SCOTIS Technology Newsletter: October/November 1999, Volume 1, Number 2

Contents

New LTRC Director

Legal XML: Standards for Electronic Legal Documents

Online CLE Developments

We hope you find this newsletter informative and useful.We appreciate any feedback; contact the Legal Technology Resource Center at ltrc@abanet.org or (312)988-5465.

New LTRC Director
It gives me great pleasure to welcome David Whelan as the new Director of the Legal Technology Resource Center beginning on November 29, 1999. David has been in charge of Computing and Technology Services at the Underwood Law Library of Southern Methodist University School of Law. He earned a BA degree in Political Science from the University of Iowa, a JD from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law, and most recently an MLS degree from the University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences.

David is a member of the ABA's Section of Law Practice Management and was active in the Law Student Division. He is also a member of the American Association of Law Libraries.

David will be working together with Marianne Nimmerrichter, Director of Information Systems, in providing staff support to SCOTIS.

We at SCOTIS look forward to having David on our team.
Armando Lasa-Ferrer
[Top]

Legal XML: Standards for Electronic Legal Documents
Electronic Commerce is changing the way industries do business. As the legal industry moves from paper-based systems to electronic systems, the rational and efficient exchange of electronic legal information will depend on open, non-proprietary technical standards. Standards are particularly important in the merging electronic court filing industry. Indeed, the need for open standards was the impetus for the SCOTIS’ 1998 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) resolution (http://www.abanet.org/tech/ltrc/ldirec.html).

Founded in November 1998, “Legal XML” (http://www.legalxml.org/) is a non-profit organization presently comprised of over 140 national and international volunteer members from private industry, non-profit organizations, government, and academia. The mission of Legal XML is to develop open, nonproprietary technical standards for legal documents and related software applications.

XML’s Benefits
As the name suggests, Legal XML is focused on creating standards using a technology called “XML.” XML is a technical standard created and promulgated by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (http://www.w3.org/). XML can be used to create “smart” documents. “Smart” XML documents contain fielded information that can be easily and automatically extracted by software. Automatic extraction eliminates manual data entry and provides the opportunity for automated information processing. The result is less cost and time to manage legal information.

The barrier to creating XML for legal documents is defining a standard set of legal “fields” (properly called “elements” and colloquially called “tags”). For example, if several creative people were to independently create legal “tags” the result would be many incompatible tags for the same information. For example, <CourtFiling>, <COURT_ FILING>, and <filing>, are all different and incompatible tags in XML, but they convey the same or similar meaning to a legal mind.

Legal XML
Legal XML seeks to bring legal and technical minds together in one forum to create a compatible set of open, nonproprietary standards. It has working groups tasked to create standards for Electronic Court Filing, Public Law, Contracts, and Transcripts. There are also members interested in Citations, Case Law, and secure and legally binding Electronic Signatures.

The group conducts most of its business on email mailing lists. Its first face-to-face meeting followed the National Center for State Court’s Court Technology Conference (CTC6) in September 1999. Legal XML recently finalized work on its Operating Rules, an intellectual property policy, and a legal infrastructure. A membership application is available at http://www.legalxml.org/MembershipNew/ or by contacting the author.

Legal XML is actively pursuing participation by SCOTIS.

Winchel “Todd” Vincent III
Attorney and Technical Researcher
Project Director, E-CT-Filing Project
Georgia State University
J. Mack Robinson College of Business,
eCommerce Institute and College of Law
Email: winchel@mindspring.com
Web: http://gsulaw.gsu.edu/gsuecp/
[Top]

Online CLE Developments
The Center for Continuing Legal Education continually strives to find new and effective methods to deliver valuable CLE to the legal community. The newest method is streaming technology via the Internet allowing a user to watch or listen to video or audio over the Internet without having to download large files.

Using e-commerce technology in combination with streaming, the Center is currently developing Webcasting. Webcasting uses Video or Audio in combination with an electronic slideshow and downloadable course materials to create a simulation of the live event directly over the Internet. The Center and the Section of Real Property, Probate & Trust Law have currently developed “The Fundamentals of Commercial Leasing” which is based on a successful program which was hosted at the 1999 Annual Meeting.

Another innovation using streaming technology and e-commerce is the Online Partner. The Online Partner uses a combination of text, audio and video along with questions to engage and educate the participant via the Internet. A participant need only register for the program and instantly can begin the lesson. During the hour-long course, participants see demonstrations and are quizzed periodically with immediate feedback. The current Online Partner is “Video Depositions: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You-I.”

Besides these e-commerce developments, the Center is also using streaming to present the monthly no cost ABA member benefit-ABA Connection-to members that could not attend the live teleconference. Members visit http://www.abanet.org/cle/connection.html and enter their ABA member number to listen to the previous month’s program.

In addition, the Center also employs threaded discussions and downloadable course materials to effectively enhance both live meetings and other distance delivery vehicles such as VideoConferences. If you would like to work with the Center on an electronic presentation, contact Peter Glowacki at 312/988-6342 or glowackp@staff.abanet.org.
[Top]

New Online Redbook
The American Bar Association Directory, often referred to as the “Redbook”, is a directory of individuals in leadership positions within the Association and related organizations.

The Redbook is now available online for read-only viewing to members and employees of the American Bar Association and includes the following features:

Flexible search capabilities including: geographical, alphabetical, and by Committee
Link to Change of Address form for immediate processing
Data pulled directly from the Membership System so Redbook changes and additions are immediately available in the online version.
E-mail hyperlinks to facilitate immediate communication directly from the Redbook.

Accessing the Online Redbook
For ABA Members:
The Online Redbook will be made available through the ABA Member Only Area. To access this area members need to enter their ABA Constituent ID (your member number) and password. To view the Online Redbook from the ABA Homepage, click on ABA Members and then on the Redbook Online link under the section “About the ABA.”
For ABA Employees:
Internal ABA staff can access the Online Redbook from their desktop, using Internet Explorer and the URL http://abanet/redbook.
Updates/Corrections:
Updates and corrections to the Online Redbook are made through the Committee Administration System using the same process as updates for the hardcopy version. To make this process as easy as possible there is an online change of address form and list of Redbook Staff Liaisons.
[Top]

Calling All Liaisons
Please consider attending the next SCOTIS meeting on Friday, December 3, 1999, in Chicago.

If you cannot attend, please send in topics for any agenda items that your entity would like SCOTIS to discuss. SCOTIS would also appreciate receiving position papers for any technology programs entities would like to promote.

Send any agenda recommendations or position papers to Erica Washington (312/988-5465 or washinge@staff.abanet.org). Also contact Erica for details about attending the meeting.
[Top]

Correction
We apologize for printing the incorrect e-mail address for Samuel Guiberson in the last issue. The correct address is guiberson@guiberson.com.
[Top]