What is Encryption Technology?

People and businesses use encryption every day. Encryption is the act of transferring data in a way that cannot be read by unwanted parties.  This is done using a cipher, or code. The information is encrypted so that anyone who comes across it cannot read what the original message said. Once received by the addressee, the encrypted information can be deciphered using a key.

Law Office Technology

Law office technology has helped bring about the need for encryption software.

Although encryption technology in the law office may sound like the plot of a spy movie, it is actually a very common find. Government offices turn to encryption to protect vital information. Even many businesses have implemented encryption to keep their data secure and private. Aside from hiding data that is being passed from one location to another, encryption software can also protect data that is being stored in a single location.

Why is Encryption Necessary?

Anyone who has dealt with legal issues probably knows the importance of secrecy. If you have not, imagine finding yourself in a very sensitive legal situation. This could be something emotional, such as a divorce. A law office supplies information about the case to you and anyone else who needs to see it. The quickest way to pass this information is over the internet, so many turn to this resource to get results for their clients faster.

The problem is that there are plenty of people lurking on the internet who would happily take sensitive information and use it for their own purposes. Just as you would not want your lawyer showing just anyone a paper report about you, you would not want them to do so digitally either. That is why law office technology has advanced to prevent unauthorized viewing of documents through encryption.

Encryption technology in the law office is a necessity. Any reputable firm should utilize updated encryption to protect its client’s personal details from illegal access. Law office technology is an excellent tool to keep data out of the wrong hands.

Law office technology

For lease agreements, general partnerships, even wills and divorces these types of documents can be filed by an individual in a court of law without an attorney being present. Does that mean it’s as simple as writing a note and slipping it to the county clerk? Not exactly, you still need to file the right legal documents and in the right way. Otherwise, yes you are going to end up in some legal trouble. Here are some tips when using legal software that might help keep you out of court and out of pocket.

The very first thing you have to consider when purchasing legal documents software is if it is going to be valid in your state. Each state has different laws and different forms for each individual type of motion you might be filing. This does not only to the courts either. Even something as simple as a lease agreement or promissory note has to meet specific state criteria in most cases as laws vary from state to state.

Make sure that there is plenty of documentation built into your legal software as well. A list of forms that can be filled out is just not enough for you to understand the legal ramifications of what exactly you are signing. Typically, a lot of these programs will have some sort of explanation for the layman. If they do not then there really is no point in even owning the software. You can pick up most legal forms at the county courthouse or online, the point is to have the right forms available when you need them. So a small legal tutorial is always a good thing.

Finally, make sure that you do have everything covered. If there is any doubt as to whether you have done everything you need to, consult an attorney. This might seem like it’s counter to what you are trying to accomplish, but having an attorney look over your paperwork is a lot less costly than hiring them to do it for you or filing the wrong document.

Keeping all of this in mind, apply a bit of common sense and you should do fine. The advantages of your own legal document software is clear, just make sure you take full advantage of the legal software and take appropriate legal advice if you are in doubt.

Download Legal Will Software

The first question that many people ask is “is downloadable software legal?” and in general, once you have the permission of the copyright holder, there is no problem with this and you abide by the terms of use.

Legal will software downloads are popular but they do carry a danger with them and the validity of a will may well be challenged if you do not know what you are doing or if you do not comply with the laws and procedures for making a valid will in your state. Popular providers of legal will software include All-Purpose Legal Documents and American Legal And Business Forms.

There are many types of cheap legal software available on the internet and Amazon is a good place to shop for legal forms software and cheap legal will software. But you would be strongly advise to seek the advise of an attorney or legal professional to verify and look over your will because the legal and tax implications of getting this wrong can leave an unholy mess for those coming after you..and they may well incur the legal costs that you sought to avoid in cleaning up the mess.

Legal Time And Billing Software

Legal time and billing software can be a major cost saver for a legal professional and leading providers of legal time and billing software include Abacus Law, RTG Bills, Capterra, RainMaker Legal and Elite which provides law office management software.

Best Legal Practice Management Software

The best legal practice management software for your practice will depend very much on what you need to do, the number of clients you have, the number of employees and the diversity of your legal practice. Companies such as Abacus Law, Capterra, RainMaker and others provide a great range of case management legal software and legal agreement software.

You can check out elsewhere on this site some case management legal software and decide for yourself the best legal practice management software for your practice.

For the non legal professional you need to be very careful that the cheap legal software that you seek does not ending up costing you more in the long run and you would be well advised to seek the advice of a legal professional if the task you seek to carry out can have serious consequences down the road.

Legal documents software

Abacus Law Software

Abacus law software is an extensive range of law office software for legal practices of all sizes. There are essentially 2 editions of this popular software called Abacus Law Classic and Abacus law Gold.

You can also add modules of additional software to both of these packages such as estate planning software, family law specialty, immigration specialty, personal injure specialty, workers compensation, Abacus Law Court rules and Judicial council forms.

Lets have a look firstly though at the 2 main modules from Abacus Law.

Abacus Law Classic

Abacus Law Classic affords you the opportunity of automating legal calendaring, form generation and all case information in a single system. One of the advantages of this powerful piece of law office software is that it will allow you to keep in contact with your file management when you are not in the office provided you have internet access.
It will also allow you to automate form filling and to allocate case management activity to different members of your staff. It will also generate over 100 reports for your law office practice.

Features of this powerful law office software include
Phone messages
Document management
Case management
Contact management and legal calendaring. Additional features include black berry synchronization (or with any PDA), work group scheduling, customization with your home office, contact management and customizable report generation.

This powerful and versatile piece of law office software carries a 100 day 100% money back guarantee.

Abacus Law Gold

Abacus law gold is the second strand in the stable of software products from Abacus Law and the difference from the Classic version is that in addition to the features that come in the Abacus Classic version, you will additionally get billing, time and accounting features.

The ability to clock time as you work can be done with the click of a button and the generation of a time ticket and reports is simplicity itself. Furthermore you can generate over 100 standard reports, create pre filled court forms and greatly assist with your accounting requirements by printing checks, reports, invoices for clients and match up case activity with your accounts payable and receivable.

Both Abacus Law Gold and Abacus Law Classic can be greatly enhanced with the addition of special editon legal software modules such as estate planning software, family law, immigration and many other specialities.

Each of these special editions can be seamlessly plugged in to your existing law office software from Abacus Law depending on the specialty of your practice. For example the special edition dealing with personal injury litigation allows you to improve your case handling efficiency and manage the details of each personal injury case with information of insurance company, injuries suffered, property damage, treatment record and so on.

Abacus Law software will help you to eliminate paper files and increase your efficiency enormously with it’s features of document management, case management, calendaring, billing and accounting.

The additional special editions are a fantastic idea given the each law office specializes in different areas of law and whether you are a new small practice or medium size law office, this software ranks right up there with any law office software available on the market.

The peace of mind that you will glean from being able to draft legal documents faster, complete cases faster, build your legal practice and eliminate double entry is priceless.

Missing deadlines, entering the same information more than once and not knowing what cases your staff are working on will be greatly reduced with this software.

Legal forms software

Amicus Attorney

Some of the benefits include helping you to
Simplify legal research
Provide a better service to your clients
Faster drafting of legal documents
Mobile working
Avoidance of duplicated work
Planning meetings
Tracking tasks
Keep better track of billable hours and most importantly
Organization of your legal practice and all the documents, pleadings, case notes, attendance records and the myriad of other documents that you will find in any busy legal office.

Amicus Attorney provide 2 significant products for the smooth management of the law office and below you will find reviews of 2 of their law office management software products which are aimed at different end users in the law office.

Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition

This law office management software is ideal for the small law firm or sole practitioner. It is designed to let the lawyer spend more time practicing law and not spending inordinate amounts of time organising files, documents, pleadings and court forms.
It makes practicing law fun again and ensures that the busy small law office has all it’s relevant information integrated in one place. It also has the file information management module which allows you to track tasks, contacts, appointments easily.

It also features the daily management module, the task organizer and has fully integrated time sheets which allow you to keep track of your billable hours more easily and even has a feature which reminds you when you have forgotten a time entry.

Amicus provide a superb piece of law office management software with their range of products and it is vital for any law office to manage their back office more efficiently to allow lawyers do what they do best..practice law and help their clients.

Amicus Attorney Premium Edition

The Amicus Attorney Premium Edition is the top of the range product for law office management provided by Amicus who are one of the biggest and most successful providers of law office management software.

Benefits and features of Amicus Attorney Premium include case management, file management, time keeping, record keeping with a very user friendly interface.
Amicus Attorney Premium also allows you to keep track of appointments and track transactions from start to finish at the click of a mouse button.
The Dailies module allows you to see at a glance what is going on any particular day, reminders that you may have posted, to do lists, appointments and emails.

Other very important and useful modules include the calendar module which allows you to create and manage calendar profiles, automate your court docketing and easy recognition of everybody’s appointments and whereabouts.

Another particular useful module is the universal communications module which allows you to keep track of all communications in one place such as email, phone calls and messages.

There is a Library feature in Amicus Attorney Premium which also allows you to manage your legal research and will allow you to keep track of all legal opinions, research memos and your favourite legal research internet sites at the click of a mouse.

The added mobility provided by this law office management software will allow you to access your law office information from the internet regardless of where you are and will also allow you to work from home and transfer critical information to a pocket organiser.

This feature allows you to keep on top of your work if you are away from the office at critical junctures and means you will not have to face into a ton of emails and ordinary mail when you arrive back at your legal practice.

Lawyers who have used the Amicus Law Office Management software have commented that “my practice management has improved greatly and it has paid for itself very quickly” and others have commented very favourably on the case management features as being very cost effective.

Abacus law software

RTG Bills Law Office Billing Software

This product is aimed at the sole legal practitioner and the smaller office.It is Windows based so no special requirements are required to run it and you can avail of a free trial offer from their website.The product essentially allows you to track and bill your clients with ease and when it is combined with another product from RTG called RTG Timer you can track with great accuracy and ease the amount of time spent on each client’s file as the RTG timer has a stop watch built into the program.

RTG bills billing software costs around $95 and there is email support provided for up to 12 months after purchase and combined with the ability to share this software across a network of computers in your office it provides an economical alternative for the cash strapped law office.

Tabs 3 Law Office Billing Software

This program also features a built in stop watch and facilitates the tracking of time spent on your client’s files.It provides options as to how you bill your clients between time based billing,a retainer or a job based fee.

It boasts many reporting features such as accounts receivable,client ledger reports and will also facilitate the tracking of employees work on files.

Tabs 3 starts at $295.

PC Law Billing Software

PC law billing software is provided by Lexis Nexis which is a highly regarded company in the provision of legal resources and services to law offices for many years.

PC Law 10 billing and accounting software allows you to work from your laptop or external locations and features easy time tracking,billing on a number of different bases such as flat fee or contingency, integrated credit card processing, management of your office bank account and client accounts and many other features.

You can also track your payroll, bank reconciliations,accounts payable and updating of ledgers and journals which ensures that your law office is in full compliance with all regualatory requirements.PC Law 10 is a little more comprehensive than the law office software that I have discussed above and will cost you from $900 but when it comes to law office management software you are paying for the piece of mind that comes from purchasing from a leading and long established provider of law office software products.

Law office management software

What is Legal Paper?

Legal paper is generally considered to be paper which measures 8.5 inches by 14 inches and this derives from the UK and imperial measurements with the US and most “Common Wealth” countries following suit. It is also known as foolscap size.

When you are printing on legal paper you must remember to adjust the default setting on most printers to “legal”.Legal size paper is also used in many business brochures as it gives a professional appearance. Why are most legal pads yellow? Most likely this has to do with the eye than anything else. A harsh white surface and black (the preferred legal ink) can often be hard for the eye to stay comfortable with. White reflects a lot of light and where does it go? Right back into the optic nerve. Claims that the color yellow also help in the thinking process by allowing the mind to relax might hold some water as well and maybe this explains why post-it notes are also yellow.

Pleading Paper

It can save your legal practice or law office a lot of money over a long period of time if you are using a lot of pleading paper to have the ability to rule and line your existing paper with a program or macro which allows you to do just this. You simply download the macro for free and it will generate lined and numbered paper with Microsoft Word.
Some of the many configurations you can produce yourself with this handy little program include
• Double lined on left and numbered on left 1-28 per page
• Double lined on the left and single line on the right with a 2 inch margin on the left
• Double lined on the left and a single line on the right and again numbered from 1 to 28
• Similar configurations to those outlined above but with a 1 ½ inch margin on the left
While you are at it you can also produce your own letterhead paper by simply inputting your letterhead template into Microsoft Word and producing your own letterheaded legal paper. Many law offices could reduce their stationery overhead significantly over time by using this simple tip.

The legal pad industry has gotten into using recycled papers as well in a big way in the last few years. It is unquestionable but that you can reduce your legal office overhead with some smart and lateral thinking and given that legal paper plays such a large role in the smooth running of a law office you can give yourself the opportunity of reducing one overhead greatly.

Law office billing software

It is critical for legal practices to manage their legal documents efficiently and they are required by law to retain documents and records for predefined periods of time to ensure that they can meet any professional lawsuits that they may face down the road.

Any document management system should also have regard for the use of electronically stored documents in evidence in subsequent legal proceedings and the increasing use of electronic signatures in emails etc. mean that the requirements for safe custody of your legal documents is vital.

The critical role of legal document management software arises when hard copies of legal documents are required for court. The ease with which the lawyer and his legal team can put their hands on hard copies of their legal documents for an impending legal battle is vital and a good document management software system is critical and time efficient.

The right legal document management software is critical to make provision for the different ways that different law practices number and label their legal files. Some smaller legal practices are using hosted online document management systems.

Knowledge Tree

Knowledge tree is an open source document management software that allows the safe custody and retrieval of legal documents. The legal document management software provided by Knowledge tree is in compliance with the Sarbanes Oxley Act and allows the freezing of documents to ensure that there is no subsequent editing. This ensures greater evidential weight of your electronic legal documents at trial.

You also have access to document audit trails and this legal document management software allows remote collaboration between legal professionals. It allows the scanning and storage of all your documents with a search facility for each document.

It also is adaptable to the method by which an individual law firm has historically numbered and labelled it’s files.

Any legal document management software should enable you to organize and easily access all electronically stored documents by scanning, imaging and merging in a database which is easily searchable and makes provision for transcription management.

Some of the leading legal document management software providers include Amicus Attorney.

Amicus Attorney Software

Amicus Attorney was designed by lawyers for lawyers and allows archiving and retention of documents and all of your legal firm’s information into an automated system which should increase efficiency and lower costs.

It provides workflow management, mobile access, document indexing, tagging, data import/export and customizable functionality.

Elnfotree Software

Elnfotree is another serious player in the legal document management market and it’s electronic document management provides for audit trails, electronic signatures, email management, file management and many other features.

The elnfotree document management system allows content distribution across a complete organization through the use of a highly graphical web based interface. It allows for file management, database management, organization of data, spreadsheet management, security, standardization in file naming, electronic records audit trail and so on.

It enables the reduction of the need for physical storage, eliminates photocopying, allows simultaneous access and a complete document life cycle management.

A progressive legal practice should be looking seriously at the options provided by legal document management software as we move closer towards the paperless office. The benefits of reduced costs in storage and document management together with the efficiencies to be gained make this type of software essential for a progressive law office.

Legal paper

Royce Leather Legal Pad Holder

The Royce leather legal pad holder is not cheap, but it is a classy product which you can pick up for around $110. It measures about 16 inches by 10 inches and weighs about 2 pounds.
It features suede lining, includes a legal pad and is made from top of the range Nappa leather and has a large slotted pocket and small business card pocket.
This legal pad holder will impress, no doubt about that, but it is a little pricey.

Royce leather legal pad holders carry a lifetime warranty against defects in workmanship or material.
At the other end of the price range of legal pad holders is the

Samsill Slimline Legal Pad Holder

It looks like leather and has inside storage pockets with a dual powered calculator. It also includes a legal pad and can be purchase for around $14.

Millenium Leather Legal Pad Holder

The Millenium leather legal pad holder comes in a range of colors including Black Florentine Nappa leather or Tan Florentine Nappa.

It has a really neat calculator which is “built in” to the pad holder itself and swings out ready for action at the touch. You can use the calculator when the pad is open or closed depending on your choice. The legal pad holder measures about 15 inches by 9.5 inches and will set you back approximately $90.

This style of legal pad holder from Millenium is called the Millenium Leather Legal pad holder with pneumatic calculator.
Millenium leather do an extensive range of legal pad holders which are of high quality and would be a welcome addition to any busy lawyer.

Levenger Legal Pad Holders

Levenger is a company that supplies a wide range of top quality stationery including legal pad holders of various sizes, features and colors.

Levenger Bomber Jacket Briefolio

The Levenger bomber jacket briefolio is not strictly a legal pad holder as it is a leather portfolio jacket which allows you to carry not just a legal pad but other bits and pieces too. It is similar to legal pad holder except it is more versatile and allows you to carry the essentials to a meeting.

It is made of leather with a zip up mechanism on 2 sides. It also has an inside zip pocket and is made from full grain pebbled mocha leather with a plaid cotton lining.

It measures about 15 inches by 11 inches and the versatility of this attractive product means that it is more than just a legal pad holder.
It is a truly quality product which costs around $130 but it’s functionality and attractiveness makes this a good investment for the rest of your life.

As you can see there are a huge selection of legal pad holders from which to choose, depending on your budget and taste. Many lawyers invest in the best quality legal pad holder at the beginning of their career and find it lasts a lifetime and becomes a lasting memento of a successful legal career.

Legal document management software

Law Office Software

Modern computer software for the Law office of any progressive law firm offers huge opportunities to improve efficiency through the employment of law office management software, law office billing software, accounting software on so on.

You can also obtain calendaring software, document management software, word processing and voice recognition software.

One of the most popular suites of law office software is the complete case and practice management software from Gryphon™ which is ideal for sole practitioners and small to medium size firms. It allows you to switch easily between transactional and litigation mode.
This law office software can be picked up for around $20 although there is a low monthly subscription fee.

Law Office Stationery

Some of the stationery which you can obtain online which is essential for the modern legal office includes a Criminal Defense Case File which includes forms for arraignment, appearances, client interview, grand jury data and other forms which will definitely make your life easier.

Binders

Legal binders form a large part of the law office and you can choose between lever arch binders, 3 ring binders for up to 700 page records and customized presentation binders.

Law Office Forms

Blumberg offer an enormous range of online law office forms which you can obtain online and download immediately. These forms are regularly updated and cover a wide range of uses such as bankruptcy, real estate, company incorporation, apartment lease, power of attorney, certificate to conduct business under an assumed name (DBA) and all Blumberg legal forms are available on a state by state basis.

Legal Office Supplies

Other law office supplies that you might consider include rubber stamps, trial notebooks, litigation cases, labels, new matter memos and notary seals.

Last Will & Testament And Trust Stationery

Probate and wills is obviously a large part of any legal practice and it is important that wills documents last for a long time. For this reason it is important that the will is executed on good quality paper and the most durable for this purpose is Testament Ledger paper which is 100% cotton.

You might also consider oversized will envelopes and genuine steel die engraving for particular words in the will such as “Will”, “Trust” and so on. For this reason it is important to shop around and ensure that you have the most appropriate last will and testament stationery for your law office.

Other Law Office Supplies

You might also consider getting some pleading backers, imprinted pleading papers, custom stamps, exhibit labels and tabs, trial notebooks and notary seals.

Legal pad holder