like Westlaw and Lexis/Nexis, you don’t have to leave the law office to find out whether the valuable court opinion the client’s case is hinging upon has been overruled. Online legal resources provide the most up-to-date source of this kind of information available.
Online legal services assist you with actual legal research as well. You can use them to search for and find cases and statutes and secondary sources, such as law reviews, journals, and newspapers. If you already know the case citation or statute you’re looking for, you can enter that information as well. (For specific advice on how to use these valuable research tools, turn to Chapter 13.)
Don’t rely solely on online resources for conducting legal research. You may decide to work in a small law office that can’t afford to use pricey online services for its standard legal research assignments. Make sure you know how to use the bricks-and-mortar law library as well as the virtual one, so you’re ready for any position that you’re offered.
Meeting over the miles
Technological advances have enabled people in distant locations to see and hear each other in real time. Web conferencing (or video conferencing) allows people to converse over the Internet similarly to a conference phone call, but with pictures. Attorneys can use video conferencing to cut travel costs.
Conference phone calls involving multiple parties have been possible for many years. However, calls among three or more persons can be awkward, because the lack of visual cues leaves everyone wondering when to talk and whether the other parties are listening. You also can’t view charts, photos, or other visuals that often play an important part in a typical meeting. For this reason, conference phone calls can be a poor substitute for face-to-face meetings.
By contrast, video conferencing provides a reasonable substitute for many in-person meetings. Certainly, traveling to conduct a meeting, conference, or interview in person still has its place. But in many circumstances, you can conduct face-to-face meetings over a high-speed network.
Special applications of Web conferencing can improve a law firm’s efficiency. Although other types of businesses may use Web conferencing primarily to conduct meetings with employees based in other regions of the country, law firms use the technology to save money for their clients and add an additional level of service.
Attorneys may conduct depositions using Web conferencing. Because attorneys for both parties to a case can see and hear the witness, they can conduct examination and cross-examination of an out-of-town witness without being in the room. Web conferencing probably wouldn’t be used to interview the key witness in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, however, because, although Web conferencing is a very good substitute for in-person interaction, it may lack the nuances gained from being in the room with a witness. It’s a matter of weighing the time and expense of travel with the advantage of communicating face-to-face with the witness.
Carting Computers into the Courtroom
The use of tablets and laptops in the courtroom make it easier for lawyers to advance their cases during trial, and electronic exhibits are overtaking printed posters as the way to convey evidence, like photographs, to the jury.
Cutting the cords: Wireless technology
Smart phones, laptops, and tablets seem ideal for use in a court of law. Attorneys and paralegals make the most of the portability in court for a number of purposes:
- To organize and access client files
- To access a voluminous trial notebook online rather than in multiple binders
- To conduct spontaneous legal research or view laws and statutes saved to the cloud
- To present evidence to the jury in multimedia presentations
- To keep notes of witness testimony, oral arguments, and evidence presented during trial
- To request information from staff in the law office by phone, text, or email
A paralegal is even more likely to have access to wireless technology in the courtroom than the lead attorney is. The lead attorney focuses on what’s happening in the courtroom at the moment, but attorneys or paralegals assisting with the case scurry to keep notes and obtain urgent information. For example, during trial, you may aid your supervising attorney by taking notes on and providing your opinion of the testimony presented. Your legal knowledge and heavy involvement in the case prepares you for what to observe during witness testimony. Your observations may include discrepancies in a witness’s testimony that you can verify by checking your phone or tablet for a summary of that witness’s prior deposition testimony. Or you may watch for juror reactions that you can analyze using your notes during jury selection. Or you may be in charge of managing and displaying the evidence and exhibits through a slide presentation of photographic evidence you helped to develop.
Recognizing the downside of technology
Technology in the courtroom sounds great, and it is. But watch out for possible problems inherent with relying on your laptop in the courtroom:
- Ignoring the proceedings: When you work on a laptop or tablet, avoid the danger of getting so engrossed in what you’re doing that you miss important elements of the trial itself. This may be especially difficult if you’re working online. Don’t make the mistake of reading your personal email while the most important part of the case passes unnoticed!
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Alienating the jury: In most cases, juries appreciate the accessibility of multimedia presentations, but be careful that your presentations don’t overwhelm the jury. If you’re dealing with serious or sensitive evidence, don’t use flashy graphics or fonts that the jury may consider inappropriate.
Watch your reactions in the courtroom. Another reason to refrain from checking Instagram during trial is that you may read something funny and begin smiling or, worse, laughing at an inappropriate moment, which could easily alienate the jury and lose the case for the client. - Compromising confidentiality: People behind you and adjacent to you may be able to view your laptop screen, so position your laptop so that it’s not visible to others. Keep your tablet with you at all times just like would confidential paper documents. And protect access to files with a password just in case your computer falls into the wrong hands.
- Depreciating the decorum of the courtroom: Judges guard the respectability of their courtrooms very carefully. Avoid doing anything that annoys the judge or shines a bad light on the paralegal profession. For example, your typing may distract the judge, the jury, or an attorney. If someone requests that you stop typing, you must oblige. Remember: You’re representing your firm as well as the paralegal profession, so don’t compromise your client’s chances in the case by your behavior.
- Forgetting the basics: Technology plays an increasingly important role in the legal profession, but remember that technology doesn’t win cases — hard work does. Technology is just another tool to allow lawyers and paralegals to work more efficiently for the clients. Just because you can do legal research online doesn’t mean you can get sloppy. Consult all important sources, including those that may not appear online, and make sure you bring along backup paper documents and exhibits in case you experience a hardware or software problem during a hearing or meeting.
Even with technology, your job remains the same: to work zealously on behalf of the client. That’s the heart of the legal profession and your primary duty as a paralegal. Technology just makes that job a whole lot easier!