Is Venmo a No-go for Solos?

In October 1969, the Texas Ethics Commission issued an opinion stating:

An attorney may honor a reputable credit card or similar device in the payment of his fee, but may not display an emblem, window decal or desk emblem displaying his acceptance of such credit card. 

The Committee members reasoned that collecting legal fees with a credit card is "no different from acceptance of a check in payment of legal services," even though some members dissented calling an "easy payment plan" unethical and a violation of Canons 11 and 24. Fortunately, times have changed, and payment options have evolved dramatically.

One of the more popular options for financial transactions is Venmo, a peer-to-peer payment system that allows parties to transact business and transfer money digitally via their smartphones. Users simply download the Venmo app to begin exchanging payments. It all seems easy enough, as the Millennials who use it so freely to split the bar tab can attest. For lawyers, however, particularly solo practitioners attracted by the efficiency and convenience of digital payment systems, the risks of using Venmo or any other peer-to-peer payment solution such as Zellepay or SquareCash are worth considering. Critics recognize the benefits of this alternative payment technology but still say that collecting legal fees via an app is fraught with ethical pitfalls.

As of yet, it appears that states have not yet weighed in on the ethics of using these services, and the ABA does include peer-to-peer systems as an alternative payment method but cautions users to choose a service that offers the same kinds of protections provided by other payment options, such as credit cards, debit cards, ACH, and wire transfers.

As with the debate around credit cards more almost 50 years ago, there are proponents and detractors of using peer-to-peer payment methods. The trend does seem to be growing, even in the professional world, and may be something to explore further:

• How Safe Is Venmo and Why Is It Free?
• Should Lawyers Use Peer-to-Peer Payment Apps?
• Venmo, PayPal, Square Cash and More: What Are Peer-to-Peer Payments?

Tech Tuesday: Technology Fosters Independence

Technology fosters independence, providing resources for vulnerable populations -- the elderly, the disabled, and the indigent -- to engage with the world in new and meaningful ways

On this Tech Tuesday, as we approach the 4th of July holiday, we at the Harris County Law Library are reflecting on how technology empowers us to be more independent. For the elderly, advances in technology offer opportunities for greater autonomy. For those with disabilities, accessible design provides freedoms that previous generations could only imagine.  And in the law, information technology (with the aid of public law libraries) has opened new avenues for self-represented litigants to access justice and the legal system.

Smart Tech for the Elderly

As we age, maintaining our independence and autonomy is important to us all. Thanks to "smart home" technologies, telemedicine, wearable sensors, and digital assistants, such as Alexa, Cortana, and Siri, many older people who rely on caretakers to assist them in the tasks of daily living now have tech alternatives for "monitored independence." For those with cognitive or mobility impairments, the future looks bright as well. For an excellent resource on this subject, consult Technology Tips for Seniors, a publication of the American Bar Association. Volume II will be published in August.

Accessible Design for the Disabled

To ensure online accessibility for all, web designers need to present information in ways that account for differences in how people interact with online resources. Accessible design of online content allows those with visual impairments, for example, to navigate the Internet more easily. Therefore, web design standards that specify requirements for accessible design are an important part of digital content development, and mobile apps should meet the same standards. Increasingly, developers are creating apps to facilitate greater navigability of the physical world, especially for those who travel on wheels.

Innovative tech designers are using the crowd-sourcing capabilities of mobile device tracking and user feedback to create apps for civic improvement, including apps that help mitigate barriers for people with disabilities.  Google Maps, for example, now offers route suggestions (in a limited but growing number of cities) for the best path of wheelchair travel on city streets, and other apps help those with low vision. 

Information Technology for Self-Represented Litigants

The justice system can be difficult to navigate. For those who represent themselves, resources for learning about and engaging with the legal system are invaluable. That's why websites such as TexasLawHelp.org are a lifeline to people in need of legal assistance but who are unable to afford legal representation. However, as we've noted previously, many people with modest means still face major barriers to accessing the Internet. Fortunately, public law libraries help remove some of those barriers by providing computers with Internet access, educational programs to inform people about the legal system, and legal assistance from volunteer lawyers or lawyer-librarians. We at the Harris County Law Library strive every day to provide assistance for those unfamiliar with the law and inspire the independence to act confidently on one's own behalf. 

The common goal of all these solutions is to ease access and navigability -- of daily living, of the digital and physical world, and of the legal system. Tech design modifications for easier access to information and ideas are critical as information is key to independence in all areas of life. Improving the user experience for all people should be a shared goal of the tech community. Seniors, people with disabilities, and pro se litigants must not be left out of the design equation. 

Tech Tuesday: Converting Documents to PDF/A for E-filing

The Judicial Committee on Information Technology (JCIT) has established technology standards to ensure the "systematic implementation and integration of technology in Texas' trial and appellate courts." The current JCIT Standard, which is available in its entirety on the website of the Texas Judicial Branch, includes guidelines for proper e-filing in Texas courts and specifically states that documents be submitted as PDF files for long-term preservation. It further states that PDF documents be created with a PDF distiller, thus saving the converted document for preservation and retaining its printed appearance. With this requirement, the JCIT addresses the practice that some attorneys still routinely engage in -- printing a document created in Microsoft Word, for example, and scanning it to create a necessary PDF file. Using a PDF distiller not only allows users to avoid wasting paper, but, by converting the file digitally, the resulting document is JCIT Standards compliant.

To save your MS Word document as a PDF, simply click File > Save As > Save as file type. By default, your document will be saved as a plain Word document with the file extension .doc. Simply click on the Save as type drop-down menu to view your options, and scroll down to select PDF. Just that easily, your document will be saved as a .pdf. Mission accomplished! However, to make your document truly standards compliant, you must take one additional action.

Once you select PDF as your file type, you will see an Options button in the dialog box. Clicking on this button opens yet another small window, which is pictured here. At the bottom of the Options menu is a list of three items related to the saving of PDF documents, including an option to select the ISO 19005-1 compliant (PDF/A) version. Once you've checked the box for this selection, your document will be entirely compliant with the JCIT Standards, which require all documents e-filed in Texas to conform to the specifications of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which has established standards for writing, reading, displaying, and interacting with PDF documents.

To learn more about what makes the PDF/A file type so special, visit the Library of Congress online to read about their use of PDF/A documents for preservation. Two additional sources about the PDF/A format are PDF/A in a Nutshell and PDF/A - the standard for long-term archiving, a white paper published by the PDF Association. Finally, the Harris County Law Library has a new handbook called The Ultimate Guide to Adobe Acrobat DC which is shelved at the Reference Desk in our Legal Tech Collection.

If you ever need assistance with this or any other tech topic, join us on Thursday afternoons at 2:00 in the Law Library's Legal Tech Lab for hands-on legal tech training, brought to you the Legal Tech Institute at Harris County Law Library.

What's New On HeinOnline?

The Harris County Law Library provides access to several legal research databases including Westlaw, Lexis, O'Connor's Online, and the State Bar of Texas Practice Manuals. We also offer access to HeinOnline, a rich source of legal content including legal history, secondary sources, and, most notably, the Law Journal Library. This library of scholarly legal publications has always been a terrific resource, but it just got even better with the addition of nearly forty Cambridge University Press journals, including the following, to name just a few:

• Business and Human Rights Journal 
• Health Economic Policy and Law
• International Journal of Legal Information
• Journal of Law and Religion
• Law and History Review
• World Politics

The Harris County Law Library has expanded is subscription even further by subscribing to the U.S. State Package, a supplemental subscription, which brings together six databases of state-specific content, including more than 30 million pages of text covering all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The six databases, which you can read about in detail on the Hein website, are listed below.

• Session Laws Library
• State Statutes: A Historical Archive
• Bar Journals Library
• State Attorney General Reports & Opinions
• State Reports: A Historical Archive
• Prestatehood Legal Materials

Finally, one more enhancement to the HeinOnline database deserves recognition. That enhancement is a curated collection of materials called Gun Regulation and Legislation in America. HeinOnline is offering this package at a time when reliable information about gun control and ownership rights is so desperately needed. Contents include the publications listed here:

• Nearly 500 scholarly articles
• CRS Reports
• Congressional hearings
• Legislative histories
• Extensive bibliography plus links to external resources
• Briefs filed in Supreme Court cases regarding gun control

All of this new content, along with so much more (United States Congressional documents, federal legislative histories, state session laws, legal classics, treaties and agreements, and restatements of the law), is available while you're visiting the Law Library, but you can also access HeinOnline remotely from your own mobile device via the HeinOnline app.

• First download the program to your device. Click here for Android or here for the iPhone.
• Visit the Harris County Law Library to authenticate your device through our HeinOnline subscription. Once IP authenticated, your device will be able to access the database from any location for 30 days.
• At the end of the 30-day period, visit us again to re-authenticate and never be without access to MyHein and HeinOnline!

Know the Code: Programming Resources for Lawyers

Some time ago, we at the Harris County Law Library raised a question: Coding for Lawyers - Novelty or Necessity? We revisited that question a while later in Techno-Legal Practitioners and Lawyers Learning to Code. Now it's time to return to this topic again as the growth of do-it-yourself learning tools has expanded opportunities for lawyers to acquire the skill that some call the new literacy. 

There is no shortage of easily accessible, user-friendly, free or low-cost resources for developing the knowledge you need to call yourself a coder. Support from other aspiring coders is also widely available and finding a tribe of lawyer-programmers who share your goal can be very helpful. Joining local Meetup groups is an excellent way to build and stay connected to a coding community as is participation in networks of fellow lawyers who code, such as Legal Hackers or similar civic tech organizations. But where should a would-be coder begin? For a good introduction to coding, try What is Code? and then dive in using the resources below where you'll find help, advice, and support from others who are self-taught coders, including those who have transitioned to coding as a second career -- or as a career builder -- in later life. 

• Coding for Lawyers
• Lawtomated: Legaltech, Law, & Coding
• La Vie en Code
• Learn to Code With Me