On The Road with Legal Talk Network: Covering the Clio Cloud Conference 2016

The good folks at Legal Tak Network have rebranded their "Special Reports" series. The new venture is called On The Road. This collection of broadcasts brings you live recordings of interviews and stories from the latest conferences, bar meetings, trade shows, and industry events, including many related to legal tech. The fourth-annual Clio Cloud Conference, held earlier this month,  was one such event, and by all accounts, it was a big success. Through interviews with conference presenters and attendees, the folks at On the Road shared an inside look at the content, insights, and trends that are shaping the legal tech landscape. All fifteen of these broadcasts are available on the Legal Talk Network website. 

Westlaw's Jury Verdicts & Settlements Now Available at the Harris County Law Library

The Law Library has added Texas Jury Verdicts & Settlements to its Thomson Reuters Westlaw digital collection. That means you now have free access to a searchable database containing thousands of reports of verdicts and settlements, including factual accounts and amounts awarded/agree to, that you can use for case valuation and negotiations research. Visit the Law Library to learn more about this and other digital resources available on our legal research computers at our downtown Houston location.

Creating an Automatic Table of Contents in Microsoft Word

To create a table of contents that’s easy to edit and maintain, begin by selecting a Heading from the Styles menu. The styles are located on the Home tab where several pre-formatted options are available to choose from. As you prepare your document, be sure to identify each new section of text with a unique heading. These are the items that will appear as entries in your table of contents.  

Next, place your cursor within the document at the point where you wish you insert your table of contents, usually near the beginning. On the References tab, locate the Table of Contents button. By default, the button should be located on the far left side of the task ribbon. Click on this button and select one of the Automatic Table of Contents options. Microsoft Word will automatically create a table of contents, generated from the headings and subheadings within your document. 

For a detailed demonstration of how to create, update, and customize your Table of Contents, visit the Microsoft Support site. 

 

Best Practices for Effective Version Control In Microsoft Word

In the of drafting of legal documents, effective version control is essential, especially when several people are collaborating on the same project. Fortunately, Microsoft Word allows you track every change you make. Adjustments in formatting, text, and typography as well as editorial and content revisions can be revealed with the click of button. The tool that makes this all possible is located on the Task Ribbon’s Review tab. Here you will also discover a few more useful features, including the Comments tool and the Show Markup button. With the Comments tool, you and your collaborators can notate the text, providing color-coded comments or suggestions.

Unless a document administrator restricts a particular user’s editing privileges, anyone who has access to a document can use the Show Markup feature. Notifications can be labeled with the initials of the person who has made them, so there’s never any doubt about the source of a particular modification.

While the Microsoft Word tracking feature is an effective tool for managing multiple versions of a document, it must be used with care. Neglecting to remove all revision marks and the associated metadata from your final product can have dire consequences. If exposed to the wrong party, hidden data or confidential client information stored in the document’s properties may open you to liability.  Depending on which other features you used to create your document, you may unknowingly reveal personally identifiable information such as e-mail headers, send-for-review information, watermarks, routing slips, or template names. Fortunately, there’s an easy and effective safeguard build into Microsoft Word that will protect you against any accidental sharing of data. It’s called the Document Inspector. 

The Document Inspector is located on the Task Ribbon’s File tab. Select Info in the left-hand menu where you will see an option to Prepare Your Document for Sharing. With the click of a button, Microsoft Word will examine your document and identify any comments, revisions, annotations, or previous versions as well as document properties or personal information you may not wish to reveal.  At this point, you can select which information you wish to remove, but remember that once data has been scrubbed from a document, it cannot be restored. As a best practice, you may wish to save your document with a new filename, using a consistent naming convention to clearly distinguish the original from any subsequent copies. Leave the original document as is, making sure to retain all comments and modifications. Then, clean up the copied version using the Document Inspector, and rest assured that when you share it with an outside party, the document is free of any privileged information.    

This is a very broad overview of how to track changes in your documents, how to maintain version control, and how to remove hidden data that shouldn't be shared. The Microsoft Word Help site contains much more detailed information, and will hep you identify the steps to follow in using these tools, especially the more advanced features. If you have further questions, please visit the reference desk and talk to our helpful staff. 

ABA President-Elect Embraces Legal Tech and Promotes Access to Justice

At the annual meeting of the American Bar Association, held earlier this month in San Francisco, Hilarie Bass was selected to serve as president-elect. She will take the helm of the organization in 2017 and intends to focus on two major issues -- closing the justice gap and promoting use of technology in the practice of law. She will also focus on the legal education system, working to update the existing model with more innovative approaches to learning.

Addressing the ABA House of Delegates, Ms. Bass discussed these areas of concentration in detail. She also referenced the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services, which was just released on August 6th. Among its many recommendations, the report advises that all members of the legal profession adapt to changes in the delivery of client services. Legal practitioners must be aware of relevant technology and know how to use it effectively, allowing for more efficient workflows and increased protection of privileged data. Innovations in technology are the key to remaining relevant in an age of rapid change, when process improvement is critical and technological proficiency is a must.

In addition to tech skills, Ms. Bass discussed the need for restored faith in the justice system, particularly among low-income citizens and those who belong to minority demographic groups. Ms. Bass feels strongly that race, gender, religion, and income should not determine one's ability to access to the legal system, and she's already taken steps to help mitigate the effect that our own implicit biases based on these characteristics can have on the administration of justice. As a member of the ABA Section on Litigation, Ms. Bass helped create the Implicit Bias Initiative, a resource to assist legal professionals in identifying their personal biases.  At the center of this initiative is a video produced by The Judicial Branch of California. It challenges viewers to examine the hidden factors that influence their decisions, exploring both the neuroscience and psychology behind the choices we make. (This is just one of many excellent videos in the California Courts Video Archive, a resource worth exploring.) 

The legal profession is changing rapidly. New approaches to the practice of law and the delivery of legal services are desperately needed. Under the leadership of Hilarie Bass, the ABA will strengthen its focus on legal education, legal tech, and the justice gap.