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Follow Nick Holmes on Twitter @nickholmes.
The web at 25 and a digital bill of rights
It was 25 years ago that Tim Berners Lee, working at CERN, “invented” the web. But the much more significant date was April 1993 when he (and CERN) gifted the web software and standards to us. It is unthinkable that the web would have developed as rapidly, with all its attendant benefits, had it been a proprietary system.
Read more on my blog Binary Law.
The D word
Much has also been written this month about disruption in the legal technology sector.
Charles Christian, uncut in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers, has had enough of the adjective.
Jason Wilson has had enough of the word in all its forms, period. He lists some of the many recent US articles on the topic.
Ryan McClead on 3 Geeks and a Law Blog writes about The Myth of Disruptive Technology:
In a recent session at LegalTech NY, I spoke about what I consider to be the great myth of disruptive technology; that we need to be on the hunt for the next big thing to set our firms apart and leave our competition in the dust. This is a fool’s errand.
Big Law – tech laggards?
Brian Inkster has stirred up a fair bit of comment with his recent post Big Law is so behind the IT curve:
I hadn’t quite realised how far behind the legal IT curve Big Law is. Apparently cloud is ‘probably the future for legal’. Probably! It is undoubtedly. But it is clear that Big Law is way behind Small Law / NewLaw on that front. I was writing on this blog about my law firm’s move to the cloud in 2011. There is an acknowledgement that the cloud makes NewLaw ”˜as agile, if not more agile, than Big Law’. I think much more agile.
Read the post and subsequent related guest posts on The Time Blawg.
Image by Craig Chelius, adapted by Brian Inkster. Some rights reserved.
Delia’s legal web picks
Follow Delia Venables on Twitter @deliavenables.
Items selected from Delia’s “New” page.
Justin Patten’s blog is a thoughtful and interesting blog on topics relating to Wills, Probate Law and Divorce Mediation. Latest post is about Powers of Attorney – why they are a good thing and why the family benefits. Other recent posts cover why Co-operative Legal Services may entering into a sticky patch and why our Health and Safety Legislation (or obsession?) may be leading to a lack of Justice.
Modria, the major Online Dispute Organisation, has been selected by The American Arbitration Association (AAA) to build the online platform to manage their New York No Fault (NYNF) caseload. This new platform will accelerate case processing, ensure secure and transparent communication between parties, and increase convenience for AAA and its customers. The Modria Resolution Center for NYNF will support conciliation (mediation), arbitration and master appeal processes. Insurance carriers, applicants and general counsel will be able to participate in the process online, improving online communication, document management, and scheduling. All parties will be able to get on-demand status updates on pending cases, anytime, anywhere. You can read the his article in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers Online Dispute Resolution.
The new version of The Law Society’s Find a Solicitor is good! This is a free service for anyone looking for information about organisations or people providing legal services in England and Wales that are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Find a Solicitor aims to include all SRA regulated law firms, individuals and the organisations that contain regulated individuals who choose to be listed. Additionally, it references non-solicitors who are members of the Law Society’s accreditation schemes. The “Quick search” is designed for members of the public wishing to find someone in their area who can help with a specific legal issue. The “Pro search” provides more advanced search functionality, to find a specific person or organisation by name, by SRA ID or by their primary and secondary areas of practice. Additional search filters enable searches by Law Society accreditation scheme name and selection of accessibility options, e.g. disabled access to building, hearing induction loop and legal aid.
The Digital Evidence and Electronic Signature Law Review is now Open Access (ie it’s free). It brings articles, legal developments and case reports to academics, practitioners and the industry in relation to digital evidence and electronic signatures from across the world. The review is issued once a year, in October/November. This new Open Access version of the journal is being developed by Stephen Mason with the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), University of London on the SAS Open Journals System.
