The Impact of the Internet on the Provision of Legal Services

Technological developments are often launched amid a barrage of publicity about how they will change our lives. Many fail to live up to the initial hype. The Internet is one technological development which has fully matched (and exceeded) initial expectations. It has fundamentally altered the way in which we do business and is now a core facility used in everyday business life. Jonathan Maas looks at how the Internet has been and is being used to change the way in which legal services are provided and considers how it may change working practices in the future, how it affects lawyer/client relationships and what opportunities it offers for law firms to deliver services more effectively….

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Businessam

Laura Gordon of Boyds gives an account of the recent Scottish case of Bonnier Media v Greg Lloyd Smith. The case concerned an international trading name dispute and the use of a domain name. She also looks at the latest developments in the tale and the case’s implications….

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To Disclose or Not to Disclose A Follow-up

In the August/September edition of Computers & Law, Amanda Kearsley and Nick Rudgard explored the difficulties of reconciling the principles of disclosure under the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) and the disclosure of personal data under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) arising from the case of Totalise plc v The Motley Fool Limited and Interactive Investor Limited (2001) P&T 764. In December 2001, the Court of Appeal overturned the costs order made at the original hearing and set out the principles for the future. The new approach will have a significant impact on the position of organisations, such as Web site operators, from whom disclosures of information may be sought. This article reviews that approach….

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Strategies to Manage Legal Risks & Designing an Effective Risk Management Framework

If there is one constant that all businesses face throughout their life cycle, it would be managing legal risk exposures. Given the unique nature of information technology (IT) businesses, legal risk exposures can be particularly accentuated. The need to evolve a sound and proactive legal risk management framework as part of the enterprise’s legal strategy is becoming an imperative. A sound legal risk management framework should provide a seamless integration of legal contents or guidance with an IT-driven workflow process. Here expert systems can play an important role in the design of such legal risk management systems. Zaid Hamzah, CEO, Lexfutura (Global) and Managing Director, I-Knowledge Technologies, Singapore, provides a road map….

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