August 1, 2011
Easy Task Management
By Clayton Hasbrook
Image by jetalone via Flickr
We’re currently using HiTask for our task management needs. It’s very intuitive and just seems to work better than Outlook and other standalone products. Benefits we’ve seen so far:
- Easily accessible – you can login anywhere you have internet
- Drag and drop tasks (you can assign tasks to other users this way, or simply to just rearrange your own tasks)
- It has a comment feature within each task
- Users get emails whenever a task has a new comment or a new task has been assigned
- There’s also an iPhone app for it that is easy to use
- There’s very little learning curve with it
- The printing feature works well too
July 26, 2011
WealthDocx and ElderDocx offer cloud-based solution
By Clayton HasbrookI’m still waiting for an out of the box solution for personal injury attorneys in the cloud, but for estate planning attorneys, WealthDocx® and ElderDocx® Drafting Systems Move to Cloud-Based Delivery:
In addition to remote on-demand access, Internet-based document drafting provides attorneys with greater security for client documents and minimizes the need for disaster recovery systems required in a physical office environment. Other advantages include automated, real-time software updates and enhancements that require no manual installation or intervention; the ability for attorneys and staff to work in a collaborative environment while in separate locations; and the elimination of locally installed ancillary software technologies such as Word, HotDocs, and Windows emulation software for Mac OS users.
July 21, 2011
Whiplash Injuries and Medical Issues
By Clayton HasbrookContrary to what insurance companies like us to believe, connective tissue injuries can be quite painful and long-lasting. Stephen M. Foreman and Arthur C. Croft in Whiplash Injuries, The Cervical Acceleration/Deceleration Syndrome, clearly state (on page 360):
Outcome/prognostic studies suggest that from 12 to 100% of whiplash victims will continue to be symptomatic long after the injury (see the later section on outcome in this chapter). Most of the authors of the studies mentioned in that section followed patients for 6 months to as long as 2 years. Clinical experience teaches us that patients who remain symptomatic at 1-year followup are not likely to recover fully. Review of the many studies in this category reveal that, in general, rear impact injuries carry a worse prognosis than do side or frontal impact injuries.
July 5, 2011
Mediation Client Letter
By Clayton HasbrookHere’s our standard form letter, Mediation Client Letter, we send to clients about an upcoming mediation. Enjoy!
June 30, 2011
Oklahoma Slip & Fall Discovery Requests
By Clayton HasbrookHere’s some interrogatories and requests for production discovery requests we use for slip and fall cases here in Oklahoma City. Obviously, we change them depending on the facts of the particular case.
June 2, 2011
Continuing Trend With Car Insurance Companies
By Clayton HasbrookI talked with a mediator last week about car accident lawsuits/settlements in general. This won’t come as a surprise to most car accident attorneys, but he confirmed what we’ve been experiencing for a while. In general, they are not offering a reasonable settlement (if they ever offer a settlement) until shortly before a trial date.
So, basically:
- No reasonable offers are made before a claimant hires an attorney
- Claimant is then forced to hire an attorney to try to get some type of fair compensation (most people hate lawsuits and don’t want to get involved with one)
- The insurance company continues “low ball” settlement offers
- A lawsuit is then filed, and the case proceeds on the trial docket
- The insurance company continues the low settlement offers – even at mediation (which in turn becomes a waste of time and money because they didn’t have any plans to actually settle the case at that time)
June 1, 2011
Watching videos/podcasts faster
By Clayton HasbrookI listen/watch a variety of podcasts and videos every week. I’m a fan of Wall Street Journal This Morning. I’ve listened to it off and on for about 6 months. One of the nice advantages of listening to it on my iPhone is that I can play it at twice the normal speed. I can listen to it, and oftentimes, ESPN’s PTI before I get to work in the mornings.
I stumbled upon Enounce MySpeed about a month ago. I use it just about everyday. With it I can adjust the play speed of videos on the internet. Youtube works great with it, as well as educational video on most lawyer websites. Enounce offers a free 7 day trial and at less than $30, it’s certainly worth the price.
I watched an hour long CLE podcast yesterday in about 30 minutes (it wasn’t for CLE credit, but the lecture was informative for my law practice). I’ve also found that my attention is better with a faster speed.
Here’s a demo Enounce posted almost two years ago:
I listen/watch a variety of podcasts and videos every week. I’m a fan of Wall Street Journal This Morning. I’ve listened to it off and on for about 6 months. One of the nice advantages of listening to it on my iPhone is that I can play it at twice the normal speed. I can listen to it, and oftentimes, ESPN’s PTI before I get to work in the mornings.
I stumbled upon Enounce MySpeed about a month ago. I use it just about everyday. With it I can adjust the play speed of videos on the internet. Youtube works great with it, as well as educational video on most lawyer websites. Enounce offers a free 7 day trial and at less than $30, it’s certainly worth the price.
I watched an hour long CLE podcast yesterday in about 30 minutes (it wasn’t for CLE credit, but the lecture was informative for my law practice).
Here’s a demo Enounce posted almost two years ago:
May 18, 2011
Oklahoma Pain and Suffering Rant
By Clayton HasbrookPardon the rant today, but I just saw at BusinessWeek.com that Tennesee has jumped on the bandwagon to limit damages for people. They are placing a cap of $750k on non-economic damages.
This begs the question:
Is an Oklahoman’s pain worth less than someone in another state?
Evidently.
Our state politicians (which also begs the question whose interests they value – insurance companies or people) recently passed legislation to cap non-economic damages at $350k. Note that the url I linked to is a NewsOK/Oklahoman newspaper editorial. Their argument is a new one: lawyers shouldn’t sue to overturn something that is unconstitutional.
May 9, 2011
Jury Fee at Motion to Enter?
By Clayton HasbrookDo I have to pay the jury fee at the time I file a motion to enter or can I pay it later?
Assuming you still prefer a jury trial, you’ll need to get it paid before the pre-trial conference. Take a look at 12 O.S. § 152.1(B). The case may settle between the date the motion to enter is filed and the pre-trial conference, so there’s no hurry to pay the $349 immediately.
April 30, 2011
Divorce Discourse: Excellent blog on Law Tech, Marketing, and Management
By Clayton Hasbrook
Image via CrunchBase
I’ve found myself reading Lee Rosen’s blog, Divorce Discourse, just about every day. It’s geared towards family law and divorce attorneys, but it really applies to attorneys of all practice areas.
I found his post on How to Work in Your Pajamas especially interesting. They are not only moving everything to the cloud, but shifting their office to a “distributed workforce” model. They’re getting rid of the traditional office space for attorneys.
The part about their case management software really caught my interest. They are using Salesforce and NetDocuments. Mind you, this is powerful software, but it isn’t made for law firms “out of the box.” I’m not aware of any other law firm out there that is doing this. We’re using Salesforce (and NetDocs) but it is customized by Advologix.