I have been using the web for intensive legal research for the past two
years.  I agree that it is a tremendous tool, not only for case law, but
also for supporting documents such as interpretive materials and agency
policy documents.

        However, I am cautions with e-mails due to the non secure nature of most
web traffic. Third party intercepts of messages could prove extremely
damaging to a client due to the potential loss of privilege.A

t 06:50 AM 2/6/99 -0600, you wrote:
>             USING THE INTERNET: A LAWYERS OVERVIEW
>
>                                           by Greg D. Trapp, Esq.
>
>Presented at the 1999 conference of the National Association of
>Blind Lawyers held on January 31 in Washington, D.C.
>
>                          INTRODUCTION
>
>The internet seems to be everywhere.  E-mail addresses now commonly
>appear on legal stationary and business cards.  Law firms have
>their own web pages and advertise their services through the
>internet.  However, despite the seemingly omnipresence of the
>internet, most lawyers still do not have their own e-mail
>addresses, and even fewer take full advantage of the remarkable
>features that the internet offers.  This presentation will
>introduce you to some of these features, and will hopefully
>motivate you to access the internet for the first time.  For those
>of you who are already using the internet, it is hoped that this
>presentation will help you to discover new and creative ways that
>the internet can benefit your legal practice.
>
>                    LEVELS OF INTERNET ACCESS
>
>There are a number of different levels of internet access.  All
>lawyers can access at least some level of the internet, even if it
>is through the auspices of a friend.
>
>ASK A FRIEND:  The first level of internet access is to ask a
>friend.  A simple request to a internet savvy friend to find a
>particular case or statute may be all it takes to obtain a computer
>disk copy of the desired case or statute.  This same friend might
>also perform research of a particular company, search for a missing
>witness, or search for medical or other articles relevant to a
>specific aspect of a case.  Needless to say, treating this friend
>to occasional lunches and dinners will help assure his or her
>continued availability to help with the internet.
>
>BASIC E-MAIL: Most persons begin their access to the internet with
>basic e-mail.  While not normally a part of the Web, basic e-mail
>is actually a very powerful legal tool.  E--mail can be accessed
>with very basic technology, such as an older DOS based computer or
>even a Braille-'n-Speak.  It is also possible to have some modest
>access to the Web through basic e-mail.  Most persons who have
>basic e-mail access will also have the ability to telnet through
>the internet to bulletin board systems, such as NFBnet.  If you
>have been good about treating your friend to lunches and dinners,
>he or she may also be able to help you get started with basic e-
>mail access.
>
>WEB ACCESS: There are two basic levels of access to the Web, or
>World Wide Web.  The first and oldest is through the use of a text
>based Web browser such as Lynx.  While allowing access to most of
>the features of the Web, not all Web sites support Lynx and other
>text based browserss.  The move is away from Lynx to Web browsers
>such as Netscape and Internet Explorer.  Fortunately, Web page
>designers are slowly becoming more aware of the needs of blind
>persons, and Web pages are gradually becoming more accessible.
>Unfortunately, there are still many Web pages which simply do not
>work well with speech access technology.
>
>                          USING E-MAIL
>
>When the Internet is spoken of, it is usually in reference to the
>World Wide Web.  The use of e-mail seems to sometimes be almost
>overlooked.  However, e-mail is a powerful tool for the lawyer, and
>especially for the blind lawyer.
>
>The popularity of e-mail has increased exponentially over the last
>few years.  This trend has also carried over into the legal arena.
>In many jurisdictions it is now possible to file court pleadings by
>e-mail.  Attorneys in those jurisdictions can also receive rulings
>and orders by e-mail.  If this was not reason enough to begin using
>e-mail, attorneys can also use e-mail in more traditional ways,
>such as reminding a client of an important upcoming meeting, or to
>communicate with an attorney who is co-counseling on a case.
>
>One of the primary advantages of e-mail is it's ability to make
>communication quick and to-the-point.  It can also create a written
>record complete with time notation.  However, when using e-mail, it
>should be remembered that e-mail does not enjoy the same standards
>of confidentiality as does the U.S. Mail.  Therefore, an attorney
>must be aware of the nature of the e-mailing that is taking place,
>and take appropriate steps to assure that attorney-client and
>attorney work product privileges are protected.  You should
>indicate in the body of the e-mail message that the e-mail is a
>confidential communication.  You may be able to set your e-mail
>program to automatically insert a statement at the end of your e-
>mail message such as the following:
>
>The information contained in this e-mail message is privileged,
>confidential and protected from disclosure.  If you are not
>the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or
>copying is strictly prohibited.  If you think that you have
>received this e-mail message in error, please e-mail the sender
>at [log in to unmask]
>
>While e-mail is an excellent method of communication, its true
>power is rarely taken full advantage of.  One of the best features
>of e-mail is its ability to send files as attachments.  This means
>that a word processor file can be sent to an expert witness, to an
>attorney with whom one is co-counseling, or even to an opposing
>attorney.  When co-counseling with another attorney, the typical
>practice is still to send fax copies of drafts of legal pleadings.
>Unfortunately, to read a fax copy, the blind lawyer must usually
>have the assistance of a sighted reader.  The print quality of a
>fax copy is usually too poor to allow for efficient scanning or
>reading with a CCTV.  Fax copies are even sometimes too poor to be
>read by a sighted reader.  The ideal solution to this dilemma is
>the use of e-mail.
>
>While a deposition, pleading or other legal document can be sent in
>the body of an e-mail message, an even better solution is to send
>the document as an attached word processor file.  All that is
>needed is to arrange for the document to be in a file format which
>can be read by the person receiving the file.  Since depositions
>are typically provided in ASCII (DOS text) format, this is not a
>problem with depositions as ASCII files can be universally read by
>any word processor.  In the case of a file saved in the format of
>a specific word processor such as WordPerfect, it is necessary to
>determine that the file can be read by the particular word
>processor.  For example, MS Word can save and retrieve a
>WordPerfect 5.1 file.  It is usually possible to find a word
>processor format that both parties can read.  Of course, it is even
>easier if you are using the same word processor.  It is also
>possible to exchange Pre-Trial Reports and other documents with
>opposing counsel through this method.  This can result in a
>considerable savings of work and time.  However, at the end of the
>drafting process, it is a good practice to have the final copy
>faxed to assure that all of the desired changes and modifications
>have been made to the final document.
>
>Another excellent use of e-mail is to subscribe to listserves.  A
>listserve is typically one of two things; a discussion group such
>as blindlaw in which subscribers can have a dialogue; or a news
>service which sends messages to subscribers.  Blindlaw is a
>listserve sponsored by NABL, a division of the National Federation
>of the Blind.  To subscribe to blindlaw, send an e-mail message to
>"[log in to unmask]"  Leave the subject line blank, and In the
>body of the message put "subscribe blindlaw."
>
>There are a large number of listserves which deal with topics of
>interest to the lawyer.  These listserves typically provide very
>timely information on recent court decisions, provide legislative
>updates, or serve as a forum for discussion of issues of interest
>to the subscribers.
>
>  It is also possible to use basic e-mail to search the Web.  To do
>this, you send an e-mail message to a search robot which in turn
>sends the search request to a standard Web search engine such as
>Webcrawler.com or Altavista.com.  Though very limited, this can
>still be a helpful tool for persons who do not have full Web
>access.  One of these e-mail search robots is
>[log in to unmask]  If you send an e-mail message to this
>address, you will be e-mailed instructions on how to use the search
>robot.
>
>It is also possible to use the Internet to telnet to a BBS such as
>NFBnet.  This allows you to avoid long distance phone charges which
>you would accrue if you used your modem to call the BBS directly.
>Not all Internet Service Providers (ISP) offer this option, and not
>every BBS can be telnetted to.  The DOJ BBS, or instance, still
>must be dialed directly.  If you telnet to NFBnet, which you do by
>telnetting to NFBnet.org, you will find a large number of legal
>files, especially those relating to the Americans with Disabilities
>Act.
>
>                          USING THE WEB
>
>The World Wide Web is an incredible source of legal information.
>This is especially the case in certain legal areas such as patent
>law.  The Web is also an excellent way to obtain supporting
>documentation.  For example, the Web can be used to search for
>educational research materials relating to cases brought under the
>Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  This is the case
>because the Web is used as a depository for scholarly articles and
>research.  As a depository of scholarly information, the Web is
>also an excellent source to obtain documentation to be used to
>research or impeach an opposing expert witness.
>
>The real power of the Web comes from the "search engines" which
>allow a Web user to search the vast materials which are available
>through the Web.  These include Altavista.com, Infoseek.com,
>Search.com, Webcrawler.com, and Yahoo.com (though Yahoo is
>technically not a search engine).  In addition to these standard
>Web search engines, there are also search engines designed
>specially to perform legal searches, such as findlaw.com and
>Lawcrawler.com.
>
>While the Web can be used to find specific cases or cases on a
>specific topic, attorneys should keep in mind that thorough legal
>research must still be performed in the traditional way.  However,
>as more and more legal materials are placed on the Web, the Web
>will become more useful as a traditional legal research tool.
>Perhaps the best function of the Web is as a way to obtain specific
>statutes and cases which are in an accessible format.  These
>statutes and cases can be read by the blind computer user without
>the need to resort to a sighted reader.  This accessible material
>can also be used to create a convenient database which can be
>retrieved and read whenever necessary.
>
>While the Web is a tremendous source of information, it must be
>kept in mind that the Web is also an indiscriminate collection of
>information.  The Web does not have a process of peer review.
>Accordingly, while the Web contains a vast amount of valuable
>information, it contains an even greater amount of material that
>can be charitably described as "junk."  It is, therefore, very
>important that the Web user be sure of the validity and veracity of
>the source of the information.
>
>----------
>
>
>VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
>To join or leave the list, send a message to
>[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
>"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
> VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
>http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html