Legal Wit

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ProDoc Customer Support: Make Payments, Check Your Account Balance, Etc. Online

"Here is another thought, why not "Create" the ability to pay my account, through the ProDoc icon "on line".  Meaning within ProDoc,  I click on "pay my bill" and the amount is automatically withdrawn from my bank account.  When will we get this "service" and have the ability to print a hardcopy of the payment?  Very soon I hope."

This suggestion came to us in December from one of our customers. She must be a mind reader because we just released a new feature on our website that provides a similar option.

You're a ProDoc customer because you embrace efficiency in your practice. So, we realized that not providing you this service was creating inefficiency in your practice—and we set out to correct that oversight on our part. If you have not already done so, we hope you'll take advantage of this new feature to quickly and easily set up automatic monthly payments on your ProDoc account.

You can now go to our website and:

1. View your account balance, view your last payment amount and date, or make a one-time payment.
2. Set up automatic payments for your ProDoc bill using a credit card or checking account.
3. Update your automatic payment information.

Here is how to access this feature:

1. Go to www.prodoc.com.
2. Move your cursor over the new My Account button on the navigation bar.
3. Click on the Online Payment link that is revealed under the My Account button.
4. Follow the instructions on the following page.

Or, click on the My Account button on the navigation bar near the top of this page.

If you have any questions about using this feature, please call our Customer Support team at 800-759-5418. Remember that your ProDoc subscription entitles you to free training and customer support.

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Is Your ProDoc Current?

The current version of our Texas ProDoc is 5.047

If you did not install the December update, more than 200 of your ProDoc forms are no longer current. And, if you don't install the update soon it will "time out" on you putting an ignominious, but temporary, end to your document generation.

To tell what version of ProDoc is currently running on your computer, start ProDoc and look in the upper left corner of your monitor. You'll see the version provided to the left of your firm name.

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Special Real Estate Volume Update

We released a special Real Estate volume update on Monday, December 31, 2007 due to last minute forms changes by the Texas Real Estate Commission. We received them too late to include in the regular December update.

So, we created a special “interim update patch” to install those changes in your ProDoc Real Estate volume. We encourage you to download and install this patch today.

We updated three forms:

• New Home Contract (Incomplete Construction) (Earnest Money) (30-10) – TREC cleaned up the language and minor punctuation issues in these new construction contract forms. We also removed language that was incorporated into form 30-35 below.
• New Home Contract (Completed Construction) (Earnest Money) (30-11) – Same as form 30-10.
• Third Party Financing Condition Addendum (30-32) – TREC made a minor language change referring now to Texas Veterans Loan.

And, we added a new form to the volume:

• Addendum Containing Required Notices Under Texas Property Code (30-35) – The language for this new Addendum Containing Required Notices came out of our forms 30-10 and 30-11.

Go to www.prodoc.com/updates/tx-dec07/ and follow the instructions to download and install a utility program that will update the appropriate forms in your ProDoc Real Estate volume.

We apologize for any inconvenience this additional process causes you. Remember that we will soon release our WebUpdate™ process that will automatically install updates like this for you in the future.

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No More Manual Installs of Your ProDoc Updates?

Yes, it is true. Soon you will no longer need to manually install routine ProDoc updates. Instead, every time you open ProDoc, and if you are connected to the Internet, ProDoc will “phone home”. It will then download and install any updates we have prepared for you.

If you have not already updated your firm information, we encourage you to do so today. If you cannot find the email containing the instructions please call us at 866-299-6608 or email us. Be sure to provide us your customer number or phone number so we can properly identify your account.

We expect that after you set up your account for WebUpdate™, you'll only need to manually install a ProDoc update when we make major changes to the ProDoc operating system.

Another benefit to you is that we will be able to provide you some updates more quickly. For instance, we add user-requested enhancements to forms throughout the year. In the past, we waited until the next update shipment to provide them to you. With WebUpdate, you will receive them as quickly as we are able to process the changes into our system.

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Trial Tip: Trial Tips Newsletter

The weekly newsletter claims that in five minutes every week you'll learn a new courtroom advocacy secret that will help you persuade jurors and win trials. Sign up for a free trial of the newsletter and you'll also receive (1) great quotations to spice up your arguments, (2) important questions to ask yourself after trial so you can hone your trial skills and guarantee your continued success, (3) receive a FREE 32 page report, “The Top Ten Tips for Trial Lawyers”, and (4) an audio class, “The 10 Critical Mistakes Lawyers Make in Opening Statement.”

Learn more about Trial Tips Newsletter and obtain your FREE reports >>

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Practice Tip: ABA's Top 10 Ethics Traps

With help from Steven Gillers and other experts on professional conduct, the ABA Journal listed its 10 top ethics traps for lawyers. Some of these traps might seem a bit arcane, others obvious. But according to the ABA's experts, lawyers in all practice fields fall into them regularly—sometimes with disastrous effects.

The ABA's Top 10 Ethics Traps >>

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Tech Tip: Make Regular Backups Your New Year's Resolution

You know you should regularly backup your computer so you don't lose valuable, ever irreplaceable, data if your computer hard drive were to crash, or forces of nature destroy your office and equipment.

And yet, our Customer Support team fields multiple phone calls every month from desperate attorneys who've experienced just such a catastrophe - and they had not gotten around to regular backups. Or, a high school kid set up an automated backup routine for them that does not include certain key files, such as ProDoc data.

We urge you to make a resolution today to initiate a regular and comprehensive backup routine in your firm. You'll find here information about making sure your ProDoc and SOS data is backed up properly:

Backing up ProDoc files to prevent disaster in your firm >>

And, if you run into difficulties, please call our Customer Support team at 800-759-5418 for assistance. Remember that our customer support is a free benefit of your ProDoc subscription.

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Tech Tip: Dictionary/Encyclopedia of Computer Terms

Are you in the dark when it comes to computer terms, but unwilling to let others in on your secret? Well, we've found the perfect site for you. Smart Computing magazine has compiled an extremely comprehensive site to look up and read about just about any computer term.

Check out the Smart Computing Dictionary/Encyclopedia >>

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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 website 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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