Legal Humor

Convicted con man Peter Horsford, who was accused of impersonating a lawyer, had trouble getting a trial date in New York in 1988.

The problem was that four of the judges considered for his trial were disqualified from hearing the case—because he had argued cases in their courtrooms.

"I should have suspected he wasn't a lawyer," said one of the judges. "He was always so punctual and polite."

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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. Also, we will change our Harris County Local forms to match changes by that county.

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.

Litigation - We will update the Texas Workforce Commission's Wage Claim Form to match changes by that agency.

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: Finding the Forms You Need in ProDoc

Chances are very good that the form you need, for an area of law that your ProDoc library of volumes covers... is in there. If you thought we didn't include the form in your volume, maybe it's because you don't know how to use the ProDoc forms search feature. Or, perhaps the form you need can be found in another volume.

Learn how to use the ProDoc forms search feature to find forms you need in ProDoc >>

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Trial Tips: TrialSmith^®- The Nation's Largest On-Line Deposition Bank Exclusively for Trial Lawyers

Their sole purpose is to provide unique investigative tools and services that help plaintiff lawyers achieve successful outcomes for their clients. Formerly known as DepoConnect^®, TrialSmith is the largest on-line litigation bank on the Internet with more than 270,000 depositions.

Learn more about TrialSmith >>

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Tech Tip: Use Your Treo® for More than Just Phoning and Emailing, Part 6

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

• RoadSync - This terrific program for is syncing your email retrieval with your mail server so it probably applies only to attorneys in larger firms.
• Real World BlackJack - OK, it's not for business but how about a quick game while you're cooling your heels at the courthouse sometime? It's free and it's highly rated.
• IntelliGolf - If you're a golfer, you'll find it all in this program: scoring, statistics, side games, shot tracking, signature courses, sharing of rounds, & satellite GPS all-in-one.

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: Free Marketing for Your Practice

LawGuru is a site for non-attorneys to ask legal questions and wait for an attorney to respond with an answer. While you may have reservations about the service, participating attorneys say it is a good and free way to provide a service to people who probably cannot afford an attorney while providing you exposure and free marketing.

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Tech Tip: Self-Destructing Email

Have you ever wanted to control who has access to emails you send, or to have them self-destruct after being read? While they are not foolproof, there are software program available that enable you to do just this. Take a look at a few of them:

• Will Self-Destruct - This is a web-based program that enables the recipient to view the email only one time before it self-destructs.
• KickNotes - This service is similar to Will Self-Destruct..
• Selfdestructingemail.com - This program, on the other hand, works with your email client, such as Outlook. It also comes with a small monthly service fee.

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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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