BLOODY SUNDAY SYSTEM WINS SCL AWARD
At a ceremony, at the Law Society's Hall in London last week, the Society for Computers & Law announced the winner of its prestigious annual award for the best use of technology in a legal application.

The winners, who received the award from David Lock MP, the junior minister at the Lord Chancellor's Department, were the consortium responsible for putting together the courtroom presentation and litigation support technology backing Lord Saville's inquiry into the 1972 Bloody Sunday shootings in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The winning consortium, which was headed by ICL, included contributions by Ulster IT consultancy NICLR as well as two well-known legal market players: the OyezStraker subsidiary Legal Technologies and the Livenote system from Smith Bernal.

But what exactly was does the winning entry do? Cutting through all the jargon, the consortium put together an integrated package of technologies to support the inquiry in the full range of its activities. So, along with display systems for handling scanned in images of documents and video evidence, there are also real time transcription and database retrieval systems.

However the undoubted star of the show, which makes the Bloody Sunday enquiry IT infrastructure really stand out from every other courtroom evidence presentation system in use in the UK today is a 360 degree 3D virtual reality recreation of 1972 Londonderry. Thus, despite the fact the city has radically changed over the past 30 years since the shootings took place, by using a touch screen panel, witnesses at the inquiry can pull up images to illustrate their testimony. Not least it means that when someone says "I stood there, I could see a gunman on that roof," the inquiry can follow his eyeline to see if it was physically possible to see anyone from that vantage point - or whether the passage time had not only altered the landscape but also dimmed recollections?

So was the project worth it? Lord Saville has already said he believes the technology has made the proceedings substantially quicker. And, it was no surprise to hear David Lock MP add his view that this use of technology was entirely in keeping with the Lord Chancellor's Department's current strategy of investing in technology to modernise the justice system. But, there is also another potential benefit of this system, in the context of the Londonderry scenario, namely the 3D graphics elements provides an impartial aid to witnesses - as distinct from being just one side's reconstruction of events. A case of justice must not only be done but virtually seen to be done.

In recognition of the fact the awards jury are frequently looking at entirely different products - how can you judge whether an accounts system is better than an online training system or even a courtroom presentation system - the SCL scheme also highlights the immediate runners-up for the awards. This year there were four: Perceptive Technology's Mentor knowledge management system, the IRIS XML-based knowledge management system from Interface Software, the 2Ends online CPD system and the BAMM welfare benefits system from Ferret Information Systems.

SUSSKIND'S NEW BOOK OUT
'Transforming the Law, the new book by Richard Susskind, the UK's best known legal technology futurist, was officially launched earlier this week at a reception in London attended by some of the most senior judges in the Court of Appeal. Susskind, who was on excellent form and even cracked a new joke, is the keynote speaker at next week's LegalTech New York show. The Susskind session takes place on Monday 29 at 9:00 EST.

COLORADO GETS STATEWIDE E-FILING
CourtLink, the US provider of online filing, document search and retrieval services, this month completed the implementation of the first statewide court electronic filing (e-filing) system. At 10 cents per page, the new service enables lawyers registered with CourtLink to file documents with Colorado courts and electronically serve case parties directly from any internet-connected PC. Lawyers can also use the online service to pay statutory fees and to retrieve documents served or filed in their cases.

By coincidence the Judicial Conference of the United States, which makes policy guidelines for the federal judiciary, has just announced that it is to investigate the privacy issues associated with e-filing, The move stems from concerns the e-filing will make it far easier for unscrupulous third parties to access confidential information that was previously effectively buried in bundles of documents stored in a courthouse basement.

FROM DOTCOM TO DOT GONE
The internet retailer LetsBuyIt.com has been rescued from imminent bankruptcy and could receive up to $46million from the 27-year-old German venture capitalist Kim Schmitz. Schmitz describes himself as a "world famous hacker who bypassed the security of NASA, the Pentagon and Citibank". In the past he was convicted for hacking into a number of sites using the alias of Kimble, after Dr Richard Kimble in the movie 'The Fugitive'.

Meanwhile Yazam, the Israeli venture capitalist fund that owns the e-business networking group First Tuesday, has refused an offer of just under $500,000 put forward by members wanting to take control. The group First Tuesday is reported to be up for sale at a price of just £2million - Yazam is rumoured to have paid £33million for it last year.

US ENDS DOUBLECLICK PRIVACY PROBE
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Monday that it had closed its year-long probe into the data collection and handling practices of DoubleClick, concluding that the internet advertising agency did not violate its own privacy policy or engage in deceptive trade practices. The FTC began its investigation in February 2000, questioning whether DoubleClick improperly amassed personal information about internet users. In a letter to DoubleClick's lawyers, FTC official Joel Winston said "DoubleClick never used or disclosed" consumers personal identifying information "for purposes other than those disclosed in its privacy policy." Meanwhile in the UK, DoubleClick has appointed former data protection commissioner official Amanda Chandler as its first European director of data protection. Chandler will be responsible for ensuring all aspects of the company's policies and documentation comply with privacy rules.

EXPERIAN MOVES INTO PERMISSION BASED EMAIL MARKETING
Experian (the company is part of the Great Universal Stores group) has launched a permission-based email marketing (eMarketing) service for the UK. The service is aimed at helping internet marketers meet the huge demand for permission-based emailing and ensure that the right messages are targeted at the right customers at the right time. Marketers will be given the flexibility to organise, deliver and analyse their own email campaigns but also have the option to outsource the email delivery process.

MICROSOFT SETTLES JAVA SUIT WITH SUN
Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have settled their long standing legal dispute over Sun's Java programming language. The dispute dates back to 1998 when Sun claimed that Microsoft had altered Java to run Java-based programs that could only operate on Microsoft products. The terms of the settlement mean that while Microsoft will be paying $20million and giving up its full Java licence, it has admitted no wrongdoing. The $20million also buys Microsoft the right to ship current products as well as those products still being tested but containing an older version of Java. Microsoft has also dropped its counter-suit and will cease to use the "Java compatible" trademark. Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan is reported in the International Herald Tribune as saying Microsoft did not lose the case and "would likely have won" but wanted to avoid costly litigation.

FIGHTING ECONOMY CLASS SYNDROME
Former solicitor turned legal web site developer Martin Davies is using the global reach of the internet to help those who have suffered with DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis - also known as Economy Class Syndrome) after flying or travelling in cramped conditions, to try and get compensation for their pain and suffering.

He has set up a specific DVT section on his CanIClaim.com accident and injury compensation web site, where he is attempting to pull together all the latest information on DVT from victims, lawyers and the medical profession from around the world. The site invites all those who are involved in this area to share their knowledge via the web with others so that a clearer picture can be obtained of the number of cases that have occurred, the research that has already been done and is ongoing, and whether there is any genuine liability on the part of the airlines. It is believed that DVT may be caused by long periods of inactivity during flights particularly when sitting in cramped conditions. There is also some evidence to show that the air pressure in an aeroplane may be a contributory factor.

UK GOVERNMENT ADOPTION THREAT SHOWS WEB IGNORANCE
Members of the UK's Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) have accused the British Government of failing to understand the internet when a junior minister at the Department of Health warned ISPs that the could face prosecution for contravention of UK laws regulating the advertising of adoption facilities. The warning came in the wake of the international controversy surrounding the Kilshaw 'babies for sale' case, in which a UK couple bought the baby twins Beverley and Kimberley from a Californian adoption broker.

Under UK law only local authority social service departments and approved voluntary adoption agencies are allowed to advertise children for adoption. In an echo of the French Yahoo! case, the ISPA has had to explain to the government that while its members are always willing to remove unlawful material from their own servers, they have no control over overseas web sites and are powerless to stop their users from accessing such sites.

MAFIABOY ADMITS TO HACKING
A Canadian teenager, who used the name Mafiaboy when he launched a series of denial of service attacks on a number of US web sites and portals last February, has pleaded guilty to 57 of the 67 charges he faces. The 16-year-old originally pleaded not guilty to the charges but his lawyers said he had reversed his pleas because he wanted to put this episode "behind him and go on with his life". It is claimed the attacks caused $1.7billion in damages to the likes of AOL, Yahoo! and Amazon.com however the maximum punishment Mafiaboy faces when he comes up for sentencing in April is two years in a youth detention centre and a fine of C$1000.

LAWASSURE LAUNCHES
Epoch Software, the company behind the Desktop Lawyer online legal service, this week launched a new service called LawAssure. Developed in conjunction with the Royal & Sun Alliance insurance group, it offers subscribers unlimited access to a range of downloadable legal documents, an internet-based layman's guide to the law, "unmetred access" to a call centre style telephone based "legal support service" and legal expenses insurance.

There are two versions of the service and both are based on an annual subscription: consumers pay £99 pa (plus VAT) while small businesses pay £399 (plus VAT). There are also plans to sell the LawAssure scheme through an a number of "affinity" groups and marketing affiliates, such as credit card companies and property developers. Epoch are also launching a similar service in the United States in association with the legal expenses insurer ARAG and the legal portal MyLawyer.com.

As with all voluntary, optional-extra "insurance type" subscription deals the user has to take a punt on whether the cost of the premium is great than the risk of something going wrong. But for a small business it is worth noting that you cannot buy very much conventional legal advice from even a High Street law firm for just £400. In fact figures produced by the Institute of Chartered Accountants suggest that a business employing up to 50 staff can expect to pay £8000 a year on just routine legal advice and compliance with red tape.

LawAssure say their scheme fits in with both with the Lord Chancellor's Department's recent civil justice consultation paper, which hope to encourage small claims to be made over the internet, and the LCD's 'civil.justice 1998 ' position paper, which states: "The implications for the business of general legal practitioners are especially far-reaching if their clients or customers currently question or doubt value being delivered or added by the traditional legal advisory service. Into this category will fall, for example, the drafting of a wide range of standard contracts and agreements. Traditional legal service will be displaced by online document assembly."

According to Epoch's founder Richard Cohen: "Historically, cost has prevented many individuals and businesses from protecting themselves. But now the availability of unlimited legal information and accompanying 'intelligent' legal documents means that users have a ready solution to deal with their everyday contractual and regulatory affairs. The combination of cutting-edge technology to deliver an affordable legal service, along with the human touch of personal advice poses a real challenge for the high street solicitor".

LEGAL TECHNOLOGY NEWS.COM - FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF LEGAL TECHNOLOGY INSIDER. NEXT ISSUE 01.02.2001