Lawyering, Communicating and Faxing: A New Way

www.ecommercelawyer.com

By: Alan S. Goldberg

A lawyer using modern computer technology to make the practice of law more efficient is faced with many choices. In the Microsoft Windows environment alone there are thousands of program available, and thousands more are available for the IBM OS2, Apple and Unix users.

But after cutting through all of the hype and making some basic judgments about real life benefits that are available, lawyering and computer technology present at least several easy to learn and cost-effective ways of doing things better. Among them is the use of on-line electronic mail and facsimile transmission to provide a substitute for dictation, central faxing and the time and effort that it ordinarily takes to communicate with someone outside of the law firm.

Although there are many providers of on-line communication services. one seems to stand out: MCIMail, with both electronic mail and facsimile services available, makes communication fast, easy and responsive to the modern demands of the lawyering process.

Think for a moment about what most lawyers do most of the time: they communicate. And then think for a moment about how most lawyers communicate: either by voice or with letters and memoranda. Either dictation and stenography (the least efficient method) or dictation using a voice recording mechanism (better) or typing using a word processing program without the intervention of anyone else (best). The most efficient way to transmit brief communications could be to use MCIMail to create and send written communications.

More and more written lawyering communications are delivered via an overnight delivery service or via facsimile technology, instead of by first class mail. But even each of the non-mail methods requires a back and forth process of paper creation, revision, and hand carrying to a central fax room where a hard copy of the communication is fed into a fax machine for transmission. Along each step of the way, the lawyer and an assistant will be dealing with papers and messengers and the time it takes to move the paper to and from one desk to another, all to the end of enabling the lawyer to communicate with another lawyer or someone else.

Instead, the use of MCIMail can save time, avoid a continuing stream of paper deliveries, and minimize costs. The alternative of having an office network feature that permits faxing from a lawyer's or secretary’s desktop computer provides neither the greater convenience nor the flexibility of MCIMail. Here is how MCIMail works.

First of all, the lawyer should have access to MCIMail using the lawyer's desktop computer and a modem connected to an external analog telephone line. With most law firms moving to a Microsoft Windows environment, MCIMail can most efficiently be used by obtaining a program called Mailroom that automatically takes care of calling the MCIMail toll-free 800 telephone number. sending an electronic message from the lawyer's computer to MCIMail, and receiving messages that are sent to the lawyer via MCIMail or the Internet.

Creating the message can be accomplished either within a word processing program or within Mailroom. If a word processing program is used (with a major benefit being familiarity with the program and availability of a spell checking feature, although the most recent version of Mailroom now has a spell checking feature), the document must be saved as an ASCII or plain DOS text document without line breaks. After creating the document using a word processing program, the document can be imported into the Mailroom program.

Because proofreading a document that appears on a video monitor is a challenging task and often results in mistakes being made. it is wise to print a copy of a preliminary draft of the document before placing the document in final form for sending via MCIMail.

The Mailroom program enables the user to insert a "Re:” subject, a primary addressee, and "copy" addressees. MCIMail also permits the user to insert a client/matter charge code before sending the message, so that a record can be maintained of the cost of sending each MCIMail message. In order to speed up the process of sending messages, the user can create lists of frequent addressees and designate particular addressees as fax recipients. In other words, when creating a specified addressee using a shortcut name for that addressee, the user can insert "(fax)” and thereby direct MCIMail automatically to fax the message to the fax telephone number of the addressees.

Rather than having to wait for a central fax room to send the fax or, if the user has a fax computer program, waiting for that program to obtain a connection with the addressee's fax telephone number, the user can rely on MCIMail to continue to try to reach the addressee's fax machine telephone line. This both saves user time and avoids the drain on computer resources that fax sending can impose, particularly if the addressee's fax machine telephone line is busy and the fax program line to try repeatedly to reach the addressee.

When the fax message is delivered, MCIMail provides both a fax transmittal cover sheet and, if requested, a letterhead of the user's design and even a facsimile signature. Alternative letterheads and signatures can be provided if desired.

One of the most convenient features of MCIMail faxing is that MCIMail retains copies of outgoing and incoming messages for a week or so on its own computer. When a message is sent via MCIMail, MCIMail retains a "virtual desk" that can be accessed by the user from wherever the user might be and with whatever computer the user might be using at the time. The user will be able to review recent outgoing and incoming messages, and these messages can be retrieved and placed on the user's computer, laptop or otherwise. And note that user access to MCIMail requires the use of a password, in order to enhance security.

This desktop feature can come in very handy when a user is away from the office and would like to review a previously sent message and perhaps edit and resent a new version of that message. The retrieval process is rapid and enables the user to avoid having to be concerned about transferring copies of documents created on the office desktop to a laptop or floppy disk when time is short and travel is imminent.

The use of MCIMail for faxing documents imposes certain filing chores if the usual procedures of most law firms are to be followed. When creating a message to be faxed via MCIMail. the user must also create a file copy at the same time. While the file copy will not look exactly like the faxed version insofar as its graphic appearance is concerned, the message will be the same. All the user need do is use the print feature of Mailroom and a copy of the message will be printed out using whatever printer is connected to the desktop computer.

If MCIMail is being used outside of the office and no printer in connected to the laptop on which the message is being created and sent, the user can either use one of the now portable printers such as the Pandas that weighs little more than one pound, or fax a copy of the message to a hotel fax machine (so long as the message is not intended to be confidential), or fax a copy back to the law firm's fax machine. There will, of course, be a copy of the message on the laptop computer and on the virtual MCIMail desktop for a limited period of time, and thus a file copy could also be created at the end of a trip.

At the end of each month, the user will receive a bill setting forth each email or fax message that was sent, along with a billing code if the user inserted the same when the email or message was. This listing is helpful if the users wants to keep a record of each email and fax message that is send. The user will also receive an email message from MCIMail when a fax message is delivered to the addressee's fax machine. If for some reason the fax machine does not receive the fax, MCIMail will tell you that, for example, their was a voice answer or the fax machine telephone number was busy or there was no connection with the fax machine even though the telephone was answered.

There are, of course, other electronic mail services available to the lawyer. CompuServe and America Online offer email and faxing. But both usually require the user to find a local telephone number and neither are primarily designed for electronic mail or have the virtual desktop feature. In addition, America Online limits faxes to sixty lines of text; with MCIMail, there is no limit.

As the foregoing indicates, the use of MCIMail for faxing communications will enable the technologically friendly lawyer to be able to eliminate many steps along the way and to use the time saved for the many other things that a busy lawyer must do each day. And while MCIMail is not for every lawyer (yes, you must know how to type, and some lawyers believe that they can talk and dictate faster than typing), for some MCIMail is made to order to prevent a professional life from being in disorder.

While it is hard to come to the realization that the old ways of communicating are a burden and not a benefit, practice and experience will lead to acceptance. Indeed, this article was created on a laptop computer, and faxed to the author'soffice using MCIMail fax transmission. It works well for the author --- and it can work well for you. What are you waiting for?

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12/14/97