Category Archives: Practice Tips

Featured Link – Ten Minute Mentor

Written On May 6, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Ten Minute Mentor is a service of the State Bar of Texas and the Texas Young Lawyers Association, and consists of several hundred short videos by legal experts. The videos are completely free and include all these categories:
Category: ADR , Appellate , Bankruptcy , Business , Consumer , Corporate Counsel , Creditor/Debtor , Crime [...]

Posted in Featured Link, Practice Tips

PILMMA – Personal Injury Marketing and Management Association

Written On April 9, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Today is the first day of the Spring 2010 meeting of the Personal Injury Marketing and Management Association, one of my favorite legal organizations. This is the first PILMMA conference I’ve had to miss since its beginning in 2005. If you’re not a member, you should contact PILMMA and sign up for the Fall meeting. [...]

Posted in Bar Associations and Legal Groups, Practice Tips

Legal Research On a Shoestring Budget

Written On November 20, 2009 By Bob Kraft

In a recent post by Anurag Acharya on the Official Google Blog, anyone can now find federal and state court case opinions with Google Scholar. By entering either party names or topic (for example, disability) you can now search for the full text of legal opinions and articles. And it’s free!
According to Acharya’s [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Practice Tips

Another Great PILMMA Conference

Written On September 26, 2009 By Bob Kraft

Today is the last day of the Fall 2009 PILMMA Marketing and Management Summit, and it’s been the best one yet. I’ve been in the group since the first meeting in April 2005, and it just keeps improving.
We’ve had great speakers, fun and informative networking, and best of all was the two-day Platinum Level Mastermind [...]

Posted in Bar Associations and Legal Groups, Practice Tips

Lawyer’s “Negligent Stapling” Causes Judge to Dismiss Motion

Written On September 25, 2009 By Bob Kraft

Ouch! Check your paperwork before submitting it to a court. As reported at Law.com, a New York judge dismissed a motion for summary judgment in a car wreck case because the plaintiff’s petition was stapled in such a way as to twice stick a court clerk and draw blood. The judge said the papers were [...]

Posted in Practice Tips

Featured Link – National Punctuation Day

Written On September 24, 2009 By Bob Kraft

Today is National Punctuation Day, and it couldn’t come soon enough for me. I get so tired of seeing improper punctuation coming from people who should know better. Misplaced quotation marks and unnecessary apostrophes just drive me crazy. Do yourself a favor and visit this site or buy a book on grammar and punctuation. You [...]

Posted in Featured Link, Practice Tips

New Texas Law Lowers Cost of Getting Hospital Records

Written On August 25, 2009 By Bob Kraft

In what should be good news for those of us who routinely request hospital records, a new Texas law goes into effect September 1, 2009. This amendment to the Health and Safety Code will limit the fee for medical reports requested and delivered in digital format to $75 plus the actual cost of delivery. [...]

Posted in Government, Practice Tips

Trial Lawyers Say Medicare Slowing Lien Settlements

Written On July 13, 2009 By Bob Kraft

McClatchy Newspapers reported on personal injury lawyers who “represent Medicare beneficiaries who’ve been in accidents. Medicare has paid their hospital costs, which must be reimbursed once the victim reaches a damage settlement with the party at fault.” But lawyers “said that Medicare can be extremely slow to tell them what its share of the settlement [...]

Posted in Medicare, Practice Tips

5 Reasons to Buy an iPhone if You’re an Attorney

Written On July 9, 2009 By Bob Kraft

Barack Obama may have been the best advertisement for the BlackBerry, giving sales the much-needed shot in the arm because of the threat posed by the iPhone and other smartphones that have flooded the market. But, no matter how many new models of the BlackBerry are introduced, no matter how high profile the endorsements (unintended [...]

Posted in Practice Tips

Report: Counsel Without Malpractice Insurance Should Tell Clients

Written On June 22, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The Texas Lawyer reports that the Grievance Oversight Committee, which is appointed by the Texas Supreme Court, recently recommended that the court adopt a rule requiring lawyers who do not carry legal malpractice insurance to disclose their lack of coverage to clients.
This has been a controversial issue for several years in Texas. Personally, I’ve had [...]

Posted in Miscellaneous, Practice Tips

Third Circuit Says “Mail Box” Rule Cannot Be Invoked To Save Time-Barred Claim

Written On May 12, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The Legal Intelligencer reports, “If you’re filing a claim against the postal service, don’t just drop it in the mail because the courts won’t apply the ordinary presumption that a letter mailed is a letter received.” Now, “the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has declared in Lightfoot v. United States that the so-called [...]

Posted in Practice Tips

Associates Keep Quiet As Economic Downturn Increases Layoffs

Written On April 28, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The National Law Journal reported, "With law firms unloading scores of attorneys amid the economic downturn, associates are finding that the balance of power has shifted away from them and into the hands of law firm managers." Now, "with few ships for associates to jump to these days, young attorneys are increasingly reluctant to raise [...]

Posted in Practice Tips

Featured Link – Texas Local Court Rules

Written On March 16, 2009 By Bob Kraft

Texas Local Rules is a great site that links out to local court rules of many Texas counties. For lawyers who practice trial work in multiple counties, this is an excellent resource. This is the description from the site:

In addition to the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure,
civil and criminal Texas courts (county, state, federal, appellate)
have local rules  to [...]

Posted in Practice Tips

Legal Malpractice Suits May Rise in Economic Downturn

Written On March 13, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The Texas Lawyer reports, "Economic downturns often increase the risk that lawyers will face unhappy clients complaining of legal malpractice. While some lawyers may think they have nothing to fear since their practices do not involve areas of law many blame for the economic collapse, such a belief is unfounded" because "some legal malpractice risks [...]

Posted in Practice Tips

Please Attend TECHSHOW – April in Chicago

Written On February 17, 2009 By Bob Kraft

I've been attending TECHSHOW, presented by the American Bar Association almost since the beginning, many years ago. It's always a highlight of my year. The enormous amount of technical information presented is only one reason to attend. Equally important to me is the opportunity to meet in person with many of the friends I correspond [...]

Posted in Bar Associations and Legal Groups, Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Practice Tips

Survey Finds Litigations Too Costly Because Of E-Discovery

Written On November 25, 2008 By Bob Kraft

Sharon Nelson, of Sensei Enterprises, recently posted this nugget of information to the ABA Techshow Blog:
On
September 9th, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal
System (IAALS) and the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) Task
Force on Discovery released the results of a survey of trial lawyers
from across the country. The survey called electronic discovery [...]

Posted in Practice Tips

Featured Link – LawyerSuccessClub.com

Written On October 25, 2008 By Bob Kraft

My friend, Maryland attorney Steven Heisler, has launched the Lawyer Success Club Web site. The site is new, and Steve is still building up content, but it shows great promise. If you’re a personal injury lawyer, check it out. Membership is free. Here is the description from Steve:
It’s like having your own P.I. Marketing and [...]

Posted in Bar Associations and Legal Groups, Practice Tips

Lawyers Inner Circle Management And Marketing Conference

Written On September 24, 2008 By Bob Kraft

I’ve just finished day one of a three-day legal marketing and management conference put on by Lawyers Inner Circle. Like each of the other Lawyers Inner Circle conferences I have attended over the past few years, this one is excellent. I very highly recommend this group to any personal injury lawyer. Read more about the [...]

Posted in Bar Associations and Legal Groups, Law Firm Marketing, Practice Tips

Two Great Legal Marketing & Management Groups

Written On August 13, 2008 By Bob Kraft

I have the good fortune to be attending two excellent legal marketing and management conferences in September. I’ll be making a short presentation at one and a longer one at the other. I highly recommend both these conferences to any lawyers, especially personal injury and Social Security disability lawyers, interested in improving their marketing and [...]

Posted in Practice Tips

Featured Link – Sherpa Software

Written On August 5, 2008 By Bob Kraft

Sherpa Software is an Electronic Evidence Discovery company that offers e-mail management solutions to a wide variety of problem areas. Here is the company’s description from their Web site:
Archiving email software, email compliance – Sherpa’s archiving email software provides solutions for email compliance, email content management and email regulatory compliance and security protocols.

Sherpa Software is [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Featured Link, Practice Tips