Kevin+Miles

**Virtual Law Practice Homework Assignment 8.**
 * Virtual Law Practice Homework Assignment 9.**


 * 1) Find the definition for unauthorized practice of law for your jurisdiction and at least one other state.
 * 2) Put links to these into your homework wiki page.
 * 3) Find three news articles or blog posts on the web describing actual cases of unauthorized practice of law (and read them). Put links into the homework wiki. Look especially for situations where the unauthorized practice of law involved an online activity like a website, social network or email.

FLORIDA Unauthorized Practice of Law []
 * Part 1 - one other state; Part 2 with links.**
 * 4 RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT **** 4-5 LAW FIRMS AND ASSOCIATIONS **
 * // RULE 4-5.5 UNLICENSED PRACTICE OF LAW; MULTIJURISDICTIONAL PRACTICE OF LAW //**** (a) Practice of Law ** . A lawyer shall not practice law in a jurisdiction other than the lawyer’s home state, in violation of the regulation of the legal profession in that jurisdiction, or in violation of the regulation of the legal profession in the lawyer’s home state or assist another in doing so. ** (b) **** Prohibited Conduct ** . A lawyer who is not admitted to practice in Florida shall not:

TEXAS Unauthorized Practice of Law [] "The practice of law is defined by statutes and case law.
 * Part 1 - my state; Part 2 with links.**

 [|Section 81.101 of the Texas Government Code] states:

(a) In this chapter the "practice of law" means the preparation of a pleading or other document incident to an action or special proceeding or the management of the action or proceeding on behalf of a client before a judge in court as well as a service rendered out of court, including the giving of advice or the rendering of any service requiring the use of legal skill or knowledge, such as preparing a will, contract, or other instrument, the legal effect of which under the facts and conclusions involved must be carefully determined.

(b) The definition in this section is not exclusive and does not deprive the judicial branch of the power and authority under both this chapter and the adjudicated cases to determine whether other services and acts not enumerated may constitute the practice of law.

(c) In this chapter, the "practice of law" does not include the design, creation, publication, distribution, display, or sale, including publication, distribution, display, or sale by means of an Internet web site, of written materials, books, forms, computer software, or similar products if the products clearly and conspicuously state that the products are not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. This subsection does not authorize the use of the products or similar media in violation of Chapter 83 and does not affect the applicability or enforceability of that chapter.

The above statute does not provide an exhaustive list of what constitutes the practice of law. The Texas Supreme Court has held that the courts ultimately decide what is the practice of law.

 [|Section 81.102 of the Texas Government Code] states who may practice law in Texas:

(a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), a person may not practice law in this state unless the person is a member of the state bar.

(b) The supreme court may promulgate rules prescribing the procedure for limited practice of law by:

(1) attorneys licensed in another jurisdiction;

(2) bona fide law students; and

(3) unlicensed graduate students who are attending or have attended a law school approved by the supreme court.

Other statutes also regulate the practice of law.

 [|Section 83.001(a) of the Texas Government Code] prohibits a "person, other than a person described in Subsection (b), may not charge or receive, either directly or indirectly, any compensation for all or any part of the preparation of a legal instrument affecting title to real property, including a deed, deed of trust, mortgage, and transfer or release of lien. Subsection (b) exempts licensed attorneys, real estate brokers or salesmen and mineral property lease transactions.

 [|Section 38.122 of the Texas Penal Code] prohibits a person from holding himself out to be a lawyer unless licensed to practice law if it is done with an intent to obtain an economic benefit.

<span style="font-family: verdana,tahoma,arial;"> [|Section 38.123 of the Texas Penal Code] prohibits a person from taking certain actions with respect to personal injury claims if done with an intent to obtain an economic benefit."

<span style="font-family: verdana,tahoma,arial;">//Unauthorized Practice Committee v. Cortez//, 692 S.W.2d 47 (Tex. 1985): the courts decide whether an activity is the practice of law; selecting and preparing immigration forms constitutes the practice of law.

<span style="font-family: verdana,tahoma,arial;">//Crain v. Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee//, 11 S.W.3d 328 (Tex.App. - Houston [1st Dist.] 1999, pet. den'd), cert denied, 532 U.S. 1067, 150 L. Ed. 2d 211, 121 S. Ct. 2218 (2001): preparing and filing mechanic's lien affidavits constitutes the practice of law.

<span style="font-family: verdana,tahoma,arial;">//Greene v. Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee//, 883 S.W.2d 293 (Tex.App. - Dallas 1994, no writ): preparing and sending demand letters on personal injury and property damage claims and negotiating and settling the claims with insurance companies constitutes the practice of law.

<span style="font-family: verdana,tahoma,arial;">//Fadia v. Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee//, 830 S.W.2d 162, 165 (Tex. App.-Dallas 1992, writ denied): selling will forms and manuals constitutes the practice of law.

<span style="font-family: verdana,tahoma,arial;">//Brown v. Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee//, 742 S.W.2d 34 (Tex. App.--Dallas 1987, writ denied): contracting to represent persons with regard to personal injury and property damage claims constitutes the practice of law.


 * Part 3 - News stories regarding online Unauthorized Practice of Law**
 * 1) []Seller of Online Legal Forms Settles Unauthorized Practice of Law Suit
 * 2) []'Notario' pleads guilty to tax evasion, illegal law practice
 * 3) [] Unauthorized Practice Draws Reprimand

**Virtual Law Practice Homework Assignment 7.** 1) Write an analysis describing your impressions of how well the A2J interface works (or doesn’t) and how well it will work if it gets scaled up to larger and more complicated legal documents and situations. I did not find this to work very well, as my approach seems to be "groomed" by Microsoft interfaces. The idea is great, but the actual execution is clunky. Scaling up would mean that the complications would increase. Although I am a techie, I don't relate well to the A2J interface. 2) More and more people are accessing the web via smartphones. How should A2J look or act different if it is going to run on the smaller screen of a smartphone? Are there any killer features that it should have? Are there any features, that if missing, would prevent people from using A2J as a smartphone app? Two things hit me here. One is confidentiality in terms of being in an open area, and second, working or reading on a very small piece of real estate. I am a contrarian; just because we can shrink our screens doesn't mean it will make work easier. Plus, programming for the small screen means overhead for the developer, which means more cost for the consumer.

**Virtual Law Practice Homework Assignment 6.**


 * CONTRACT STANDARDIZATION**


 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',sans-serif;">Find (at least) two EULAs from any website that has user contributed content (i.e. social networking sites, comments, upload pictures, etc.)
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',sans-serif;">Find the clause(s) that talk about ownership/license/rights of the <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',sans-serif; text-decoration: underline;">**user-submitted content** <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',sans-serif;">.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',sans-serif;">Copy the clauses (NOT the entire EULA) into the homework wiki and answer the following questions:

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Are there similar components between the two (or more) clauses? How are they the same? How are they different?

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Write a standard clause that uses the similar elements from the EULAs you analyzed. For areas that are dis-similar, include both options in parentheses.

**Virtual Law Practice Homework Assignment 5.** Case law: Texas Supreme Court: @http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/opinions/opinionsearch.asp Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: @http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/opinions/opinionsearch.asp Texas Court of Appeals: Div. 1; Div. 2; Div. 3; Div. 4; Div. 5; Div. 6; Div. 7; Div. 8; Div. 9; Div. 10; Div. 11; Div. 12; Div. 13; Div. 14

Statutes and Regulations: Statutes: @http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/ Texas Register Archive: @http://texinfo.library.unt.edu/texasregister/ Texas Register - Current: @http://www.sos.state.tx.us/texreg/pdf/currview/index.shtml Administrative code: @http://www.sos.state.tx.us/tac/

**Virtual Law Practice Homework Assignment 4.**


 * UNBDUNDLING LEGAL SERVICES / LIMITED SCOPE REPRESENTATION**


 * 1) Define two (2) discrete tasks that could be “unbundled” from different areas of law practice
 * Preparing a brief.
 * Filing specific documents from the normal bundle.

2. Define a task that lends itself to being converted into a “digital application?” such as a website, smart phone app or downloadable program.
 * A calendar of events for each client that is shared between the attorney and the client.

3. List some of the risks (at least three) involved in “unbundling legal services?”
 * Clients could misunderstand the true scope of the service, thinking a preliminary filing represents the entire representation.
 * Clients not informing the attorney that he is using one document with another attorney.
 * Competition for specific documents, perhaps leading to a retail price war.

4. Think of a “digital application” that could automate a legal task, AND bundled with legal advice to be sold for a fixed fee? (re-bundling concept). Describe it in your homework.
 * A hotdocs-type service with basic templates which could be made available to the client for creating a corporation, LLC or other entity. After the attorney and client hold an interview, the client goes into another room to complete the form. Then the attorney reviews it and suggests modifications. Once perfected, the client files it with the state-level secretary of state.

**Virtual Law Practice Homework Assignment 3.** Visit the three court websites – (1) county court, (2) highest state court (e.g. state supreme court) and (3) federal district court in your jurisdiction (or pick a jurisdiction) and find anything you can about their support for e-filing. Also look to see if the court websites provide an online docket/calendar or if they provide forms that can be used online or downloaded and printed.
 * TECHNOLOGY AND THE COURTS**

Answer the following questions in your homework wiki… 1. Does the court support efiling? If yes, what is the best URL? > All attorneys must file all documents with the Court through the Texas.gov electronic filing system. To use the electronic filing system you must first choose an electronic filing service provider and register. Please choose an electronic filing service providerand register today. > General information about efiling. []
 * 1) Dallas County. Yes, through CaseFileExpress.com.
 * 2) The Supreme Court of Texas. Yes. We use two services although there are several. [] and CaseFileExpress.com.
 * 1) United States District Court, Northern District of Texas. Yes. []

2. Does the court support efiling for self-representing litigants?
 * 1) Dallas County. No
 * 2) The Supreme Court of Texas. No.
 * 3) United States District Court, Northern District of Texas. No

3. Does the court website have an online docket or calendar? (if yes, include a link)
 * 1) Dallas County. Yes. [|http://www.dallascounty.org]This provides searches by docket number, litigant, and attorney. Plus, with the docket number actual PDF documents are available.
 * 2) The Supreme Court of Texas. Yes, modified. []
 * 3) United States District Court, Northern District of Texas. Yes, via Pacer, which is restricted. []

4. Does the court website have any forms that can be used online or downloaded? (if yes, provide a link) > Here is an example of a Civil Case Information Sheet. []
 * 1) Dallas County. Yes, but selected forms.[].
 * 1) The Supreme Court of Texas. Yes, but limited. Parental Notification Rules and Forms. []
 * 2) United States District Court, Northern District of Texas. Yes. [] and for a complaint, this link works. []

**Virtual Law Practice Homework Assignment 2.**


 * Five Benefits or Advantages of Document Automation for Lawyers.**
 * 1) Standardization
 * 2) Reduced costs
 * 3) Flexibility
 * 4) Improved profitability
 * 5) Benchmarking your document


 * Five Disadvantages of document automation**
 * 1) New software costs and maintenance
 * 2) Amount of time for initial training, and for learning new features from upgrades.
 * 3) Security and storage of the software and documents
 * 4) Possible coding errors
 * 5) Software company goes out of business

My impressions of the two document generating packages. 1. I tested WSGR and Founders Workbench and thought they both performed well. I am impressed with both but feel more comfortable with Founders Workbench. 2. Minor changes have to be made to the post-generated document, not while they are in the document generator. 3. I can see how document generating packages will become more valuable as the market accepts them. New software features will surely develop.

**Virtual Law Practice Homework Assignment 1**.


 * **5 Good Things** || **5 Things that Could Go Wrong** ||
 * Smaller office || Client access to their files ||
 * Lower real estate costs || Accessibility to the lawyer by clients ||
 * Depending on the virtual law firm size, lower online subscription costs || Advertising transforming into barratry ||
 * Online v. person-to-person representation. || Protecting client confidentiality from computer hacking ||
 * Bundled v. unbundled legal services || Infrastructure not keeping up with growth ||

Three definitions of Virtual Law Practice or e-lawyering or digital law firm.

[] Marc Lauritsen, co-chair of the eLawyering Task Force in an article in Law Practice Magazine in January-February, 2004, p. 36, succinctly defined eLawyering as: “all the ways in which lawyers can do their work using the Web and associated technologies. These include new ways to communicate and collaborate with clients, prospective clients and other lawyers, produce documents, settle disputes and manage legal knowledge. Think of a lawyering verb—interview, investigate, counsel, draft, advocate, analyze, negotiate, manage and so forth—and there are corresponding electronic tools and techniques.” [] According to earlier sources, a virtual law firm shares the following characteristics: Has a stable core group of attorneys; Has established collaborative relationships with other, specialized law firms that possess expertise that’s occasionally needed; Is glued together with appropriate computer and telecommunications technology such as project management software or a Virtual Law Office (VLO) Expands and reduces personnel as needed.[2] [] What is a Virtual Law Firm? A “virtual law firm” or “virtual law office” is characterized by access by the firm’s clients to a password protected and secure web space where both the attorney and client may interact and legal services are consumed by the client. More specifically a virtual law firm can be defined as having a secure client portal that is accessible from the law firm’s web site. The "client portal" is what enables a law firm to have a law practice on the Web. Through this secure portal, for example, a client can have private discussions of legal matters online, purchase legal advice online, assemble documents through the web browser, download and upload of documents for review, and pay legal bills online.