Internet Newsletter for Lawyers & Law 2.0

Free case law is old hat now. The House of Lords posted its first judgment on the web in 1996 and BAILII “freed the law” in 2000. But how far have we come since then? This article sums up the current position.

A hosted system is created where the bundle of computer applications that lawyers use (Word, practice management system, digital dictation etc) that would traditionally be run and managed in-house are run and hosted remotely by a third party on servers outside the offices, all accessed securely through the internet or leased lines.

Continuing our series on social media for law firms, Jordan Furlong looks at the best ways that law firms, as corporate entities, can utilise Twitter.

In the third article in our series on social media for law firms, Jordan Furlong looks at the best ways that law firms can utilise LinkedIn.

In December 2007 I finally decided I knew enough about my chosen field to open up my own firm, Driving Defences LLP. My partner, Philip Trotter, and I, opened the door and waited for the work to flow in. I made my website as good as I could, plastered my phone number all over it and waited for the telephone to ring. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

The iLegal iPhone application, created by Timothy Leigh, a law student currently studying the Legal Practice Course, aims to provide you with the law in your pocket – or at least access to the UK’s revised primary legislation as taken from the UK Statutory Law Database (SLD).

Following my article on the new claims process in the last issue), I caught up with Dominic Corr, our IT director, to find out what progress had been made.

Free Legal Resources on the Web, Part 1

Free Legal Resources on the Web, Part 2

And, just for solicitors, Modern Practice Topics for Solicitors.

I’ve reported previously on progress of the FreeLegalWeb project I initiated which is designed to provide better, affordable, joined-up access to the law. At long last we have a public Beta service at www.freelegalweb.org.

Access the July 2010 issue PDF (subscribers only).

In the first of a series of short articles on social networking for law firms Jordan Furlong explains below how firms can effectively promote themselves on Facebook.

There is very little that is actually “virtual” about the way Clerksroom is operating. You could say it’s a “procurement company”, or a service company, or a business. Our barristers are self employed, sole practitioners working from 55 home based offices around the UK and increasingly, globally. We now have members based in Ireland, Spain, India and New Zealand as well as the UK. Our members are spread nationally from Cornwall to North Yorkshire, East Sussex to Lancashire.

Legallybetter opened for business in January 2009 to provide a quick and reliable way to compare solicitors and then find a solicitor, for private individuals and for businesses.

This article is intended as a step-by-step guide to optimising your website from a Search Engine Optimisation point of view (SEO) – in other words, how to be “found” by the major search engines and given a good position in the results page.

Directlaw is an online document drafting system which can be set up by firms of solicitors to sell their documents online.