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Texas
MAY 2010
 
Legal Humor

Actual courtroom "repartee":

By Attorney:  This Myasthenia Gravis, does it affect your memory at all?

By Witness:  Yes.

Attorney:  And in what ways does it affect your memory?

Witness:  I forget things.

Attorney:  You forget things? Can you give us an example of something you've forgotten?

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Updates Review

2010 Updates
We're working on the most recent State Bar of Texas Supplements for Adoptions and Paternity, Family Law, Real Estate volumes and will release them later this year. We will continue our commitment to provide you updates to ProDoc forms as agency changes and case law changes dictate. We will also ship form changes we make as a result of customer suggestions and enhancements we make in both ProDoc and the automated forms.

Current - June Update
We will send you the following updates via CD:

  • AdoptionsWe revised the Notice of Intent to Claim Paternity form to match the updated agency form.  And, based on customer requests, we added more space in which to type in the name of an alleged father in the termination section of the volume.
  • Business Organizations – When registering an LLP, you can now list the number of general partners in the LLP at the time of registration pursuant to a change by the Texas Secretary of State.
  • Business Transactions Solutions – We updated the Directors', Officers' and Principal Shareholders' Questionnaire form per an update from the author, Alan S Gutterman.
  • Family Law – We updated the Qualified Domestic Relations Order for the Employee Retirement System of Texas. We made the inclusion of the social security numbers of the parties optional to match regulation changes by the agency which administers the plan.
  • Foreclosures – We enhanced the coding of two forms, the Authenticated Claim of Creditor and the Warranty Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure, to make them work better with other forms.
  • Guardianship – We added three new forms to the volume: Notice to Interested Parties - Probate Code 633, Affidavit of Compliance - Probate Code 633, and Guardianship Referral to Harris County Probate Courts (Harris).
  • Litigation -We revised the Motion - Federal - Pro Hac Vice, with Order form to match updated agency form.
  • Real Estate – We modified a reference from Texas Business and Commerce Code to the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code.
  • Probate – We updated the Affidavit of Heirship for a Motor Vehicle form.
  • Lipman’s Wills & Trusts – We're revising approximately 100 forms with numerous enhancements, including:
  1. We modified and improving the fee agreements so that you now have more options available when creating these forms.
  2. We added a new form that revokes your client’s existing revocable trust. The form comes in six different versions depending on who created the trust that is being revoked.
  3. We're revising the deed forms so that you can now draft an unlimited number of deeds at one time. Each of the deeds will be sent to a single output file, with one letter following the other.
  4. We improved and renamed the forms that were previously called Memorandum Regarding Transfer of Accounts. We reworked the forms so that they are now letters from your client to the financial institutions. And, you can now choose to draft an unlimited number of these letters at one time. Each of the letters will be sent to a single output file, with one letter following the other.
  5. You now have the option to draft trust agreements without withdrawal rights in all of the irrevocable trusts that contain Crummey withdrawal rights.
  6. We modified the language regarding the creation of pet trusts so that other provisions relating to the early termination of uneconomical trusts will not apply to pet trusts.
  7. We removed the Widow and Orphan format settings from every form. There will be places where the forms previously looked better than they do now, and you will find that certain provisions, notary acknowledgments especially, start on one page and end on the next. However, the formatting has been improved a great deal, especially for users of Microsoft® Word.
  8. We enhanced most of the wills and revocable trusts so you now have the option to include several different types of clauses for payment of taxes and expenses.
  • ProDoc/SOS Database Enhancement - We also released a database enhancement to make your ProDoc more stable and reliable.
Past - April WebUpdates
We provided the following WebUpdate in April:
  • Real Estate – We're correcting a reference from 41.02 to 41.002 of the Texas Property Code in one form

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Preparation for Installing the June Update
The database enhancement in this update has minimum system requirements that include the most current Microsoft Windows Service Pack for your operating system. If that is not installed on your computer/server, you will not be able to complete the installation of the update.

However, you should have the most current Service Pack installed for your peace of mind. Microsoft Service Packs contain bug fixes and even more importantly, they contain patches to known vulnerabilities in the Operating System. You should have automatic updating turned on but, if not, here is your opportunity to get current.

Here is how to check how current you are with your operating system. On your desktop left click Start > right click My Computer > left click Properties. Under System and then Version, look for the Service Pack information. If the most current Service Pack does not display as shown below, be sure to download and install the most current Service Pack before installing the May update.

Operating System Most Recent Service Pack
Microsoft Windows 2000 Windows 2000 SP4
Microsoft Windows XP Windows XP SP3
Microsoft Windows Vista1 Windows Vista SP1
Windows Vista SP2
Microsoft Windows 7 None needed

1Unlike service packs for other Microsoft Operating Systems, SP2 for Vista is not a standalone service pack. It requires SP1 to be installed. If neither service pack is installed on your Vista Operating System, first install the Windows Vista SP1 and then the Windows Vista SP2.

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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 am going to buy a new laptop this week. I am considering a Mac. Will ProDoc work on Mac? Thanks.
A: ProDoc is a PC based product so it does not run natively on a Mac. You can run it on a modern Mac if you install the Parallels Windows emulator software and install a Windows operating system. (We will release our web-based application next year that will run on any operating system without any special software.)

Q: It is frustrating that your new format causes the Next and Quit buttons to not be in the same position. I find that if you hit the Next button to continue thru the program it sometimes winds up on the Quit button and causes the program to end unexpectedly. Can the screens be positioned so that the Next button is in the same position to prevent this annoying occurrence?  Otherwise I am still a satisfied customer.
A: We agree and will review this suggestion for a future ProDoc release. The problem is primarily caused by the fact that the question windows boxes need to be different sizes depending on the types of question and the amount of data entered in the window.

A simple solution is to start using the Enter key instead of clicking the Next button. That way you do not need to depend on where your cursor is located. I know it will be hard to change the habit but I found that this makes all the difference in the world for me.

Q: My computer was completely corrupted by a virus last week and had to be killed and brought back. In the process I lost my ProDoc software and files. Please advise how to replace. THANKS!
A: First, reload ProDoc on your new computer. We will have our Tech Support team contact you with your KeyCode and Registration. And, if you cannot find your most recent install CD, our Tech Support person can give you the link to download the install file. Second, and hopefully, restore the missing data from you backup. Our Tech Support team can help you with this so call them at 800-759-5418, option 3. If you did not backup your data, and it sounds like you reformatted your computer hard drive, your data is probably lost forever. You might check with whoever restored your computer and see what options they may provide to try to restore some of your lost data. (To the reader: We receive many, many requests like this. Be sure you back up your computer, especially your ProDoc/SOS data. Read more about backing up your data.)

Q: I'm interested in trying the Wills and Trusts module. I don't think I have that. Is it possible to arrange the 30 day trial for it?
A: Yes, we will provide you a new KeyCode that will unlock the Lipman's Wills & Trusts volume to you for a 30-day trial. You will have unrestricted access to the volume during this period of time and all of your work product will be saved as permanent word processor files. You will need your most recent installation CD to install it or we can provide you a link to download the installation file.

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ProDoc Customer Support: Creating Custom Intake Forms
Many ProDoc volumes contain generic Intake Sheets that you can print using the usual document assembly method. You’ll find them named Client Questionnaire, Client Information Worksheet, Profile, etc.—depending on the volume. They are quick and easy to generate but they are generic. Of course, you can choose to generate one and then edit it to fit your requirements.

Another option is to create your own custom Intake Forms using the Print Worksheets feature in ProDoc. Using the Print Worksheets feature enables you to review all of the questions in ProDoc for a particular form or form set, use any of those questions, and then add your own questions for your custom intake form. You can then save your Custom Intake Sheet in ProDoc, if you wish, for easy access.

Learn how to create Custom Intake Forms >>

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Practice Tip: Five Things Prospective Clients Really Want to Buy
With all of the options prospective clients have today instead of hiring a lawyer, it helps to think like a salesperson in order to convince them to commit to you. We found the following excellent blog entry written by a family law attorney on the client benefits you need to cover to help land more clients. The concepts can apply to many other areas of law.

Read 5 Things Prospective Clients Really Want to Buy >>

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Tech Tip: Dictation from Your iPhone
The problem with speech-to-text software is that is makes errors that you need to correct. SpeakWrite is a free app that enables you to record your thoughts on your iPhone and upload the audio so it can be transcribed by real typists. The turnaround time averages about three hours.

Learn more SpeakWrite >>

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Tech Tip: Online Jury Research and Mock Jury Surveys
JuryBank is an online resource that can provide you low cost services such as diagnosing your case early to identify problems and guide your strategy, build your jury survey, and select mock jurors.

Learn more about JuryBank >>

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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, a Thomson Reuters company - 962 Coronado Boulevard - Universal City, Texas 78148
Phone: 800-759-5418

ProDoc® and SOS® are registered trademarks of West Publishing Corporation. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective owners.

1 This document assembly system is not a product of the State Bar of Texas and is not endorsed by the State Bar. The material in this system is provided by Thomson Reuters under a license from the State Bar of Texas, which took no part in producing the system. The license agreement between Thomson Reuters and the State Bar of Texas contains specific disclaimers of the State Bar's Liability with regard to the system and its contents, to which interested persons should refer. The material in this system is also contained in the Texas Family Law Practice Manual, 2nd Ed., The Texas Collections Manual, 3rd ed., The Texas Real Estate Forms Manual, the Texas Foreclosure Manual, 2nd ed., and the Texas Pattern Jury Charges, published by the State Bar of Texas and are intended for use in conjunction with those publications.