Google Search Tips

I think we probably ought to be teaching high schoolers (junior high schoolers?) how to use Google and the other Internet search engines. They are becoming that important. Since we are not and some of us are far, far removed from high school, let me offer Top Search Tips as way to improve your Google searches. Here is the first of ten tips:

1. Use the Advanced Search screen. There are lots of goodies to be found on the advanced search screens: options for focussing your search by file format (e.g. xls for data and statistics, ppt for expert presentations, pdf for industry or government reports); site and domain search to limit your search to just one web site or a type of organisation (e.g. UK government, US academic); and in Google there is a numeric range search.

Check Out LexMonitor

One site I added last week was a feed to LexMonitor. Law Firm Web Strategy Blog has this to say about LexMonitor in Lexmonitor is Pretty Cool:

The crew over at law blog developer Lexblog have launched a new legal blog aggregator, Lexmonitor. It’s pretty cool! It’s also the type of tool that will help sell RSS technology within the legal industry.

For the unsavvy RSS user, it looks like a regular website with a massive amount of industry-based content, a big newspaper. And for the RSS-power user, its a series of practice specific vertical feeds & practice management feed mixes that can help save time monitoring blog content. Some of this is already available with Justia’s blog search or in a more limited scope, Stem’s Florida Lawyers Blog Watch.

But Lexmonitor, in my opinion, is a step-up. It has a cleaner interface, better connections to blog authors, and the killer feature — threaded commentary of related blog posts! There’s also a bit of a human touch, as Rob La Gatta will be running an editorial ‘buzz’ blog along side the automated features.

Just look for it down the right hand side of your screen.

Bankruptcy Helping Business

With title like Entrepreneurship and the Barrier to Exit:How Does an Entrepreneur-Friendly Bankruptcy Law Affect Entrepreneurship Development at a Societal Level? it has to be written by professors and not even law professors but a pair of business professors. The following might entice you to overlook the title:

The authors find that a lenient, entrepreneur friendly bankruptcy law encourages entrepreneurs to take risks and thus lets entrepreneurship prosper. This risk-taking can generate variety in the economy by increasing the number of firms with high growth potential, which may lead to more entrepreneurship and economic development—in short, failure may be good for the economy. The study pushes for a more informed understanding of how formal institutions governing bankruptcy matter for entrepreneurial behavior and outcomes. It emphasizes that a society that is not willing to absorb the “pain” of having a large number of entrepreneurial failures, via an entrepreneurfriendly bankruptcy law, is not likely to reap the “gain” of vibrant entrepreneurship development and economic growth.

Anyone care to vote for Indiana Civil & Business Lawyer?

Blogged has this blog on its site and you can vote on how well you like it. A littel feed back from my readers would be a good thing. Thank you.

New Column at Anderson Free Press

I finally found time to write The Law and You – Part Three: Dealing With Lawyers for the e Free Press.

Business Groups Bash Pivotal 401(k) Suit Filed Against Deere | workforce.com

Off the beaten path for me and this blog but Business Groups Bash Pivotal 401(k) Suit Filed Against Deere from workforce. com has some interesting news on 401(k) plans :

"The ERISA Industry Committee, the American Benefits Council and the National Association of Manufacturers have filed a joint brief stating that the lawsuit should be dismissed in appeals court, where the case currently resides."

“This case is ripe,” said Quentin Riegel, the vice president for litigation and deputy general counsel for the National Association of Manufacturers, the trade association that represents more than 11,000 companies in the U.S. “It’s on appeal, so we feel that the time is right to voice our view and reaffirm that this case should be dismissed.”

Last summer, a federal judge granted Deere’s motion to dismiss the case, in which Deere workers alleged that fees in the company’s 401(k) plan were excessive. The suit also named investment manager Fidelity as a defendant, and alleged that both parties breached their fiduciary obligations by providing mutual funds and 401(k) services to participants with unreasonable, and undisclosed, costs attached.

Interstate Trucking: New Regulations on Driver Qualifications

I know I am a day late on this but see the following post for why the posts here are a bit untimely. You can access the proposed regulations - with the deadline for making comments - at the following:

Qualification of Drivers; Exemption Renewals; Vision

Looking Outside the Sandbox

Let me be frank that this post has little to do with law but a lot about lawyers, clients, how lawyers practice law and how I think clients perceive lawyers. After twenty years of practicing law in Indiana, having been computerized for the past 15 years, being connected to the Internet for the past 12 years and running this blog for the past year, I have some opinions and ideas.

First, I think that clients have certain misconceptions about lawyers. Most lawyers do not resemble the characters seen on television or in the movies. We follow our ethical rules and work for the best interests of our clients.

Second, I think that clients have misconceptions about how lawyers practice law. As a former partner once pointed out to me, we exist on the clients' post tax dollars. What does this mean? That too many clients buy on the sole criterion of price.

I say computers and then the Internet have disrupted the practice of law in ways many clients do not know and lots of attorneys do not like to admit. What I am writing about here applies not to us in Indiana but further afield in places like Scotland. The following comes from Dressed for Success published by Scotland's The Firm magazine:

“Our first purpose in creating Oracle was to achieve greater operational efficiency – by reducing overheads, for a start. This has been our greatest success. It was plain that previously we were all paying a lot for quite an extensive bureaucracy to answer phones, keep our diaries, issue invoices and collect fees for us. These are all straightforward functions and need not be expensive. We also believed that solicitors wanted to deal directly with Counsel. Rightly or wrongly, the existing arrangements were seen as cumbersome and inefficient for all involved.

“The stable system is really based on a world that has passed into history. Counsel cannot afford to be remote. Mobile phones, PDAs and e-mail have transformed our ability to communicate. Most solicitors now instruct us electronically. It is rare for us to deliver work in paper format. Electronic document control transforms turnaround times and makes diaries work for us, not the other way round. We believe our evolving business model to be both sustainable and efficient.”

We will not see more change until lawyers feel comfortable that they will not lose clients and income and clients must understand what they are getting from their lawyers.

With disruption does come opportunity and that is how I view JD Supra as a good reaction to the Internet.

Many years ago, I interviewed with a lawyer who had bought the local Indiana Bell building. Two lawyers and a secretary in a rather large building tastefully decorated for the purpose of impressing clients. He made a point of emphasizing the connection between putting on a good front that impressed clients and income. Over the years, I have come to agree with him even if I am annoyed at the idea that clients are so easily bamboozled. Being online has lead me to some strange encounters with potential clients - I am not sure if they think that being online means I am a charitable organization or not.

Take a look at Virtual Law Practice Blog. This blog complements the Kimbro Legal Services website. Which turns the idea of a large front on its head.

Business clients have the same problems. Bigger is not always better. Once upon a time there was a virtue to throwing bodies at a legal problem. Computers and the Internet changed all that. With a high-speed connection, I can get access to the news and case law just as quickly as a Big Firm without all the expense of those other bodies or the overhead of a large building for housign all those lawbooks. Take a look at Bigger Isn’t Always Better When It Comes to Outside Counsel from the ABA Section of Litigation. That article covers how business clients overlook smaller firms but also the marketing problems of lawyers.

Like James, Curley left a large firm to form his own office. He says that he and other solo and small firm practitioners have benefited from the increased use of technology. For example, many benefits that were traditionally available only at the larger firms “can be replicated through an artful use of technology in the hands of a competent solo. You don’t need the 100,000-volume law library that the big firms heavily invested in years ago. You don’t need the trappings of a class office space in a landmark building like people used to insist on years ago.” Also, with the availability of remote access, he says, clients have realized there is no need to pay for the overhead of a big firm.

What other ways are lawyers changing how they practice? Bay State Legal Services, LLC offers evening appointments. Note that they have a trademark on After-Hours Law. Which might be a little bit much but it does emphasize the seriousness of the firm. I know that many lawyers in this area offered the same kind of service for many years because of the client's have to work for a living. (One of my favorite comments about the Net is "what is old is new".)

Lawyers cannot meet clients' needs without knowing what clients think of the services they are getting from lawyers. Most clients have no idea what kind of service they are supposed to get from their lawyers. Clients have two metrics (if not only one): the lawyer's reputation for success and are the fees less than the competitors? Both are seriously flawed for judging legal services but especially looking for the lowest rate of fees. A potential client puzzled me when she asked me my hourly rate and then did not ask me to estimate the hours needed to complete the case. (I puzzled her by explaining my practice was largely flat fee). I suggest reading The State of the Legal Profession, Part 1 - Client Driven Innovation for a background on how businesses have been changing their relationships with law firms. This paragraph has given me a lot to think about:

In return, the outside firms are encouraged to advise Cisco on how to be a "better" client, in terms of communication, prioritization, and other matters aimed at increasing efficiencies related to the SLA. "Flexibility on both sides is required," Chandler said.

How do we advise our clients to be better clients? Lawyers, there is one great idea in there.

I think we need to educate our clients about what we do and how we do it. However, the clients need to help in this endeavor. I intended this blog as a way for me to expose the law and myself to the wider world. I am not sure but what I have failed in that endeavor and there are probably several good reasons for this failure. I will accept my shortcomings - a blog with a diffuse subject, posts too long, legalistic writing - if the potential clients will accept that they are looking for quick answers about something that does not provide quick answers. You, the non-lawyers, taking the time to read this must also start thinking outside of the sandbox.

Let me give an example of something related to my business practice, I have tried for years to promote a preventive law practice for my business clients without success. I do not understand why business owners are willing to pay a large fee to litigate case that might have been prevented with less in fees. If anyone cares to explain, I am quite eager to listen.

Which takes me back to The Firm's article:

At the time of the launch of Oracle Chambers Campbell and Carruthers were seen as mavericks, which in the often conservative legal profession is not always conducive to winning business. So, any regrets?

“Oracle Chambers was the best commercial idea we have ever had,” they say. “In just a year, we have seen our fee income grow significantly, and our administrative costs are now very, very low - it is the perfect economic equation. We think this is the future for Advocates, who above all must be fiercely independent, yet accessible. We are adaptable and responsive, easy to consult, and approachable. ”

I think both sides of the attorney/client relationship would benefit from changes in how we practice and with clients knowing more about what they are getting (or should get) from the profession.

Forms, JD Supra, and What Do You Think?

Consider this post as an open invitation for comments. I encourage anyone to let the world (well, the very small slice of the world reading this blog) know what they think about posting forms to Net and JD Supra.

JD Supra is a recent and probably important Internet legal resource. That The New York Times published Lawyers Open Their File Cabinets for a Web Resource might show the site has drawn some important attention except that The Times filed the article under "Novelties".

The Times described the site like this:

It works like this: Lawyers who contribute to JD Supra dip into their hard drives for articles, court papers, legal briefs and other tidbits of their craft. They upload the documents, as well as a profile of themselves that is linked to each document. Site visitors who have a legal problem and are thinking about finding a lawyer can use an easily searchable database to look up, say, “trademark infringement,” find related documents and, if they like the author’s experience and approach, perhaps click on his or her profile.

Okay, that is the idea. Not probably as attractive to the DIY crowd as it will be to lawyers, but let me go on to Vancouver Law Librarian Blog's NY Times Covers Consumer Benefits of JD Supra.

Vancouver Law Librarian Blog puts forward a much more interesting question than did The New York Times (which is probably because The Times was not writing as a lawyer for lawyers to read):

Looking purely from a consumer's view, I see the benefits of sharing work product as:

• The ability to read these documents & become better informed;
• Increased reliability of documents where Lawyers take public ownership of them;
• Researching legal issues within a collection of vetted documents;
• Ability to identify a lawyer with rare experience (& not worth the lawyer's effort to market);
• Ability to identify expertise by geographic region or practice area;
  

When decisions & execution are *this* important, I can't see DIY legal work being an issue. The question then becomes, are Consumers better off with these documents available?

The bullet points make sense and I cannot disagree with them. I can see how we might better explain the law by exposing the public to our work product. That is, show the how the abstraction of a statute (or whatever source of law) becomes reality in the shape of a pleading.

I have made my opinions about doing your own legal work more explicit on my Indiana Divorce & Family Law Blog (which you can see here) than I have on this blog. Before running across JD Supra, I was always troubled by the fact that forms need to be put into the correct legal context. No one uses a hammer where a scalpel is the proper tool but I see that possibility whenever one does their own legal work. I think JD Supra might address that problem.

So anyone want to sound off one way or another?

So What is Wrong About Using Online Forms?

I had thought to do a dissection of some of these forms until I read The Perils of Using Form Agreements from Deal Attorney. I think this article is a good place to start for anyone contemplating using an online form.

I think the article offers a more subtle reward for you non-lawyers - even those who are not in business. Read the post and you will see what having an attorney brings to document preparation. It is not merely having a law degree that is important here but the methodology brought to bear on analyzing the worth of a document. The experience gained by practicing law to know the good, the bad, and the ugly points of forms. Like many tools, legal forms can bring good and they can bring harm. You can see how a lawyer handles a form by reading this post.

Making the Most of Your Lawyer

Thanks to Wilmington North Carolina Business Law and Litigation Attorney Blog for the lead to Getting the Most From Your Attorney from The New York Enterprise Report.

The Wilmington North Carolina Business Law and Litigation Attorney Blog noted the following and I want to add an amen to this statement:

...In the third item on Dan's list is one I always emphasize:

Use lawyers to prevent problems, not just fix them. Many small businesses do not have attorneys until they think they need them. You need to make sure you are proactive in identifying legal issues before they become problems, and problems before they become lawsuits.

I would personally prefer to have my days be filled with short, simple, inexpensive legal work that solves problems and ends them, instead of having them filled with long, complicated, intractable and expensive problems. The latter might ultimately be slightly more lucrative for the attorney, but my view is that both myself and my clients are best served when the problems are handled while they are still small, manageable, easy to handle, and cost little to solve.

I would add something to points 2, 4, and 9 about selecting attorneys. There is a growing trend for outside general counsel. What is this? In-house counsel who are not employees but provide all the services of in-house counsel. I am aware of two companies providing this kind of service: In House Legal and Outside GC. I have been offering this sort of service for several years now. The point is not to select one counsel for a particular matter or networking with lawyers but having a lawyer acting as outside general counsel who has the network in place and knows the business objectives of the client.

My Second Column Published

Take a look: The Law and You - Part Two - The Facts.

What is Going on With the Indiana Civil Rights Commission?

For several years, the Indiana Civil Rights Commission provided a low-cost, high quality and pretty much boredom free continuing legal education seminars. They have not done so in over a year. See the ICRC's Workshops, Conferences, and Continuing Legal Education page.

Other than missing a low-cost alternative for CLE in an area of law in which I practice, I have to wonder what the State is doing to keep their lawyers in their CLE hours. See, I noticed that most of the attendees were government lawyers.

But this also means that there ICRC hosts no workshops or conferences. Why not?

Very strange and I will attribute it to either some misguided idea of cost cutting or not getting information on their website.

Court of Appeals Dismisses Battery Case Against Teacher

Generally speaking, I do not write about criminal matters unless the defendant is a business. I made an exception when I read COA: teacher within rights in striking student from The Indiana Daily Lawyer.

Judges Patricia Riley and Melissa May agreed with the trial court in State of Indiana v. Paula J. Fettig, No. 49A02-0709-CR-807, that gym teacher Fettig was protected from prosecution because state statute gives authority to school personnel to discipline students. Citing Indiana Code Sections 20-33-8-8(b) and 20-33-8-9, Judge Riley wrote these sections state that teachers "may take any action that is reasonably necessary to carry out or to prevent an interference with an educational function that the individual supervises."

Reading the article and skimming the case, my initial reason for including this report here remains unchanged. This could easily have been a civil case as much as a criminal one. I think the reasoning for dismissing the criminal information would apply to a case for civil battery under the same fact pattern: teacher uses force in her capacity as a teacher.

New Rule Proposed Commercial Driver's License Testing

See FR Doc E8-7070, "Commercial Driver's License Testing and Commercial Learner's Permit Standards; Proposed Rule" for the details on commenting to the proposed rule. Remember anyone can comment if they follow the procedure.

My Anderson Free Press Column

I am writing a column for The Anderson Free Press. You can find the first installment here.

For The FacebookCrowd: Friends are not Friends?

I am not really sure what to make of this article, Facebook friends not real friends: judge, from England by way of Australia's The Age but it is interesting enough.

"A British judge has made official what many of us have long suspected - that being 'Facebook friends' with someone doesn't necessarily make you their friend.

The magistrate was presiding over a harassment case in which a woman accused her former boyfriend of hounding her by sending her a "friend request" on the popular social networking site on January 21.

I think we will see more of this issue in the future.

New Trucking Regulations

The Federal Register shows a new federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation being proposed, FR Doc E8-2605:

"SUMMARY: FMCSA announces its decision to renew the exemptions from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for 20 individuals. FMCSA has statutory authority to exempt individuals from the vision requirement if the exemptions granted will not compromise safety. The Agency has concluded that granting these exemption renewals will provide a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety maintained without the exemptions for these commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers."

DATES: This decision is effective March 5, 2008. Comments must be
received on or before March 14, 2008.

For more information, click on the link above.

The Indiana Law Blog is back: About this blog - More on: Announcement from the ILB editor. My best wishes for Ms. Oddi.

Good Point: The Law Is Not Always the Best Solution

From Adam Smith: Unintended or Unanticipated? While I support the laws mentioned in the post, I must agree that just passing a law is not all that is needed to solve a problem. It is the easiest action but not necessarily the best solution.