Want the latest information on new resources and educational opportunities at the Harris County Law Library? Subscribe to our newsletter! You’ll get a weekly email with details about upcoming CLE (continuing legal education) classes, on-demand video CLE, and more from the Law Library’s Legal Tech Institute. Subscribing is easy, and so is unsubscribing, so sign up today!
Legal Tech Institute Vendor Visit - Lexis Advance - FREE CLE
Register today for a Legal Tech Institute Vendor Visit on Wednesday, September 26, 2018. Program will cover legal research techniques using Lexis Advance, a powerful legal research platform available for free at the Harris County Law Library. This Vendor Visit will carry 1.0 hour of CLE credit for Texas attorneys. The session is conveniently scheduled during the lunch hour, from noon to 1 p.m.
All of the databases covered during training sessions are accessible for free on the Law Library’s legal research computers, which are open to the public. Visit Our Services page for more information about the digital resources available for your legal research needs.
For additional details about other upcoming LTI programs and events, please visit us online at www.harriscountylawlibrary.org/tech
Flagship Legal Tech Institute CLE: MS Word for Legal Work
Due to popular demand, the Harris County Law Library Legal Tech Institute is proud to present its flagship hands-on training course tomorrow, August 30, at 2:00pm, in the dynamic setting of the County Attorney’s Office Conference Center. MS Word for Legal Work will be presented live by law librarians Elizabeth Bolles and Heather Holmes. Course participants will learn the ins and outs of America’s most popular word processing software. Key topics will include efile formatting, creating a tables of authorities, page and paragraph formatting, and protecting client data through simple metadata management. Each attendee will be provided a laptop for use during the class, and will receive personalized assistance. This session has been expanded so that law offices can send multiple attorneys and paralegals at once. Register through the Legal Tech Institute website.
Torn from the Headlines -- How Tech is Changing Law
In recent weeks, stories about tech in the practice of law have been filling our news feeds. Our last Tech Tuesday blog post focused on high profile failures and flubs. Today's stories reveal more productive uses of technology while demonstrating how the everyday online communication tools we now use are transforming the practice of law.
Lawyers are employing technology in novel ways to serve process and consult with colleagues. As described below, the authorities that govern these developments -- legislation, court rules, case law, and ethics opinions -- are (slowly) evolving as well. Twitter and Facebook are at center stage in these new approaches, as is digital communication itself. From the social media tools we use to the new literacy we've developed (e.g., abbreviations, emoticons, emoji, Bitmoji, stickers, memes, and more), tech is changing the law.
DNC Serves Subpoena on Wikileaks via Twitter
Earlier this month, a law firm representing the Democratic National Convention used Twitter to serve legal documents on WikiLeaks, an international nonprofit organization that facilitates the release of classified information, obtained from anonymous sources, via its website. Aside from the high profile parties to the case and the controversial claims it makes, the newsworthy aspect of this story, particularly for those in the legal field, is that the subpoena was served with a tweet. According to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a court may serve an individual in another country through a number of channels, and although service by social media is not addressed specifically, Rule 4(f)(3) does allow for service "by other means not prohibited by international agreement, as the court orders." The Texas Rules of Civil Procedure include a similar provision. Rule 106(b)(2) states that a court may authorize service "in any other manner that the affidavit or other evidence before the court shows will be reasonably effective to give the defendant notice of the suit."
This may be a first for Twitter, but Facebook has been used a number of times to legally notify a hard-to-locate party. In a 2015 New York divorce case, a woman was permitted to serve her estranged husband through Facebook. A New Jersey court relied on that decision to allow the same method of legal notice in a similar case later that year.
Routine use of social media as an alternative method of service is still a topic of debate, but plenty of digital ink has been spilled discussing its benefits and risks. In 2013, a bill was introduced in the Texas legislature to allow substituted service through social media websites, but the bill was never referred to a committee, and the topic hasn't been addressed since.
Texas Lawyers May Seek Input from Colleagues via Facebook
Just weeks ago, the State Bar of Texas Professional Ethics Committee considered this question: Can lawyers use social media to seek advice from other attorneys without violating the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct? According to the Committee, the answer is a qualified Yes. Attorneys may consult with their lawyer colleagues and seek their professional advice regarding client-related issues in online forums if and only if they honor their duty of confidentiality and respect the attorney-client privilege. The best source for further exploration of this topic is, of course, the opinion itself along with this report from the Texas Lawyer which provides an excellent overview of the State Bar's newly sanctioned activity.
Federal Court Uses Poop Emoji in a Published Opinion
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently published an opinion that included the poop emoji. There's almost nothing worthwhile to say about its appearance in this opinion except to recognize it as a historic first. To be fair, the poop emoji appeared as part of a quote from a message shared via Facebook. It was submitted as evidence in an employment discrimination case that ultimately hinged on the content of the quoted message. As it turns out, the use of emoji in employment suits has been discussed before. Legal scholars have also weighed in about emoji and the law and emoji as evidence, topics which are explored in the articles linked below.
- Emoji as Language and Their Place Outside American Copyright Law (NYU Journal of Property & Entertainment Law)
- The Emoji Factor: Humanizing the Emerging Law of Digital Speech (Tennessee Law Review)
- Your Clients Use of Emoji: It Matters (Ingham County Bar Association BRIEFS)
Special Event: Expanded "MS Word for Legal Work" Hands-on Legal Tech Training
Join us as we offer our flagship hands-on training - MS Word for Legal Work - for an expanded audience on Thursday, Aug. 30, at 2pm. Learn the skills you need to draft documents more efficiently on the world's leading word processing software. Texas attorneys can earn 1.0 hour of CLE credit. Register today!