Legal Technology

Disk-to-disk backup grows up

It wasn't long ago that I discussed the die-hard files where I said there were quite a few people still using tape drives in their backup strategies. I am assuming that was correct since I did not get any tape drives in the mail. But in the interim, it appears that disk-to-disk backup is growing up.

InMage Systems, a manufacturer of disk-based application recovery solutions, upgraded its Scout software to version 5.1. The new release will support Big Law, as well as Big Law that has outstourced their infrastructure. Scout now has multi-tenancy features for managed service providers as well as support for Sun Microsystems Solaris SPARC and x86 and x64 Intel architectures. Yes, that includes support for ZFS pools and Sun Volume Manager. Note that Scout already supports Linux and Microsoft Windows.

What did you do today and is it billable?

Can you answer that question at the end of the day? If so, can you get a detailed report of it?

If those questions left you without definite answers, there’s a new time keeper on the block: Smart time.

Smart Time is an on-demand time capture and entry application for lawyers. It simplifies the time-note construction process and makes the process available on the Web. It uses a browser-based application on the front end (IE 6 and above) and a Microsoft IIS server on the backend (ASP/.NET).

Smart Time says a typical installation can be done in a day. And that is most likely true since many law firms have a running copy of IIS. The application can collect time information from multiple points in the law firm, including Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint Server, Interwoven Worksite, Open Text Document Management, Worldox GX, Blackberry Enterprise Server, and more. You can also build your own custom connectors.

The big ticket for these applications is ease of use. And that is quite relative to your firm. You can contact them for a demo at 877-776-7505 or attend a webinar.

Pssst, need a motion or pleading in California?

Example Motion is a file-sharing Web site designed to help lawyers in California prepare motions and pleadings. On a theory that somebody-has-probably-done-that-before, the site’s aim is to help you find an example of a motion or pleading that you can use to bootstrap your own filing or get you started on your research. But motions and pleadings are not always free, as in “music.”

You can sign up now at www.examplemotion.com and preview motions for free, but download costs range from free to $50.00, depending on the price set by the author who uploaded the document.

Free webinar for lawyers with game

On September 16, at 1 p.m., Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP will offer a law firm-hosted, publicly available CLE-accredited (for New York) webinar on “Legal, Business and Operational Issues in Interactive Games Initiatives and Transactions.”

The webinar is free and available to the public. Hughes Hubbard’s team of new media, entertainment and technology practitioners will focus on the critical issues in game transactions, including: structuring relationships between developers and publishers; protecting against developer default or insolvency; how clearances and consents have become critically important with the increased incorporation in games of real-world elements (cities, buildings, people, etc.) and third party IP (e.g., music, video clips, characters, logos, etc.); and strategies to maximize revenues from online and mobile games.

Hear ye, hear ye …

What if that’s not possible for your client in court or in your office? In court or in a government proceeding, if a litigant or participant is hearing impaired, that impairment can bring a hard stop to the proceedings until a certified sign language interpreter is obtained. If a potential client in your office is hearing impaired, you may be able to pass notes back and forth, but that may take considerable time and the process may lose valuable meaning. The Communication Axess Ability Group has a different answer.

CAAG is a leading provider of communication and interpreting services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. It is now rolling out a “Video Remote Interpreting” service, or VRI, that uses real-time video conferencing to connect hearing-impaired individuals to sign language interpreters using high-speed Internet and a Web camera to help them speak and understand court or investigative proceedings or legal advice.

Once a contract is signed, CAAG sends a license to a court or law firm to download the software needed for VRI. After installation, the customer rings CAAG on demand, where an interpreter is available, anytime during the day or night. Certified Level 1 interpreters are on call 24/7 to respond to the VRI on their home or office computers.

The reduction in time and travel for an interpreter can be a cost savings to courts and law firms. CAAG estimates a 15 to 20 percent cost savings for their current customers over the long term.

Here we go again

We are getting close to another event where original manufacturers (read: vendors) show off their new stuff and polish their old stuff. The International Legal Technology Association meets in Washington, D.C., from August 23-27, 2009.

Although I will not be attending the show this year, I will make an attempt to distill news of interest right here and on the EDD Update blog. Even as I speak, updates are starting to roll in. For example, Workshare, the makers of Delta View and collaborative editing tools for lawyers, announced an improved integration point with NetDocuments. Note that Workshare already has built-in integration with Interwoven and Microsoft SharePoint.

Now users can select an original document from NetDocuments online DMS and compare it to one or more modified documents utilizing Workshare’s document comparison engine (formerly, DeltaView). Modified documents can then be saved directly back into NetDocuments. You can even compare an e-mail attachment in Outlook with a document in NetDocuments’ store.

Previous to this bit of information, both Workshare Protect and Pro received new enhancements and revisions.

TechRadium vs. Twitter

It sounds like a high-tech “Goliath” going after “David.” At base, it’s all about TechRadium’s assertion of patents on a method of emergency communication for which Twitter is allegedly infringing.

Before I go too far, if anyone really believes Twitter’s infrastructure, for one minute, can handle an emergency of any proportion, please honk. The amount of times I get the signal that Twitter is too full of Tweets, and to try back later, is too many for me to take the system with any more seriousness than as an alert tool to see what my sisters are doing while I have my morning coffee. OK. On with the post.

I received a letter from a reader in response to Carolyn Elefant’s post on the topic. The reader wanted to let me know that there is an online community, Article One Partners, searching for evidence on TechRadium’s patents in question.

The AOP community previously uncovered prior art on high-level patent litigation such as Merck's Singulair drug (which resulted in a patent re-exam by the USPTO) and Worlds.com and AstraZeneca's Crestor drug.

Of course, there’s the show-me-the-money aspect of uncovering prior art, but there’s also the spirit of innovation and invention that should not be downtrodden. For more information.

Virtualization grounded in this world

Just to set the record straight, virtualization is grounded in this world. So you can’t dismiss hardware requirements and maintenance. For example, disk defragmentation tools have long been known to improve hard disk performance in the real world. Since virtual disks are a slice of real hard disks, likewise, they can improve their performance with disk defragmentation tools like Perfect Disk 10 for VMware ESX Server. And where there is one, there are more. So do some comparison shopping before you buy.

Workshare Enhances Metadata Removal Software

Workshare, a manufacturing of tools to entrust content to others, such as compare and version control, announced the general availability of Workshare Protect 6.2 SR2. The new release includes: document redaction, metadata discovery in password-protected documents, previewing cleaned attachments and PDF conversions, and device control and USB port protection.

Refresh memory with InterAction IQ

Over the course of our lives, most of us have forgotten more people than we now know. Take this fact and apply it in the law firm setting by multiplying by the number of attorneys in the firm. Do you get the picture? There may be many professional contacts that you are neglecting at a time when every contact counts. Toward this end, LexisNexis released the next iteration of InterAction IQ, a customer relationship management tool for law firms last month.

Last month you say? Yes. I am a bit behind the curve. But when I miss a call, I am quick to jump out of the dugout and go kick up some dirt on the playing field.

InterAction IQ searches for patterns of relationships based on the frequency of contact across multiple communication points, e.g. e-mail, memoranda and notes. The system can be configured to add the uncovered contacts to a global contacts list, without manual entry, and analyze the new information to assign a “strength-of-relationship score” and make it visible to all of the firms InterAction users.