R. BLAKE FARENTHOLD
The Law Offices of Blake Farenthold
Farenthold Consulting
802 American Bank Plaza
711 North Carancahua
Corpus Christi,
Texas 78475
Telephone: +1 512 882-5253
Fax: +1 512 887-6207
E-Mail: blake@blake.com
WWW: http://www.blake.com/blake/
6TH ANNUAL PRACTICAL COMPUTER & PRACTICE SEMINAR
San Antonio, Texas
May, 1995
(HTML updated 11/95)
Cyberspace: The imaginary area inside your computer where all the information lives; the electronic sphere where people communicate.
Today, almost any information you want to find can be found with the computer. The computer can help you communicate with anyone with whom you want to communicate.
Even the smallest standalone computer has its area of cyberspace -- that area where the documents you've created, the high scores on the games you've played, and the ones and zeros that make the computer operate and live. Plug a CD-ROM into your computer and you've added more cyberspace where information can reside. Plug your computer into the network and you're sharing cyberspace with others in your office. Plug your office network into a wide area network and you're sharing cyberspace enterprise-wide. Plug your network into the Internet and you're sharing cyberspace with millions of people throughout the world.
Information that lives in cyberspace is easily searchable and retrievable. It can be edited. It can be changed. It can be viewed. It can be shared with ease and with no loss in quality between copies. The people with whom you share the information can store it, search it, and change it to meet their needs and then share it again
II. WHAT CAN I DO IN CYBERSPACE?
Almost every lawyer uses cyberspace to store the letters they've written, pleadings and motions they've filed, and everything else they've created on their word processor. They retrieve it, change it, and use it again. Lawyers within firms communicate with each other using electronic mail. These messages are transmitted and live in cyberspace.
A computer's electronic mail can go out over a modem and phone lines to other computers owned by clients and opposing counsel, and in some cases, courts. Electronic mail is the first area of cyberspace that it makes sense for lawyers to use. Attorneys are in the business of sharing ideas and communicating. More and more lawyers are using electronic mail to communicate with clients and with other lawyers. Though it is possible to send electronic mail to almost anyone in the world over the Internet, the Internet is not practical for lawyers' communications because of concerns about the security of information transmitted over the Internet and its vulnerability to interception. Encryption technologies that are becoming more widely available may solve this problem in a few years. In the meantime, the only secure way for lawyers to connect to other lawyers and to their clients is through direct connections between electronic mail systems, or direct modem-to-modem transfers. Another reasonably secure method of transferring electronic mail is via a commercial electronic mail provider like AT&T Mail or MCI Mail1. Some firms are also setting up bulletin board systems through which clients and other attorneys can call in and, in a secure environment, transfer mail or, more commonly, computer files back and forth. By transferring files electronically, it is possible for the recipient to make changes and revisions without having to retype the entire document. Modern word processing software can easily read documents created with a wide variety of competing software. As computer-to-computer communications become more prevalent, lawyers' reliance on the fax machine should decrease. More and more lawyers are asking that the documents be sent on disk or in another electronic format to facilitate editing.
CD-ROMs are compact disks that hold data instead of music. (Actually, some data CDs also have some audio recorded on them. It is sometimes interesting to play a data CD in an audio CD player and see what, if anything, is there.)
There is a plethora of legal specific data CDs available. Some that Texas lawyers should consider include the Texas cases from the last forty-or-so years published by West Publishing Company or Q-Case3; Matthew Bender's Texas Library (Dorsaneo's Texas Litigation Guide, Kendrick's Texas Transaction Guide, etc.)4, Shepherd's5, and Martindale Hubbell's Legal Directory. Almost every legal publisher now has their publications on CD-ROM. West has a virtual cornucopia of CDs covering Texas, federal, and other states' law. This legal information on CD-ROM is relatively inexpensive and typically provides unlimited use with monthly, quarterly, and annual updates. There is also a wealth of non-legal specific information available on CD. Typically these general interest CDs are available at your local computer store or from various mail order catalogs. Some titles of interest would include CDs containing phone book information with almost nationwide coverage, atlas programs that include maps of the entire United States, various medical reference guides and on-line encyclopedias. There are also hundreds of well-animated, and in some cases, live action games for adults and children available on CD-ROM.
Most CD-ROMs were designed to be used on a standalone computer in a CD-ROM player. It is possible, however, to put multiple CD-ROMs on a law firm's network so that the information on those CD-ROMs is available in the firm's cyberspace. When properly connected to the network, everyone in the firm can access all of the firm's CD-ROMs. In theory, a fully stocked law library of CDs and hardware to make them available on a firm's network will fit inside a case about the size of a dishwasher.
Giving CD-ROMs a run for their money in the research arena are legal specific on-line services like Westlaw and Lexis. Due to competitive pressure from CD-ROMs and each other, these on-line services are offering reasonably priced flat rate access. Per minute access rates are also coming down. Aside from the on-line research material provided by Westlaw and Lexis, there are also other lawyer-specific on-line services available. Lexis and The American Lawyer formed a joint venture to operate Lexis Counsel Connect, an on-line service designed for corporate counsel to query outside counsel and for lawyers to communicate with each other. Lexis Counsel Connect also offers various topical discussion areas for lawyers and a gateway to many Internet services. Lexis Counsel Connect recently released a Windows' version of their software that incorporates an easy-to-use graphical user interface and improves Internet connectivity. The State Bar of Texas is launching a new service known as BarLink. According to an article in the May, 1995 "Texas Bar Journal", BarLink will include message bulletin boards, electronic mail, software libraries, and interactive real-time communication between attorneys. The software libraries are also expected to contain MCLE rules, ethics' opinions, Texas Lawyers Civil and Criminal Digests, Texas Supreme Court opinions, guides to MCLE articles in video, and, for an additional per article fee, MCLE material. BarLink will be offered through CompuServe, a general information on-line service that provides a wealth of information, including software support forums, airline information, stocks and bonds, electronic shopping, electronic mail, and real-time conferencing. Other general interest on-line services include America On-Line, Prodigy, Delphi, and Apple's EWorld. These broad-based services typically offer a graphical user interface and a wide variety of general interest topics, as well as some form of Internet access.
There are other on-line services that provide specialized information. Dow Jones News/Retrieval (available through a Westlaw gateway) provides financial information and full text of the Wall Street Journal. Dialog contains an extensive database of periodicals and professional journals.
Services like Information America (recently acquired by Westlaw) and Accusearch of Texas provide access to corporate filings and other public records. Information Resource Service Company19 (IRSC) tracks people by social security numbers and Department of Motor Vehicle records. This service is useful as a people finder and asset locator. C.C.H., in addition to its CD-ROM tax library, has an on-line service that turns those black loose-leaf binders into dinosaurs.
Worldwide cyberspace is the Internet. It is a massive global network of government, business, educational, and personal computers. On it, you can find all sorts of fun and useful information. Connecting and using the Internet are topics of other sessions at this seminar. Perhaps the most useful feature of the Internet for attorneys is its wide reach of electronic mail. Almost all of the general interest on-line services, as well as Lexis Counsel Connect and most likely, BarLink, will contain an electronic mail gateway to the Internet. Using the Internet, you can reach out into cyberspace and send electronic mail to almost anyone who has an account on any on-line service, government computer, university computer, or increasingly, any corporate computer. Caution should be exercised when sending confidential material over the Internet as it is notoriously insecure with hackers peeking into data transmitted across the Net regularly. Encryption technology is available (though sometimes complicated to use) that will allow secure communications via the Internet.
The main pathway into cyberspace today is through a traditional keyboard and monitor. The technology many lawyers dream of is voice recognition, which will allow you to speak into your computer and your words will magically appear on the screen. Although the technology has not yet arrived for Star Trek and Jetsons-like voice response, there are products on the market today that, for as little as $395, will recognize 5,000 words. With $1,700, a 486-33 computer, and 12 megabytes of RAM you can have a dictating system that recognizes 60,000 words. Although not flawlessly accurate, products like Dragon Dictate should have legal secretaries who spend most of their time transcribing documents worried.
Cyberspace doesn't just exist inside your computer, it exists inside the telephone. When you speak into the handset of most modern phone systems, your voice is digitized and turned into the ones and zeros of computers as it is transmitted from one phone company's central office to the other. Because most telecommunications are now digital, your telephone and your computer are dating, with a marriage expected soon. Modern large office phone systems are more frequently tying into the office's computer network. By integrating telephones and computers, your voice mail can show up with a list of text messages in your electronic mail box. When you select a voice message, your computer plays back the message left through your phone system. It works the other way too. Many electronic mail systems now have voice gateways where, by simply dialing in on a touchtone phone, a computer will read you a message from your electronic mail.
By linking new phone company services, like Caller ID, to your computer, it is possible for your computer to tell you who is calling before you answer the phone. It won't be long before many firms tie this feature into their time and billing system so incoming phone calls are tracked with the same ease that outgoing calls are monitored.
Faster PCs and faster data circuits are making desktop video conferencing affordable. New products like Intel's ProShare place a video camera and microphone atop your computer and allow you to establish a "voice phone" connection with someone on your network, and if your wide area and Internet connections are fast, to people across the wide area network or the Internet. New digital ISDN service being deployed by the phone company will allow these video phone calls to be transmitted over phone lines costing in the neighborhood of $60 per month. The pictures are small and the screens are jumpy, but the quality should improve as data compression technology moves forward and the cost of fast digital telephone connections comes down.
One of the features of cyberspace is that material stored in it
is easily searchable and modifiable. Law firms are finding it
easier to store more and more information in cyberspace. Often
it is faster to find the document you are looking for on the computer
than it is to hunt through paper files. This is especially true
in firms large enough to justify a document management system.
Document management systems are databases that keep track of everything
that everyone in an office creates on their computer. The market
leaders in document management are PC Docs
from CMS Data Systems and Soft Solutions
from Novell Applications Group (WordPerfect).
These document managers replace the normal "save" functions
of computer programs. Rather than simply giving each document
a file name, a profile is filled out allowing for a longer file
name, the author's name, the document type, and other information
associated with the document such as client and matter numbers,
typist, etc. Each of these fields is easily searchable so, with
a few keystrokes and mouse clicks, it is possible, for example,
to pull up every real estate form drafted by the firm's real estate
expert. Document management systems also have full text indexing
of word processing documents, so attorneys can search all of their
firm's documents just like they search Westlaw and Lexis for cases.
Many firms, especially litigation firms with large paper-intensive cases, are finding cyberspace is the place to store discovery documents. When a firm elects to use imaging for a case, all discovery documents are scanned into the computer. Scanning a document is like storing a photocopy in the computer. All that exists in the computer is a picture of the document. Each scanned document must then be profiled or abstracted. Typically, each document is assigned a Bates number and objective data, and the sender, recipient, subject line, and all proper names mentioned in the document are manually entered into a profile screen. The type and amount of information profiled on each document or case depends on the amount of resources available for cataloging the documents and information that the attorney supervising the project feels is necessary for preparation of the case.
In addition to abstracting documents in an imaging system, often the images are then processed through optical character recognition (OCR) software that reads the text on the picture of the document stored on the computer. This optical character recognition software then stores, along with the picture, computer readable text of the document. Once the documents have been OCRed, it is possible to search (like Westlaw and Lexis) the full text of these documents. Unfortunately, optical character recognition technology is only 98% or so accurate. This means that the computer may misread several words on each page -- more if it is working from a bad copy. Additionally, optical character recognition technology only reads typewritten or printed pages and will not pick up handwritten documents or marginalia.
In extremely important cases, it is sometimes worthwhile to have a clerical person compare the computer read text to the original documents and make corrections. Many errors can be corrected simply by running a spellcheck program on the computer read text. Except in the very largest of firms and in in-house counsel situations, much of the original document scanning, optical character recognition reading, and clean-up are outsourced to litigation support companies or copying services. Some of these providers have agreements with off-shore companies that can provide the labor intensive document clean-up at a reasonable cost.
Once the images are stored electronically, file cabinets full of documents can be fit on a single CD-ROM and carried by an attorney to depositions or court appearances.
Law firms are also beginning to experiment with the paperless office where, as material is received, rather than being distributed by the mailroom, it is scanned into the computer and the image of the document transmitted electronically to the attorneys. More common, however, are computer-based faxes where incoming faxes are received by a computer rather than a fax machine, the cover page is viewed by the receptionist, and the full fax sent electronically to the recipient and then printed or stored as necessary. Simpler still is sending documents via fax directly from a computer without printing the document first. Most modems today come with fax send and receive capabilities.
Many lawyers have a more powerful personal computer at home than they do at the office. Home computers work harder than office computers because they process the pictures and sounds that make up the games typically played on a home computer. Multi-media, moving and still pictures and sound, is, however, slowly finding its way into the law office.
Playing back and using multi-media on a fast computer is easy. Recording or creating the pictures and music is probably beyond the scope of what a lawyer wants to do.
There are many service bureaus that can fill cyberspace with the sights and sounds lawyers need. Multi-media technology allows for dramatic courtroom recreations, animation, and presentation of other demonstrative evidence at an ever- decreasing cost. Also, multi-media can liven up the presentation of dry statistical data. With the computer, it is easy to create vivid and easy-to-understand depictions of complex information26.
Anyone following the O.J. Simpson trial has also seen the use of computer technology in displaying the information to the jury. Documents can be scanned, retrieved, and displayed almost instantly. The documents can easily be highlighted, enlarged, and annotated on the fly for the jury. Modern trial presentation systems easily allow the marriage of documents, animation, and video depositions. By barcoding or using indexes, any document can be retrieved almost instantly, or any spot in a video deposition can be projected in a matter of seconds.
A word of caution: Before you say "Gee whiz, I have to have" some feature mentioned above, be aware that setting up and installing advanced computer applications require careful planning and a high degree of technical skill.
There is, however, a lot that can be done or found in cyberspace to aid in the practice of law. A successful attorney has to be a master of cyberspace, knowing what is available and how to use it to serve the needs of clients. A lawyer must balance what technology the firm needs in-house with what can be outsourced. It is, however, impossible to practice law today without technology. Technology will never replace a lawyer's advocacy skills and critical thinking. Technology is, however, a tool that can help lawyers use these skills better, faster, and more cost effectively.
This article was put together with the assistance of Barbara Houston
(bhouston@khcc.kleberg.mhs.compuserve.com),
Librarian at Kleberg & Head; Sandi Coker (scoker@khcc.kleberg.mhs.compuserve.com),
Computer Systems Manager at Kleberg & Head; and with the production
assistance of Donna Key, P.L.S. (dkey@khcc.kleberg.mhs.compuserve.com),
especially for her weekend work; and paralegals Christine Thomas
Rodriguez (crodriguez@khcc.kleberg.mhs.compuserve.com)
and Lynnea A. Sanders, CIA (lsanders@khcc.kleberg.mhs.compuserve.com).
Thanks to my wife Debbie Farenthold (darlin@blake.com)
for her patience, especially while I left her at home with my
children, Morgan and Amanda,
on Mother's Day putting the finishing touches on this article.