Smartphones, tablets, laptops and computers are more reliable and stable than ever before. Most of us take this for granted and we leave our devices turned on 24/7.
However, that doesn’t mean you should never “reboot” your device (i.e., turn the device right off and restart it). In fact, a regular reboot can be helpful.
Many programs and apps have “memory leaks” (i.e. they grab and use memory as they operate, but then don’t release it for other programs when they are done). While memory leaks may slow a device down (by limiting the memory the device can use for …

Today’s practice tip is get ready for change, because sometime soon, eCourts may be arriving in Canada.

It may seem like equal parts pipe dream and unscheduled inevitability, but in the context of an acknowledged access to justice crisis in Canada, the call for technological modernization of our nation`s courts seems to be approaching critical mass.

What will this brave new future look like? How can we ready our practices?

The recent Report of the Court Processes Simplification Working Group, delivered by the National Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters, articulates a …

Today’s Tip is really about finding new sources of information as they appear.   The announcement yesterday in Alberta about the Alberta Open Data Portal is a good reminder that information may become available that is relevant to your legal research. 

A number of jurisdictions in Canada provide open data.  A handy list is available the datalibre.ca blog.…

Sometimes you just want to sit back and listen. It is very easy to have your iPad or iPhone read text to you (iOS 5 and iOS6). Go to Settings General Accessibility and turn “Speak Selection” to on. After doing this, simply highlight or select the text you want read to you, and then hit the Speak button.
See how it works for you, and remember to try tweaking the configuration to suit your preferences (you can make it read faster).
There are various screen-reader apps, some of which have more features, but Speak Selection can do the job for …

Sooner or later all of us will be facing a big decision.

Most of us put off making that big decision for a number of reasons…we fear making the wrong decision, we feel we don’t (yet) have enough information, we fear that we may be making the decision for the wrong reasons or we fear offending the feelings of those that are near to us by our choice (that may conflict with their views of what you should do).

Having done considerable research into this area just recently – in reading many papers, blogs and advice sites (and compared their …

Today’s Tip is a follow up to “”, read a book review.  There are excellent book reviews available in the Canadian Law Library Review, the journal fo the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (available to members of the association as well as through subscription).

Book reviews can also be found in blog posts. For example this post on the ILTA KM Blog:  Book Review–Martin White’s “Enterprise Search”. Hat tip to David Hobbie for the review.…

By default, the delete confirmation pop-up appears whenever you delete a file on a Windows computer. The intentions are good – prevent you from accidentally deleting a file. However, that extra click can be annoying, especially if you are deleting a lot of files.
You can easily disable the delete confirmation pop-up. Right-click on the Recycle Bin and select Properties. Uncheck the delete confirmation box, click Apply, and then OK. After doing this, deleted files will go directly to the Recycle Bin.
And another neat trick, you can bypass the Recycle Bin entirely (i.e. deleted files won’t be placed into …

Have you ever been at court or a critical meeting and wished you had a document with you that was still tucked away at your office?

Here’s a tip that will ensure you always have every document in your client file handy, wherever you are.  Copy your entire client folder to Dropbox (or Google Drive) the day before any court appearance or other major event.  Your client folder will then be available to you remotely, via the Cloud, if you need to check any documents that you left behind.

Dropbox and Google Drive are free online services that allow …

Despite discussions about alternative fee arrangements and the changing times for the business of law, many clients and law firms still deal with compensation for legal work based on the billable hour.  One thing that goes hand in hand with that are billable research hours, and the costs for services used that clients pay in disbursements.

Today’s tip is for the new summer law students and their articling peers: watch the clock.

Efficient gathering of information usually means less time overall spent answering a research question. Fast gathering usually starts with what an expert can tell you about an area …

It is costly to replace the cartridges on laser and inkjet printers. You can save money by printing in draft mode, which uses a lot less ink. In most cases, you will probably find draft mode printouts are acceptable. Try printing in draft mode, and if the bulk of your printouts are fine, consider setting your printer to print in draft mode by default. You can then manually switch to full quality when necessary.…