President's Notes

by Judd Kessler, Esq.

If you Google "Great Lawyers who use Abacus" you'll see lawyers like you. These are lawyers from all areas of practice who in some way, large or small, have made a difference, to their clients, to their community, and to the practice of law. They're the lawyers that make you and me proud.

Now here's an interesting thing: We have been running ads featuring these lawyers in national, state and local publications for about three months, and we're seeing two results. First, more and more lawyers want information about using Abacus in their practice. Yes, good lawyers like you are setting the example for the rest of the profession, who, unlike you, have not yet upgraded their skills and their practices to use technology to help them deliver superior service to their clients. The lawyers who haven't yet "gotten it" are motivated by your example. Second, the lawyers we feature in our ads are getting more referrals from other lawyers, better cases, and more prestige.

So we thank you for being an Abacus user and a role model.We are continuing to feature great lawyers who use Abacus. Can we feature you? Visit www.abacuslaw.com/greatlawyers and click on the submit your profile link.

Class: Report Groups
When: Ideally taken after completing course on General Ledger
What you'll learn: This class shows you how to set up report groups for your firm. You will learn how to set up financial reports, productivity reports as well as reports for each partner in the firm.

Class Outline:

• Accounts Payable Reports
• Billing Reports
• Client/Matter Reports
• General Ledger Reports
• Payroll Reports
• Productivity Reports
• Security Reports
• Setup Reports
• Trust Reports

In this issue

• Abacus News  - v2006 Worth Raving About
• Feature Article - Control Costs when using Expert Witnesses
• Support Tip - Merge AbacusLaw Data into Your Documents
• Training Spotlight - Report Groups
• Percentage Passing the Bar - Legal Stats

Read legal products expert Jill Bauerle's comments in TechnoLawyer

See a summary of new features in AbacusLaw v2006

View a demo of practice management and time/billing/accounting features

[This article is from The TASA Group, Inc. which provides technical and medical experts, expert witnesses, and consultants to law firms nationwide.]

Timing, planning, and clear communication can go a long way toward minimizing the cost of engaging consulting and testifying experts. Here are some suggestions that could make a significant difference to you and your clients.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

You can automate existing documents in AbacusLaw by first selecting the name you want to send a document to. From there, select the printer icon, go to "Form Generation," select "Create Form" and browse to your existing word processing document. Highlight it and click "OK." Abacus will run your word processor and bring up your document and the "Mail Merge" toolbar.

From within the document, highlight the text you want to replace (such as client name and address) and click the "Insert Merge Field" button. Locate the address or data field you want to appear there and click "OK" to replace the existing text. You can use "Client_Address" to replace an entire name and address block.

Notice you can insert data about any attached name, case or a particular event. When you have inserted all the necessary fields into your document, go to "File" and choose "Save As" and save it as a ".dot" file. The .dot file extension tells Word to use this file as a template. Next time you use it, it automatically will create a form letter and merge your client/matter information with the form.