pm blog

Digital images of case documents filed with the Supreme Court of Ohio are now available on the Court’s Web site, through the Clerk of Court’s online case docket search. (read)

The Court has also implemented Case Activity Notifcation Service.

A subscription based service for notification of any activity, your choice e-mail, RSS or both.

from Tom Collins, editor of morepartnerincome.com, comes this nugget:

this post will probably get me in trouble with someone, but here goes. according to consultant and author Elizabeth Pace, in dealing with others, we have an innate ability to understand the motivations of same sex prospects and to misread the intentions of the opposite sex. we guys certainly can buy into that notion.  (read more)

yikes …

e-filing is currently permissible in the 18th Circuit for the following types of cases:

L (Law over $50,000)
AR (Arbitration)
CH (Chancery)
MR (Miscellaneous Remedies)
D (Dissolution of Marriage)

in February you can learn about the e-filing process from the 2 primary vendors handling it here in DuPage County — Wiznet and Lexis-Nexis

Wiznet will demonstrate in conjunction with the DCBA Estate Planning & Probate Committee meeting at noon on Thursday, February 8 in the Bar Center Classroom.

Lexis Nexis File & Serve will demonstrate at the DCBA Civil Law & Practice Committee meeting at noon on Thursday, February 15 at the Attorney Resource Center.

complimentary pizza will be served at both meetings. the DCBA is working with the vendors to secure MCLE credit for both programs.

With the rise of European dissatisfaction in Apple’s attitude to consumers, Reuters reports that Norway’s ombudsman has taken the reins and issued a clear warning to Apple Computer: that its restriction of purchased music to its own iPod hardware is grossly unfair. Demanding that Apple makes the downloads compatible with other digital music players, the Norwegian ombudsman has given them until October 2007 to widen the range, otherwise fines could be imposed.

mom and dad were pretty specific about not dating before college, but never said anything about the most seductive force to be unleashed in the last 30 years. you know the one i mean. cast your mind back if you will to all-nighters at the college of your choice, early morning caffein-enhanced lift-offs to research papers you had all semester to write, and similar crunch situations. was i the only one who let things slide like that? whether i was or not, the point is it was all happening in the early 80’s on an Apple IIe or Apple Macintosh.

and it was sweet. those of us who witnessed Microsoft being born out of the wreckage of companies like Digital Equipment were relieved and gratified to see a force of equal or greater weight than the Evil Empire itself flourish in the marketplace — one dedicated to smooth lines, engrossing graphics (remember, Atari’s home edition of pong was a visual marvel at the time), and most of all to a stable computing interface. hey, we thought a crash was what happened to our cars, not our computers.

flash-forward 20 years and a lifetime later, and Microsoft is now the Old Gray Lady of computing, telling businesses and professionals what to do and how to do it. well fellow Mac lovers, it’s time to come out of the closet and re-acquaint yourself with your old friends by watching this pair of videos by Apple comparing the Mac and PC head to head.

by the way, mom and dad were right about the dating thing. i wonder what else they were right about?

and now some impressions of Office 2007 by Craig Bayer of Law OT

According to Microsoft, 85% of the new feature request that they receive for Office Products are already included in the current versions. This made Microsoft realize that sometimes it was really hard to discover how to do certain things. Therefore, one of the main goals of Office 2007 was to change the entire look. Instead of the traditional menus you will use the ribbon, which is a series of tabs that when clicked, change your entire toolbar. In my opinion Office 2007 is a lot easier to get around in, but it is very different. Fortunately all the old keyboard shortcuts are the same location.

System Requirements

Operating System: XP Service Pack 2, Windows Server, or Vista
Processor: 500 MHZ
Ram: 256 (This is too low to run XP. I say 1GB)
Hard Disk: 1.5 GB
Display: 1024X768

I am running Office 2007 on my laptop that has 1 gig of ram and a Pentium M 1.80 Processor and there is no noticeable speed difference from Office 2003. I upgraded my Outlook, Excel, Access, Publisher, and PowerPoint. I did not upgrade to Word 2007, because it will not work with HotDocs 2006.

Compatibility

Office 2007 uses a new XML format. The last time Microsoft changed formats was in Office 97, so this is kind of a big deal. You do have the option of saving your files in previous version’s format and the new file format is supposed to make files sizes 50-75 smaller.

Files created in 2007 can still be opened in Office 2002 and 2003. If you are using one of these versions and try and open a 2007 File, Microsoft will prompt you to download a converter.

A Few Features

The new Office does feature the ability to save to a pdf, but Adobe would not let Microsoft include that feature in the product. However, Microsoft made this available as a free download. There is an Inspect Documents feature that allows you to remove metadata before sending your documents to a client. This will be a huge benefit for the legal profession.

another guest post by craig bayer of law office technologies, inc.

December and January are always busy months for us as firms begin to move to new legal specific accounting software. I am down to my last installation (A Timeslips and QuickBooks conversion to PCLaw) and decided to share some of the common issues that occur in this process.

To Convert or not to Convert

Most legal specific accounting software offers conversions which take all your data from the old program and move it into the new one. The conversion works as advertised but the old adage of Garbage In, Garbage Out, definitely applies. If your accounting data is pretty clean, convert it. If you have not done a bank reconciliation in three years, this is a brand new opportunity for a fresh start. You will still have your old accounting software for archive purposes.

The Less Links, the Better

Integration is the keyword. No one likes links and they can be a pain to maintain. I don’t see why firms maintain separate billing and separate accounting programs, when there is plenty of software like PCLaw or Billing Matters that have both of these features. If you are using any sort of Practice Management Software, see if they have an accounting program. TimeMatters has BillingMatters, Amicus Attorney just added Amicus Accounting, and PCLaw added practice and document management in the past couple of years.

CPA’s like QuickBooks

All CPA’s know how to use QuickBooks and are familiar with it. When they hear you are thinking about moving to a legal specific accounting program, they will grumble a little bit. Most of these legal accounting programs offer free accountant copies and PCLaw even lets you export into a QuickBooks file. The point is that the CPA works for you and a good CPA will have no problem doing their job with Legal Accounting Software.

Have all your Data Ready

The move to a new accounting system can be stressful for everyone involved, so make sure you have all your data ready when the change is going to take place. Gather all your client’s opening matter and trust account balances as well as all your bank account balances. If these numbers are accurate and in one place, you will be good to go.