The Gazette 1988

GAZETTE

DECEMBER 1988

statement. This can be done while your office is closed for lunch. We all r ece i ve many w i n d o w ed envelopes containing statements every month. Obviously there are some pit- falls. In the first instance you have to have somebody capable of operating the machine and you must consider the question of a replacement operator in the case of holidays or illness, particularly if you operate as a sole practitioner as I do. In relation to breakdown you should ensure that you have an adequate service agreement and one that will, if possible, let you have replacement machinery within a short period. The most difficult decision you will have to make will be in relation to the t ype of machine you are going to purchase. Salesmen will bamboozle you w i t h the usual sa l esman 's chat in relation to their particular machine. Obviously you will have to get a machine to suit your own needs. You can literally spend as much as you like. Why buy a Rolls Royce when a Mini will do. •

Wo r d P r o c e s s i ng

It has been said that the law is an ass. W i t h o ut ag r ee i ng or disagreeing w i t h that comment I wou ld say that any lawyer who does not have a word processor is an ass. Such has been the development of the computer industry in the last thirty years that if one were to compare it to the aircraft industry a plane should now cost IRE300 and be capable of circling the earth in t we n ty minutes using only t we n ty litres of fuel. In comparison consider that there is not really a great deal of difference between the basics of an old Remington manual typewriter and a modern electric typewriter. However, the only thing in c ommon between a typewriter and a wo rd processor is that the end result is a t yped d o c ume nt of some kind. The speed, quality and cost in whatever order you consider most important differs enormously. Word processing is essentially one of the many f unc t i ons a computer can perform whether it be a main frame, mini or a micro c omp u t e r. C omp u t e rs are considered by many of us to be complicated pieces of technology, way beyond our comprehension, but the concept of word processing is quite simple. It has been said by about c omp u t e rs t h a t if you understand something today then by definition it must be obsolete but that statement is not true about the feature of computers that is wo rd processing. The words themselves are self- e x p l a n a t o r y. The c omp u t er processes words. Your computer will use either a hard disc or a floppy disc and this disc retains all the information that your computer requires in order to perform the wo rd processing function. You will have all your standard conveyanc- ing, litigation, probate and other f o rms stored on these discs and you can call t hem up to use t hem as appropriate. In my opinion it is a waste of money paying extra for so f twa re M i c h a e l G. Ry an Solicitor, Galway.

w i th a legal package. Consider that in the ordinary course of events you have to type each Deed, document or f o rm individually. All the legal package does, effectively, is pre- type these documents for you. However you will find that several of the precedents used by the pac kage ma n u f a c t u r e rs d i f f er eno rmous ly f r om the t y pe of precedent you use and you will spend a lot of time amending them. In this regard I wou ld be of the opinion that you should create your own set of precedents by storing each document as you use it for future use. It is possible to collate all your v a r i ous f o r ms and d o c u m e n ts i n to t he v a r i ous different categories, e.g. litigation, conveyancing, etc. Wh e n y ou have all t h e se documents in memory they can be printed to suit whatever situation in a matter of a f ew seconds to a f ew minutes depending on whether you want a Notice of Application to the Probate Office or a Commercial Lease. While longer documents are being automatically printed your secretary can be dealing w i th your mail, making a telephone call, p h o t o c o p y i ng or a t t end i ng to whatever other tasks need doing at a particular time. If you have been unsure in your dictation or would like to change a paragraph, sentence or a word your secretary can amend the document before it is printed or, having printed it, can call it back up on screen and change or correct the matter and reprint the document almost at the touch of a button. In particular I find this procedure operates very well in relation to daily post. The day's work is kept in memo ry until signed and if any t h i ng needs correction only the correction need be retyped and then the letter or document can be printed in a f ew seconds. Needless to say the same document can be printed as many times as required and by using the facility k n own as "ma i l -me r ge" or " m a i l - s h o t " several d i f f e r e nt people can be wr i t t en to, for example in relation to outstanding fees. You programme in all the names and addresses you require into the computer and merge each one w i t h your standard letter or

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