THE INTERNET FOR LAWYERS
By David E. Swayze, Meighen, Haddad & Co., DSWAYZE@MHLaw.CA
In the last few years the Internet has come to dominate the media and popular culture alike. It would be the rare person today who has not heard of the Internet but perhaps less rare is the person who does not completely understand what the Internet is. The purpose of this month's column is to provide you, as a lawyer, with both an introduction to the Internet generally, and more specifically, some background on what the Internet can do for you and your practice.
The history of the Internet goes back to the 1970s. Essentially, it is a network of networks. A network, in simple terms, is a system of computers connected together which permit each computer on the network to communicate with every other computer on the network. The problem faced by early computer pioneers was that each brand of computers used a unique language. The Internet was the first network which was premised on a common language that let all computers, regardless of brand, communicate with one another.
The first users of the Internet tended to be the military and universities as these were the institutions that had the greatest need to communicate with one another and these were the institutions that could afford the then physically large and expensive computers that were part of the network.
In the last few years, however, technology has advanced significantly resulting in smaller, cheaper, more powerful computers. Rather than being limited to universities and large corporations, computers are now almost as common in the home as microwave ovens and VCRs. The Internet, once the domain of academics, has now become accessible to anyone who can afford a computer and a phone line.
The significance of the Internet is that a user can be both a consumer and a source of information. Consequently, as more people begin to make their computer part of the network of networks that is the Internet, more information is available to other users of the Internet.
For lawyers, the Internet provides a means of tapping into an ever expanding pool of information. Furthermore, many law firms are discovering that the Internet is also a cheap tool for self-promotion.
As noted above, the Internet connects computers. Therefore, in order to access the Internet first and foremost you need a computer. The basic entry level system is now a Pentium 166 MMX with 16MB of RAM. You also need a modem with a minimum speed of 33.6 Kbps. Without getting into too much detail, most current model computer systems will do the trick and can be had for under $2,000. You also need access to a phone line.
Finally, you need an Internet Service Provider or ISP. There are many companies in Manitoba providing Internet services. The prices range from as little as $5 to as much as $35 per month for an Internet account that will give you e-mail and full access to the World Wide Web. The price paid is usually a function of the time you will get online per month for the base rate. In other words, $5 per month may get you an e-mail account with five hours of access, whereas $35/month may get you four e-mail addresses and 100 hours of access per month.
Try to ascertain which combination of price, hours, and features may be best for you. Overall, the cost of Internet access is quite affordable. Larger firms may wish to look into more sophisticated means of Internet access such as ISDN, ASDL, or getting a dedicated line and server.
Two tools are of primary interest to lawyers -- electronic mail or e-mail, and the world wide web.
i) Electronic Mail
The most basic use of the Internet is e-mail. Each Internet user has a unique address which usually takes the form 'name@hostname.domain'. For example, one of my e-mail addresses is dswayze@mhlaw.ca.
In essence, the names to the left of the @ symbol is the name of the user whereas the information to the right of the @ symbol is the name of the computer that holds the user's Internet mailbox. The portion to the right is frequently called the domain name and takes many forms. Suffice it to say that each and every address is unique and anyone who is connected to the Internet will use this basic address form.
From the lawyer's standpoint, e-mail is a very efficient and inexpensive way of contacting both other lawyers and clients but it has its advantages and disadvantages.
The advantage of e-mail is that it is much faster than Canada Post (or 'snail mail' in Net speak) and tends to be more informal. E-mail also costs less than a fax.
One of the more recent developments in e-mail technology is the ability to send attachments. Attachments are files such as WordPerfect or MS Word files, or graphics, that are sent along with a basic e-mail message. Consequently, attachments can be used to send copies of documents in electronic form that can easily be edited. For example, I recently received an e-mail on behalf of a lawyer in our firm who was in the process of negotiating a shareholder's agreement. The draft agreement was e-mailed to me in electronic form. I printed a copy out for the lawyer and placed a copy on our office computer network where his secretary could access it. Once the lawyer finished making his edits on the hard copy, he could give his changes to his secretary to edit using the file stored on our network. This saved the parties the trouble of retyping the agreement and avoided the need for faxing back and forth various marked up draft copies. Furthermore, the process was faster and the fax machine was not tied up for long periods of time to send documents containing multiple pages.
The disadvantage of e-mail is that, just like snail mail, its effectiveness directly correlates with the diligence of the recipient i.e. unless you take time to read your mail and to respond, it is an ineffective means of communication.
An issue that many lawyers forget about when considering Internet services, is the degree of security offered by the Internet. The Internet is not a secure means of telecommunication. This is especially a concern when conveying information that is subject to solicitor-client confidentiality. It must be born in mind that because the Internet is a network of networks, information passes through computers to get from one computer to the next. En route it can be stored on the computers it passes through and, inevitably, will be stored on computer of its intended recipient. Lawyers should be very aware that when they send information to one of their clients, the possibility exists that someone else may read it along the way. So, if you are advising a client who is involved in a dispute with his or her employer, and send e-mail to the client at the client's work address, bear in mind that the employer will likely have a means of reading your client's e-mail and could become privy to your advice. Furthermore, e-mail messages may be backed up onto a tape or disk and stored for days, weeks, months or even years as part of the computer owner's regular back up process.
There are means of encrypting messages but no system of encryption is entirely foolproof. So, lawyers must be aware that use of e-mail is not as secure as a telephone or even a fax and exercise care when using e-mail to convey confidential information.
E-mail is, however, a great tool and because it can be had so cheaply, no lawyer should be without it. It permits cheap and relatively fast communication and is becoming as indispensable as a fax machine or telephone.
ii) The Web
What is this thing, the 'Web'? Essentially, it is a very ingenious solution to what was once a very significant problem i.e. how to find information on the Internet. Initially, the Internet was very difficult to navigate. Users had to remember lots of long addresses and become familiar with protocols like telnet and ftp. Users couldn't easily search the Internet for information. Rather, they had to buy books or ask around to find out which computer held the information they sought.
The Web changed all of that with the invention of something called the hypertext transfer protocol or HTTP and hypertext markup language or HTML. You don't need to know anything about these two things to use the Web. Suffice it to say, their invention made the Internet what it is today.
The Web can best be described as a huge encyclopedia. An encyclopedia is make up as pages. The Web looks like pages of information on a computer monitor. To access the information you read the page. However, what makes the web unique is the ability to jump from page to page quite quickly using hypertext. Much like an encyclopedia may have a note instructing the reader to 'see also' something, hypertext embeds into the text itself 'links' to other pages on the Internet.
The difference between the Internet and an encyclopedia is that you are not limited to the volumes that came with your set of encyclopedias, and the volumes are always being updated, free of charge.
The Web is, therefore, really a very easy way of finding information on the Internet and permits you to do it quickly and in full colour.
To access the web you will use a piece of software generically known as a browser. The two most popular browsers are Netscape Communicator 4.0 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. Both operate in a similar manner and neither is difficult to learn.
The Web provides two tools to the lawyer. The most obvious is that of a research tool. The Internet contains an ever increasing volume of legal information. For example, the Consolidated Statutes of Canada and the Consolidated Regulations of Canada are available online http://canada.justice.gc.ca/stable/EN/Laws/Chap/index.html. Recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions are available online, http://www.droit.umontreal.ca/doc/csc-scc/en/index.html, as are recent decision of courts in other jurisdictions such as BC http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/. Unfortunately, Manitoba has yet to put its decisions and statutes online although some information can be found at http://www.gov.mb.ca/leg-lib/.
Many international resources are also available including the US Federal Statutes http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/, United Nations documents http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/glin/x-un-org.html, as well as court decisions from various jurisdictions.
However, the first place any lawyer will likely turn to is one of the many legal search engines such as Findlaw http://www.findlaw.com or Lawcrawler http://www.lawcrawler.com. Search engines are much like the index for the encyclopedia with the only difference being that the index is constantly updated and contains an infinite number of search terms. A more general list of legal resources can also be found at the Yahoo search engine http://www.yahoo.com/law/.
To begin a search, simply connect to one of the search engines and type in a search string. The search engines will then search the entire Internet to find documents that contain your search terms but will give priority to those documents with a legal bent to them. For example, I recently performed a search on "progressive discipline" using Lawcrawler and found over two hundred hits, many of them recent arbitration panel decisions.
The drawback to the web is that, like almost everything, the bulk of the information you will find is American. Fortunately, the amount of Canadian information is steadily increasing. For example, Quicklaw has a basic list of Canadian resources on its web site http://www.qlsys.ca/otherlaw.html. In addition, many of the Canadian Law Schools (accessible through the Quicklaw site) maintain very good links to other Canadian law resources. For example, my alma matter, Dalhousie, has an excellent list of links at http://www.dal.ca/law/resource/resource.html.
An important issue to bear in mind is that the quality of information on the Internet varies widely. Because anyone can place information on the Internet, users must keep in mind the source of the information and be very discerning about what information they rely on. There is some very good and reputable information on the Web, but there is also some very misleading and poorly researched information on the Web as well.
A third problem is of a more pedantic nature i.e. how to properly cite Internet information. That problem is an article all to itself but, suffice it to say, be sure to cite using the full HTTP address for the page and the date that you found it. Because the Internet is very fluid, the date is crucial as the address may change at some later date.
The web is also a self-promotional tool. Many large law firms are using their own home pages as a means of promoting their firm. Firm home pages can be used to identify the areas of expertise of the firm, provide information on the various lawyers in the firm, publish recent articles by lawyers in the firm, and provide information on how to contact the firm.
Many Internet accounts include space on the ISP's computer for a small web page and with a little bit of time and some of the latest web page design software, a basic web page can be put together relatively quickly.
As the Internet becomes more prevalent, it will become as effective a tool for self-promotion as the yellow pages. Net surfers will increasingly turn to the web for fast, thorough information the products and services they are looking to purchase and legal services will be no exception.
However, lawyers have to be aware of the nature of the information they put on their web pages. Lawyers should ensure that the advice they give is of a general nature and make it clear that it should not be relied on by a prospective client. Furthermore, where e-mail addresses are given out, prospective clients should be forewarned about confidentiality and security issues.
CONCLUSION
The Internet is slowly becoming an indispensable tool of business. The Internet will increasingly become the research tool of choice as more governments and courts place information on the Internet free of charge. Similarly, lawyers will rely on it as a means of communicating with each other and of promoting themselves. As technology evolves it will also become significantly easier to use. The latest software from Corel and Microsoft, for example, already incorporate the ability to move seamlessly between the Internet and your office's local network. The next release of Windows, Windows 98, will incorporate a web browser right into the desktop so that files on the Internet are as easy to access as files on your hard drive.
Without a doubt, the Internet is here to stay and any lawyer who is not jumping on the bandwagon risks being left behind. Happy surfing!
NOTE TO READER: To access any of the links listed in this article, simply type in the http address in bold. Hopefully, I will have a copy of this article, along with active links to the pages listed, posted on my personal web page by the time this article goes to print. You will find it at http://www.davidswayze.com/headnotes.html.