What kinds of technology and software are top law firms using these days? An annual survey, with response from 130 firms listed on American Lawyer's top 200 firms in the US, shows that law firms continue to enter the information age cautiously.

The survey gives some guide for Bermuda firms in what technology seems to be successful with overseas firms. According to the survey, conducted by American Lawyer (www.americanlawyer.com), technology spending declined by five percent per lawyer for both capital and operating expenses among those surveyed.

The survey found firms have delayed implementing Windows XP, the successor to Windows 2000. A total of 78 firms, or 68%, were still using Windows 2000, while 11 firms had switched to Windows XP. Another 19 firms, or 15 percent of the total, were using Windows NT.

Only 51% of the firms supplied their lawyers with handheld computers or a personal digital assistant. Of those, 84% supplied their lawyers with BlackBerry handhelds, while 5% supplied Palm devices.

"BlackBerrys, handheld wireless e-mail devices, are one fringe benefit that firms are not abandoning," American Lawyer said. "Half of the firms reported buying BlackBerrys. Lawyers like BlackBerrys because the devices have tiny keyboards that are easy to use, and they hook up directly with e-mail at the office. Palm, Inc., has been unable to compete with BlackBerry in the legal market. Lawyers apparently like mobile e-mail more than handheld organisers." Only 13% of the firms provided for the setting up of home offices by their lawyers. Another 2% limited such reimbursement to partners only. In the area of time and billing software, 49 firms, or 38 percent of the total, used Elite, while 29% used CMS Open. Another 18 firms, or 14 percent of the total, used Elite for Windows NT.

InterAction was the most popular software for managing information about clients and contacts. InterAction was used by 64 firms, or 53 percent of those surveyed. Another 18 firms, or 15 percent, used Microsoft's Outlook. Firms used a combination of software to handle litigation. A total of 94 firms, or 73 percent, used Summation. A total of 92 firms, or 71 percent, said they used LiveNote or VideoNote. Access was used by 76 firms, while CaseMap/TimeMap was used by 67 firms. Concordance was used by 64 firms, and Trial Director by 49 firms.

The survey found that Hummingbird Ltd. and iManage Inc. competed for document management software among the firms. iManage's market share rose to 38 percent in 2002 from 32 percent in 2001. Hummingbird held 57 percent of the market.

The survey found that Ontrack Data International Inc. was the chosen vendor for retrieving and organising computer files turned over in discovery.

Ontrack Data was used by 42 firms, or 57 percent of those surveyed, while Electronic Evidence Discovery Inc. was used by 32 firms.

Interestingly about ten firms had implemented e-commerce facilities on their Web sites, charging clients for access, litigation and advice online. Firms generally had one information technology staff on average to 26 lawyers.

On average a firm's IT director will earn US$198,400 this year in total compensation, a fall from US$218,675 reported in 2001. The average firm's technology budget in 2002 also fell to US$3.1 million, or $7,465 per lawyer, from $6.1 million, or $7,845, in 2001.

: For a good read of some of the unique forms journalism is taking on the Internet take a look at the articles produced by the finalists for the Online News Association's annual online journalism awards.

I was one of the screeners for all the submissions that eventually go before the judges in each category. For the record there were 100 screeners and none of my top two choices in the service journalism category made it to the final cut. The winners will be announced on October 18.

There are 15 categories and up to five finalists in each category. Links to the finalists are available at www.onlinejournalismawards.org.

Oh no, not again. Microsoft last week announced new flaws in its Windows operating system that could allow an attacker to take control of a person's personal computer. Three of the flaws relate to the Java Virtual Machine.

"(The flaws) could enable an attacker to gain complete control over a user's system," Microsoft stated in an advisory. "This would enable the attacker to perform any operation that the user could, such as running applications; communicating with web sites; (and) adding, deleting or changing data." Two other flaws relate to the Remote Data Protocol (RDP) used by Windows 2000 and Windows XP. One flaw involves how terminal sessions are encrypted.

Patches for all the flaws can be found at www.microsoft.com under the "Support" section.

The UK government dossier on Iraq can be downloaded online at: www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1.asp. It makes interesting reading.

Tech Tattle deals with issues in technology. Contact Ahmed at editoroffshoreon.com.