As I noted here recently, I have an article in the current issue of the ABA Journal about the use of non-lawyers to help close the access to justice gap by allowing them to provide legal advice in limited circumstances. A particular focus of the article is Washington state’s limited license legal technician…

Here is a round-up of notable legal technology news from the past week.

Dictation is good for you. Typing documents directly is less efficient for lawyers than dictating them, according to tests performed by BigHand and Nuance. “Tests show that lawyers are typically three times more efficient when verbalizing their ideas rather…

If you are in the Dallas area, join me next week for a panel discussion on Alternative Legal Service Providers and the Future of Law. Sponsored by Texas A&M University School of Law, the panel will discuss the role of alternative legal…

If ever there was a Swiss Army knife of an app for lawyers, it is the Wolfram Lawyer’s Professional Assistant. This multi-function app for iPad and iPhone can perform calendar computations, fee calculations, settlement calculations, interest-rate calculations and more. Use it to research historical weather information or population demographics.…

I reported here yesterday that the MyCase practice management platform had added foldering to its document management capabilities. As it turns out, another practice management platform, LexisNexis Firm Manager, also rolled out foldering yesterday.

Firm Manager now allows users to create…

In December, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released its study of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program, finding that the CIA engaged in unlawful torture, cover-ups, wrongful detention and unauthorized dissemination of classified information. This week on the legal affairs podcast Lawyer 2 Lawyer, we discuss the legal and policy issues surrounding…

The cloud-based practice management application MyCase has added a foldering feature to make it easier for its users to manage their documents, it announced today.

The feature allows users to create folders within their cases and use the…

Shpoonkle came in with a bang but went out with a whimper. When the reverse-auction site for legal services launched in March 2011, its aggressive PR campaign positioned it as the next-new thing, and many in the media bought in to Shpoonkle’s hype. The Wall Street Journal called it “eBay for lawyers.” VentureBeat…

Microsoft is quietly preparing to formally launch a new practice management product for lawyers in the coming months. The product was scheduled to be announced this month but the announcement has been delayed. It now appears that the product will be rolled out at or around the time of ABA Techshow in April.…

Here is a round-up of notable news from recent weeks:

Electronic filing at the Supreme Court. If you think of the Supreme Court as a judicial luddite, think again. In his year-end report on the federal judiciary, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. revealed that the court is currently developing its own electronic…

A Boston-based developer of legal apps, Lawyer-Apps, has partnered with the Uniform Law Commission, the organization that drafts uniform laws and promotes their adoption by states, to release an iPad app, Family Law, that provides mobile access to the full text of the ULC’s family law…

Michelle Cummings is on track to be one of Washington’s first LLLTs.

In March, Washington state’s first class of limited license legal technicians will sit for a licensing exam. Those who pass will be licensed by the state to provide legal advice and assistance to clients in domestic relations without the supervision of a…