Texas Supreme Court Requires Attorneys To Know Legal Tech

On February 26, 2019, the Texas Supreme Court took an important step in the advancement of legal ethics in Texas by amending Paragraph 8 of the comment to Rule 1.01 of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct. The rule, which addresses the duty of all Texas attorneys to be competent and conscientious in providing effective legal representation, now requires that practitioners also be aware of “the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.”

By adopting this amendment, Texas has joined 35 other states who also require a duty of technology competence for lawyers. The significance of this new development cannot be overstated. By order of the Texas Supreme Court, attorneys must become aware of, if not proficient in, using technology to best serve their clients.

If you are a Texas lawyer who needs to brush up on your tech skills and learn more about recent developments in legal tech, the Harris County Law Library can help! Our Legal Tech Institute offers a variety of learning opportunities including our popular Hands-on Legal Tech Training courses every Thursday afternoon at 2:00 pm in the Law Library’s Legal Tech Lab. We also provide access to free online CLE courses via our On-Demand Learning Opportunities page.

To find out more about what the Harris County Law Library offers through our Legal Tech Institute, visit the LTI page on our website. With so many free learning opportunities at your disposal, it will be easy (and fun!) to comply with the new Texas Supreme Court requirement.

New CLE Course from the Legal Tech Institute: Digital Legal Research Refresher @ 2:00 pm on Thursday, January 31, 2019

We at the Harris County Law Library recently announced the publication of our Legal Tech Institute 2019 Course Catalog, which includes five new programs on a variety of legal tech topics. The second new class, Digital Legal Research Refresher, will be offered this Thursday at 2:00 pm the Law Library’s Legal Tech Lab. Texas attorneys will earn 1.0 hour free CLE credit for attending.

For details and to register, please visit the Hands-on Legal Tech Training Events page. While you’re there, take a look at additional upcoming programs including the following:

• Fastcase & Casemaker

• Microsoft Excel for Legal Work

• Android for Legal Work

The Harris County Law Library offers Hands-on Legal Tech Training every Thursday at 2:00 pm in the Law Library’s Legal Tech Lab. A number of other learning opportunities are available, including on-demand CLE videos, which can be viewed at any time from the comfort of your home or office.

We hope to see you this Thursday, January 31, 2019, at 2:00 pm for Harris County Law Library Tech!

New CLE Course from the Legal Tech Institute: Harris County Law Library Tech @ 2:00 pm on Thursday, January 24, 2019

We at the Harris County Law Library recently announced the publication of our Legal Tech Institute 2019 Course Catalog, which includes five new programs on a variety of legal tech topics. The first new class, Harris County Law Library Tech, will be offered this Thursday at 2:00 pm the Law Library’s Legal Tech Lab. Texas attorneys will earn 1.0 hour free CLE credit for attending.

For details and to register, please visit the Hands-on Legal Tech Training Events page. While you’re there, take a look at additional upcoming programs including the following:

• Digital Legal Research Refresher

• Fastcase & Casemaker

• Microsoft Excel for Legal Work

• Android for Legal Work

The Harris County Law Library offers Hands-on Legal Tech Training every Thursday at 2:00 pm in the Law Library’s Legal Tech Lab. A number of other learning opportunities are available, including on-demand CLE videos, which can be viewed at any time from the comfort of your home or office.

We hope to see you this Thursday, January 24, 2019, at 2:00 pm for Harris County Law Library Tech!

Neglect of .govs Impacts Consumer Safety and Privacy During Government Shutdown

January is Consumer Law Resources Month at the Harris County Law Library. Consumer law research materials from our print collection are on display throughout the library until the end of the month. In particular, we are featuring titles from the National Consumer Law Center as well as self-help sources published by Nolo. Topics run the gamut from product liability and food safety to financial market transparency and identity protection.

With consumer law occupying our thoughts this month, we were naturally drawn to the headlines in recent days (see below) announcing the potential for compromised consumer safety during the federal government shutdown, now entering its 25th day.

• Consumer protection services falter during government shutdown (The Daily Dot)

• Consumer protection websites are down due to the government shutdown (The Verge)

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BBC, the Washington Post, and several other news organizations, a potentially increasing number of .gov websites are now blocked or completely inaccessible due to the inability of individual government agencies to renew their HTTPS security certificates. Tech Crunch explains:

Every time your browser lights up with “HTTPS” in green or flashes a padlock, it’s a TLS certificate encrypting the connection between your computer and the website, ensuring nobody can intercept and steal your data or modify the website. But TLS certificates are notoriously delicate things. Certificates expire — a common mistake as people often forget to renew them. Depending on the security level, most websites will kick back browser errors while other sites won’t let you in at all until the expired certificate is renewed. Except in this case, they can’t — because there’s nobody there to buy and install a new certificate

Websites affected by the shutdown include the US Department of Justice, the Courts of Appeals, and NASA. Also impacted is the Federal Trade Commission, which helps protect consumers from identity theft and scams by offering free credit reports and maintaining the “Do Not Call” registry. As a consequence of the shutdown, the Washington Post reports, a surge in robo-calls has already begun. Neither DoNotCall.gov nor IdentityTheft.gov is currently operational, thus reducing privacy protections and preventing victims from reporting their stolen personal and financial information.

As the shutdown continues, more website certificates will expire. This will expose the unprotected sites to vulnerabilities that hackers may exploit to gather data on citizen-consumers who, during periods of full government funding, enjoy the protections of the regulatory agencies operating in the best interest of all Americans.

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Image credit: https://media.threatpost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/103/2019/01/11104051/tls-1.png

For a full history of all 20 previous federal government shutdowns dating back to 1976, take a look at this timeline from Vox, and for a humorous take on many of the government agency shutdown notices, ranked from panicked to indifferent, click here to get the rundown from Quartz.

Finally, don’t forget that the Law Library of Congress is operational, and access to this beginner’s guide to consumer protection is a great place to start your consumer law research.

Free CLE at the Harris County Law Library - Blending Your Legal Research

The Harris County Law Library will offer the latest installment of its Legal Tech Institute Lecture Series on January 17, 2019 at 12:00 pm. The presenters, Amy Small, Assistant Director of the Texas State Law Library, and Joseph Lawson, Deputy Director of the Harris County Law Library, will discuss strategies for using free and low cost legal research sources effectively. Attendees will learn to approach legal research systematically, utilizing free resources available online, including the e-books and legal databases in the Texas State Law Library’s digital collection. Presenters will also discuss how to use Westlaw and Lexis Advance, which can be accessed for free on site at the Harris County Law Library.

To enroll in this course, please visit the Blending Your Legal Research registration page. Look for other Legal Tech Institute programs, including the Hands-on Legal Tech Training classes offered every Thursday at 2:00 pm in our Legal Tech Lab in the Law Library. Our 2019 Course Catalog has just been published and is now available via the Legal Tech Institute online.