SRLN: Self-Represented Litigation Network

The Self-Represented Litigation Network is a national organization formed under the leadership of Richard Zorza, a former public defender, legal services attorney, and justice technology designer. He is also an avid blogger and a key player in the Access to Justice movement. Through SRLN, Mr. Zorza has created a rich network of resources, especially for those concerned with closing the justice gap. Over the last decade, the SRLN has made great strides in developing innovations, including strategic and empowering uses of technology, to improve the experience of self-represented litigants as they navigate the justice system. 

Membership in SRLN is free, and signing up is easy. As a benefit of joining, members can register for email newsletters and enroll in a number of working groups, including the Forms & Technology group. If you are a legal system professional and would like to get involved, SRLN offers several options. Take a look at what SRLN can do for you and what you can do to improve the experience of pro se litigants.

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.