This article first appeared in Legal Web Watch June 2018. Legal Web Watch is a free email service which complements the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. To receive Legal Web Watch regularly sign up here.
The following items have been selected from Delia Venables’ “New” page.
News from the Legal Software Suppliers Association (LSSA)
The LSSA is the UK industry body for legal systems developers and vendors, representing most of the leading UK suppliers. At the recent AGM, Julian Bryan of Quill was reconfirmed as Chair for the forthcoming year with Craig Matthews from Pracctice stepping up as Vice Chair and Phil Snee from Linetime remaining as Treasurer. Tom Durbin St George of easy convey takes over as chair of the conveyancing working party and Peter Baverstock from LEAP takes the helm at the HMRC working party. Adrian Jones from Tikit remains as chair of the LAA working party.
Three additional legal technology companies have recently joined the LSSA. They are BaseNet, Coyote Analytics and inCase. See my Software section for more details.
Quill bring in new outsourced service for paperwork and documents called Quill Type
Quill, already the most signifcant provider of outsourced cashiering for lawyers, now also offer a new service called Quill Type to deal with all types of paperwork and documents. The 3 big benefits are in costs, security and speed. Quill MD Julian Bryan tells us how the new service works in an article in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers here.
Justis plans a Student Legal Design Sprint
Justis, together with Emily Allbon of the City Law School and creator of the award-winning website, Lawbore, will be hosting a Legal Design Sprint in the Summer (26th July and 6th September, in London) and they are looking for a group of enthusiastic students to get involved. Participants will learn about Legal Design and will then work in teams to solve a real-life legal problem through design. There is much more on this project, and how to get involved, on the Justis web site here.
LEAP announces the launch of new and completely integrated Legal Aid software.
LEAP now offers a completely integrated Legal Aid software package with case management, time recording and billing and provides a comprehensive solution for both Criminal and Civil matter types for Legal Aid work in England and Wales. Integrated submission for both Civil and Criminal work types via CWA (contract and work administration) ensures claims can be checked and submitted electronically in readiness for payment. The system offers a fast and intuitive time recording function with support for multiple time entries and manages all information needed for invoicing, with monthly billing to LAA. There are also special features for fees and disbursements and fixed fees for Civil Legal Aid.
Full details of the new version can be seen here.
New platform launched for smaller firms to provide secure cloud based matter management
Matters.Cloud enables lawyers to collaborate on clients and matters, capture time in the office and on the go, and collaborate with colleagues on tasks and deadlines.
The system uses the latest technology from Google Cloud and is multi-tenanted with each customer's data stored within a separate tenant database in one of three locations (UK, USA and Australia). The system offers the ability to operate in the following languages: English (UK), English (US), Dutch, French, Spanish and Russian. Users can access the service from anywhere that has an internet connection from all major browsers and mobile devices including Android and iPhone. An introductory video is available here. A free trial is available.
New premises for the expanding Projectfusion
Projectfusion has moved to one of the UK’s leading Enterprise Zones, Discovery Park, just outside the medieval town of Sandwich, well located for easy access to London and the Continent. Projectfusion provide virtual data rooms for lawyers – secure online document collaboration which allows users to collaborate inside and outside the firm. The new centre offers high-tech facilities and wide open spaces and is an international centre for innovation and science. Benefits include a more secure office and document processing facility, and a 24/7 security presence with plenty of room to expand.
HotDocs win big award for second time
HotDocs a global leader in document automation, based in Edinburgh, has been named a winner of the 2018 Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, the UK’s highest accolade for business success, for International Trade. The Queen’s Awards are the highest official UK awards for enterprise excellence and HotDocs will be attending a reception at Buckingham Palace where Prince Charles will present the award on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen. This is HotDoc’s second Queen’s Award for Enterprise, the first was in 2013, also for excellence in International Trade. See more about this here.
Thomson Reuters expands legal resources for Scotland
Thomson Reuters has expanded its legal know-how and legislative resources for the Scottish legal system. The new resources include the Scots Law resource centre on Practical Law and the addition of Scottish Bills on Westlaw UK. The Scots Law resource centre covers seven key practice areas, including standard documents and clauses, practice notes, toolkits and articles for commercial, corporate, dispute resolution, employment, family, private client and property practice areas. This follows the addition of Scottish Bills to Westlaw UK at the end of 2017 and provides a comprehensive Bills service for Scotland. Westlaw UK now provides access to the full text of a Bill with links to enacted legislation along with the ability to track the progress of a Bill through parliament and see amendments to enacted legislation as proposed in the Bill. Further Scottish developments can be found here.
New edition of "A Practical Guide to Marketing for Lawyers" is now available
A Practical Guide to Marketing for Lawyers by Catherine Bailey & Jennet Ingram, provides a comprehensive overview of each element of marketing communications from advertising and branding to social media and websites. This second edition also features a new chapter on GDPR which is revolutionising any form of marketing that uses personal data. The book’s handy checklist shows you how to obey the rules. There is a free chapter on offer, on "Branding for lawyers", a topic becoming more and more important in the very competitive legal market.
See LawBriefPublishing for more information and for the free chapter, and Amazon to purchase the book (£14.99).
easy convey works with the Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA) to help conveyancers implement the new Land Transaction Tax
From April 2018, Land Transaction Tax (LTT) has replaced UK Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) in Wales. Like SDLT, LTT is payable when someone buys or leases a building or land over a certain price. The incoming legislation is broadly consistent with SDLT, preserving the underlying structure and mirroring key elements such as partnerships, trusts and reliefs, to provide stability and reassurance to businesses and the property market. The WRA has issued its LTT return form and has given permission to easy convey to reproduce this form. Although the form is predominantly for use by private individuals, firms can fill in and submit this form if they have not registered to use the WRA portal. This form will be available to users of easy convey’s CASA software, which will merge the information from its database for submission by the client in paper form or help in inputting into the WRA LTT site.
More on this story can be found here.
Delia Venables is joint editor of the Newsletter.
