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Florida
December 2009
In this Issue
• Legal Humor
• Updates Review
• Minimum System Requirements for ProDoc Increasing
• Your ProDoc Account Information Is Available Online
• Who to Call for Billing/Customer Support Issues
• Customer Questions from the Last WebNotes
• Customer Support: Adding Your Own Forms to ProDoc
• Practice Tip: Use Free Email Services and Waive Privilege?
• Tech Tip: Beware of Hackers at Those Wi-Fi Hotspots
• Tech Tip: How to Get a Recipient to Agree to Terms before Opening a Document
• Tech Tip: Enjoy Music with Class
• Vent - Tell Us What's on Your Mind
 
Legal Humor

Years ago in Kentucky, a prosecutor offered to settle the charge in a criminal case if the defendant would plead guilty and accept a five-year sentence.

On the advice of his defense attorney, the defendant turned down the deal. The case went to trial, where he was eventually convicted. Before imposing a life sentence without parole, the judge asked the defendant if he had anything to say.

"Yes, your honor," said the defendant. "You might as well tack on a few more years—because if I ever get out, I'm gonna kill my lawyer!"

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Updates Review

Coming Updates

December

  • Family Law - We added new forms pursuant to Florida Supreme Court opinion number SC08-1141a, removed three existing civil cover sheets, and we updated one form pursuant to an agency update.

  • Litigation – We added new forms pursuant to Florida Supreme Court opinion number SC08-114a and we updated one form pursuant to an agency update.

  • Lipman's Wills & Trusts - We added new options to six Irrevocable Trust forms; added new options to Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts, and all of the Certification of Trust forms; added Qualifying Elective Share Trusts to will and revocable trust forms; and renamed all of the Domestic Partner forms to Same-sex Spouse//Domestic Partner forms.

  • FLSSI1 Probate - We made a minor enhancement to the Accounting to make it more clear.

  • Business Organizations – We changed one form pursuant to an agency update.

  • Business Transactions Solution – We added additional statutory links into Westlaw® for 29 forms.

  • Federal Criminal Defense - We updated nine forms with a minor change to the jurisdictional description.  We also updated four Administrative Office forms with minor changes.

  • Family Law PowerPack - We updated the Tax Calculator with the IRS 2010 tax charts. We updated the Delinquency Calculator for the percentages charged on delinquencies anticipated for 2010.

Visit here for more details about this update >>

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Minimum System Requirements for ProDoc Increasing
We vigorously debate the issue of increasing the Minimum System Requirements (MSRs) for using ProDoc and SOS. Increasing the MSRs enables us to take advantage of new software capabilities and add new features for you. However, it also requires that our customers upgrade their computer systems, before some are ready to do so. Finally, Microsoft® Windows 2000 marked a significant enhancement to operating system features that we want to be able to take advantage of for you, our customer.

With those factors in mind, and since more than 98% of our customer base has at a minimum a Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system, we will release a new ProDoc version that requires a Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system, or later. In 2010 you will not be able to use ProDoc on a Microsoft Windows 98, ME, and NT operating system.

We regret that this will cause a hardship for a small number of our customers. However, we believe that the payoff to the far greater number of users who have already switched to Microsoft Windows 2000, or later, makes increasing the MSRs our best decision today.

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Your ProDoc Account Information Is Available Online
You can now go online and review your ProDoc subscription information and find your Installation KeyCode and Registration Code(s). All this and more is available through MyAccount on the Thomson West web site.

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Who to Call for Billing/Customer Support Issues
We have a special team dedicated to Customer Support issues for ProDoc customers. Call 800-759-5418. This is the "ProDoc only" phone number for obtaining Sales information (option 1), Customer Support (option 2), Free Technical Support (option 3), and Free Training (option 4) and it is dedicated exclusively for ProDoc customers. Call this number and you work with the teams that are the most knowledgeable about ProDoc.

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Customer Questions from the Last WebNotes
The following questions were from ProDoc customers like you in response to last month's ProDoc WebNotes.

Q: I think you will find there are many attorneys in need of the new HUD1 that use the real estate module. So, please update this before January 1.  
A: We replaced the old HUD1 forms with the new ones about five months ago. There was so much demand for the old ones that we added them back to the real estate volume so that it contains both the old and new HUD1s. We will continue to maintain the old HUD1s in the volume for use in non-RESPA-controlled closings.

Q: There is no "Short Sale" Addendum to the Real Estate Contract. Why not?
A: It is not included is because it was not part of the forms we licensed from FLSSI and the Florida Bar.  However, we try to include enhancements based on requests such as yours, and I have now added it to our enhancement list for consideration for a future update.  Thank you for your suggestion.

Q: When I was working with a colleague I noticed that his ProDoc looked really different from mine. Are there multiple versions of ProDoc available?
A: The different look in your two ProDocs is because one of you is using the Quick Start Assistant (QSA) to generate your documents. It simplifies the process but it prevents you from using many of the time saving features available to you in ProDoc. Let's assume that it is you that is using the QSA. To change to the Quick Click Menu method (much more efficient), do the following: Open ProDoc, click on Customize and then on Options. On the Options and Settings page, choose Miscellaneous Personal Settings in the Personal Settings area, and then click the button by Quick Click Menu (Advanced). Click OK to exit. You'll now be able to more easily take advantage of all the additional time-saving features like default answer sets, forms sets, etc. when assembling your documents.

Q: I am using ProDoc for the first year of my law firm.  If I cancel my subscription at the end of the year, will the documents that I created this past year be deleted?
A: All the documents you draft in ProDoc will stay with you in the event that you end your ProDoc subscription. Word processor documents will be in either .WPD, .DOC, or .RTF (depending on your word processor) and graphic forms will be in .PDF format. You can find those documents in the location specified in your ProDoc Options & Settings. The default location for this location is C:\Clients.

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ProDoc Customer Support: Adding Your Own Forms to ProDoc
Last month we showed you how to search for forms in ProDoc and how to print ProDoc forms lists.

This month you can learn how to add your own forms into ProDoc. However, after studying the process, you may instead opt to modify our master form templates in ProDoc. Whichever method you choose, we provide you the means to make ProDoc more closely fit the way you work.

Learn to add your own forms to ProDoc (adding Supplemental Forms)>>
Learn how to modify ProDoc master form templates >>

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Practice Tip: Use Free Email Services and Waive Privilege?
Do you effectively waive privilege when you use the free email services such as Gmail®, Yahoo®, Hotmail®, etc? We will let you make up your own mind on the matter but, if you use one of these services, you might wish to read the following entry on Three Geeks and a Law Blog.

Read Use Gmail - Waive Privilege >>

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Tech Tip: Beware of Hackers at Those Wi-Fi Hotspots
If you customarily take advantage of Wi-Fi hotspots to mobile compute you could be setting yourself up for trouble. Yes, hackers have figured out easy ways to take advantage of mobile computing too. Unfortunately, it is extraordinarily easy for hackers to dupe virtually anyone.

Read more about the latest in Wi-Fi hacking >>

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Tech Tip: How to Get a Recipient to Agree to Terms before Opening a Document
Are there times when you would like to be able to require that a recipient agree to your terms prior to opening and reading a document you provided? If yes, we have the answer for you. Better still, the solution has evidently been upheld in court that clicking a button in a software program constituted acceptance of terms.

Learn How to Create a Click-thru Agreement in a PDF >>

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Tech Tip: Enjoy Music with Class
If you enjoy background music in your office from your computer, iPod, etc. you're probably accustomed to the inferior quality of the mass produced speakers for computers. But, a couple of 14-watt, two-way, Hi-Fi, wood speakers can make the listening far more enjoyable.

Read more about Genius® 14 watt Two-Way Hi-Fi Wood Speakers >>


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Vent—Tell Us What's on Your Mind
This is your opportunity to what's on your mind. Email us your suggestions and other feedback.

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ProDoc® and SOS® are registered trademarks of West Publishing Corporation. All other trademarks are the
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1 The forms in this volume are derived from forms prepared by the Forms Committee of the Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law Section of The Florida Bar and contained in the Florida Lawyers Support Services, Inc. (FLSSI) Manual. These forms are created and maintained by leading experts in their field and recognized as the standard in probate courts throughout Florida.
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