please take me off your e-mail list. I do not have an e-mail capability
anymore.  thank you

Edwin Montanez wrote:

> I thought that some of you lawyers might be interested in this article from
> the the New York Times.
> Edwin
>
> February 7, 1999
>
> Possible Legal Software Ban Raises Free Speech Issue
>
>       By BARBARA WHITAKER
>
>      H OUSTON -- It may look like a computer disk, but in the eyes of a
>      federal judge in Texas it behaves too much like a lawyer.
>
>      In a ruling last month thought to be the first of its type in the
>      country, Judge Barefoot Sanders of U.S. District Court in Dallas
>      found that [5]Parsons Technology Inc., which publishes Quicken
>      Family Lawyer and Quicken Family Lawyer '99, goes too far in the
>      assistance it provides consumers, resulting in an unauthorized
>      practice of law in the state.
>
>      The state's Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee, which sued
>      Parsons, says it will seek to ban the sale of the software in
>      Texas, raising First Amendment concerns. In addition, the case is
>      highlighting arguments about whether the committee is protecting
>      the public from shoddy legal practices or further alienating
>      consumers already priced out of the market for lawyers.
>
>      The Quicken software provides more than 100 different legal forms,
>      instructions on how to fill them out and assistance in tailoring
>      the documents to the user's situation.
>
>      Parsons, based in Berkeley, Calif., and a unit of Broderbund
>      Software, argued that it had not engaged in the unauthorized
>      practice of law because there had to be some form of contact
>      between publisher and consumer for that to happen. Parsons also
>      said that interfering with the sale of its software would be a
>      violation of the First Amendment right of free speech.
>
>      But Sanders found that "Parsons, through Q.F.L., has gone beyond
>      publishing a sample form book with instructions, and has ventured
>      into the unauthorized practice of law." He also found that although
>      there was some restriction on free speech, it was in keeping with
>      the state's interest in protecting "the uninformed and unwary from
>      overly simplistic legal advice."
>
>      Mark Ticer, a lawyer for the committee, said he would move to have
>      the company banned from selling Quicken legal software in the
>      state.
>
>      Darrell Jordan, who represented Parsons, said he would offer more
>      information and ask the judge to reconsider his position once the
>      injunction was requested. If that failed, he said, he would seek to
>      delay sales limits during appeals.
>
>      Software publishers said Texas was alone in its aggressive scrutiny
>      of legal self-help material. But the case is being watched closely.
>      Some software dealers say they steer clear of the state.
>
>      The case has also focused attention on whether the Unauthorized
>      Practice of Law Committee is serving the people's interests.The
>      panel, responsible for enforcing the practice-of-law statute, is
>      made up of six lawyers and three nonlawyers, appointed by the
>      Supreme Court of Texas.
>
>      "Most of the people who buy this program cannot afford to go to a
>      lawyer," said Jane Winn, an associate professor specializing in the
>      law of electronic commerce at Southern Methodist University in
>      Dallas. "If you take this program away from the people who are
>      using it today, what access do they have to information about their
>      rights?"
>
>      Walt Borges, director of Court Watch, a project in Austin that
>      monitors the courts, criticized the committee for promoting a
>      "monopoly of law" and for operating in secret. "Before anybody bans
>      a self-help product they need to be darn sure that this will harm
>      the public," he said.
>
>      The committee's secretive operations are already being challenged
>      in the Texas Supreme Court by Nolo Press, which publishes a number
>      of self-help legal manuals.
>
>      Ticer defended the committee's right to operate with
>      confidentiality, explaining that the members do their own
>      investigations and could be hampered if their identities were
>      known.
>
>      He also countered accusations that the committee was simply trying
>      to protect lawyers' interests in the state. "We don't have an
>      agenda," Ticer said. "We just carry out the statute."
>
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