Month: January 2007
Developments in (free) legal information in 2006 and predictions for 2007
Statute Law Database After a 10-year wait, the Statute Law Database was finally released to the public just in time for Christmas (see part of the Home Page below). The Government Service enquiry system was launched in May 2006 and the pilot for the public version amongst selected trial users ran from July to October. […]
Read More
Schneider Page – going virtual bit by bit
Schneider Page was founded in 1993, and was located in a traditional bricks and mortar premises in Staple Inn. However it was never intended to work just as a traditional firm. We set out to use technology as much as possible, without being at the “bleeding edge”. We never had support staff and since there […]
Read More
Social software for lawyers
2007 will be the year that many law firms and chambers finally wake up to the need to collaborate and start to use internal social software to achieve this. First, what IS social software exactly? According to the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, social software is software which enables people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated […]
Read More
Why wikis won’t work (for the law)
The original Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.com, is an amazing project where any of us can edit any entry to add our knowledge to the pool of information on the web. Can law wikis be as good? On the face of it, their ability to be easily updated might indicate that they can be. Indeed, wikis have been […]
Read More
The best chambers websites for free (and useful) information
One of the most significant developments in the provision of legal information online over the last few years is the extensive – free – information now being made available by chambers and individual barristers on their web sites. Their aim may be mainly to prove their expertise but also they just cannot resist making available […]
Read More
Solicitors Journal – how the web helps us to keep a generalist law magazine fresh in the 21st century
Who needs a generalist law magazine these days? This is a question which we, at Solicitors Journal, are acutely aware of as we turn 150 in January. The Journal started in 1857 as The Solicitors Journal and Reporter in the days where solicitors had no voice to channel their interests and share their experiences, well […]
Read More
SharePoint for the smaller firm
Microsoft’s third version of SharePoint is called Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 or ‘MOSS’ for short. Larger firms have been using SharePoint for some time but smaller firms have generally not had the resources to do so. The latest release of SharePoint Server may enable them now to close the technological divide. Here are some […]
Read More
Update on Pay As You Go
Readers may recall my article in the July/August 2006 issue about the dilemma my firm is experiencing in deciding whether to subscribe to one of many online legal resources (here). Is it worth the considerable cost involved? I ended my article with a plea to LexisNexis to come forward with a Pay As You Go […]
Read More
Personal injury referral panels
If you key ‘personal injury lawyer’ or any variation of that phrase into a search engine, you’ll come up with a myriad of links (including many ‘sponsored’ ones) to PI claims companies and referral outfits. Most of these operate by having a countrywide panel of solicitors to whom they refer cases for a fee. The […]
Read More
