Technology | Virginia Lawyers Weekly

It’s just Google! Keeping jurors offline to stay in line

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 18, 2012
Tags: Judge Edward Hogshire, Judge Pamela S. Baskervill, Social Media, Technology

NORFOLK – Jurors who have a hard time putting their Internet habit on hold during jury service need strong guidance from trial judges, a jury research expert says.
In Virginia courtrooms and around the country, jurors are yielding to the impulse to “just Google it” when they have a question.
A once-or-twice warning not to consult outside [...]

Going mobile: Legal marketers discover QR codes

By Sarah Rodriguez
Published: April 30, 2012
Tags: Legal Marketing, Technology

You’ve seen them everywhere. Funny square boxes with squiggles in black and white.
They are QR, or “Quick Response,” codes, one of the tools that marketers use in the new field of mobile marketing.
Where web advertising was once the frontier of the marketing industry, more and more tech-savvy consumers have migrated to a newer form of [...]

Do Google’s privacy changes affect your law practice?

By Sylvia Hsieh
Published: March 30, 2012
Tags: Technology

Changes to Google’s privacy policies have created an uproar globally over concerns that the Internet behemoth has consolidated its information gathering without revealing how it will use that information and giving users no chance to opt out.
Lawyers who use Google’s platforms may be aware of the general debate but not of the specific impact on [...]

Court’s remote-access system adding circuits

By Peter Vieth
Published: March 16, 2012
Tags: Technology

A lawyer needing a last-minute look at a document in the court file used to have to rush over to the courthouse and hurriedly review the papers before a hearing.
Now, thanks to a program started by the Supreme Court of Virginia last year, he can call it up on the computer in his office, saving [...]

iPad, iPhone apps for the traveling lawyer

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: March 9, 2012
Tags: Technology

If you’re a lawyer with an iPad or an iPhone and you travel frequently, this article was written just for you. In it, you’ll learn about the latest travel apps and how you can use them to make your travels more organized, pleasurable and relaxing.
First, use your mobile device (many of these apps are available [...]

Document assembly for lawyers

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: March 7, 2012
Tags: Law Office Management, Technology

Lawyers have always been interested in better ways to produce legal documents and correspondence.
Even before computers, memory typewriters allowed lawyers to reuse forms without retyping the entire document. It sounds like something from the Stone Age, but many practicing lawyers remember the time when editing a document meant someone had to retype the whole thing [...]

Beware as Google peeks – legally – at your personal info

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: February 15, 2012
Tags: Social Media, Technology

Et tu, Google?
The recent shift in Google’s privacy policy has to rank as one of the most significant items in technology news so far this year.
Google will now combine all your data from all Google services, and users won’t be able to opt out. The effective date of the change is March 1.
Long before I [...]

Twelve for ’12: A look at the stories we’ll be watching in the coming year

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: February 13, 2012
Tags: Bankruptcy, Employment, Fairfax County Circuit Court, General Assembly, Hernandez, Judgeships, Justice William C. Mims, Legal Marketing, Million-Dollar Settlements, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Social Media, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Technology, Trends

For our annual Trends issue this year, we have identified a dozen different issues or points of departure that we’ll be watching in the coming year.
Twelve for ’12, we call it. Here’s the list:
STRESS ON THE COURTS
Read the lead story in this issue if you want a preview of coming attractions in courts across the [...]

Legal technology predictions for 2012

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: January 26, 2012
Tags: Social Media, Technology

If 2011 was the year that lawyers finally took notice of Internet-based and mobile technologies — if only because these tools affected evidentiary issues in their practices — then 2012 will be the year that most lawyers not yet using these tools will make a conscious decision to put off using many of them in [...]

Background checks in the electronic age

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: December 7, 2011
Tags: Law Office Management, Social Media, Technology

Credit and criminal history background checks, an integral part of the employment screening process, are becoming hot-button issues in the courts. They are potential minefields for employers.
In the electronic age, employers are able to research applicants’ backgrounds quickly and thoroughly. Companies must navigate a rapidly developing array of laws in this area, and balance [...]

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