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We can all clearly picture a lawyer that has been in practice for decades. They are trapped behind a desk piled high with client files, various documents, and correspondence long needed to be sorted and filed. They complain that they can’t ever find what they are looking for in the pile of papers they have amassed. Notes about important client meetings fall by the wayside. The dreaded end of the month comes and they have to enter their billable hours they have scrawled down on a piece of paper. These kind of lawyer problems are a thing of the past with advances in legal technology.

This year’s hurricane season has been disastrous for many people and their businesses. Those that were affected by the storm, and even those that weren’t directly in the storm’s path, experienced devastating encounters that made it difficult, if not impossible, to operate under normal conditions. “In times of need, the legal community is a crucial link in providing help to secure housing, file insurance claims, replace wills and emergency directives and other urgent legal services,” said our CEO Fred Cohen. However, in many cases, the storms made it challenging for lawyers to access files and communicate with their clients during a very vulnerable time.

In RPost’s prior posts, they discussed common misconceptions about proving email delivery. In the final piece of this three part series on common misconceptions about email delivery, they’ll examine a type of system that some professionals use and mistakenly believe proves fact of e-delivery, a link-retrieval system.

In the first part of this series, our partner RPost explained common misconceptions about email security and delivery. In this segment, they will introduce and debunk several other common misconceptions about proving email delivery.

In this three-part series from our partner, RPost, you will learn about the importance of secure e-delivery and ways to safeguard your critical client communications. While a lawyer’s ethical obligation to protect confidential information online has been a concern for some time, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has recently issued ABA Formal Opinion 477R, which provides direction regarding when heightened security measures are warranted.

The idea that legal technology could be better suited for the less tech-savvy lawyer sounds counterintuitive. The truth is that CARET Legal, next generation legal practice management software, provides lawyers who are less familiar with technology with a leg up. This is due in part to the fact that law practice management solutions streamline the use of many different legal tech tools such as accounting programs, document management systems, email, and interoffice communication systems. With legal practice management software, all of these different tech tools fall into one, more manageable program.

As lawyers, we have an ethical duty to ensure privacy for client communications. Technology hasn’t changed this, but there have been recent questions as to what steps lawyers should be expected to take to protect electronic communications. To address these issues, the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility recently released Formal Opinion 477, an update to Formal Opinion 99-413, which discusses how changes in technology use coincide with Rule 1.6 concerning client confidences.

Here at CARET Legal, we can understand why so many legal practice management programs make grand claims of being fully integrated, all-in-one solutions. Software with capabilities to meet all your law practice management needs in one user-friendly interface is appealing. The fact of the matter is that these claims are often misleading. You end up stuck with legal practice management software that relies on third-party applications and integrations to meet many of your key needs. The bottom line is – you can’t be an all-in-one practice management solution if you are relying on third party applications for important functions such as email, accounting, and document management.

As a conscientious professional, you constantly strive to satisfy your clients.  After all, a happy client can lead the way to great referrals and more business. To achieve this, you must be responsive and attentive, while establishing a sense of trust that your client can rely on you to help solve their problems.

What is an evergreen retainer?

An evergreen retainer is a type of security retainer. Just like other types of retainer, your client pays you a sum up front and you are able to use this money to pay your fees and expenses. The difference is with an evergreen retainer, your client needs to keep a predetermined minimum balance on the account.