IN THIS ISSUE
Boost for UK courts IT programme - Keystone makes an even bigger loss - iManage to contest lawsuits - LegalTech London published - Legal news in brief - Industry news in brief - New launch from Workshare - Asia legal IT event sponsorship - Heavy sentence upheld - US legal IT market trends - Next issue: 16.08.2001

BOOST FOR UK COURTS IT PROGRAMME
Plans to modernise the English civil courts system today (August 2) received support from the Judicial Working Group and a £17.9m funding boost.

The Judicial Working Group, in their report published today, establish the central role of the judiciary in developing the court modernisation programme in partnership with the Court Service. The programme aims to improve the range and quality of services available for people who need to use the civil courts through improved use of technology and new ways of working.

The Working Group's central recommendation is for common computerised information systems to be introduced as soon as is practicably possible across all jurisdictions. It also goes on to describe the four systems that will provide judges and the Court Service with the essential tools to meet the fundamental requirement of a modern justice system: electronic case record, the electronic file, the electronic diary, and the electronic case management system.

The extra funding boost, provided by the Government's Capital Modernisation Fund, is additional to the £43m already allocated to the programme last year and will be spent on two new projects to develop electronic services in the civil courts. These are:

Electronic Diary Management (£4.4m over three years) - The project aims to improve use of courtrooms and Judicial time and also reduce instances where parties attend court to find that their case has listed but not reached. The paper-based diary systems used to keep record of hearings before judges at each county court will be replaced with an electronic system that allows the available judicial and courtroom time in a group of courts to be used to maximum efficiency.

The electronic diary will also will be linked to court case management systems and will be accessible by court users to provide an alternative way of checking on the progress of a case. The project will start with a six-nine month feasibility study, followed by a four-six month pilot and subject to a successful outcome national implementation will follow.

Customer Partnership for Housing Disputes (£13.5m over three years) - The project aims to test the concept of 'customer partnerships' which allow regular users of the court, in this case housing authorities/associations and mortgage lenders, to communicate directly with the court electronically instead of by post. For example, housing claims will be able to be issued electronically. Electronic support for housing actions presents an opportunity to allow access to the case record by advisers (eg at a Citizens' Advice Bureau). Knowledge of the status of the proceedings, make the provision of appropriate advice easier and may facilitate and encourage early dispute resolution with the claimant. This project will be tested in two pilot court groups.

KEYSTONE MAKES EVEN BIGGER LOSS BUT PROFITABILITY IN SIGHT
Legal systems supplier Keystone Solutions has just published its review of the past year, future prospects and preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2001. Key points taken from the chairman's report include:

Keystone continues to make progress in its aim of achieving sustained annual profitability in the year to March 2002. The company has a strong balance sheet and encouraging sales prospects. Turnover for the year of £4.5 million, with an operating loss before non-recurring items of £7.6 million. This compares with turnover last year of £4.8 million and an operating loss of £0.2 million. Non-recurring expenses of £0.8 million incurred in cost reduction measures to reduce cost base from £12 million to £9 million per annum.

Successful fundraising completed in February 2001, raising £11.4 million approximately net of expenses, strengthening the balance sheet and providing adequate working capital to support the business plan going forward. At 31 March 2001 the company had a cash balance of £9.2 million. The company also says its "New strategic partnership with Oracle matches Keystone's new web-based deployment of its time and billing applications with Oracle's e-business and database software. This gives Keystone a strong new competitive edge - particularly with very large professional services firms. This partnership has already leveraged a significant new sales opportunity that is expected to be announced shortly.

Commenting on the announcement, Claes Hultman, the non-executive chairman said: "Keystone has weathered the post-Y2K market doldrums and now has a strong balance sheet and encouraging business prospects - particularly in the US and UK legal markets. The Directors believe that Keystone continues to make progress in its aim of achieving sustained annual profitability in the year to March 2002 - as stated in the 2001 interim results.

"In the wake of the dotcom market shakeout, and the loss in market confidence in technology stocks, Keystone has adopted a more conservative growth strategy. The international management team is focused on maximising our existing opportunities for growth, while ensuring that costs remain tightly controlled."

iMANAGE TO CONTEST LAWSUITS
iManage Inc this week reported that a series of similar purported class action lawsuits has been filed against the company and certain of its directors and officers, as well as certain underwriters of its November 1999 initial public offering. The lawsuits allege violations of the federal securities laws in connection with the company's initial public offering. The cases have been filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. iManage say these complaints appear to be similar in nature to cases filed against numerous other companies in the same court, alleging that the underwriters of the companies' stock had undisclosed arrangements with purchasers of the companies' stock in connection with their public offerings. iManage says it believes the claims are without merit and will vigorously defend against them.

LEGAL TECH LONDON PROGRAMME FINALISED
American Lawyer Media and iMark have finalised the conference programme for the LegalTech London event, which takes place at the Excel Centre in Docklands on 31st October and 1st November this year. Keynote speakers include Martin Telfer from Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Australia, Brian Collins from Clifford Chance and Jay Jaffe from the USA. Session topics include: client extranets, online legal services, the use of XML in litigation, case management, online dealrooms and the creation of the paperless court. For more details call 07000 763896 or visit www.imark.co.uk/legaltech

LEGAL NEWS IN BRIEF
BRINK IN CLEAR OVER WORLD ONLINE - Nina Brink, the former head of World Online, has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the Dutch public prosecutor. She had been under investigation for fraud and other related offences arising out of the collapse of World Online's share price following the company's flotation last year. The authorities are however still investigating a number of complaints against World Online and at least three investor-led civil actions are underway against the company and its bankers, ABN Amro and Goldman Sachs, over claims that they published a misleading prospectus for the flotation.

DORSEY & WHITNEY LAWYER TO CHAIR IVCA - Ian Craig, an intellectual property lawyer with Dorsey & Whitney's London office, has been appointed chairman of the International Visual Communication Association. The IVCA is a European trade body for companies in the digital communications and new media industry.

AMC IN SPORTINBET PLACING - Ashurst Morris Crisp is acting for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in connection with a secondary placing of shares by the AIM traded company Sportingbet.com, a global internet bookmaker. The institutional placing will raise approximately £8.5 million gross.

FREESERVE COMPLAINS ABOUT VAT - The UK ISP Freeserve is threatening to relocate to Morocco, or any other non-European company where its parent company Wanadoo operates, if the UK's Customs & Excise authorities do not change UK tax laws which currently allow Freeserve's main rival AOL Europe to operate without paying VAT (value added tax - in effect sales tax) because AOL's hub is not located in the EU.

MICROSOFT CASE LATEST - Lawyers for the US Department of Justice and 18 state attorneys general told an appeals court on July 26 that there was no need to reconsider its finding that Microsoft had "co-mingled" software code for its web browser with code for its Windows operating systems, and urged that the antitrust case be returned to a lower court to expedite a remedy to limit the software giant's future behavior. These latest moves have been widely interpreted as a failure by Microsoft to delay a final ruling until after the launch of Windows XP in October.

NEULEVEL DENIES LOTTERY CLAIMS - NeuLevel, the company controlling the new .biz domain name registry, has described a lawsuit, alleging it is using a lottery system to allocate domains, as being "without merit". The suit was filed in a Los Angeles court late last week.

BRITISH GOVERNMENT REVAMPS IP ADVICE - The British Government has announced the members who will sit on its new Intellectual Property Advisory Committee. IPAC will provide long term strategic advice on the whole range of intellectual property issues including patents, copyright, trademarks and designs. Members include ICI group trademark counsel Paul Johnston and Clifford Chance's head of IP Europe David Perkins. More information about the new committee and its role can be found at www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/ipac

DIRECTV TO SUE VIEWERS - The US satellite TV company DirecTV has announced plans to sue and seek "large punitive damages" from individuals it discovers are illegally receiving its satellite broadcast programming. Until now DirecTV's strategy has been to take legal action against only the middlemen it alleges have been involved in the sale of pirate access cards and other equipment needed to illegally tap the company's programmes. But, with over one million homes across the US estimated to be viewing programming unlawfully, the company has now decided to go after the end user.

SHAREHOLDERS TO SUE ANALYSTS - Shareholdrers in both Amazon.com and eBay have filled class action lawsuits against banker Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and its high-profile internet analyst Mary Meeker accusing them of issuing false and misleading statements.

INDUSTRY NEWS IN BRIEF
BETA TESTERS WANTED - Software developer EMIS Legal is looking for five law firm beta test sites for their new Seneca KM document and knowledge management system. It has already undergone a first beta test so this will be an iterative beta development starting in two to three weeks with a view to users getting a launch candidate version in September. The requirements are: an existing network with NT4 (or greater) server, TCP/IP and IE5; and a dedicated KM server running W2K server; SQL 2000 (clean install), P400, 128MB ram (min). The Seneca KM client machines would be any normal spec Pentium. EMIS will supply the KM software, installation, configuration and support and (where necessary) the dedicated Seneca KM server. If this sounds of interest contact Chris Spencer at EMIS email: cspencer@emislegal.com

TFB APPOINTS NEW MANAGERS - In the aftermath of its recent acquisition of Avenue Legal Systems, Technology for Business has appointed Richard Higgs as its new sales manager for the northern region and Gillian Samuel as its training manager. Higgs, who will be based in Leeds, previously ran Avenue's northern sales operations. Samuel was previously a fee earner and IT manager at Surrey law firm Goodhand & Forsyth, where she was responsible for beta testing TFB's criminal defence service software.

MICROSOFT EXTENDS VOLUME LICENSING PERIOD - Further to the changes announced on May 10, Microsoft has extended the launch period for its Licensing 6.0 and Software Assurance (L&SA) programmes and the availability of Upgrade Advantage until 28th February 2002. The company says the extension is in direct response to customer feedback requesting more time to upgrade, get current and enrol in Software Assurance. If you are still confused by all this - and we are- contact your software vendors.

SUMMATION VOTED BEST LIT SUPPORT SYSTEM, AGAIN - Summation has been voted the most popular litigation support software in the United States for the sixth year in a row in Law Office Computing magazine's Readers Choice awards. Other winners this year include WordPerfect (wordprocessing), Microsoft PowerPoint (for litigation presentation) and Westlaw (for legal research service). www.summation.com

INTEGRA WON NABARRO WEB DEAL - Integra Europe has confirmed that it won the contract and was responsible for the development of Nabarro Nathanson's recently relaunched web site. www.integra-europe.co.uk

LEGAL EXPENSES INSURER LAUNCHES WEB SITE - UK after the event legal expenses insurer Greystoke Legal Services has launched a membership web site offering a range of support services, including downloadable forms and documents, for its 1250 member law firms. www.greystoke.co.uk

NEW LAUNCH FROM WORKSHARE
Workshare Technology, best known for its DeltaView redliner software, this week announced the release of its latest product Synergy 2.0 - the application allows organised and secure document collaboration between a managing author and multiple contributors without losing the control and integrity of the original document.

Under the collaborative process, the managing author uses Synergy to send a replica of the original document to contributors, not the document itself which never leaves the security of the document management system. Additionally, there is no danger of hidden metadata or the inclusion of unwanted macros or foreign styles into the original document as Synergy strips out all hidden information contained in the replica document.

Using Workshare Synergy, a replica of the document is transmitted via email (which can be password protected and encrypted) to contributors who review and edit the document using the Synergy Contributor utility. This is freely distributed and can be downloaded for free from the Workshare web site at www.workshare.com

NEW MEDIA LAWYER TO SUPPORT HONG KONG SHOW
New Media Lawyer is to be a supporting publication for Legal Sys-Tech, the second annual Legal Systems & Terchnology in Asia conference and exhibition. The event takes place at the Hong Kong convention & exhibition centre, 10-12 December 2001. The event is being organised by the Asia Business Forum in conjunction with the Law Society of Hong Kong. www.abf-asia.com

HEAVY SENTENCE FOR IT REVENGE ATTACK UPHELD
The Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal last week upheld a nine month prison sentence against a man found guilty of causing unauthorised modification of the contents of a computer contrary to section section 3 of the UK's Computer Misuse Act 1990. Susan Hill, the head of IT law at Cobbetts, has provided the following commentary:

Victor Lindesay, a freelance computer consultant, had committed the offence following his dismissal from a computer firm that maintained web sites for its clients. Using passwords given to him while he was still with the firm, he obtained unauthorised access to three sites belonging to clients and proceeded to delete content on data on the sites, as well as relocate some of the screen images. In addition, he sent emails to all the customers of one company, telling them that prices had increased and that they could take their business elsewhere if they objected.

In total it cost around £9000 to make good the damage done and for the businesses concerned to upgrade their security systems. In sentencing Lindesay, the court said a custodial sentence was justified since the offence was motivated by revenge. Lindesay appealed on the grounds that the sentence was manifestly excessive however the Court of Appeal upheld the sentence as being correct, given the fact it was a revenge attack and invoked a breach of trust - Lindesay having used the skill and knowledge gained while working for his former employer in order to cause the disruption.

US LEGAL IT MARKET TRENDS
American Lawyer Media has published its latest (summer 2001) AmLaw Tech Survey of the legal systems being used by the 100 largest law firms in the United States.

In terms of mainstream legal applications, 50 firms had Elite as their practice management system, while 27 were running CMS Open - the CMS market share was up on the previous year, primarily at the expense of smaller players. With document management systems, iManage increased its market share by 10 percent and now has 30 top 100 sites, as against 58 firms running Hummingbird PC Docs. Carpe Diem, in use at 31 firms, remains the most popular time entry application. InterAction goes from strength to strength as the leading contacts/CRM product, increasing its market share from 31 percent to 52 percent. Its only serious contender is Microsoft Outlook.

With office automation applications, WordPerfect continues its decline - only 12 firms still run it instead of Word. Similarly, just 4 percent now use Netscape as a browser, almost all others run Internet Explorer 5x. Both Lotus Domino/Notes (19 firms) and Novell GroupWise (11 firms) lost ground to Exchange/Outlook (62 firms) as a groupware platform. And the number of firms using speech recognition software actually declined last year.

On the desktop, the last year saw a big increase in the use of Windows 2000, now in 23 firms however 30 are still on NT, 16 on Windows 98 and 25 are still using Windows 95. The year also saw an increase - up to 48 percent from 41 percent - in the number of fee earners who use a laptop rather than a desktop as their main PC hardware.

Turning to litigation support technology, 64 firms were running Summation, 59 had LiveNote, 52 had Access, 47 had Concordance, 40 had Litigator's Notebook, 34 - which is more than twice the year 2000 figure - were running CaseMap/TimeMap and 23 had Folio Views.