Law Office Technology

Advice for using Hosted Exchange

I have been getting a lot of questions about Hosted Exchange recently.  Law Office Technology has been using it for over a year and selling and setting it for client sites for the past 6 months.  If you are going to use hosted exchange, I recommend buying it from a company that does not force you to enter in your email password every time you open up Outlook.  I had a client that purchased hosted exchange that did that, and every time they opened Amicus, it would crash outlook.  Fortunately the hosted exchange that we resell does not ask you for the username or password when you log into outlook.  If you are linking ay product with outlook, whether it be PCLaw, Amicus, TimeMatters, Worldox, ect, you must make sure that you do not have to enter in your password every time. 

New Screencast: Create Precedent in Amicus Attorney

http://www.lawot.com/screencast/Create%20Precedant/Amicus%20Precedant%20Resize.htm

Automatically Starting and Stopping the Amicus PE Service

Every once in a while it is a good ideal to start and stop the Amicus PE Service.  Sometimes Amicus Premium will stop working and no one can get in.  At that point, the only fix is to restart the Amicus PE Service.  I find that a lot of firms just restart the entire server which in default restarts the Amicus PE Service as well as all the other services. 

To make this easier, I have created a Visual Basic Script which will stop and then start the Amicus PE Service.  I have labeled it Click to Fix Amicus.vbs and leave it on the client’s server desktop.  BE AWARE!!!  If you run this while Amicus is working, it will kick everyone out of Amicus.  This should only be run when no one can get into Amicus Premium Edition.  This will not work with Small Firm. 

The Code I used is below.  Just paste it into notepad and rename it Click to Fix Amicus.vbs OR you can download it here:  https://www.box.net/shared/5ljijk6k4x

Option Explicit
Dim objWMIService, objItem, objService
Dim colListOfServices, strComputer, strService, intSleep
strComputer = "."
intSleep = 15000

'On Error Resume Next
' NB strService is case sensitive.
strService = " 'Amicus PE Service' "
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
& "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" _
& strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colListOfServices = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("Select * from Win32_Service Where Name ="_
& strService & " ")
For Each objService in colListOfServices
objService.StopService()
WSCript.Sleep intSleep
objService.StartService()
Next
WScript.Quit

 

I used this site to help me create it: http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vbscript/wmi_services.htm#Example_2_-_Script_to_Stop,_then_Start_a_Windows_Service_

 

Amicus and PCLaw 10 Link issues

PCLaw 10 is out and the good folks at Gavel and Gown have updated 2 possible issues with the link.  This should be a  moot point for Lawot clients, because we always wait 3 months to after a new version comes out, right?

Issue #21166: Upon initialization of the link, some Billing Rate Values for Amicus Timekeepers mapped to PCLaw Lawyers will not synchronize from Amicus to PCLaw. Note: This issue does not occur for Rate Categories that ship by default with PCLaw.

Issue #21167: Upon initialization of the link, Rate Values for any Amicus Activity Codes and Task-Based Billing Task Codes mapped to PCLaw Task Codes will not synchronize from Amicus to PCLaw. This issue also occurs when adding a new Amicus Billing Rate to PCLaw (as a Rate Category) via the link wizard.

New Practice Management Implementation Sheet

Created this Practice Management Implementation Sheet, that should be could for anyone implementing some practice management software, weather it is TimeMatters, Clio, Practicemaster, Amicus or anything else.

 

https://www.box.net/shared/static/9h06y5vhjc.pdf

Add Outlook Signature to Amicus Premium

 

Go to Communications and go to Actions –> Outlook Email –> Set Outlook Signature

 

This will your outlook signature from Amicus

2nd Annual Louisiana Solo and Small Firm Conference

Many thanks to Adriana Linares who took these pictures of Tom O’Conner and I goofing off in the Amicus Booth.  New Orleans attorney Doug Goff pretended to be interested in Amicus (He has had Amicus for years).  I was lucky to have the wall to projected on, which during the breaks all the exhibitors and I watched march madness.

 

Converting Amicus V to Amicus Premium (SQL Editions) 57%

Just a little FYI when you run the conversion.  Amicus seems to get stuck at 57%.  Just ride it out, it will keep moving again.

A Review of Legal Tech

I was at LegalTech this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and have several observations: 

• E-Discovery is in trouble.  Most legal shows that I got to, 60-75% of the vendors are E-Discovery firm.  This did some to be the case this year.   I get the sense that a lot of these E-Discovery firms are either going under or getting acquired by larger firms. 
• Mobile if a hot topic.  I worked the Amicus Booth while I was out the show and most people who came up were interested in Amicus Mobile which runs on Blackberry and Windows Mobile.
• Attendance was down around 15% which probably good with this economy.  In my take besides Corporate Law,  most other types of practices are doing well.  Most of the attorneys I met were with firms 50 or less.
• Kobe can shoot.  I got to watch him score 61 points at Madison Square Guardian which is the most points a single player has scored there.
• Twitter is becoming more popular.  I heard a lot of people talking about twitter.  I think that I am going to have to start using twitter more.
• Amicus Accounting has come a long way.  I have not had much experience with the product.  Frankly Law Office Technology has been so busy that we have not had a lot of time to learn new products.  I got to see Amicus Accounting manager George Alves demo the product and I definaltely will start making a more considered effort to become an expert at the product.
• Timeslips does not have a booth at LegalTech.  That is pretty telling to me.  Dump TimeSlips and use PCLaw or Amicus Accounting. 
• Everyone loved my tablet.  Why is there no booth with Tablet PCs.  Tom O’Conner and I were talking about how it is very interesting on that Tablet’s have never taking off in the legal industry.  I will be speaking at the LSBA Solo and Small Firm Conference with James the Tablet Attorney.  Maybe he can shed some light on the subject.
• JetBlue is the best airlines ever.  They arrived a half hour going and coming, have a great selection of snacks, and I got to watch DirectTV.  However I am ticked off that they do not have ABC on DirectTV.  I was planning on watching Lost on my way home. 

Going On and Offline in Amicus Small Firm Edition

If you are a laptop user that has Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition, V, or V+, you can take your Amicus with you when you leave the office.  While you are at your office, you can go to Office –> Go Offline.   You will have the option of   copying your document templates down for use.  If you do not use Office –> Go Offline and bring your laptop away from the office, you will still be offline.

When you get back to the office you simply choose Go Online and your Amicus Database will sync with the database on your firm’s  server.  If Amicus asks you to, merge all data.  Sometimes this process can take an hour long and Not Responding does not mean that Amicus is not doing anything. 

 

Troubleshooting

Sometimes you cannot go online because Amicus tell you a record is locked or in use by someone.  If that happens, everyone needs to exit Amicus.  Someone at your firm needs to open up Amicus Administrator and go to Users –> Recovery Functions –> Unlock All Data. 

 

After this process runs, you should be able to get back into Amicus and go online.