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One issue raised in my last article was that troublesome incompatibilities often accompany the rapid pace of technological advance. Windows 7 has some wonderful new features but likely not all software and hardware will be up to speed. For example, there is an annoying glitch that randomly disconnects you from the internet without disconnecting you from the network. Happily, that now seems fixed. Another problem was never resolved: the inability to recognize my wireless HP Laser Printer as a wireless device. That printer is now ready to be disposed of . My wireless Lexmark all-in-one will suffice.

My NeatScan to Office Portable scanner is another gadget that has likewise proved incompatible. This device and its software scan business cards into Office contacts and receipts into an expense-tracking Excel spreadsheet. Unfortunately, the driver is incompatible with Windows 7 64-bit. Now I just use the NeatScan to scan docs to pdf when I’m away from the office with my notebook – still a handy thing.

One major beef I have is the upgrade to Microsoft Windows 7 Professional. Almost all new computers are pre-equipped with Windows 7 Home Premium. If one has Vista or XP, it’s been on the shelf forever.

I’m embarrassed to say I’m not sure what advantages you get with Windows 7 Professional.

Nevertheless, when I bought the new computer for my office that I described in my last article, I paid $100 for the upgrade. They handed me a software container labeled “Windows Anytime Upgrade” when I picked up the computer. After I set up the computer, and opened the container, there was nothing inside but a license number (“Keep this number in case you have to use it again”). If you recall my last tech article, I discussed operating the office computer remotely using a program called LogMeIn. Since then, I purchased a powerful new computer for my home – with Windows 7 Home Premium. Eventually, I decided it would be more convenient to make the home computer primary and to operate it remotely when at the office. At this point I tell Windows to upgrade to Professional, which it does. Then I pull out my “Windows Anytime Upgrade” and key in the license number. After all, this is now the only computer I’ll really be working with. Uh-oh, “Not a valid license number.” Again and again I try. Perhaps you’ve guessed: the ‘anytime upgrade’ is good only on one computer. I start to get an occasional message to enter a valid license number. Ok, I don’t like it – I didn’t see it in the fine print – but, hey, I don’t need this upgrade anyway, I’ll just go back to Home Premium. Problem was I couldn’t figure out how to do it.

Over the next two to three weeks the requests for a valid license became more frequent. Then came the day when my screen background turned black with each request. I could reset it, but five minutes later it would revert. A constant message in the lower right side of my screen announced that I was using an illegitimate copy of Windows. I called the Geek Squad in desperation. I was horrified to learn that the only option was to rewrite my hard drive, reinstall all my programs and upgrades, etc., or to pay the $100. Folks, the package could have stated that the upgrade was only good on one computer.

They could have asked for the key prior to processing the upgrade request. They could have made the process reversible. My view is that, at the least, this is not good trade practice. I sucked it in and paid. A major reason I’m able to spend much of my time working at home is that I’ve finally achieved a ‘paperless office.’ My office file cabinets are now empty furniture. All my case files are on my home computer and backed up on the office computer.

My 88-year-old mother made me aware of several nice new Windows 7 features. Aero Snap allows you to grab a program’s title bar and fling it to the right or left. It will then fill half the screen. This is useful to me for several combinations. For example, a text file of the cases newly ordered to mediation on the left half of the screen, my database program on the right: copy and paste. Also, Sticky Notes: like in Outlook, but you stick them on your desktop. And, finally, an incredibly improved, multi-functional calculator.

Office 2007 has some great improvements, particularly in Outlook. But, some features are missing. Are you still using Word 2003 and its Legal Pleading Wizard? If so, and you’re planning to finally upgrade to 2007, keep at least one computer with the old version. The Wizard is missing from 2007 as are all the “wizards.” Also missing is the ability to print delivery point barcodes on envelopes. Microsoft claims the barcodes change too often but I suspect they just didn’t want to spend the money.

Remember my praise for the Stowaway folding keyboard I used with my Touch Pro smart phone? Remember I traded the Touch Pro for a BlackBerry? Well, turns out the Stowaway keyboard won’t work with the BlackBerry. Freedon makes an almost identical folding keyboard for the BlackBerry. So I spent $125 for the Stowaway, I’ll sell it on eBay for $25 and buy a Freedom for $150. Don’t you just love it?

I’m now using it as a tethered modem with my BlackBerry when necessary. I sold the broadband modem described in my last article. When I’m out (which is not often) I can’t get Internet access. In an emergency I use the BlackBerry. It’s cheaper than the $60 per month I was paying for the modem.

That said, let me tell you about a recent tribulation and lesson learned. I was in New Orleans for arbitration when my BlackBerry ‘crashed’ and, despite repeated resets, wouldn’t boot up. I turned on my notebook to Google the problem only to discover that the conference center’s Wi-Fi was down that day. At lunch one of the attorneys loaned me his cell phone and I learned my only option would be to download the phone’s operating system and start from scratch. You’d think I would have backed my BlackBerry up on my notebook. Not. I dashed to my hotel to get online. Twenty minutes into a 30 minute download, it spontaneously aborted. Thankfully, the second download worked. During a break I got the phone up and running again, but without my contacts or e-mail settings.

My latest techno-gadget just arrived so I can’t yet review it: the DigiMemo. It’s a standalone digital notepad that “digitally captures everything you write or draw...have it digitally organized and e-mailed through your computer.” The promise that sold me was “Convert your handwriting into text – optional OCR software converts your handwritten notes into digital text to use in Microsoft Word or Outlook.” I’m thinking, of course, of mediation notes and agreements. We’ll see….

Recently I closed an e-mail to an attorney with the question "Would you believe I'm sending this from my office computer while sitting in my car waiting for my wife to have her teeth cleaned?" The reply was "Len, no, I couldn't even begin to imagine using that kind of technology."

To the contrary, I can't begin to imagine doing what I do without it. I have very little time these days to waste. I generally have some fifty cases in progress and one of the things I want to do as this year's Technology Committee Chair is to describe the technology I find critically important in helping me keep up with the work load. In this instance, as soon as my wife got out of the car and walked toward the dentist's office, I moved my seat back, reached into the back seat, grabbed my laptop tray, and turned on my notebook computer. When it had booted up I plugged my broadband modem into a USB port and connected to the Internet. Using a program called LogMeIn, I connected to my office computer and began to operate it by remote control. There were e-mails to send and receive and phone calls to make.

I can operate my office computer from my cell phone as well. A folding BlueTooth wireless keyboard (last year's Tech Chair Steve Savia introduced me to this great gadget) and ThinkOutside wireless mini-mouse make this easier, but it's much more difficult to read the screen and whenever possible I prefer to use the notebook. The smart phone I had preferred was the HTC TouchPro, but keeping up with rapid pace of today's technology is daunting. I offer the following as an example of how you can take a short nap and wake up feeling like Rip Van Winkle. When I got the Touch Pro last January was so new that the Verizon store didn't have any accessories for it yet, and the techs were for the most part unfamiliar with it. In July a tiny bubble appeared on the upper right side of my touch screen. I watched in curiosity as it gradually grew is size over the next two weeks. One day the touch screen stopped working - in effect rendering the phone all but inoperable. I assumed I might have been too rough on the phone and decided to treat its replacement very carefully. Nevertheless, earlier this month after I had written up to this paragraph, a similar bubble appeared in virtually the same spot as the first. I watched now in horror as the process repeated itself. Ten days ago the second phone was on the fritz and I scrambled to get another, this one through insurance since the one-year warranty had just expired. The software that came with it had changed for the worse from "ActiveSync" (incompatible with Windows 7 64-bit) to "Windows Mobile Phone". I could not selectively sync subfolders of my Office Contacts – a major step backwards and a nightmare. Some googling revealed that the "ink bubble" was a manufacture's defect common in the Touch Pro. Two succeeding versions totally changing the phone had come along. In one year's time my phone was so outdated that the Verizon store didn't carry accessories and the techs were rather unfamiliar with this relic of the past. Yesterday, I got a phone that most of you are familiar with – a Blackberry. Specifically, I got the Curve 8350 that has a touch pad. I was told that there have been problems with the track ball on the Blackberry Tour. Operation of the phone is intuitive. Easy syncing of contacts and calendar is all I need. I never used Word, PowerPoint, and Excel on the Touch Pro – I've got my notebook for that.

I couldn't manage my cases without QuickBooks Customer Manager (QBCM), an inexpensive database program which I've customized into a very effective mediation case manager. The latest (and last) version is 2.5. You can find it on eBay for $40-50. Intuit has tried to turn Customer Manager into an online service which has thus far proved to be a disappointment. QBCM synchronizes with QuickBooks Pro (my accounting program) and, more importantly, with Outlook. Attorneys, Firms, Mediators, Adjusters, Trial Court Coordinators and the like that are entered into QBCM can thus be exported to Outlook and ultimately the cell phone. E-mails can be dragged and dropped into QBCM and linked to names and cases. You can also add notes, phone calls, "To Do's", and file shortcuts and link them similarly. I've added links to each Firm's webpage and links to each attorney's individual page. QBCM has its own internal calendar, but a time-saver is the option to use Outlook's calendar directly from QBCM and then drag and drop appointments to QBCM names and cases.

A big productivity booster for me has been the addition of a second flat widescreen monitor to my office computer. I thank Charlotte attorney Ken Raynor for turning me on to this (Ken maintains a paperless office). You can add the monitor without installing a second video card by hooking it up to a Triton See2Xtreme UV200 adapter and plugging it into a USB port. This makes simultaneous working with multiple applications much easier and facilitates all the dragging/dropping. Be careful, however, if you have upgraded to Windows 7. The driver in the installation CD is incompatible. You need to download and install a new Windows 7 driver from the Triton Technologies website.

I carry a portable BlueTooth wireless printer to each mediation: the Canon Pixma IP90. That way I can generate the mediation report, invoices, and sometimes a settlement agreement on the spot.

Another device I rely on is a wireless BlueTooth headset. Took me two to get it right. The first, a Plantronics 520, embarrassed my wife because it bore a striking resemblance to the "hearing aid" you've seen advertised on TV where grinning idiots listen in on other people's conversations. People said it sounded like there was a waterfall in the background when I spoke. I'm now using the somewhat pricier Plantronics Voyager Pro and the sound quality is excellent. With both hands on the wheel I can schedule and get new cases while driving from one mediation to another.

Be careful with Windows 7. I needed a new, faster desktop at the office and, of course, that meant coming face to face with Windows 7 after years of XP – I had totally avoided the disaster that was Vista. Windows 7 is OK, but there are going to be issues for a while, an example of which I cited above. Windows 7 has a flaw they're working on that randomly disconnects your computer from the internet while leaving you on the network. You have to reboot. This, needless to say, is a real problem if you're away from the office and attempting to connect. Another hassle - it won't recognize my wireless HP Laser printer as a wireless device. You'll just have to accept the reality that for the present, here and there you'll find an incompatible driver or application with Windows 7.

The best thing for now is to harness the power of a new Windows 7 desktop computer, but keep a laptop with XP in your office as well. Use a lightweight notebook/netbook to take to your mediations. I have a new gigantic 18.4" laptop with Windows 7 at home and use that to work the office computer by remote control.

Today's technology is amazing and indispensable but often frustrating. Perhaps by my next article things will have settled down. On the other hand, there may be a new array of wonders that will require a learning curve. Perhaps I'll be sheepishly eating my words of praise for the things I've described above. Let's wait and see.

Recently the NCBA presented the excellent CLE program “Representing Investors: An Introduction to Securities Arbitration”. For those of you who haven't seen the live or Webcast program there will be two more Webcasts in October, one in Cary and one in Charlotte. This is certainly an area that anyone with an interest in dispute resolution should be aware of, and I'd like to take this opportunity to discuss recent development and trends in FINRA Arbitration/Mediation.

New securities arbitration case filings have nearly doubled through July compared to 2008 according to the latest FINRA statistics. Through July there have been 4,481 new case filings. There were 2,614 claims filed through July 2008 and 1,878 through July 2007. Given the extent of the market's precipitous decline, it is likely that this trend will continue next year. Within a year of the market's last decline claims increased sharply, peaking in 2003 at nearly 9000. In 2007 the number dropped to 3128. In recent years just over 20% of these cases have been decided by arbitrators and about 10% settle through mediation. However, thus far in 2009, 25% have been decided by arbitrators and only 5% have been resolved through mediation. Nearly half of all claims are resolved by direct settlement between the parties. Two significant factors that will be at work in the coming wave of litigation are the continued decline in investor confidence in the light of recent scandals and the overall weakness in the economy beyond the troubled markets. Worthy of note is that the number of cases in which customers have been awarded damages has steadily increased from a low of 37% on 2007 to 45% this year. The most common claims are the following: misrepresentation, unsuitability, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, omission of facts, negligence, and failure to supervise. Of interest is that mutual funds have far surpassed common stocks as the prevalent type of security involved in arbitration cases.

With respect to its mediation program, FINRA has recently announced that beginning this month, there will be a $200 annual fee to stay on its roster of certified mediators. In addition, they have simplified their fee structure. FINRA has always assumed responsibility for collecting the mediator's fee and then paid the mediator directly minus a fee per hour depending on the mediator's hourly rate. From now on they will deduct a flat rate of $150 per case. It is likely that this will reduce the number of mediators on FINRA's roster by 70-80% for one simple reason. There are roughly a thousand certified mediators on the list, but only a small number get most of the cases. The vast majority of FINRA's roster remains on the sidelines and will opt out rather than pay the annual fee.