Legal Wit

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Coming Updates

Listed below are the major enhancements now planned for the near term. However, in addition to what we've planned, we'll also send you updates for any local forms or agency forms that change in the interim.

December Update

Probate - We will provide you four new forms to address the new requirements created by SB593. Section 128A of the Probate Code has been extensively revised and now all beneficiaries under the will of a person dying on or after September 1, 2007 must receive notice of the probate and a copy of the will. The personal representative (PR) must file an affidavit to show compliance no more than 90 days after the will was admitted to probate. We're adding the PR's Affidavit of Compliance, the Notice to Beneficiaries, and two forms of Waiver of Notice for both Independent and Dependent Administrations. As you would expect, they will work seamlessly with the rest of the forms in this volume.

We'll also send you forms affected by six bills from the 2007 legislation that have an effective date of January 1, 2008. The volumes affected will be:

Adoptions and Paternity ¹ - Due to HB3997, we're revising several forms relating to citation of an alleged father who fails to register with the Paternity Registry.

Family Law¹ - Two of the pattern jury charges relating to paternity cases will change to match changes in Adoptions and Paternity raised by HB3997.

Landlord-Tenant - HB1460 affects forms dealing with modifying disclosure statements and modifying grounds for eviction. HB3101 affects one form dealing with effectively forbidding changing the locks on leased property unless the landlord adds a provision to the lease specifically permitting changing the locks.

Real Estate¹ - We're revising one form because HB271 adds a requirement that previous use of a house for manufacture of methamphetamines be disclosed. And, HJR72 requires us to update several forms by modifying the provisions relating to Home Equity Loans under the Texas Constitution.

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ProDoc Customer Support: Using ProDoc's Language Library Feature

Did you know that ProDoc contains your own personal language library—a place for you to store your favorite clauses, paragraphs, and more?

If you find yourself retyping the same text several times for your documents, or if you have language that may be difficult to remember and needed often, then you will want to use this feature. The QuickText feature allows you to pre-define clauses, paragraphs and other text that you commonly use for answers. Using QuickText for these entries also ensures that you won’t make an error in typing, since you will be copying a string of text that you’ve already checked.

Learn how to use the ProDoc QuickText feature >>

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Trial Tips: Tips from the Trenches

Here you'll find an ever changing article from members of the ABA Litigation section containing their pearls of wisdom. You can read the current featured article free but you will need to set up an ABA account (membership not required) to view their archive of past articles.

View the current "Tips from the Trenches" article >>

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Tech Tip: Use Your Treo® for More than Just Phoning and Emailing, Part 5

If you're a mobile lawyer and you use a Treo, here are some great programs you'll want to check out:

• HealthCalc Pro is a collection of different tools to help you reach or maintain your weight and health. For only $10 you receive more than 20 health related calculators and utilities including a BMI calculator, blood glucose calculator, etc.
• Ringo Pro enables you to add additional ring tones to your Treo, and assign unique ring tones to specific callers—you know after a couple of notes when the spouse, the kids, etc. are calling.
• Stock Broker Pro enables you to stay on top of your portfolio in real time. It provides real time stock quotes, gives you sound alerts, enables you to download charts, and more.

Several of the products featured in this section are also available for other PDA operating systems. Look around the product web site for more details.

To be continued next month. If you have some favorite Treo software programs you want to let others know about, your information to Tom Schoolcraft.

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Tech Tip: What Really Happened in That Auto Accident

Want to avoid nasty surprises in that auto accident? Want to gain an advantage over opposing counsel? The event data recorders (EDRs) in the automobiles can provide an amazing amount of information about each vehicle happening just before and during the accident, including the vehicle speed, were seat belts worn, did braking occur, how hard was the braking, what was the stopping distance, were avoidance measures taken, how severe was the impact, were there multiple collisions and in what sequence did they occur?

Collision Data Services™ enables you to obtain a complete report of all of the data that is available from the EDR of the automobiles.

Click here to enter a vehicle type and see what information is available from that vehicle's EDR >>

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Tech Tip: Free Technology Problem/Solution Guide

TechnoLawyer offers a free BlawgWorld 2007 with TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide with no registration hassles. It is a great resource to find solutions to problems your firm may be experiencing.

Download your copy of the BlawgWorld 2007 with TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide >>

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View Past Issues of this eZine

Looking for a Tech Tip from a past ProDoc eZine... but can't find that old eZine? We keep recent past issues on our web site for your review.

View past issues of the ProDoc eZine >>

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Come By and Meet Us

Come by and visit us if you'll be attending — we'd love to see you!

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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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