Technology

There has been a massive increase in people using Twitter to ask for recommendations of professional service providers in the last two years, with solicitors one of the most in demand, according to research conducted for Orange Business.

Six businesses – including a law firm – are battling for control of a new .law domain that is set to become available as the body that co-ordinates Internet addresses opens up the market radically. There is also competition for the generic top-level domains (gTLDs) .lawyer and .legal.

The only winners in the online legal documents business are those supplying services to the likes of law firms, financial institutions and trade associations – rather than selling them directly to the end-user – new research has found. It warned that engineering online legal documents is not an end in itself.

Our regular round-up includes strong backing for intellectual property ABSs, Eddie Ryan leaving Co-operative Legal Services, a new digital copyright licence for law firms, an “unacceptable” lack of transparency over PII commissions, and a warning that law firms are being targeted by online espionage.

The Internet revolution has “yet to reach legal services”, new Legal Services Board research has found, meaning consumers jump at the idea of an ‘official’ online resource to help them resolve their legal issues.

Consumers using online legal services should have access to proper redress, the Legal Ombudsman has suggested. Adam Sampson said he was not convinced there is a difference between a legal product and a legal service.

Our latest round-up of news includes Fisher Meredith winning an appeal against a big wasted costs order, SRA figures on the number of firms and solicitors, the first law firm to ‘pin’ on growing social media service Pinterest, fee income up at the largest law firms, and more.

Rocket Lawyer, the Google-backed US online legal document service, is on track to launch in the UK later this year, with lawyers set to be offered the chance to join its panel from next month, Legal Futures can reveal.

Almost half of partners and staff at the typical top 50 law firm are now on LinkedIn, nearly double the number in 2010, new research has found. It comes as the Law Society publishes the first formal guidance to solicitors on the use of social media.

The recent case of a Scottish advocate’s stolen, unencrypted laptop raises some important questions regarding data controller responsibility, portable media (not just laptops) and the options available for securing such media, explains Matt Torrens.

Lawyers have been warned over their duty to protect personal information, after a barrister was found to have breached the Data Protection Act for failing to encrypt a laptop containing sensitive personal data which was later stolen.

Legal publishing giant LexisNexis has become the latest entrant to the automated document assembly market with the launch of LexisSmart. It will next month be linked up to the company’s LawyerLocator referral service so that customers can seek a lawyer review of documents.

Lawyers are warming to the use of social media in their practices but have reservations about risks associated with cloud computing, according to a major survey of law firm IT personnel. Three-quarters of the 712 specialists surveyed said they felt positive about social media as a tool to deliver value to their firms.

The TikitTFB User Association has had a record-breaking start to the 2011 series of local user group meetings, with 51 delegates attending the London meeting last week and 60 people attending the northern meeting in Leeds on Tuesday.

Linder Myers has signed contracts to implement a 200-user LawSoft 10 system. Headquartered in Manchester city centre, with offices in Shropshire and Lancashire, Linder Myers is a successful, growing, full-service business.