2006 Legal Technology Survey Report released

Possibly as a response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, 54 percent of lawyers say that they have a disaster recovery plan in place, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year's survey. Lawyers are also increasing their use of essential security measures such as firewalls and spyware prevention software, that help guard against data loss and exposure. This is according to the recently released 2006 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report.

As part of the survey, more than 2,500 ABA lawyer members in private practice across the nation returned questionnaires related to litigation and courtroom technology, Web and communication technology, online research, law office technology and mobile lawyering. New questions in the 2006 survey explore blogging, voice over internet protocol, syndicated Web content – known as RSS – and knowledge management.

The survey included representation from a wide cross section of law firm sizes, with some 22 percent being solo practitioners and 23 percent working in large firms consisting of 100 or more lawyers. Respondents came from many different practice areas and serve in a variety of roles from partner to associates to solo practitioners and more. While 70 percent of the respondents to the 2006 survey are men, only 51 percent of respondents under the age of 40 are men.

The survey covers issues including technology training, budgeting, hardware and software purchases, as well as where and how lawyers use technology.

The top five sources respondents use to find legal technology information, the survey found, are print resources (73 percent), Web sites (59 percent), one's peers (50 percent), staff (38 percent) and continuing legal education programs (33 percent).

Lawyers' use of personal digital assistants has steadily grown, with many lawyers responding that they use their mobile devices nearly everywhere they go and utilize the contacts and calendar functions most frequently. About one-quarter of respondents' firms plan to purchase PDAs, smartphones or BlackBerrys within the next six months, according to the survey. This is an increase of 15 percent from the 2005 survey.

The survey is an annual project of the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, which provides lawyers, bar associations, law schools and other legal organizations with information on technology and its use in the practice of law. The five volumes of the survey include Law Office Technology, Litigation and Courtroom Technology, Web and Communication Technology, Online Research and Mobile Lawyers. Trend Reports, which summarize each volume, are free to ABA members as a PDF download.

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