All Our Tips
Blogging Is for Lawyers, Too
For lawyers interested in practice-building, there are few methods more proven than law blogging (or blawging, if you prefer) and getting social via social media online.
As I wrote in a recent paper, Social Media, A Vital Tool for the Modern Family Law Practice, delivered at an Ontario Bar Association CPD programme for family law lawyers last month:
Increasingly, the sophisticated shopper for legal services is looking online for the legal professionals he or she will hire. A strong social media footprint will help these shoppers to find you. Quality content, branded and delivered authentically and professionally, will help these purchasers to choose you.
The results may not be apparent overnight.
But opportunity abounds in the Ontario online family law space, in particular, for family law blogging and social media participation, focussed exclusively on family law topics, video and content. There are an abundance of family law firm websites, but comparatively little participation in blogging and other social media.Over time, with active regular blogging and social media participation, your firm’s stable and recognizable online presence will emerge. You will have clients call you because you have written or even tweeted on a topic that is central to them. Opposing counsel will let you know they’ve read your work. The press will call for comments on important court rulings, law reform topics and new legislation. Your Google ranking will start to improve. The OBA or CBA or LSUC may start calling on you to participate as a presenter in CPD programmes.
And your practice will grow.
As I said, trust me on this. It happened to a friend of a friend of mine…
And it happened to me.
So this week’s practice tip is a simple one. Think about starting a law blog and participating professionally in social media.
It could make a giant difference in your practice.
-Garry J. Wise, Toronto (@wiselaw)
Finding Previous URLs
Today’s Tip is a story: I was asked to find what a particular web-available document would have read in the early 2000s. This is a pretty typical request for a law librarian. The general strategy:
- Is the current version on a website? (yes)
- Is the point in time version archived on that site? (no)
- Plug the site into Internet Archive and locate.
Which works unless the domain for the website has changed. If it has, where do you find the previous website address? Here are a few tips:
- If it is a business or organization that publishes something, look in their publications from the time prior to when their website capture on Internet Archive starts.
- Textbooks on the topic you are interested in (from the time preiod required) may have an appendix that includes websites.
- Historical copies of books like The Canadian Almanac and Directory may have your URL.
- A last resort would be a search of court or tribunal decisions for your target and “www” (remember when we used to put that in a web site address?)
Happy hunting.
Protect Your Data by Putting a Password on Your Screensaver
Activating a password-protected screensaver is a simple and very effective way to prevent an unauthorized person from rifling through the data on a computer or other device that’s been inadvertently left on or lost. All versions of Windows and Apple operating systems allow you to add a password to a screensaver.
Remember to log out of any applications containing sensitive data and lock your screen when you leave your desk, or set a fairly short wait time on your screensaver so that it locks automatically if you step away. BlackBerry, Android, iOS and Windows mobile devices also have an automatic screenlocking feature. Turn it on so prevent anyone that finds your lost or misplaced phone or tablet from accessing the data on it.
Inbox Zero: Unsubscribing (And the Next-Best Option)
Where do all these email alerts, newsletters, updates, sales pitches and unrequested announcements come from?
Inspired by my co-Tipster David Bilinsky’s recent posts on the elusive quest for Inbox Zero, I’ve been in a mood to purge all those unwanted or redundant messages that clutter up my own, perpetual Inbox Five Hundred.
In the last few days alone, I’ve hit unsubscribe and said goodbye forever to emails from REM, Quora, Legendary Motor Cars, Carswell (I know, sacrilege), ManChef, Houzz, Cater Trends, Joel from Buffer, Go Daddy, Facebook, CPD On Time, Digg, NY Times, York University, LawCrossing, Sky Auction and PR Hacker, to name a few.
If I have my way, before very long, only bulk missives from the Law Society, CBA, OBA and my CNN alerts will remain standing.
But if all that manual unsubscribing is just too much bother, here’s a quick tip via LifeHacker – set your email client’s “message rules” or filters to search for the word “unsubscribe,” and direct all emails containing that word to your trash bin automatically. As most unwanted email will contain “unsubscribe,” this is a quick and dirty way to get the spam out of your inbox and en-route to its rightful destination. Note, however, that this filter may capture the occasional email you actually want, so a manual check of your trash folder will be a good idea before a final delete.
Alternatively, if you may want to review all these emails at a later date (a date that will never come, I promise), or are simply an unapologetic digital packrat, create a new folder called MYSPAM and direct these filtered emails there.
It may be just a small step for mankind…
But its a giant step toward Inbox Zero.
-Garry J. Wise, Toronto (@wiselaw)
CourtListener – Access to U.S. Decisions
Thanks to an intriguing post at Bob Ambrogi’s LawSites blog today’s tip is to check out CourtListener for access to US decisions.
CourtListener is a core project of the Free Law Project, a non-profit with the lofty and laudable goals of providing free, public, and permanent access to primary legal materials and to develop, implement, and provide public access to technologies useful for legal research (among other things),
CourtListener has a clean, easy interface, clear messaging on coverage, and the ability to filter by percedential decisions, which they have over 2.2 million of. Check it out.
CourtListener has created the first API for U.S. court opinions. As Bob said: “Essentially what that means is that other computers can talk to Free Law’s computers and use its data and search engine for their own purposes.” Cool that this is available to our U.S. colleagues. CanLII’s API information is here.
Back Up Before You Install Updates to Avoid Data Loss
It is very important to remember that installing updates can unintentionally interfere with the way your computer/device or individual programs/apps on it operate. It is possible that a program/app may not 
operate properly or at all, that data could be lost, or that a device will fail to restart after an update is installed. Creating a restore point (a temporary backup of your configuration and data) and/or making a proper backup of all the programs and data on a device before you install updates can help you recover if there are unanticipated problems. Always remember to back things up before you install updates so you don’t lose any of your data in the event an app or even your device no longer operates properly.
Inbox Zero – Part III
♫ Nothing, now you live with zero, nothing nada
Now you live with zero
Now you live with zero…♫
Music and lyrics by Keyshia Cole, Vidal Davis, Tyler Williams, Guordan Banks, Jessyca Wilson, Robert Williams, recorded by Keyshia Cole.
This post continues our journey towards achieving ‘inbox zero’. This time we are delving into more shall we say, ‘drastic’ ways of dealing with the email avalanche.
- Step 1: Admit it. You are not going to get to those emails that are 2 years old and still sitting in your inbox. In fact if you are facing brass tacks, you are most probably not going to get to those that are a month old either. So what to do? Create a folder called ‘old emails’ and move all those that are at least 3 weeks or a month old into it. Scan the newer ones before doing this to ensure that you are not missing something important first! But by moving the emails out of the inbox into an old email folder you are taking the first step in acknowledging that you are (most probably) never going to deal with these (and they are most likely hopelessly outdated anyway).
- Step 2: Go thru the ones that are left. Delete those that you can. Create a new folder “Reading” for those that are informational but don’t require any response from you. Move all such emails into the “Reading” folder.
- Step 3: Start using Categories in Outlook (). Categories are completely customizable so you can take the standard list and edit them as you wish. I like to create “Urgent”, “Follow Up” (for those that need to be dealt with but are not urgent), “Networking” and “Personal” but you can create such categories as you wish. By using the “Edit” command in Categories you can assign colours to each of the categories so that, for example, “Urgent” is red and “Personal” is blue.
- Step 4: Turn off the new email notification. Remember Psych 101 and Pavlov and his dog? He demonstrated ‘Classical Conditioning‘. We don’t need to be slaves who jump the moment the incoming email message appears or dings! Work on email when you can fit it into your day.
- Step 5: Take emails that will need extended time to deal with and create appointments in your calendar to deal with them. Most email programs will allow you to ‘drag and drop’ an email into your calendar and create an appointment based on the email. If not, you can always ‘block and copy’ the text in the email and insert it into a calendar appointment and move the original email out of your inbox. This way you have committed time to work on these bigger emails.
In our next instalment we will continue with further tips on how to clean up the email avalanche and get you closer to living with zero.
-David J. Bilinsky, Vancouver.
Find the Slide Deck
I gave a presentation today to the CBA Alberta Branch Research Lawyers South section. The slide deck is available on my LinkedIn profile. Posting the slide deck reminded me that interesting bits of information are available in slide decks posted all over the web.
For a slide deck starting point, check out professional associations and organizations past conferences. Try company websites and blogs, lawblogs.ca is a good place to start for firms. SlideShare is a social platform specifically for sharing and searching presentation information.
Don’t believe me that legal people share their slides? Check out this recent post from the All About Information blog.
How to Recognize Your Computer Is Infected With Malware
Ideally you have one or more types of properly updated anti-malware software running on your computers 
and networks. And hopefully that software detects and prevents any malware infections from occurring. However, because anti-malware software may not detect an infection, watch for the symptoms that can indicate a computer is infected with malware. These include:
- It takes longer than usual for your computer to start up, it restarts on its own or doesn’t start up at all;
- It takes a long time for one or more programs to launch;
- Your computer and/or programs frequently lock up or crash;
- Programs are starting and running by themselves;
- Your hard drive runs continuously, even when you aren’t working on the computer;
- Your files or data have disappeared;
- You find files with new or unfamiliar filenames;
- Space on your hard drive(s) is disappearing;
- The homepage on your web browser has changed;
- Your browser starts launching multiple tabs;
- Web pages are slow to load;
- There is a lot of network or web traffic, even when you are not browsing the web or using the computer; and/or
- Parts, or all, of your computer screen look distorted.
If one or more of the above things are happening, make sure your security software is up to date and run it to check for an infection. If the first scan finds nothing, try running a scan with a second product. If the odd behaviours continue or there are other problems, seek technical help.
Auditions for Third Canada-Wide Twitter Moot!
I want to tell her that I love her but the point is prob’ly moot..♫
Lyrics, Music and recorded by Rick Springfield.
West Coast Environmental Law is inviting law students from across Canada to participate in a unique Canadian social media competition!
The “Twitter Moot” will be held on Friday, February 28th, 2014, at 10am PST. This event, now into its third year, will see teams from Law Schools from all across Canada participate in a mock court hearing over the Twitter social media platform, arguing an appeal to the Supreme Twitter Court of Canada. Students are invited to audition – how else? ..by using Twitter – by December 6th, 2013.
“We want to get people talking about mining, Aboriginal Rights and environmental law,” explained Andrew Gage, Staff Lawyer. “This is taking an important legal debate out of the court room and onto Twitter.”
This year’s Twitter Moot will focus on an appeal of Ross River Dena Council v. Yukon, a precedent-setting decision of the Yukon Court of Appeal which last December held that the Territory’s mining laws did not provide for adequate consultation with the Ross River Dena Council.
Similar (although not identical) laws are in place in many of Canada’s provinces, making the case an ideal one for the Twitter Moot to focus on.
The Twitter Moot is scheduled to be held at the same time as North America’s largest Public Interest Environmental Law conference, held each year at the University of Oregon, and will be profiled at the Conference. “This will give the students unparalleled exposure to some of the top environmental lawyers in North America.”
Of course the Twitter Moot will have a Twitter hash tag! The hashtag for the Twitter Moot is #twtmoot.
West Coast Environmental Law made social media history when it held the world’s first Twitter Moot in February 2012. The event was a trending topic in Canada, with an audience in the thousands. The second Twitter Moot was held in November 2012.
West Coast Environmental Law invites inquiries about sponsorship opportunities. For information about how to field a team, visit http://wcel.org/competing-twitter-moot.
For more information contact:
Andrew Gage, Staff Lawyer at 604-601-2506 (Vancouver) or 250-412-9784 (Victoria).
See www.wcel.org/twtmoot for more information.
One thing is for certain – this event is very much a’twitter and not moot at all!
