Why Lawyers Need to Use the Internet-part Iii

• Publication year: 1997
• Pages: 91
• Citation: Vol. 26 No. 3 Pg. 91

26 Colo.Law. 91 Colorado Lawyer 1997.

1997, March, Pg. 91. Why Lawyers Need to Use the Internet-Part III

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91

Vol. 26, No. 3, Pg. 91

The Colorado Lawyer
March 1997
Vol. 26, No. 3 [Page 91]

Specialty Law Columns
Automation Annotations
Why Lawyers Need to Use the Internet-Part III
by David Thomson
C 1997 David Thomson

This article was written by David Thomson, Denver, an environmental attorney and founder of Colorado LawyerNet (http://www.lawyernet.com), (303) 436-9500, or, via e-mail Dthomson@ lawyernet.com. The department editor is Mark Kolber of Harland, Denver, (303) 770-5190, ext. 1195

The attention given by the popular press to the Internet continues unabated. While this may not have been true when Parts I and II of this article were published - in November 1995 and April 19961 - today, there is probably not a single Colorado lawyer who has not heard of the Internet Nevertheless, skepticism still reigns. Lawyers without Internet access accounts continue to ask themselves why this might be relevant or important to them.

Part I of this article argued that (1) while research resources on the Internet were still imperfect, e-mail communications were extremely useful to the practicing lawyer, and that (2) soon enough, research materials would become an important reason to have access to the Internet. Part II of this article pointed out ways in which e-mail was becoming a useful tool for lawyers and provided numerous examples of how more and more traditional legal content was coming to the World Wide Web. This Part III tries to answer the following question: With all these benefits - which have substantially increased in the last year - why have lawyers not flocked to the Web in droves, and what might it take for that to happen?

Internet Benefits

Parts I and II of this article described the many benefits of having an e-mail account. Those benefits continue to be true, and even more so as the number of people with Internet addresses expands. Some attorneys without Internet accounts ask: "Why in the world do I want to have yet another method of communication? I already have too many. Work phone, home phone, cell phone, fax, pager, voice mail - isn't that enough?"

Of course, those attorneys need to ask themselves whether they also would like the ability to (1) write a message (rather than speak it) and send someone a document at the same time...