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Legal Technology News Breaking news from the publishers of Legal Technology Insider. Issue.101 - 16.01.2002
IN THIS ISSUE
DLA BUYS INTERACTION
"We want Gemini to be the primary platform used by fee earners to access client and matter information. We saw no need to require them to learn another application to access relationship information. With InterAction, we don't have to. The flexible architecture of the InterAction Relationship Intelligence Server (IRIS) allows us to incorporate InterAction data into our existing browser screens. Lawyers need not even know that they're accessing information from different applications," said Pollick.
MERIDIAN COME TO THE MOUNTAIN
NEW BOOK FROM DAVID MAISTER LEGAL TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY & VENDOR NEWS
iMANAGE ANNOUNCES FRENCH & GERMAN VERSIONS - iManage, the provider of document and collaborative content management software, has announced the availability of German and French versions of its iManage WorkSite desktop applications. The language additions address the needs of iManage's growing customer base in Europe. Late last year iManage announced the opening of its office in Germany, adding to its existing European offices in Paris and the UK.
FORRESTER CUTS BACK ON STAFF - Forrester Research, the international IT consultancy, has announced plans to cut 125 jobs - just over 20 percent of its total workforce. The company, which cut another 110 jobs back in July, blamed the continuing weakness in the technology sector.
REVENUES UP AT SIFT - Sift, the Bristol-based online services company behind such the LawZONE and AccountingWEB niche maket portals, has announced a 135 percent in revenues to £2.3 million for the trading year ended 31 December 2001. The company says its AccountingWEB businesses in the US and UK, which generated revenues of over £1.2m in 2001, are now in profit. Ben Heald, Sift's director of communities, says that although the company does not anticipate such a big increase in revenues in 2002 "we nevertheless expect to see continued growth from all parts of the business this year".
FAXMAKER FOR EXCHANGE - GFI has launched version 9.0 of it FAXmaker for Exchange fax server. GFI describe the new version as a zero administration as it no longer requires an internal fax user database. Instead, it relies on Active Directory and allows fax-related settings to be applied to Windows users or groups directly. Because FAXmaker is a native fax connector for Exchange Server, which means that there is no need for a proprietary fax client, faxes can be sent and received from within the Microsoft Outlook client, which in turn eliminates the need for client software administration as well as end-user training. Other features include support for Windows XP clients and inbuilt spam filter, that can auto-delete junk faxes on the basis of sender number. A 25 user version sells for $750 and a 100 user FAXmaker sells for $1895. For details visit www.gfi.com/fex/ INTERNET & ONLINE LEGAL SERVICE NEWS
CENSUS SITE MORE DELAYS - The UK Public Records Office's new 1901 web site, which earlier this month had to be shut down because it was being overwhelmed by visitors, is now expected to remain closed for upgrade work until the beginning of February. www.census.pro.gov.uk
TWO PERCENT OF UK DIVORCES NOW ONLINE - According to Mark Keenan, the founder of Divorce-Online, at least two percent of all divorces in England & Wales are now commenced via the internet. There were 144,000 divorces in 2000-2001 according to government statistics and on the basis of those figures, says Keenan, "we as a company have processed close to two percent of all the divorces in England and Wales".
Keenan says "the potential for growth in the business remains huge" because the majority of divorces are uncontested and not necessarily needing the involvement of a lawyer except to deal with financial or children related problems, which can be dealt with separately for the main divorce proceedings.
With Legal Help (Legal Aid) only being available to the very poorest consumers for the divorce itself, Keenan says it makes sense to the average consumer to try and have as much of the procedure dealt with cheaply, leaving the financial and children matters to be dealt with by lawyers where Legal Aid is available. The average divorce not including children or finance related matters can cost as much as £1,000 in some areas whereas the Divorce-Online service is £80.00. www.divorce-online.co.uk
NEW LEGAL SEARCH ENGINE - LegalClicks.com is a new legal search engine that can be used to find both legal information and targeted advertising. www.legalclicks.com
CONVICTS REUNITED - No, this is not a joke but there really is a new web site in the UK called Convicts Reunited that aims to let former felons catch up with their old cellmates. The site was originally started as a spoof of the Friends Reunited site, which lets old school chums locate their former classmates, but is now apparently attracting a lot of interest from the criminal fraternity. Unfortunately it could also be attracting an equal amount of interest from the forces of law and order, with lawyers warning that a jokey reference to visitors using the site "to plan their next bank job" could result in the site's operators being charged with aiding and abetting. New powers granted by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act also mean that the police can demand to see web traffic logs to discover who has been using the site. www.convictsreunited.com
HONG KONG GETS THE AUSTLII HABIT
HKLII follows the same (and uses the same SINO search engine) model as AustLII, BAILII in the UK and similar services around the world in that access to HKLII and all data on it is free. The initial contents of HKLII include over 10,000 full text court and tribunal judgments dating back to 1982, practice directions, all current ordinances of Hong Kong, the table of contents of historical law of Hong Kong - this is an image database of Hong Kong's ordinances back to 1844 created by the Hong Kong University, and - coming completely up to date - internet domain name arbitration decisions under the .hk domain provided by the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC).
At present only English language versions are provided on HKLII, but Chinese language versions of some data will be provided later. Professor Greenleaf also adds that he "regards the system as at the demonstration stage at present, because we are still developing the continuous updating arrangements. We have released it for use now as it is already useful."
WHAT IS LANDLORD-LAW ONLINE ?
Few solicitors firms specialise in this area of work, or are able to offer such reasonably priced services as those on Landlord-Law Online. And once the subscription fee has been paid, you can go online and access the site at a time to suit yourself and in the comfort of your own home. This is a first for this type of service - modestly priced and aimed at consumers on the Internet, and is a totally new development in the provision of legal services online.
The service includes: Frequently asked questions (FAQs) on residential landlord and tenant law. A Tenancy Trail to help you find out what sort of tenancy you have. Documents you can complete on screen, such letters and application forms for tenants to challenge the rent, and possession notices and notices to increase rent for landlords use. A glossary of legal terms. Featured articles - the December featured article is on the Housing sector of the Environmental Health department so you find out how tenants can get repairs notices served on their landlords. And a Q&A section where solicitor Tessa Shepperson answers readers questions (with access to old questions and answers for members).
In addition there are tips for landlords and tenants on selected topics, a facility to buy books and tenancy agreements online, a monthly newsletter to keep you up to date with the law, and links to the full text if relevant legislation, such as the Gas Safety Regulations and the Furniture Regulations. You can also instruct TJ Shepperson Solicitors to do legal work at fixed fees and the whole site is on a secure server for added security. The subscription rate is £20 for four months (£50 pa) however the site also contains a lot of useful information for non-subscribers. For details visit www.landlordlaw.co.uk
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