In almost every area of the law, lawyers have to deal with legal forms. How do we complete these forms? Do we fill them out by hand? Do we keep a typewriter around for those special form completion occasions? Do we perform xerox magic by physically cutting and pasting from other documents into our legal form? Do we recreate the form in our favorite word processor? These are all solutions that I have tried yet there must be a better way.

If there is, wouldn’t it be great if we could take some of our common documents and turn them into forms? Instead of pulling up a former version of our motion to amend complaint and changing the names and other information, how about making it into a form where we can fill in a few blanks and print it out ready for filing? No more searching through the document to make sure we didn’t leave any information from the previous case.

I thought about HotDocs for this document automation process but had an inkling that I already had software that could do the job – Adobe Acrobat Professional.

To make a form, simply convert your document into pdf format and select “forms” under the “tools” menu. The most common tool will be the “text field tool” followed by the “check box tool”.

Here I am selecting the “text field tool”. Once you’ve done that just start drawing boxes wherever you want a field to show up on your document. After you have finished, you will have a “fillable” form that you can save and make later changes or print out when ready.

I’ve created a few already.

EEOC Charge of Discrimination

Ohio Civil Rights Charge of Discrimination

New Client Questionnaire Intake Form

How much time could we save and how much more could we accomplish if we could satisfy those one or two clients who are always nagging us about what’s going on with their case?

It doesn’t always work but I like to send a short email explaining the latest and then providing them with a link to the court’s website where they can stay updated. Most courts have an online case docketing system with a list of everything that’s been filed in the case, upcoming events, etc.

It’s all there and they can check it out 18 times a day if they want.

Bookmark the page and create a folder for your cases so you can easily stay up to date on your cases as well.

Google Adwords Ad on You Tube Video of stand-up comic talking about sexual harassment training.

What is the Google Adwords? Google Adwords is a program where you can buy advertisements for your website or product or services that appear on google’s search pages when people type in searches that are similar to your ad/product. Google Adwords ads also appear on youtube.com videos as seen above.

Your ad will also appear on websites related to your product. So you are always dealing with viewers who are searching for something related to your product. This means you have a better chance to sell your product or services. Your ads are targeted towards a specific market.

How do you do it? You just sign up at google adwords, create your text ad, define some other parameters, establish an advertising budget, and indicate how much you are willing to pay per click. That’s right. Your advertising costs are determined by how many times people click on your ads.

You can also tell Google that if you get so many clicks in a day to no longer show your ad – this allows you to control your budget. If for example you indicate that you want to pay 5 cents per click, you can also tell Google that you only want $3 of clicks per day.

People click on your ad and then are sent to where you specify on your website. So make sure that your website page is ready for sales!

Type in a search on google.com and scroll down a little and look to the right. Underneath “Ads by Google” are the ads that others have created that Google has determined are related to my search on google. This is what your ad will look like and this is some of how the adwords program works.

There’s plenty of free advertising out there on the net. You can be the first expert to add your employment law video to youtube.com, bring traffic to your website and gain new clients. Here’s how -

1. Backdrop – shelves with law books are always good. Law books demonstrate that you know what you are talking about and that you are a lawyer. Clients need to know this. Avoid having law books of various colors – this detracts from your message.

2. Answer a burning question that everyone has like “What qualifies as sexual harassment?” Begin your explanation by incorporating the question or a part thereof in your first sentence.

3. Hold your torso perfectly still during filming. This shows that you are serious and enhances credibility.

4. Wear a suit.

5. Clasp your hands (Trim nails and make sure they are clean and avoid flashy watches/rings, jewelry, however).

6. Pause after each sentence and sometimes in the middle of sentences.

7. Use close-up to draw your viewers in and when topic gets more serious.

8. Know how to edit your film so you don’t end up taking 100+ takes for your 2 minute message. Don’t know how to edit? Learn how to at lynda.com.

9. Keep it brief.

10. Show your website at the beginning and the end.

11. Embed video in your website.

Do you enjoy singing – then make an employment law song.

I love my dual displays. I’ll warn you in advance, if you ever go dual display, you will have a very difficult time going back to just one display. If you have just a laptop computer, an extra display is a must.

As a lawyer, I’m often working with two or more documents. I may be writing a response to a motion and have the original motion, similar documents, pdf versions of cases, and exhibits open as well. On a single monitor, you will be lucky to have two documents in view at the same time. With a dual display, I can almost have everything on the screen, in view, and usable simultaneously.

The ability to do so is a huge timesaver. If you like tabbing back and forth between multiple documents, continue wasting your time and make sure your mouse and keyboard are ergonomically friendly.

Would you like to learn more about the software you use on a daily basis?

Perhaps you spend too much of your time showing your staff or other attorneys in your office how to use that software?

Looking for a convenient online solution to software training?

Lynda.com offers video tutorials on how to use software that lawyers use on a daily basis. For example, you can find video tutorials on -

Adobe Acrobat
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Word
Mac Os
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7
Wordperfect

You can even learn how to use your internet browser.

Here’s several of the video tutorials on Word 2007 that could come in handy:

Here’s one on checking spelling and grammar.

Here’s a video tutorial on sharing documents.

Here’s another on working with long documents, i.e., appeal briefs.

Try it – it’s as cheap as $25 a month.

How many times have you found yourself running back to the office to get a fax on a weekday night or on a weekend? Or how about coming back to the office on a Monday morning to find your fax machine without paper or toner? Or maybe you’re just tired of service calls for your fax machine? Of course, who sends faxes anymore, anyways?

Through efax.com, I receive all my faxes via email. I even have the faxes arrive in a pdf format. I pay $16.95 a month to receive up to 130 pages a month (15 cents a page beyond limit) and to send 30 pages a month (ten cents a page beyond limit). Pay for a year in advance and your price drops to $14.13 a month.

If you don’t send many faxes, you can bump up to efax pro for $19.95 a month. That buys you 200 incoming pages a month and all outbound faxes are ten cents a page.

Need another phone line so that you can keep your other lines free? Traveling abroad and want to make calls from your computer? You may want to consider using Skype. I bought a Skype line several years ago and never looked back. For $2.95 a month I can make calls to any land line or cell phone in the United States or Canada. The sound quality is better than most cell phones especially if you use a headset. You can also buy Skype phones that are just like a real phone but use Skype for call connections.

You can also add a regular number to receive phone calls on Skype. $18 for three months or $60 for a full year subscription. You can even choose your area code. It doesn’t have to be tied to the area code of your office location. If you are in Columbus, you can have a Cleveland area code if you so desire. I haven’t been in the market for a regular land line in ages but what does SBC charge to add another line. Installation plus $150 a month?

Another great feature of Skype is conference calling. With Skype, you can conference in up to 24 other people.

How do you do it? Add people to your contacts and then hit “start conference call”. From there, drag your contacts that you want to call into the conference call box and start your call. Only downside is that Skype dials everyone at the same time. You may be able to add participants to the conference call one at a time however.

How many technical glitches have you run into during a normal, landline conference call?

I recently purchased a first generation Macbook laptop for $429. I added a couple upgrades and am now at the grand total of $500. I recently got to thinking – How does my Macbook compare to the latest and greatest Macbook which costs more than double what I paid? Would I get anywhere near double the performance?

It turns out that my performance increase would hardly measure up to the price increase. Check out my article on the Macbook 1.83ghz value equation.

I received a call from somebody wanting to build their own website so I thought I would try to break it down in a step by step process. Here goes:

First you need a domain name. Even though I’m not a big yahoo fan, yahoo does provide a pretty simply interface and you can avoid my biggest complaint with them by buying the maximum term for your domain name right off the bat. I believe it is five years. They rip you off with a $34.95 renewal fee but, if you get the five year term, you can avoid that problem for several years and simply transfer to another service when it ends.

Here’s the interface you will see. From here, start your search for a domain name. I outline some of my domain name considerations at this link. After you choose your domain name, register it and get ready to move on.

Now you need to sign up with a hosting provider. I prefer hostgator but there are plenty of others out there.
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