Divorce Law Journal

2007 Legal Technology Trends

A meaty five part series by Dennis Kennedy, Widening the Digital Divide in Law Practice, appears at Dennis Kennedy.com. Here's Part 1 (an overview), Part 2 (reacting to Microsoft and electronic discovery), Part 3 (making tech business decisions, security and disaster recovery), Part 4 (portability and the internet) and Part 5 (collaborative tools plus his seven bonus predictions).

Internet Research Digs Up Private Matters

Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch, authors of The Lawyer's Guide To The Internet, have a lenghty article published at Law.com last week, Internet Research Digs Up Private Matters, covering private facts that are public record and general investigative tips. As some may recall, this tech duo presented The Cybersleuth's Guide To The Internet in Louisville last June.

Digging Deeply Into Matrimonial Data Mining

Part Two of Digging Deeply Into Matrimonial Data Mining, reprinted from the Matrimonial Strategist, is now available online at Law.com.

Excel Formula Spreadsheets

Inter-Alia has a nice link to helpful excel spreadsheet formulas. Tom Mighell suggested them, so I wasted no time forwarding to all in our office!

An Alternative to FeedBlitz and RSS Feed

Don't like or understand RSS feeds? (icon at upper right) Don't like or want FeedBlitz (email subscription on upper right) for each blog to which you subscribe? I love RSS feeds, so I have no interest in monkeying with this, but The Simply Headlines sounds promising.
"SimplyHeadlines is a once a day email newspaper. You decide exactly what type of news you care about. You pick:
Where your headlines come from
How many there will be
At what time of day they will arrive
The order in which they will appear
And for the RSS enlightened, you can add any valid RSS feed to your daily paper. No software to install -it's basically an email RSS reader."
The only advantage I see over RSS for those who are comfortable with RSS is the ability to easily access your news from a Blackberry and presumably a Palm Treo or a Pocket PC.
Thanks to MicroPersuasion for the posting on this new subscription service, which is still in experimental stage, but up and running.

Considering a Paperless Office?

Many of us have a goal of a paperless office. Evan Schaeffer's The Illinois Trial Practice Website has an interesting posting by Ernest Svenson on this topic. Despite his caution, he links to two good articles, Organizing Cases Electronically and Managing Electronic Case Files.

Cybersleuthing

The Cybersleuth’s Guide to the Internet was presented by Carole A. Levitt and Mark E. Rosch, authors of a book by the same title, at the Louisville Bar Association last week. Their website, www.netforlawyers.com, has a number of online articles and has an email update. Even though the duo gave a similar seminar in Louisville in 2004, this one drew a nice crowd. The book came with the seminar, and it looks like a valuable law office resource.
Most of us must think we are proficient at using Google. There are many rich features of Google that I had not tapped, however: "I'm Feeling Lucky", "Search Within Results", "Google Toolbar", "Google Desktop" and using advanced search tips to access email discussion groups and listserves as well as to limit searches to powerpoint presentations and .pdf documents. The book addresses these as well as public records available online, composing better search phrases, finding experts, substantive legal research, government internet resources, and, of course, blawgs.
Update: If you are on a network, check with your network administrator before installing Google desktop. It was very nice, but my computer slowed to a crawl. I'll try again, but with some expert help.

Spyware and Wiretapping

CNET NEWS reports on a recent New Jersey divorce involving a counterclaim for wiretapping where a spouse installed spyware on the home computer. "This is hardly the first time computer monitoring claims have surfaced in marital spats. As previously reported by CNET NEWS.com, a Florida court ruled last year that a wife who installed spyware on her husband's computer to secretly record evidence of an extramarital affair violated state law."

Digital Footprints

Sprint's new Family Locator and the Verizon Chaperone sell phone locator feature being launched today are discussed in the Legington Hearld-Leader. "Among the unresolved legal issues: Should disclosure of location data require the high legal barrier now surrounding wiretaps, or the lower legal barrier for less intrusive information, such as what numbers a person has dialed? Should private parties, such as spouses involved in a divorce, have access to location data?"

New Feed, New Name

As you will notice, this blog has a new name, as our content has expanded beyond Louisville and Kentucky. In the process of many behind-the-scene upgrades, our old feeds failed. Please resubscribe (or subscribe if you haven't already) to the RSS feed. There is a new URL, too: http://DivorceLawJournal.com, but the old URLs still work as well. Sorry for the inconvenience, but if a promise to fix the problem were made, there's no telling when you'd be receiving new postings. Although the name and feed are new, there will be no diminishment in the reporting on Kentucky divorce and family law.
Update: A big thanks to Mike Stevens for getting the word out in The Kentucky Law Blog that readers will need to resubscribe to our feed.
Second Update: The old feed may actually be working again. Bizarre.

Mindmapping

The mindmapping tool is discussed, and a link provided to a demo, in Online Mediation. Denver's Steve Harhai presented mindmapping at a LBA/AAML seminar a few years ago.The possibilities of mapping case information and issues are endless, and at the time I thought it was something we should explore. Sorry to say, other new, cool matters intervened, but it does seem particicularly well suited to the mediation arena. I would love for some geeky mediatior to try it in a case locally. Know any geeky mediators?

Demonstrative Evidence: Create a Graph

Here's an easy way to Create a Graph for your demonstrative evidence.

Technical Difficulties

Most of our category content is down, so what you see is not all you get. We'll be working on the fix.
Update: Fixed. Typepad tech support was quick!

More on RSS feeds from Ben Cowgill

Today on Ben Cowgill’s SoloBlawg he links to a nice tutorial on RSS feeds. FeedDemon is easy, and I also recommend it. When you subscribe to RSS feeds, you can check all your favorite news and blog updates at leisure, and all in one place. Set up a news aggregator such as FeedDemon, then link to our RSS feed by simply following the orange button in the middle of the right sidebar.

Calendar Tool for Children's Activites

Thanks to Rob Robertson of Austin, TX for his ABA Family Law listserve posting suggesting the use of a new beta google calendaring utility in which parents can share a calendar for each child's activites. The more parents can share information about their children, the better. And, when it is just too difficult to communicate with the other parent, perhaps tech tools like this can help.

RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are the way to go to receive manageable updates to news and new blawg postings. Thanks to KY's Michael Stevens and his www.KentuckyLawBlog.com and LouisvilleLawWire for making this easier for the rest of us. His suggestion that FeedDemon was the easiest aggregator was taken (for $29 why take a more difficult route?) and now most news in one location can be checked at leasure.