Microsoft Word Tips for Jury Instructions

I just saw a great tip from Carol’s Corner Office Blog about printing jury instructions. One of the problems with preparing jury instructions is that you need a copy for you, opposing counsel, and the judge with citations on them. You also need jury instructions for the jury without these citations. Of course you can make one set, print them, delete the citation information, and then print them. It always seems, however, that something gets screwed up in this process.

Carol has a great suggestion that I have never heard before. She explains:

Create your Jury Instructions for the judge, complete with citations.
Now select the citations at the bottom of the page.
Click on Format | Font.
Under Effects, select Hidden, which will hide the citation text.
When you are ready to print the judge’s Jury Instructions, click on File | Print or use the shortcut CTRL + P.
From the Print menu, click the Options button.
From the Print dialog box, select Hidden Text under Include with Document.
Click OK two times to close the dialog box and print the document with cites.

I think this is a great tip that I am definately adding to my knowledge base. I just wish I had this tip a few weeks ago when I was preparing jury instructions.

Efiling and Cook County

Yesterday i attended a presentation by the Cook County Circuit Clerk about the efiling system they are planning to roll out in March 2009. The vendor Cook County selected is USCourts.com, which is also the vendor for the statewide efiling project in Alabama. The fact that this vendor has a track record doing this is encouraging. On the other hand, Cook County has a few more filings than they have in Alabama. According to the 2007 Annual Report on Illinois Courts, in 2007, ther were a total of 1,955,480 cases filed. According to the USCourts.com representative yesterday, last year there were approximately 250,000 cases filed in Alabama. This number seems low to me for Alabama. I would note that the 2007 Annual Report on Illinois Courts shows that in 2007 there were 318.126 cases filed in DuPage County. Nevertheless there is no question but that they were dealing with fewer cases in Alabama than they will be in Cook County.

Based on the demo presented yesterday, it appears that attorneys will be able to file cases, have summons issued, and review all electronic documents on their case from within the system. I am interested to see what further information is released as this project is rolled out over the next couple of months.

One thing I found interesting at the presentation was that there were several questions that were directly related to AOIC rules, including questions about public access to court documents over the internet as well as questions about why the clerk had to print copies of electronically filed documents. I thought it was clear from several people in the room that there is a huge desire for the ability to access court documents remotely. I am glad I am not the only one who wants this.

Update: I forgot to mention that the efiling project is being rolled out first only to Law Division cases on the Commercial Calendar. Clerk Brown said yesterday that she plan to roll it out to other divisions once the project starts and she gets permission from the AOIC.

PDF Tips and Tricks

Recently PDF for Lawyers pointed to a great article on How to Do Everything with PDF Files. I don’t know that the list actually covers how to do everything. However, it is a pretty comprehensive list with several different tips, including several for creating PDFs without using Adobe Acrobat. The first few tips include:

Q: First things first – How do I create PDF documents on my computer without Adobe Acrobat?

A: Get a copy of DoPDF – it installs as a virtual printer driver on your desktop just like Acrobat and lets you print PDF files from any Windows application including images, documents, emails, websites, etc.

Q: I don’t want to install software just for converting a bunch of documents to PDF. Do you know of any alternative?

A: Upload your documents to Google Docs via the browser and then export them as PDF files. Simple.

Q: A client just sent me a PowerPoint presentation by email. Since I am travelling without the laptop and my mobile phone cannot read PPT files, what should I do?

A: Forward that email message (with the PPT attachment) to pdf@koolwire.com – they’ll convert the presentation to PDF and email it back to you immediately. Most mobile phones can read PDF files.

Check out the article for the entire list. The list contains some excellent tips for manipulating PDF files if you do not have Adobe Acrobat.

Now I, like Ross Kodner, believe that the best PDF solution available is Adobe Acrobat. Further, as Ross explains, multiple ways exist to get a full version without paying list price. Additionally, when compared to other similarly powered software solutions, the street price of Acrobat is not out of line.

Despite my believe that everyone should have a full version of Acrobat. I recognize that the solutions in this list are useful for two groups of people. First, there is the large number of people who can’t or won’t purchase a full version of Acrobat. Second, are those who have a full version of Actobat but who are stuck working on a different computer because of travel, etc. In either situation, the tips here give you a great option to create or manipulate PDF files.

Note: I recently installed and begin using Nitro PDF and am in the process of evaluating it. I will be providing a full review on it in the near future. In the meantime, I would note that it has many features not found in other PDF programs and I am enjoying trying it out.

A Great CLE Idea

I love what the people at Mentor CLE are doing. They make their presentations available for free on the Internet. If you want credit for them you simply pay $19.95 per hour.

Recently they added their newest product, a daily three minute audio report on recent developments in the law. You can choose to receive the daily reports via email or cell phone. Alternatively, you can simply listen to them on your computer.

The email I received announcing this service stated:

A convenient new type of MCLE course is now available for Illinois lawyers.

The MentorCLE Daily Briefing is a three-minute audio report on recent developments in the law – delivered to your computer or cell phone each day.

By listening to the reports, you earn one hour of Illinois approved MCLE credit each month, which adds up to 24 hours each two-year reporting period. If you can’t listen some days, you can always go back and listen later. We even offer a weekend wrap-up of all of the week’s reports, for those attorneys who would prefer to listen once a week rather than daily.

I think the model that Mentor CLE has adopted is great. It allows you to listen to presentations for educational purposes and/or credit purposes. The new feature with the daily briefing is simply an additional benefit that will allow you to fulfill much of your CLE requirements both easily and inexpensively.
I would like to see the service offer the both the daily updates and the video presentations as downloads to be viewed or listened to on a portable device. Additionally, the daily updates would be perfect for delivery as a podcast via RSS.

Regardless, if you are an Illinois attorney, I urge you to check out the offerings from Mentor CLE.