High-tech products can help lawyers in small firms.

Major legal publishers offer a growing family of reasonably priced high-technology products and services for sole practitioners and lawyers in small firms. Working with large, established legal publishers has certain advantages. Customers are familiar with the company, have confidence in its financial viability, and know it has adequate customer support capabilities. West Publishing Co., for example, has been a leader in providing computer-related research resources.

WESTLAW 

Most lawyers are familiar WESTLAW, the company's computer-assisted legal research service. West continues to enhance WESTLAW with capabilities like natural-language searching or WIN (an acronym for "WESTLAW is natural"). This allows users to perform searches using standard English questions rather than arcane strings of code. Other improvements include hypertext (invisible) finks that tie together significant words in different documents, allowing you to hop directly from the case you are viewing to the relevant portion of a cited case or publication, or from a case headnote to key numbers.

WESTLAW also now allows you to print images contained within cases (such as drawings, charts, and complex tables) and to print two columns of type at a time. The combination of WIN technology, the key-number system, headnotes, and case summaries makes online searching more accurate and also more comprehensive.

WESTLAW has also added WordPerfect integration to its capabilities. This means that while you are working in a WordPerfect for Windows document, you can perform WESTLAW research using special communications software called WESTMATE for Windows. Activating the WESTLAW command listed on the WordPerfect "button bar" along the edge of the screen automatically starts your WESTLAW session. You can download (copy) the results of your WESTLAW research right into the WordPerfect document.

WESTMATE is well organized and easy to use, ensuring good online searching results in little time. The software has versions for IBM-type PCs, with or without Windows, and for Apple's Macintosh computers.

CD-ROM 

West has been a leader in providing topical libraries on CD-ROM disks.(3) These include compendiums of case law, digests, statutes and regulations, treatises, and related materials on particular areas of law (for example, employment law). More recently, West has added case law CD-ROM disks for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as state statutes.

CD-ROM research has caught on in the legal profession because it is so cost-effective. CD-ROM disks are permanent and look like music CDs; to access the information recorded on them, you use a CD-ROM disk drive attached to your computer.

Using CD-ROM for basic research can reduce your online time and your reliance on hard-copy (printed) publications. Once you have purchased the disk, you can do your basic research on hour futher expense. Instead of worrying about accumulating charges while you are hooked up to online research services like WESTLAW or LEXIS/NEXIS, you can browse through the information on the CD-ROM disk, change your mind, revise your strategy, and refine your project at your leisure.

Then when you have honed your research task, you dial up WESTLAW via your modem, log on, and make certain you have the most current information. Your WESTLAW session will be short, productive, and relatively inexpensive.

In addition to the cases themselves, the disks include the customary West editorial enhancements--a case synopsis, headnotes, library references, hypertext linking, and key-number searching. You can "cut and paste" (copy) information from the CD-ROM into briefs, memorandums of law, or files on your computer. In effect you can create your own reference libraries for your personal use. The search software used with West's CD-ROM products is called Premise. It has been revised, and the new version is expected to come to market by the end of this year. Versions for MS-DOS, Windows, and Macintosh computers will be available.

WESTfax

Another new service, WESTfax, finds and transmits court opinions and other legal authorities to your fax machine. You must use a touch-tone telephone. Just dial a toll-free number and punch in a citation. WESTfax will accept a West reporter citation, an official citation, or a WESTLAW citation. If you need to talk to a live operator, just hit *# and you'll get one. The opinion will be faxed to you almost immediately.

Here's how it works: When you punch in the citation, West's computers take over, find the document on WESTLAW, reformat it, and send it to you via fax. It the document is too old to be on WESTLAW or is otherwise not available on computer, researchers will work on finding the document and then fax it to you.

For smaller firms that can't justify the cost of a WESTLAW account and lawyers who are far from a library, WESTfax is an excellent and reasonably priced service. The cost is $7 plus $1.50 per page, and you get an estimate of the cost while you're on the telephone. Charges are billed to your West account or to your MasterCard or Visa card.

Desktop Practice Systems

Among the most significant new developments at West are the Desktop Practice Systems. West's president, Vance Opperman, a practicing trial attorney for almost 30 years, knows from experience the needs of sole practitioners and lawyers in small firms, and these products are designed to fill those needs. I found the products easy to use and potentially valuable.

There are three different product lines under West's desktop practice systems: FAST Disks, document-assembly products, and Express Forms. They are only available for IBM-type PCs at this time. All can be used with a local-area network LAN).

* Fast Access Searchable Text (FAST) Disks. These are reference works recorded on floppy disks. They allow you to electronically search West publications such as the Bankruptcy Code, Black's Law Dictionary, the Federal Civil Judicial Procedure and Rules, Federal Civil Practice Forms-Pleadings and Pre-Trial Procedures, the Federal Criminal Code and Rules, and Rules and Forms.(4)

You can instantly call up the text of a FAST Disk while you are using Word-Perfect or any other software program, then search for material on a particular topic using familiar WESTLAW-like commands or menu-assisted commands. You can also jump instantly, via hypertext links, to documents cited in the reference work. After locating the information you wanted, you can then easily copy the text directly to your word-processing document.

Prices start at $99 for each title, with updates starting at $40 per year. Another great feature is that you can license West's software called Personal Files FAST directly from the publisher. Then you can use it to create your own tailor-made databases from different sources--from publications, your own files, and so on.

* Document-assembly products. Most document-assembly software on the market is either too complex to master easily or requires too much time for coding your legal documents md forms. In the past, some excellent document-assembly products-Autolaw and Blankety-Blank come to mind--were discontinued due to insufficient demand. The publishers were just too small to finance marketing efforts or stay afloat until word of mouth brought them enough customers.

Good news! West now provides reasonably priced document-assembly software. These products were created specifically with the sole practitioner and small law firm in mind. To make the products work, West licensed the tried-and-true Overdrive document-assembly software and then added many improvements to it.

Products available include Federal Jury Instructions, Federal Litigation Document Assembly, Trusts and Wills Document Assembly, and a growing family of state-specific products. You can edit the standard forms provided and create your own modified forms library. The cost of the Trusts and Wills product, for example, is $299-in my view, a good value.

To start, you can either select a particular form and fill in its blanks with the client's name, address, and so on, or you can fill out the quick general questionnaire with client-specific information. Your computer will be able to quickly merge this information into the appropriate spots in any of the other standard forms you choose. You can then print the filled-out forms directly or copy them into your regular word-processing program so you can edit them further.

Once you have created one document for a client, specific information will be retained by the program. When you prepare another document for the same client, you will not need to type in this information all over again. The computer will automatically find it and merge it into all this client's subsequent documents.

The initial versions of these products are designed to be very simple and straightforward, so even computerphobic attorneys will be able to use them. Expert computer users may find them unsophisticated. But I think West is using the right approach: Get the first version into the hands of attorneys, and the demand for more powerful and sophisticated products will probably then follow.

* Express Forms. Libraries of ready-to-edit forms on floppy disks are not new, but West is showing a commitment to make them permanent.(5) At the present time, West offers standard forms in these federal civil practice areas:

1. Commencement of Actions 

2. Complaints and Answers

3. Discovery and Motion Practice

4. Third-party Pleadings

West also publishes a growing family of state-specific legal forms on floppy disk.

These forms are essentially straight text files that will work with any word-processing program. The concept is a solid one. All you do is pop the Express Forms floppy disk into your computer, select the form you want, and begin to work on it. The products are described as providing "50 forms for 50 bucks," but there are usually, more than 50 forms for each practice area.

Important Resources

Most young lawyers now become familiar with WESTLAW in law school. The company's products and services are getting more powerful and easier to use. The CD-ROM products provide large quantities of information at reasonable prices. WESTfax provides an important resource that many lawyers will find useful. The Desktop Practice Systems are the wave of the future. These capabilities could be important to your law practice.

Notes

(1) West Publishing Co., 610 Opperman Drive, Eagan, MN 55123-1308. For product information, call the following toll-free numbers: WESTLAW and Desktop Practice Systems, [phone]; CD-ROM, [phone]; WESTfax, [phone]. (2) See Paul Bernstein, The Natural Way to Search, TRIAL, June 1993, at 84. (3) West's CD-ROM topical libraries are Bankruptcy, Court-Martial Reports, Federal Practice and Procedure, Federal Securities, Federal Taxation, Government Contracts, Military Justice Reporter and Social Security. West also offers CD-ROM versions of the United States Code, Annotated; state case law for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico; and state statutes for a growing number of states. (4) Numerous state-specific FAST Disks, Express Forms, and document-assembly products arc Already available. For details about products for your state, contact West Publishing Co., supra note 1. (5) The first product offering legal forms on floppy disk was Automated Legal Forms (ALF), published by Callaghan & Co. in the early 1980s. The product offered fill-in-the-blanks text files for nine areas of law in various word-processing formats, including Wang, Lanier, Vydec, and IBM'S Displaywriter. ALF is no longer available on disk, but the forms arc still published on NewsNet, an online database.

Paul Bernstein, a Chicago lawyer, is director of law office automation at Friedman, Eisenstein, Raemer & Schwartz. He is the author of Computers for Lawyers (ATLA Press 1992). The opinions expressed in this column are the author's and do not reflect an endorsement of any product by TRIAL or ATLA.