10 Tips to Make Legal Technology Work Better for You

There is more information on your hard drive than you really remember you had!

Don't take the chance of letting perfect strangers know all about your data, your clients or you confidential information! You need to take the time to use a program such as Shredder or Secure Clean to totally wipe out your hard drive to the levels used in Government security prior to you making that generous donation of the old system to anyone.

3. There's more to your Time & Billing software than you may think.

Don't feel that you need to conform to the publisher's choice of fields or templates in your time and billing software. Most of the time these fields can totally be altered or edited to fit your particular needs and your practice. If you take the time to customize these fields you will have better generated reports and the information will be far more useful to your management needs in the firm!

4. If your not tracking your parcels you never know if its there.

You should always without question track your FedEx or UPS letters and documents to clients to make sure that what you sent got to where it's going! I always add these Web sites to my favorites to allow myself to automatically look up the origins of where my documentation went ' you should too! Bookmark the following locations: www.fedex.com, www.ups.com or www.airborne.com.

5. Too many open windows can cause a flood not a draft.

While your desktop has the ability to handle several open windows at once I find it sometimes annoying to have this flood of information all open at the same time! To avoid this, simply use one keystroke to minimize all your open windows at the same time. Move your cursor to the Taskbar at the bottom of your screen. Place it in a blank area of the bar. Right click and choose “Minimize All Windows” and all your open windows will automatically be minimized which will allow you a more free access to your desktop!

6. Always use your own equipment! Especially for presentations.

No matter what you do with presentations, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS … USE YOUR OWN presentation equipment! Never rely on anyone else and their audiovisual projection gear. Sooner or later you will find yourself in the middle of a room of people and a projector that will not sync with your computer for whatever reason … or better yet, that important boardroom presentation. You don't want to be caught with “no show” just because you relied on the other guy. You don't rely on your opponent to make your case for you. Don't rely on someone else to make your presentation for you!

7. You may be mobile, but you better learn to carry.

Being mobile is a good thing, but being mobile without the right equipment at hand is never good! A true road warrior leans to carry a bag full of essential items that make the trip a more pleasurable experience. Your tools should consist of extension cords, Laplink and /or PC anywhere cord, telephone cords, converters, spare batteries, alternate power source cords and much more! Check out a site called the Road Warriors Outpost for many specialized supplies prior to your next outing! Go to http://warrior.com or www.mobileplanet.com.

8. Watch out for that phone line.

I cannot stress this too often, make sure your telephone line at the hotel is ANALOG!

Most phone systems used by some carriers are digital and carry much to much electrical power at higher levels than used by conventional ports, hence a burned out modem! Before you fry your modem on the road, either use a PC card modem that has internal protection against Digital systems or carry a modem saver to check the phone system out before you plug in! See www.warrior.com/connectit/ModemSaver.html.

Another give away that your hotel system is safe is if you see an RJ-11 port built right into the phone on the desk, this usually tells you it's an analog line!

9. Discover the world outside your office with a good camera and meeting system.

By downloading Microsoft's NetMeeting and buying a good camera, around $145 at any computer store I (I recommend the Intel Pro Pack) you now have the ability to meet with clients around the world. The quality is very nice and you have the ability to carry on meetings without leaving the comfort of your office!

10. Start using one time data entry.

We have finally moved most of the law offices into obtaining and utilizing Case management systems as well as time and billing systems. But the problem seems to be compatibility and data entry. I still see firms entering data in their case management systems and then re-entering that same data in their time and billing modules! Take the time to buy a complete and integrated system that allows you to carry over you entries from Case Management to you Time and Billing. This can save countless hours of retyping the same information! I use Amicus Attorney and couple it with STI's TABS III Time and Billing for my office. The end result is more time to work in the needs of the case and less time doing data input by my staff.

1. Learn how to use a scanned signature for all your documents.

Many people forget that they can use a signature on all the documents that they e-mail, or write in Word, even using a signature in their letters! One such free signature program can be found at: www.signaturemail.com.

2. Never think that your Hard Drive is clean just because you reformatted.

There is more information on your hard drive than you really remember you had!

Don't take the chance of letting perfect strangers know all about your data, your clients or you confidential information! You need to take the time to use a program such as Shredder or Secure Clean to totally wipe out your hard drive to the levels used in Government security prior to you making that generous donation of the old system to anyone.

3. There's more to your Time & Billing software than you may think.

Don't feel that you need to conform to the publisher's choice of fields or templates in your time and billing software. Most of the time these fields can totally be altered or edited to fit your particular needs and your practice. If you take the time to customize these fields you will have better generated reports and the information will be far more useful to your management needs in the firm!

4. If your not tracking your parcels you never know if its there.

You should always without question track your FedEx or UPS letters and documents to clients to make sure that what you sent got to where it's going! I always add these Web sites to my favorites to allow myself to automatically look up the origins of where my documentation went ' you should too! Bookmark the following locations: www.fedex.com, www.ups.com or www.airborne.com.

5. Too many open windows can cause a flood not a draft.

While your desktop has the ability to handle several open windows at once I find it sometimes annoying to have this flood of information all open at the same time! To avoid this, simply use one keystroke to minimize all your open windows at the same time. Move your cursor to the Taskbar at the bottom of your screen. Place it in a blank area of the bar. Right click and choose “Minimize All Windows” and all your open windows will automatically be minimized which will allow you a more free access to your desktop!

6. Always use your own equipment! Especially for presentations.

No matter what you do with presentations, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS … USE YOUR OWN presentation equipment! Never rely on anyone else and their audiovisual projection gear. Sooner or later you will find yourself in the middle of a room of people and a projector that will not sync with your computer for whatever reason … or better yet, that important boardroom presentation. You don't want to be caught with “no show” just because you relied on the other guy. You don't rely on your opponent to make your case for you. Don't rely on someone else to make your presentation for you!

7. You may be mobile, but you better learn to carry.

Being mobile is a good thing, but being mobile without the right equipment at hand is never good! A true road warrior leans to carry a bag full of essential items that make the trip a more pleasurable experience. Your tools should consist of extension cords, Laplink and /or PC anywhere cord, telephone cords, converters, spare batteries, alternate power source cords and much more! Check out a site called the Road Warriors Outpost for many specialized supplies prior to your next outing! Go to http://warrior.com or www.mobileplanet.com.

8. Watch out for that phone line.

I cannot stress this too often, make sure your telephone line at the hotel is ANALOG!

Most phone systems used by some carriers are digital and carry much to much electrical power at higher levels than used by conventional ports, hence a burned out modem! Before you fry your modem on the road, either use a PC card modem that has internal protection against Digital systems or carry a modem saver to check the phone system out before you plug in! See www.warrior.com/connectit/ModemSaver.html.

Another give away that your hotel system is safe is if you see an RJ-11 port built right into the phone on the desk, this usually tells you it's an analog line!

9. Discover the world outside your office with a good camera and meeting system.

By downloading Microsoft's NetMeeting and buying a good camera, around $145 at any computer store I (I recommend the Intel Pro Pack) you now have the ability to meet with clients around the world. The quality is very nice and you have the ability to carry on meetings without leaving the comfort of your office!

10. Start using one time data entry.

We have finally moved most of the law offices into obtaining and utilizing Case management systems as well as time and billing systems. But the problem seems to be compatibility and data entry. I still see firms entering data in their case management systems and then re-entering that same data in their time and billing modules! Take the time to buy a complete and integrated system that allows you to carry over you entries from Case Management to you Time and Billing. This can save countless hours of retyping the same information! I use Amicus Attorney and couple it with STI's TABS III Time and Billing for my office. The end result is more time to work in the needs of the case and less time doing data input by my staff.