AskCoLT for tech answers

 

If you have questions about new technology, the ISBA Committee on Legal Technology (CoLT) has the answers. Committee member David M. Clark begins this series of occasional replies to members' queries about technology issues. Send your questions by e-mail to AskCoLT@isba.org.

• • •

Ram, as a noun, is defined as: 1. a male sheep; 2. any of various devices for battering, crushing, driving or forcing something, esp. a battering ram; 3. (formerly) a heavy beak or spur projecting from the bow of a warship for penetrating the hull of an enemy ship; 4. the heavy weight that strikes the blow in a pile driver or the like; 5. a piston, as on a hydraulic press; 6. a reciprocating part of certain machine tools, as the toolholder of a slotter or shaper viz. a hydraulic ram.

As a verb, ram means: 7. to drive or force by heavy blows; 8. to strike with great force, dash violently against (the car went out of control and rammed the truck); 9. to cram or stuff (they rammed the gag in his mouth); 10. to push firmly (to ram a bill through the Senate); 11. to force (a charge) into a firearm, as with a ramrod.

These definitions may be familiar, but if you get lost when you are confronted with how much RAM is in your computer, you need to Ask CoLT.

The ISBA Committee on Legal Technology will address questions that you can post by going to AskCoLT@isba.org and get answers from professionals who possess great knowledge on how to use technology in the practice of law.

Your questions could be regarding the use of technology in assisting clients from the office, in the courtroom, or even from remote locations.

No questions are too simple. If they are too hard, CoLT will scour the ether for the answer.

CoLT is charged by the bar association to advise it members on the changing face of technology and of its application in the law.

What law office could function without word processing? Yet the management of the metadata contained in electronically prepared documents should be of great concern to protection of attorney, staff and client.

CoLT can help lawyers preserve confidentiality in communication by letter, pleading, filing or even email. You may not have thought about that.

Just e-mail AskCoLT@isba.org and ask away. (Soon you will be able to go the bar Web site, http://www.isba.org, and access the link to AskColt.)

Your answer will quickly come back to you, and also will be published in the CoLT newsletter to help others who may have had the same question.

Don't hesitate. Your identity can be hidden. After all, since the law changes almost daily, so do the tools that help you maintain a successful practice.

• • •

David Clark is senior vice president of Justice Solutions at DigitalBridge in Dundee. He is a past chair of the Committee on Legal Technology and former editor of its newsletter.