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Friday, May 09, 2003
My Shingle interviews Jay Foonberg on starting a practice MyShingle.com's Carolyn Elefant interviews Jay Foonberg, the guru of solo and small-firm lawyers and author of How to Start and Build a Law Practice. ABA site offers tax tips for consumers The American Bar Association Section of Taxation has launched a Web site for consumers and small businesses, Tax Tips 4 U. It provides tax tips for individual taxpayers, charitable and non-profit organizations, and small businesses. It also provides links to other sources of consumer tax information. Thursday, May 08, 2003
eFax cracks down on customers' usage I have used the eFax free service since at least 1999, probably longer. In fact, I have used it so long that I had an eFax number with one of those hard-to-get "local" exchanges. Recently, I received a notice from eFax stating: "When you signed up for your Free account, you agreed to the eFax Customer Agreement, which states the following: 'As a Free Service Customer, [you] may receive a limited number of faxes in your e-mail.' We consider a limited number of faxes to be up to 20 pages a month. In the past three months, you averaged 40 or more pages at this Fax number." The notice went on to say that I would have to upgrade to a paid account or have my fax service suspended. Not long after, they suspended me. The problem with this is that, when I signed up, there was not a word in the customer agreement about page limits. Apparently, they added that fairly recently and never notified me of the change. On top of that, I received very few faxes via efax, most of them a page or two, although last month I did receive one unsolicited 40-pager. I received mostly junk faxes sent through eFax, which, apparently, eFax counts towards the quota they never told me about in the first place. When I called customer service and explained all this to a representative, he dismissed me, saying the only way I could continue my number was if I signed up for a paid account. As for the junk faxes, he explained those were necessary to offset the cost of the free service. I have since heard from two other lawyers who received similar messages regarding the free service. One wrote to a legal listserv that he received a 29-page fax from a client one day, then a message from eFax the next telling him his usage was too high and that he would have to convert to the paid service or be cut off. I also heard from one paying subscriber who received a message telling him his usage was too high – although he conceded it had been. There is no such thing as a free lunch, of course. But the original eFax model was to bring in revenue through advertising. Users of free eFax accounts would have to first click through a paid advertisement before viewing a fax. More to the point, this is no way to treat customers. eFax is, of course, free to change its business model and its terms of service. But it should do so in a manner that respects its customers, not through heavy-handed tactics. What is the alternative to eFax? Several lawyers recommend MaxEmail. I have not tried it, but I will now. Wednesday, May 07, 2003
A search engine for law-related blogs Chad Williamson of Detod Communications has launched the beta version of Blawg Search, a search engine for law-related blogs. It allows you to search the full text of a number of blawgs and to view all postings for a selected blawg. The front page aggregates the latest blawg headlines. Detod is a company that has built online communities for the Oklahoma Bar Association and the National Association of Bar Executives. Williamson says Detod is also planning to launch "a legal portal like no other" at detod.com. He welcomes comments on Blawg Search. Web resources on knowledge management Sabrina Pacifici is so on top of things that she scooped me on blogging my own story. Five essential search sites for solos My picks of the five essential search sites for solos, written for Solo, the newsletter of the General Practice, Solo, and Small Firm Section of the American Bar Association. Tuesday, May 06, 2003
UDRP database offers searching of domain-dispute decisions A new Web resource provides free access to archived decisions regarding domain name dispute cases. The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy Database provides access to decisions issued in accordance with the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The UDRP database was jointly developed by the the UMass Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution, the Markle Foundation, Cornell's Legal Information Institute and The Online Public Disputes Project. International Compliance Association unveils Web site The International Compliance Association, a non-profit professional organization dedicated to the furtherance of best compliance and anti-money-laundering practices in the financial services sector, launched a new Web site. According to its sites, the Birmingham, England-based ICA "seeks to transcend national boundaries by educating and supporting compliance and anti money laundering professionals globally, through the provision of internationally recognized qualifications, a dedicated news service, member information exchange and training." IP Web site serves as companion to redesigned magazine American Lawyer Media yesterday introduced a redesigned IP Law & Business magazine, and, along with it, a redesigned IP Law & Business Web site, both targeted to in-house legal professionals and outside attorneys responsible for protecting and managing corporate intellectual property assets. The magazine is a streamlined version of the magazine formerly titled IP Worldwide. May's cover story (which appears not yet to be on the Web site) features results from the magazine's third annual Patent Litigation Survey, which ranks the law firms that filed the most patent cases last year. (Disclosure: I am a former employee of American Lawyer Media and continue to write and edit for ALM publications.) Founders of new site say they are fed up with lawyers Citizens for Reducing the Impact of Lawyers on America, which describes itself as "a group of ordinary citizens that is fed up with the destructive and self-serving work of so much of the legal profession in America," launched its Web site today. CFRILA is dedicated to the proposition that "the legal system has, over time, been perverted from its original goals much to the detriment of American society." A statement said the group "plans multiple, sustained campaigns to fix this problem." |
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