3. Subcommittee on Aviation Hearing on Aviation Security with a Focus on Passenger Profiling <http://www.house.gov/ transportation/aviation/02-27-02/02-27-02memo.html>, "Oppose the New Airline Passenger Profiling System!" Date Posted: March 25 Source: <http://www.americansovereign.com/newsarchive/profiling.htm>.

4. John Perry Barlow, Interviewed by Tim Dickinson. February 3, 2003 <http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa /2003/06/we _268_01.html>.

5. Pentagon Readies Total Information Awareness system (TIA)Massive Spying System Michael J. Sniffen <http://www. mindfully.org/Reform/2003/TIA-20may03.htm>, "The Pentagon Surveillance System Known As 'Total Information Awareness' Is Up And Running." <http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/excep/tiaeng.html>

6. TIDISDM. <http://www.terrorisme.net/p/article_42.shtml>.

7. "RISSNET: A National Criminal Intelligence Database for Local, State and Federal Law Enforcement" By James R. Gallagher Deputy Executive Director Magloclen <http://www.search.org/conferences/1997Internet/ghalpres.htm, Madsen, Wayne. "Homeland Security, Homeland Profits" December 21, 2001 <http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=1108>.

8. Subliminal News--"Federal 'Data Mining' Has Ballooned Since 9-11" <http://www.subliminalnews.com/archives/000064.php>, "FBI showcases Trilogy, information sharing" By Wilson P. Dizard III <http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/state-local/21602-1.html>.

Dealing with e-mail overload

By Nerino J. Petro

As the pace of technology increases, so do the challenges that keeping up with these changes make on your time.

These challenges include:

* How do you deal with the client who expects you to respond to his e-mail immediately?

* How do you deal with your flooded Inbox?

* Spam, spam and more spam!

* How do you organize messages and attachments?

* How do you find messages once you save them?

* What's appropriate when composing e-mail?

* How do I protect myself from getting a virus?

I. How do you deal with the client who expects you to respond to his e-mail immediately?

Have you ever downloaded messages and then gotten sidetracked by something else before reading them? Or reviewed messages, including ones from clients, but don't respond right away? When you check a short time later, there's another message from a client "just in case you didn't see the earlier message." Or you get the call wanting to know why you haven't responded to the e-mail they sent you 10 minutes ago? What can you do?

1. Set aside specified times each day to review and respond to e-mail. In most cases, if you check e-mail in the morning when you get into the office, again after lunch and once towards the end of the day, you will be able to catch any critical e-mail and avoid constantly being distracted by new e-mails.

2. If a client is sending you something by e-mail that requires immediate attention, they should call first to advise you that they are sending you this important information.

3. Establish a client e-mail policy and publish it for your clients. Respond to the first e-mail you receive from a client with the policy being the first part of the message. You can also be pro-active in publishing this policy for new clients by sending them an e-mail regarding the policy when they have retained you or your firm.

4. The policy should explain the risks associated with sending information by e-mail; the fact that you treat e-mail as you treat other client communications; that e-mail, while being quicker in delivery, does not mean that it is entitled to a faster response.

5. E-mail to clients should be kept short, succinct and in a conversational tone. However, this doesn't mean that you should forget the common elements of good writing.

II. How do you deal with your flooded inbox?

Is there anything that you can do to gain control of the flood of messages you receive everyday? How can you separate the important messages from the rest?

1. Use "Private" addresses for client messages and for messages to other attorneys. Use "Public" addresses for receiving listserv and newsgroup messages or when you need to provide an e-mail address for registration at a Web site or establishing an account.

2. Sign up for a free account at Yahoo Mail, FindLaw or Hotmail. Use this account as your "Public" address. If you or your firm has a private domain name, i.e., www.johndoelaw.com, you can have two e-mail accounts--one "Private" and one "Public."

3. Use filters to direct mail to specified folders.

III. Spam, spam and more spam!

Are you inundated with messages with subject lines like: YOU'RE A WINNER!; Enlarge your P***s; Lonely Housewives Looking For Love; Refinance Now, etc? Many advertisers (aka, Spammers) will argue that they are providing direct marketing services no differently than if they sent you the information through the U.S. Postal Service. However, this is inaccurate for several reasons:

1. It costs you money for the connection and for your ISP to download this mass of messages

2. It costs you time to wade through this unwanted junk and get rid of it

3. It increases the chance that you will accidentally delete a legitimate message that is mixed in between all of the junk messages

4. Many of the products and services offered are SCAMS--if they sent it through the mail, they would be exposed to penalties including mail fraud and more.

While you will never be able to completely eliminate spam, you can take steps to reduce the amount of it and where it is sent.

1. Use "Private" addresses for client messages and for messages to other attorneys. Use "Public" addresses for receiving listserv and newsgroup messages or when you need to provide an e-mail address for registration at a Web site or establishing an account.

2. Sign up for a free account at Yahoo Mail, FindLaw or Hotmail. Use this account as your "Public" address. If you or your firm has a private domain name i.e. www.johndoelaw.com you can have 2 e-mail accounts --one "Private" and one "Public."

3. Use filters to direct mail to specified folders or do delete messages. Many programs also offer the ability to set up "Block Sender" lists. For Outlook Express you can see <http://dogbert.msl.net/~spam/> for instructions.

4. The prevailing rule is not to use the "unsubscribe" feature on spam as it only confirms that it has reached a valid address. Some are now advocating using the unsubscribe feature due to the increasing scrutiny that spammers are coming under, and quite frankly, they're already sending you junk know. The safest method is still not to respond.

5. Consider using anti-spam programs. See <www.spambouncer.org> for example.

6. Educate yourself by checking out anti-spam Web sites such as <http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy /nospam.html>.

IV. How do you organize messages and attachments?

So how do you gain control of your Inbox and all of the messages and attachments that you want to save? Do you leave everything in the Inbox? Do you save the messages with attachments there as well? There are numerous methods for dealing with this problem. The key is to find a system or method that works for you and follow it.

According to Tom Rowe, President of Practice Management Partners, Inc. (www.pmpi.us) in his White Paper "Eliminating E-Mail Overload with TimeMatters E-Mail":

When looking at the root cause of e-mail overload and how it should be overcome, it is helpful to compare it to a well-known problem that has been around much longer than e-mail...the problem of "pushing paper." Executive organization experts teach that the best way to avoid being overwhelmed by paper is to do the best you can to make sure that you "touch" a piece of paper once, and only once. Many people waste considerable time moving paper on their desks from one stack to another, use these stacks as quasi-ToDo lists, and often end up spending more time shuffling the papers around their desks than it would take to accomplish the tasks for which the papers call. Just walking into an office with a messy desk can cause confusion and disrupt an otherwise organized day. (pg. 1)

Dealing with e-mail can be compared to dealing with the constant inundation of paper that you deal with everyday. Thinking of e-mail messages as merely another form of correspondence can help you start envisioning a method for dealing with this potentially explosive problem. Tom Rowe suggests that you apply a time-tested principal to the problem:

One system to reduce this problem that is widely presented is the RAFT system--Refer, Act, File or Toss. Pursuant to this system, the first time you "touch" apiece of paper you should refer it to the appropriate party to be handled, act on it to completion, file it for later use or reference, or toss it in the round paper file--the waste basket. The diligent application of RAFT can result in a reduction in the amount of paper with which one has to deal, gets it to the person who is best suited to handle the task it represents, and generally increases productivity by reducing clutter and the inefficiency that is inherent therein. (pg.2)

While this White Paper points out the benefits of using TimeMatters E-mail features to solve the problem, the same general principals can also be applied using other case management programs with e-mail capability or in using stand-alone e-mail clients such as Outlook, Outlook Express and Eudora. Look at you e-mail client as a gateway, not as a repository.

1. Just like your paper files, handle it one time if at all possible. Apply RAFT to each and every message.

2. Important messages from clients should be saved in their folders with your other work product for that client or matter. There are various ways of doing this, but one of the easiest is to print the message as a PDF and print to the client or matter folder. You can also cut and paste into your word processor or text editor and save as a file. Once saved, delete the e-mail unless there is an attachment.

3. Attachments should be saved in the client or matter folders. Once saved, delete the associated e-mail and attachment.

4. For messages that you want to respond to, create a "Respond To" folder and move the message to it. Once you complete your response, delete the original message.

5. By saving messages with other client documents, you improve the likelihood of proper backup in case of a disaster as well as being able to find the information faster.

6. If you decide to use your e-mail client to also act as a repository, organize your folders accordingly: think about how you have patterned your paper storage and ask yourself if it will allow you to logically and efficiently store your e-mail. If it doesn't, do something different.

7. The benefit to using a case management program that either has its own e-mail client or integrates with one of the major e-mail programs is the ability to associate messages with the appropriate client and/or matter with just a few steps and allows you to maintain the "all in one place" approach which forms one of the bases of using case management.

V. How do you find messages once you save them?

If you've saved them with your other client or matter documents, you've already gone a long way in simplifying your ability to find these documents again. Microsoft includes a search function in Windows Explorer that allows you to search at a basic level. Your e-mail program also allows you to search folders and messages for specified recipients/sender/words. You can also use the built-in capabilities of many case management programs to create indexes and perform full-text searches in documents and PDF files as well as associating the e-mail and attachments with a specific client and/or matter. There are other third-party programs like the "The SleuthHound!" Family of products (www.isleuthhound.com) for searching various file formats; Wintility Plus (www.wintility.com), a DMS including the capability to manage e-mails and WORLDOX (www.worlddox.com), another extremely popular DMS with e-mail management capabilities for GroupWise and Outlook users. Microsoft lists these steps to search for a file or folder in Outlook Express:

* Click Start, point to Search, and then click For Files or Folders.

* In Search for files or folders named, type all or part of the file name or folder you want to find.

* To search for files containing specific text, in Containing text, type the text you want to find.

* In Look in, click the drive, folder, or network you want to search.

* To specify additional search criteria, click Search Options, and then click one or more of the following options to narrow your search:

* Select Date to look for files that were created or modified on or between specific dates.

* Select Type to look for files of a specific type, such as a text or WordPad document.

* Select Size to look for files of a specific size.

* Select Advanced Options to specify additional search criteria.

* Click Search Now.

Notes: If you get too many results, try entering additional search criteria to make your search more specific.

* To clear the search criteria fields and begin a new search, click New.

* Under Advanced Options, Search slow files refers to files that reside on removable storage media, such as optical or tape backup. These files may need to be copied to a faster storage medium before the contents can be searched. Microsoft Windows 2000® Help

VI. What's appropriate when composing e-mail?

Many people look at e-mail as being more in the manner of a conversational method of communication, i.e., messages are less formal, shorter and don't always follow the same grammatical rules of paper correspondence.

Unless corresponding with a close acquaintance or friend on non-legal matters, you should consider e-mail as an extension of written communications. If you follow the same grammatical rules and usage as you would if you were sending a paper letter, you can avoid misinterpretation and potential problems leading from a poorly written e-mail.

There is currently disagreement regarding whether or not you should include a privacy/confidentiality notice in your message. Those in favor of this position believe that since the notice is usually placed at the end of the message, it is too late for the notice to be effective. This position usually contrasts the standard fax coversheet notice to e-mail notices based on the above and that the fax coversheet is sent before the rest of the document and so the notice is on the first page available. Following this position leads to the conclusion that you should not send anything you wish protected by the attorney-client privilege via e-mail. However, many states' bar associations have taken the position that communicating by e-mail is no more subject to interception or disclosure than other means of electronic communication. Various state and/or federal laws also prohibit the illegal interception or obtaining of e-mail. In light of these laws and the general nature of e-mail, you can take the following action when sending e-mail:

* Place the notice at the beginning of the e-mail with the message to follow it in the body of the message; or

* Place the notice in the e-mail and attach the message or correspondence as an attachment to the e-mail.

Of the two, the first is probably the easiest and reduces the risk of a lost attachment or having it stripped by a mail server. The bottom line is that you must weigh the risk vs. the benefit of using e-mail to communicate with your client.

It's still more prudent to include a notice than to omit it in privileged communications. This will, at a minimum, allow you to argue intention that the communication is privileged.

VII. How do I protect myself from getting a virus?

While it may seem basic to use an Anti-Virus (AV) program, many people still do not do so. There are also other steps that you can take to protect yourself from java-based applets and other malignant programs from using your e-mail to damage your system.

Common-sense tips to avoid an e-mail virus:

1. USE an Anti-Virus program that scans e-mail as it's downloaded. Better AV programs also scan outgoing e-mail to insure that you don't send out an infected message. Norton Anti-Virus, Trend Micro PC-cillin and McAfee Virus Scan are three popular and effective AV programs.

2. UPDATE your virus definitions weekly. Many of the more popular programs will do this automatically or notify you when a new download is available.

3. Download and install program updates and patches as they become available.

4. Turn off message preview: certain attacks can be launched without opening the message but by simply using the pre-view message function.

5. DON'T OPEN ATTACHMENTS. If you receive an attachment that you are not expecting or that you are unsure of, contact the sender to verify the file. In no event should you open any attachment that is an .exe file.

6. See section III in this article for dealing with spam.

Conclusion

While you can't completely eliminate the problems of spam, applying the principals and policies set out in this White Paper can assist you controlling them.

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