August 19, 2008
Law, Legal, India, Indexing, Data Entry, Patents, Law Firm, Coding, Legal Support, Lpo, Legal Processing Outsourcing, Legal Offshoring, Law-scribe, Law Scribe, La
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“The times they are a changing”
The traditional method of an attorney charging his client on the basis of the amount of time it took to perform a certain task will soon be a thing of the past.
This antiquated concept of hourly charging rates, and subsequently recording time, on a time per unit of work undertaken basis, depending on seniority of fee earner, is in the technologically advanced and global age we operate in, absurd.
In the US, contingency fees are the norm in a wide variety of areas. In UK employment law there is also a widespread use of contingency fees, with fixed fees having existed for several years for industrial disease cases and Road Traffic Accident cases with a value of below £10,000.
The question must be asked that if a fixed fee or contingency fee is to be charged, why bother wasting time, recording time? Here in the US firms no longer regard offshoring of legal services and outsourcing as dirty words. Offshoring legal services to common law jurisdiction destinations such as India and South Africa, enables a huge variety of legal work to be carried out at a fraction of the cost of carrying out that same work in-house in the US.
As more and more tasks are offshored firms will simply not be able to charge their client on the basis of an over inflated hourly rate. How can a US Law Firm justify charging a client $800 per hour on a case? In the past this would be on the basis that an experienced partner had conduct of the matter. Today, how much of the “work” would actually be done by the partner, and how would you value the input from everyone else? Do you need to have an hourly rate for every single member of the “team” working on a project, and should everyone be recording the amount of time they spend? Think outside the box a little: How does the IT department who created the case management system and the offshore legal service provider who is carrying out the client’s legal research and coding requirements, bill their time? The straightforward answer is that they don’t. The Law Firms that survive will be those who provide their clients with fixed fees and consign the system of billing and time recording to the history books.
As clients’ demands for greater transparency of charges become more prevalent it will be up to the Law firm to move with the times, to charge for their work on a fixed fee basis and to begin to offshore at the very least, non-core legal services. If they fail to do so they risk losing out to those firms or larger organizations who do embrace these changes. In the UK, “Tesco Law (Ralphs/Walmart Law)” when it arrives, plus on both sides of the Atlantic the currently hitting our computer screens, “internet DIY Law” will further speed up the inevitable changes.
Law Firms need to consider what their core services are. Anything else can be outsourced. Should US and UK Law firms really be wasting associate attorneys’ time in labour intensive, and mind numbingly boring document review projects. Should senior paralegals, be involved in coding and indexing? When did creating huge databases of litigation documentation become “legal work”? As soon as clients understand that this work does not need to be carried out by highly paid US and UK Lawyers, they will no longer accept blindly paying over-inflated hourly rates, on a time recorded basis. They will demand better value for their money and a fixed fee!
Outsourced legal work will no longer be restricted to offshore transcription. When the public realize that for a fraction of the cost their wills, real estate transactions, due diligence and contracts can be draw up and conducted overseas, to the same or better level of quality for a fixed fee, it is not difficult to see where they will turn. They will retain Law Firms who embrace offshoring and fixed fees or simply turn to other more forward thinking legal service providers.
There is an appetite for change in the judiciary. With increasing deregulation many anticipate that the previously mentioned “Tesco/Walmart law” is only round the corner. It would be foolhardy to suggest that such a provider would revert to the traditional time recording technique of charging its potential customers for services provided.
Clients are becoming increasingly aware that excessive hourly rates are simply no longer merited given the generally routine nature of a significant proportion of the legal work carried out on their matters. If one follows the logical conclusion that a fixed fee should be provided to the client for the work to be done, where is the need to time record?
But perhaps most significantly, the advance of technology, the same technology which has enabled us through increasingly more advanced case management systems, to time record effectively, will ultimately see an end to time recording, and indeed billing as we know it. Once lawyers realize that technology enables them to carry out even the more complex legal tasks, at the simple push of a button, in a fraction of the time, then recording time accurately and billing on the basis of this time becomes less and less profitable. The argument that time recording enables managing partners to assess the level of work being carried out by their fee earners also no longer holds true, because the technology in place enables tasks such as standard letters and documentation to be processed in a fraction of the time which would be recorded as single unit for time recording purposes. Those firms that survive will be those who embrace such technology, together with the desires of the client for greater transparency, and provide clients with a fixed fee quotation for the work to be undertaken.
No doubt hourly rates were introduced to reflect the fact that certain tasks would be carried out more effectively by a more senior fee earner who should in turn be more appropriately compensated for his efforts? Firms that continue to thrive will be those who embrace technology, offshore all but non-core legal services, share knowledge with each other, streamline tasks and charge a fixed fee for the work to be undertaken. Senior fee earners are not required to conduct the vast majority of litigation at inflated hourly charge out rates. Senior Lawyers and managers should be out there talking to offshore legal services providers, marketing for business, creating new ventures, clarifying and defining legal issues. The pace at which technology advances is exponential, unless we move with the times in respect of how we charge for the work we do, the client will go somewhere where there is certainty and clarity provided.
.About the Author:
I was formerly a partner at the UK law firm Underwoods Solicitors. Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession 07 refers to Underwoods as “a highly influential flagship firm and model for other firms…It has pioneered offshoring of legal work.” I oversaw the firm’s applications for Investor in People and Lexcel (UK Law Society Quality Standard) accreditation. I also developed a case management system for the offshoring of personal injury cases to South Africa. I immigrated to Los Angeles and joined LawScribe in 2006. I am a regular speaker at legal conferences on outsourcing and offshoring and have had numerous articles published in legal journals on subjects as varied as: death of the hourly rate, liberalization of the Indian legal sector and the ongoing salary hikes by the US and UK’s top law firms. My article calling for Accreditation and Self-Regulation for the Legal Process Outsourcing Industry has been widely acclaimed and published as a white paper by the LPO Network, and the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP). I am a professional member of the IAOP, and Chapter Chair of the IAOP Legal Outsourcing Topic Chapter.
August 17, 2008
Lawyer, Law, Attorney, Admiralty Law, Jones Act, Maritime Lawyer, Maritime Attorney, La
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In this day and age, Admiralty Law seems like a thing of the past to those who are not directly affected by its principles. Also known as maritime law, this principle governs everything from shipping to wharf operations to recreational rules and regulations.
Without Admiralty Law, the waterways and oceans would become a place of pandemonium and “might makes right” seamanship. Obviously, these laws were put in place for a reason.
Despite the fact that many people of this day and age don’t realize the implications of piracy on the waterways, especially international waterways. Piracy falls under the areas of inclusion where Admiralty Law is concerned. All too often those affected by piracy end up feeling powerless against their intruders and never really effectively deal with the impact of piracy.
While the movies may make piracy out to be a beatable force with a little determination and creativity, in reality, a man with a machine gun at your face isn’t something that can be deterred by swinging ape like around on the boom. While most cases of piracy are never prosecuted, there are a few cases on the books that prove that a little evidence and a high quality maritime injury attorney can change the outlook of someone who has been abused by piracy.
Maritime law, or Admiralty Law also extends to disputes regarding recreational accidents. This mean when the uninsured yahoo who has had way too much to drink, anchors in forward, skips the backing down, and launches himself merrily into another beer shouldn’t be surprised when the boats downwind of him rely on a maritime injury attorney to recoup the damages caused by his boat at three in the morning when the wind kicks up and he breaks free.
Of course, breaking free can happen to anyone, but anyone who has spent any time on the water knows that there are preventative measures and there are encouraging measures. Maritime injury lawyers are flooded with cases stemming around those who forgot to take their preventative measures.
Injury at sea is also included under Admiralty Law. This applies mostly to those who make their living on the water in one form or another, as well as to principles of safety involving merchant sea-persons and the U.S. Coast Guard. It also applies to the skipper who is taking an overloaded boat out for a day sail and for whatever reason drifts off into a day dream or takes his attention away from his responsibilities, backwinds the sail, and sends one of his crew members for the day careening into the waters, where if he’s lucky enough to stay conscious he may only have a concussion to deal with.
Maritime injury lawyers usually do a reasonable consultation on these types of cases to determine fault, evidence, and if the case is tri-able in the long run. Injury at sea can be very serious and costly for both recreational boaters and those who earn their paycheck from the water. No injury at sea should go without a consultation by a maritime injury attorney.
Admiralty Law as it applies to the injury at sea goes hand in hand with the Jones Act. The Jones Act was determined to be the ruling government of issues relating to injuries that occur on the water or along the water’s edge basically, that was a direct influence involving monetary gain. This means that dock workers, commercial fishermen, merchant sea-persons, and even barge construction crews all fall under the Jones Act protection laws.
If a worker is injured while earning a living at sea or a sea related activity, they really should immediately contact a maritime injury lawyer to determine if their case is relevant to the Jones Act. If it is, they should acquire specialized representation, as there are different rules and regulations regarding the Jones Act as it applies to injured workers when compared to regular worker’s compensation. These differences are very important and they should be explained by a down to earth maritime injury lawyer.
Of course, there are thousands of situations that apply to the Jones Act and Admiralty Law. There simply isn’t the capacity to cover them all in one article, or even a dozen for that matter. The bottom line is pretty simple, if it relates to an injury at sea or other damage caused by negligence or a preventable situation, the type of lawyer a person chooses does matter.
While a recreational sailor can hold a drunken anchoring job accountable for damages to his boat under either the Admiralty Law or through a regular attorney for negligent behavior. The laws and standards of proof are a bit different from each other and one should consider very carefully before deciding which way to go. Just because as a society we are more familiar with lawsuit derived from negligence claims doesn’t mean that this is the better alternative.
.About the Author:
Nick Johnson is lead counsel with Johnson Law Group. Johnson represents plaintiffs in many states and focuses on cases involving maritime injury, maritime contracts, and the Jones Act Law. Call Nick Johnson at 1-888-311-5522 or visit http://www.johnsonlawgroup.com
August 16, 2008
Divorce, Lawyer, Removal, Minor Child, Law, La, Child
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A court can grant leave or permission to a person who has custody of a minor child to remove the minor child from the current jurisdiction to live in another jurisdiction.
The determining factor on whether or not to allow removal is the best interest of the child standard. The party seeking the right to remove has the burden of showing that the removal is in the best interest of the minor child. To temporarily remove a child from the jurisdiction, the party doing the removal shall inform the other parent or parent’s attorney. The removing party shall also provide telephone contact information as well as a prospective date of return. If the removal is to another part of the same state, the custodial party is not required to seek court permission. There are several factors that are considered when determining the child’s best interest and include: Will the move enhance the life of the child and of the custodial parent? Is the removal simply an effort to frustrate visitation with the non-custodial parent? What is the motive of the non-custodial parent in frustrating the removal? The court must consider the child’s interest in having a healthy can close relationship with both parents as well as other family members. The visitation rights of the non-custodial parent must be considered. Will visitation be realistic and feasible?
A full consideration of the benefits that a child can derive from the financial and emotional well-being of a custodial parent is required. Courts may allow removal when the custodial parent remarries a person from another state. The child may benefit by having the custodial parent closer to the new spouse.
A better job opportunity has also been used as grounds for removal. The increased earnings will allow for a better lifestyle for the child. Currently, there has been a trend against removal. The emphasis seems to be placed more directly on the best interest of the child and less on the opportunity of the custodial parent.
If the non-custodial parent has been highly involved in the child’s life, removal would be very difficult to obtain and would provide a hardship to the entire family. The conduct of the non-custodial parent is a major factor in whether or not to allow removal. If the non-custodial parent is absent from the child’s life, the court will be more likely to grant the removal.
.About the Author:
David M. Siegel is an attorney practicing divorce and family law. Additional information is available at http://www.divorce-lawyers-newyork.com .
August 15, 2008
Injury, Health, Accidents, Safety, Claims
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In todays ever changing business environment businesses need to make more and more profit to satisfy shareholders and stakeholders. This can cause massive pressure on Senior Management to drive the business forward, sometimes looking to cut costs across the board.
This can prove a dangerous tactic particularly where Health & Safety is concerned, with large manufacturing organizations and standard office environments they have a duty of care to look after the well-being of their staff whilst at their place of work. Employees should be aware that their employers need to provide them with a safe working environment, free of hazard and danger.
Employers should operate a rigorous induction policy for all staff, particularly if they work in manufacturing environments, pointing out all hazards and no-go areas. Each employee should sign a document confirming they have been informed of the Company’s policies on Health & Safety.
Health & Safety doesn’t just mean keeping the floor area clean, but also a duty to ensure staff are trained and supervised to operate equipment and unencumbered from doing their daily tasks. Employee’s should not be worried about taking their employers to task for negligence or not providing a safe environment to work in, being properly trained or not having the proper tools or equipment in good order to perform their work.
Personal injury lawyers are continually liaising with Companies who do not provide an adequate working environment, experience shows that this can cover, accidents and trips in the building, defective machinery, poor training and inadequate supervision. Businesses are being warned to ensure they comply with all the relative Health at Work legislation, or risk litigation from their employees injured whilst under their care.
With no win no fee lawyers operating more extensively in this area employees are certainly more likely to make enquiries when injured during the working day. Research is showing that the number of workplace claims is rising, with employers counting the cost for inadequate safety measures.
.About the Author:
Martin Hughes is a Director of CityView Media who own and run Work Injury Claims Compensation, No Win No Fee Claims and Cheaper Car Insurance.
August 13, 2008
Divorce, Lawyer, Court, Law, La, Child, Custody, Visitation
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One of the difficult aspects of child custody cases is the fact the inexperience most people have in the matter. Uncertainty with family-related matters, especially legal ones, can leave you constantly wondering if you are doing the right things.
But there are several outlets you can utilize for child custody advice. Here is a listing of the best places to start.
Your Lawyer
The most obvious starting point for advice should be your lawyer. Since custody is a legal issue, you need to have access to a professional who knows the intricacies of family law. Make sure that your lawyer has experience with custody cases. If your lawyer does not have this experience, than ask for a referral of someone who does.
County Programs
If you live near a city, then it is likely that you will find a county department that deals exclusively with family issues and child welfare. This can be a great resource for learning more about your options. Most county offices are tax-subsidized, which means you can utilize their services at no cost. Some of the services you will find include free literature, workshops, and the option to work with an individual case worker.
The Library
The library is another free resource that will help you learn and understand the process involved with child custody cases. Don’t be intimidated with the abundance of information available. The staff librarians are masters at searching through resources. Be prepared with questions on the topics you are searching for and ask for their assistance. You will be amazed at the information you can access at no charge.
Build a Network
Always remember that you are not the only person going through this uncertain time in your life. There are thousands of others with the same questions as you, and thousands more who have successfully won their custody case. Look for meeting groups in your area where you can network with these people. This can include single parent groups, divorce support groups, and even PTA meetings. Wherever parents meet you will always find a segment of the population that has experienced custody issues.
Internet Resources
The internet is full of resources for divorced parents. Of course you should always proceed cautiously on the advice of strangers, but there is no reason you can’t use the internet as a source for information and inspiration. Outside of reading informative articles, you can also network on one of the many forums related to divorce and marriage issues. Practically every parent who is involved with marriage problems has a custody concern, making these forums a great place to ask questions.
You can’t expect to know everything about child custody, so don’t let the pressure of the situation bog you down. Instead, make a resolution to learn as much as you can. Start researching and building relationships with people who have experience in the matter. You will begin to feel more comfortable as you learn more about the subject.
.About the Author:
You should never rely solely on a lawyer to win your case for you. Visit ObtainCustody.com to learn how to win child custody.
August 7, 2008
Negligence, Claim Compensation, Negligence Claim, Negligence Compensation
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General Damages is the negligence claim compensation that is paid for the pain and suffering caused as a result of the injury and loss of physical ability or ongoing pain and discomfort if there is a continuing disability.
This figure is calculated by considering previous awards of compensation made by the courts and after consideration of guidelines set out in a government publication used in assessing damages called ‘The Judicial Studies Guidelines’.
Any person who has sustained any kind/type of any Injury may be entitled to claim compensation, so long as there has been negligence on the part of another party, be it an employer, practitioner, land owner, landlord or motor vehicle driver to name but a few. Compensation for medical negligence may include loss of past and future income, care for the past and care for the future, medical expenses and prescriptions, pain and suffering including psychological damage, loss of amenities of life, reduced employment prospects and legal expenses.
In general terms a legal claim for medical negligence compensation must be settled or ongoing legal proceedings must have been issued within three years of the injury having been sustained. Failure to comply with this rule usually means that legal action will become statute barred and it will not be possible to obtain compensation for the injury however there are some exceptions to this rule. In claims for minors, that is those under the age of 18 years, the three year limitation period does not start running until the claimant’s eighteenth birthday which means that the time limit runs until the eve of the claimants twenty first birthday. For people who have mental incapacity the time often never starts to run and negligence claims can be made for compensation for injury throughout that person’s life even if the injury occurred many years ago.
In clinical negligence claim cases the limitation period begins to run from the date when the injury was first discovered which may be many years after the negligent act by the healthcare provider. Judges have discretion to override the time limits in appropriate circumstances. The circumstances in which this discretion is exercised are rare however if a claim is outside the normal limitation period consideration should be given to the criteria necessary for an application to the court to extend the period. In law, in order to establish negligence, three conditions must be met: The person who is being held responsible for the negligence must owe the victim a “duty of care”. That duty of care must have been breached. This means that the person responsible failed to provide a standard of education that would have been expected of him or her. As a result of that breach, the victim has suffered identifiable loss.
Despite the fact that negligence claims are notoriously harder to win as opposed to road accidents or accidents at work there are many legal firms that actually specialize in these types of litigation. We are not generally ones to give hard advice on this site but I feel confident saying to you “shop around” when it comes to clinical negligence claims. If you don’t feel that the person you are speaking to have a good background in your type of case then move on to someone else.
.About the Author:
Negligence claims can be made within three years from the date of the accident