Both the ABA and the Am Law have come out with recent surveys confirming that nearly half of the lawyers using a smartphone choose iPhone and over 90% of tablet-lawyers are using an iPad.  No surprise.  But are they using their iDevices correctly? Check out this one-page guide for lawyers …

Florida lawyers: a brief request shameless plug to vote for me in the Florida Trend Legal Elite 2013. Thanks for your help. The link is here. Christopher B Hopkins / Akerman Senterfitt / West Palm Beach.

Thanks to the Palm Beach County Bar Association’s Solo & Small Firm Practitioners Committee for the invitation to speak on “How to Effectively Use Technology in Your Practice.” We focused on iPhone/iPad apps for your practice, mediation, and trial as well as general social media discovery and marketing tips. Today’s …

This article from the October 2012 Palm Beach Bar Bulletin will explain that PDF documents are not “fixed” but, instead, can be easily modified on your iPhone or iPad. It gives instructions to learn, in 10 minutes, how to sign documents on the road. Have clients retain you in one …

I recently spoke at the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) South Florida Third Annual CLE Conference, along with fellow Akerman lawyers, Michael Marsh and Brian Miller, about iPhone app development issues for inhouse counsel (more colorfully titled, “CYA (Cover Your Apps).”   Just in time for you to upgrade to …

A federal court in Illinois recently approved a party’s interception of user data on public WiFi systems at hotels, coffee shops, restaurants, supermarkets and other commercial outlets.  This practice, known as sniffing, involves someone with a laptop, a Riverbed AiPcap Nx packet capture adapter (or equivalent), and free Wireshark network …

The Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday that it was grounds for disqualification if a judge was Facebook-friends with the prosecutor.  In Pierre Domville v. State of Florida, a criminal defendant moved to disqualify Judge Andrew Siegel because the prosecutor was one of the judge’s friends on Facebook.  The …

The FAA is seeking comments about its current policy which airlines follow regarding passenger use of personal electronic devices.  Yes, that list that flight attendants rattle off (which surprisingly still includes “iPods” and “Gameboys”).  So apparently it is time for review and comment. The FAA’s call for comments is in …

The Florida Supreme Court has required e-service in Florida Civil cases by September 1.  The change-of-date order is here.  The underlying order is here. Confused?  Here’s sources of information so you can prepare your firm over the next month. The Florida Bar News had these relevant articles:  “Court Sets E-filing, …

Can a lawyer operate a pure internet-only “virtual law firm” where counsel never speaks or meets with the client face-to-face? The California State Bar recently issued opinion 2012-184 saying that virtual law offices (“VLO’s”) are acceptable with some considerations. The hypothetical setting is that clients would sign up for transactional, …

Considering using “cloud” storage for your law firm?  Or do you already use services like DropBox and GoogleDrive to transmit large attachments via email links?  Increasingly, lawyers like everyone else are moving towards the cloud.  Is it safe? What do you need to know before you commit?  If you already …

The case of Darrel Bilbrey v. David Myers and First Pentecostal, Etc. from Florida’s Fifth DCA may be a significant case as to the “church autonomy doctrine” but also yielded a reference to an interesting internet tool:  faith-based internet monitoring. Here’s how this came up in a court opinion: the …

The Palm Beach County Bar Association presents a 2-hr lunch seminar, “iPhone & iPad Apps for Lawyers,” on Friday, June 15, 2012. Come learn tips about your device that you likely did not know. Better still, learn of over 60 unusual-but-not-obscure apps for lawyers.  We do not cover obvious apps like …

The practice of using search engines and social media to research jurors has existed for several years (arising about the time we stopped using the phrase, “Web 2.0”).  In 2009, I wrote a “how to guide” explaining to lawyers how to use social media to research jurors — in a …

In Juror Number One v. Superior Court of Sacramento County v. Royster et al., a juror reportedly entered upwards of 30 Facebook posts during trial.  Some were reportedly deleted.  The issue of juror misconduct was raised.  The trial court ordered that the juror execute a consent form “sufficient to satisfy …