"AvoidAClaim" Blog

Although social media sites offer lawyers many interesting new ways to interact with people in both personal and work spheres, there are some risks associated with using them. Some of these risks are obvious, some are not.

Before they venture into social networking, lawyers should consider Section 5.5 of the Law Society’s Practice Management Guideline on Technology (“Technology Guideline”). It states, “Lawyers should have a reasonable understanding of the technologies used in their practice or should have access to someone who has such understanding.”

This article from the December 2009 “Social Media” edition of LAWPRO Magazine, will help you undertand some of the dangers inherent in the use of social networking tools, and help you more safely exploit the great marketing opportunities they offer.

If you are running a wireless access point (AP) or router on your home or office network, you have a small two-way broadcasting station that’s a tempting target for hackers. Unless you take some basic precautions to secure your AP, anyone cruising by with a wireless-equipped laptop can see your AP, and access it to freeload on your Internet connection, or gain access to your network and data. Every wireless enabled PC and laptop can scan its surroundings for wireless APs.

Wireless products are generally shipped with all security features turned off. This makes them easier to set-up and use, but creates a great risk because it lets anyone freely connect to your network. Installing a wireless device without enabling security features is the same as leaving the front door of your home or office wide open and unlocked.

Wireless security standards are evolving for the better. The latest standard (802.11i) offers far better security than older standards (in order from least to most secure: 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g). However, you must remember that with enough time and effort, a determined hacker can break into most wireless systems. The key to protecting you data is to make hacking into your network as difficult as possible. You do this by enabling all possible security features on your AP.

This article reviews the seven configuration changes you should take to enable the security features for a typical consumer-type AP. Use this article as a guide, and check your manual for specific directions on how to access and change the security settings on your router. You access AP configuration settings through a Web-based interface by connecting to the AP with your browser. In many cases, entering a standard default gateway address of 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 will allow you to access this interface. Open this interface and work through the following changes:

#1 – Change the router password

Most APs will challenge you for a password when you attempt to access the configuration interface. Routers of a given make and model are manufactured with a standard or default password. This will be listed in your manual. Not only are these passwords common words such as “admin”, they are widely known and can easily be determined from a search of the Web. Hackers will try to access and change an AP’s settings to make it easier to connect to. Changing the default password makes it much more difficult for a hacker to access a router’s configuration interface. (more…)

All Evernote users should immediately change their passwords.

The following text appeared in a post on the Evernote blog this morning (March 2, 1013) and is also being sent to all Evernote users as an email communication:

Evernote’s Operations & Security team has discovered and blocked suspicious activity on the Evernote network that appears to have been a coordinated attempt to access secure areas of the Evernote Service.

The Evernote team

If you use Evernote, please change your password immediately.

Outlook is the most used application in Microsoft Office, but are you using it to your greatest advantage? The Lawyer’s Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2010 is the only guide written specifically for lawyers to help you be more productive, more efficient and more successful. More than just email, Outlook is also a powerful task, contact, and scheduling manager that will improve your practice. From helping you log and track phone calls, meetings, and correspondence to archiving closed case material in one easy-to-store location, this book unlocks the secrets of “underappreciated” features that you will use every day. Written in plain language by a twenty-year veteran of law office technology and ABA member, this book will help you:

• Sort and group messages to de-clutter your inbox
• Find old e-mails quickly
• Create an effective to-do list
• Master your calendar
• Work with journal entries
• Add, organize, and share contacts
• Utilize long-term storage when youre done with a case or client
• Back up your data
• Track and log phone calls, meetings, and correspondence
• Take advantage of time-saving keyboard shortcuts

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime (please email in advance)to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the American Bar Association Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.

No doubt you have all made – or at least thought about making – a few New Year’s resolutions. Hopefully one of them is to make a backup of your data. You do have a backup – don’t you???

Now I won’t ask for a show of hands, but I know at least a few of you don’t backup of your data, or perhaps you have an older backup. If you are one of these people, make plans to backup your data now! It is critical to remember that for love, time or money, you can’t easily or cheaply recreate lost data. And a crashed hard drive usually means that this important and precious data is gone forever. Regardless of whether it is client files or other critical law firm documents, or on the personal side, family pictures or information, you don’t want this happening to you.

If you are backup newbie, read 7 Backup Strategies for Your Data, Multimedia, and System Files for some perspective on the different types of data you have and how often different types of data should be backed up.

This Lifehacker article, How to Back Up Your Computer, has great instructions for using the built-in backup utilities Windows and Mac OS X. How to Backup Your Data from PCWorld mentions some of the most widely used online backup tools.

And don’t forget all the data you have on your smartphone! This How to Backup any Smartphone article from Gizmodo will help you with this important task.

Make plans to get your backup done or updated ASAP. Figure out what you want to backup and how you are going to do it. Give yourself a deadline and make an appointment in your calendar to get it done. It will make you breathe easier and sleep more soundly. Happy New Year!

This article by Dan Pinnington (VP, Claims Prevention & Stakeholder Relations at LAWPRO) originally appeared in the July 20 issue of The Lawyers Weekly published by LexisNexis Canada Inc.

Family law lawyers should keep in mind that their 20 and 30-something clients grew up with technology. They live online 7/24. Facebook posts, YouTube videos, Instagram pictures, texting and tweeting are intertwined in the fabric of their daily lives. Young people also tend to be very open and will post personal and intimate details of almost every activity online, regardless of whether it is in the office, the kitchen, the bedroom or Vegas.

Needless to say, some of this online information will be relevant evidence on family law matters.
Lawyers and their clients need to know how to handle social networking information and the dangers inherent with it. Here are nine rules they should follow:

1. There are really no secrets on social media sites

The amount of information other people see on social media sites is controlled by privacy settings or permissions. While the sharing levels have different names on different sites, they are some variation of private, friends, friends of friends or everyone. Practically speaking, it is very hard to lock things down as default permissions usually favour widespread sharing. Assume that most clients will not appreciate how broadly the information they post online is shared.

To lock things down, encourage your clients check their privacy settings for all the social networking tools they use. The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Managing Your Facebook Privacy post on the LifeHacker blog can help with locking down a Facebook page. The MyPermissions.org site can help with other sites.

2. Friends means friends forever, or at least friends of friends forever

“Unfriending” the ex is one of first things people do after a separation. Unfortunately, unfriending may not prevent the ex from accessing posted information. Although direct sharing with the ex is stopped, an unfriended person may still have access as a friend of a friend or through applications that share information. Use the resources cited in the previous rule to better lock things down.

3. Give clients a “don’t be stupid on social media” warning

Most clients can’t help themselves online – their real personalities and actions will shine through in HD. Social media will be better than a lie detector or cross examination at finding the truth. For this reason, you need to firmly give your clients a warning that is a variation of something they have heard on television 10 million times: “Anything you say or do on Facebook can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
And, if you get the slightest hint that your client is stretching, bending or hiding the truth, ask more questions and dig deeper. You don’t want be called out by the other side or a judge.

4. Don’t use social networking tools for lawyer/client communications

You may find your clients wanting to communicate with you with Facebook messages or chat, Twitter DMs or LinkedIn messages. Don’t do it. You can’t assume these communications will be private. Tell your clients to use a private email address instead.

5. Be aware of electronic evidence and e-discovery obligations

Electronic stored information (ESI), including posts on social networking sites, will often be relevant evidence on family law matters. Family law lawyers need to understand this and be familiar with the obligations they have to identify, find, preserve and produce relevant ESI.

Proportionality is very important in family law matters – you won’t have the time or a budget for an in-depth e-discovery investigation. To avoid taxing the court, annoying the judge and incurring unnecessary expenses, work to get a smaller selection of emails or sample posts that are truly helpful in proving the key facts you need to argue your position. Five really good emails or post are better than 50 mediocre ones – and the judge is more likely to carefully read them.

And remember, a client that deletes information on a Facebook page could be found to have destroyed evidence. Be careful not to be seen to be counselling or acquiescing to your client taking steps to destroy evidence.

6. Social media can prove interesting things

Social media can give you far more than just nasty comments and embarrassing pictures. It may provide evidence to establish the existence of denied relationships, to show poor parenting skills or judgement, to support or refute an alibi, to show capacity to work (e.g., someone with an allegedly sore back out bungee jumping or dancing) or to show smoking or the use of other substances not normally associated with someone who is a law abiding citizen and exemplary patent. In one case, a husband who swore in an affidavit that he had lost a valuable necklace, shortly thereafter posted a picture on Facebook of his new girlfriend wearing it on New Years’ eve. Oops!

7. All the above comments apply to everyone else that touches a case

Almost everyone is on social media, so all the above comments apply to everyone else involved in a family law matter. This includes the client’s family members and friends, access drivers and supervisors, as well as social workers.

8. Family lawyers shouldn’t be friends with clients on Facebook

Facebook and the other social media sites are wonderful business development tools. They make it easy to reach out and connect with all sorts of existing and potential clients. However, for some areas of the law – and family is one of them – you really can’t be friends with a client given the personal nature of the information that is typically shared on Facebook pages.

9. You can’t be anonymous on the web

It takes seconds to create a Facebook or other social networking account using a fake name. It is also easy to post comments using a name other than your real name. Many people will post nasty comments while hiding behind the shroud of anonymity. Don’t be tempted to do this – and make sure you clients don’t do it either. Through legal process, computer forensics or just digging around, you can often figure out who posted anonymous content. You – and your clients – don’t want to be caught doing this. It’s also not proper for a lawyer to pretend to be someone else to friend a person to get access to information in a social media account.

Facebook Timeline is probably the biggest thing that has happened to family law since the no-fault divorce. What is the most common way cheaters are now caught? Forgetting to logout of their Facebook page. Facebook and similar social networking tools have introduced interesting new communication and evidentiary challenges for family law lawyers. Use the above rules to keep you and your clients out of trouble.

As organizations create increasing amounts of digital data, electronic discovery costs for lawyers can skyrocket. For firms with limited technology budgets, or cases with small amounts of electronically stored information (ESI), e-discovery can be challenging. Electronic Discovery for Small Cases offers effective, budget-friendly solutions for collecting, viewing, and analyzing electronic evidence that will benefit any litigator. With an overview of e-discovery techniques and extensive reviews of software products, this book will help you:

• Determine if you should collect ESI yourself or hire a consultant
• Select the best–and most user-friendly–collection tool for your budget
• Make the most of your e-discovery software with step-by-step guidance
• Process, view, search, and analyze a mixed collection of files
• Learn about affordable cloud-based applications for litigation support
• Publish a searchable document collection on a CD, DVD, or flash drive
• Work with electronic records at mediation, arbitration, or trial
• Learn about emerging ESI trends

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the ABA Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.

A post on the TheNextWeb site indicates that a Norweigan IT webite, Dagens IT reported the breach. That site indicates that 6.5 million encrypted LinkedIn passwords have been posted to a Russian hacker site.

LinkedIn has responded that they are looking into the breach. To be safe, LinkedIn users should change their passwords immediately.

For more passwords tips, see this article from Law Practice Magazine: Don’t Be Passé With Passwords: Best Practices for Staying Safe

[Updated 3:30 pm Eastern]

Not a lot of info from LinkedIn on this so far today. Two earlier tweets indicating they are investigating and haven’t yet confirmed that a breach occurred.

A further tweet and post on one of their blogs at 2:30pm indicating they are still investigating, have still yet to confirm a breach has occurred, and a recommendation the LinkedIn users change their passwords and follow password best-practices (and they provide an excellent list of them).

Please change your LinkedIn password if you have not yet done so – and take a look at the password best practices in the LinkedIn post so that you use a password that is harder for the hackers to crack.

Not a bad time to change the passwords on your other accounts. If you use Google, consider enabling Google’s two-factor authentication, especially if you are using it for your law practice. See instructions on how to do this here.

You could also consider using a password manager like LastPast. It is a cross-platform and device tool that will safely store and remember passwords for you, thereby making it easier to use different and stronger passwords for your various accounts.

How often do you find yourself giving new clients directions to your office? Google Maps offers a great tool for creating a map that will show clients the location of your office. Go to maps.google.com and type your office address into the search box. Click on the link icon (look for an icon with 3 chain links at the top right corner of your screen). This will open a pop-up that will give you a URL link you can use to access that same map. Send that link to a new client via email and they can see the map.

The pop-up also gives you the HTML code you can use to include the map on your website. Take it a step further by creating customized maps to show clients directions to other places that might be helpful for them (e.g., the local court house).

This is just one of the countless amazing tools Google offers that can help lawyers in their day-to-day life. To learn more, be sure to check out Google for Lawyers, available in the practicePRO Lending Library.

Microsoft OneNote may be less familiar than other programs in the Microsoft Office suite, but it now comes included with MS Office 2010 and its once lawyers realize its uses its popularity should skyrocket. What’s the best way to describe it? Think of old spiral notepad, but with a wealth of additional features.

Imagine your dog-eared yellow notepad, but with the ability to do the following (and much more):

• Search text
• Tag your notes as questions, to-do’s, ideas, etc
• Insert audio or images
• Share and collaborate with others by storing remotely
• Integrate with Outlook

This books shows lawyers how to learn the basics quickly and then put this software to use as a powerful tool for all the notetaking that is part of every lawyer’s daily routine.

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the ABA Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.