On June 30, a VeriSign certificate in PCLaw 8.10a, 8.10b, 9.31a, 9.31b will expire, preventing users from logging into PCLaw.  This issue does not affect PCLaw versions 10, 11 and 12.

Starting on June 30, affected users to see the following message upon logging into PCLaw:

INVALID PCLAW PROGRAM FILES - PLEASE REINSTALL PCLAW

This issue first occurred three years ago. Most PCLaw users resolved the problem at that time by upgrading to PCLaw 8.20c or 9.31c. However, a small number of users received a separate patch and will be impacted by this issue again.

User still running PCLaw 8.10a, 8.10b, 9.31a, 9.31b can choose from the following options to address the issue:

• Upgrade to PCLaw 12, if the customer has an active Annual Maintenance Plan (AMP).
• For customers using PCLaw 8.10a/8.10b: Upgrade to 8.20c (no longer supported; however, it will be available to perpetual software-holders).
• For customers using PCLaw 9.31a/b: Upgrade to 9.31c.

NOTE: Despite the information in the error message, reinstalling PCLaw will not resolve the issue.

If you have questions about whether your PCLaw installation will be affected by this issue or how to resolve it, please contact your Affinity Consulting Group office.

In case you missed the email directly from PCLaw, a hotfix for PCLaw v10, Service Pack 5, is now available. Here is the text of the email sent by PCLaw: Dear PCLaw Customer, Our records indicate you downloaded and may have installed PCLaw V10 Service Pack 5. Email and telephone communications late last week identified a number of potential billing issues you may have experienced if you installed and prepared billing using PCLaw with Service Pack 5. We have resolved the billing issues and have a hot fix available for download here: http://support.pclaw.com/techpage.asp. If you installed PCLaw V10 Service Pack 5, or PCLaw V10 Service Pack 5 hot fix 1, it is highly recommended to download and install this new hot fix to ensure accurate client bills and reports. For release notes and details of the billing issues resolved with this new hot fix, click here: http://support.pclaw.com/techdownload/PLReleaseNotes10SP5HF2.pdf. We appreciate and thank you for your patience and cooperation with this release. If you are running PCLaw v10 and downloaded SP5, you will want to download this hotfix to resolve/avoid certain billing problems.

Strategic Legal Technology Consultants Named as Partner in Affinity Consulting Group Affinity Consulting, an alliance of the nation’s leading legal technology consultancies, announced that Strategic Legal Consulting, Inc. based in Miami is the newest Partner in their international consultancy. The Miami office is led by President, Sandra Hernandez Adams, a proven expert in billing and accounting; case management; document management and litigation support. “I’ve been working with law firms and legal departments throughout the US and the Caribbean since 1982,” Adams said, “I’m excited to bring my knowledge to Affinity and work with others who have the same commitment to quality and customer service as I do.” Adams brings not only her expertise to Affinity but also a very talented team that includes Senior Consultant, Michelle Motyka, who divides her time between Miami and Ohio and Atlanta-based Senior Consultant Hazel Segall who focuses on Tabs3 and PracticeMaster clients. “We are very excited to have Sandra join us” says Paul Unger, Affinity Partner and 2011 ABA TECHSHOW Chair, “she is a member of Tabs3 & PracticeMaster President’s Circle and also serves on the LexisNexis CIC Advisory Council. Her experience and knowledge are a perfect fit with the services we offer our clients. To have someone of Sandra’s caliber join us ensures we can continue to offer the very best to our clients across the country.” Strategic Legal Technology Consulting, Inc. will now be known as Affinity Consulting – Miami Office. Clients will continue to receive the same high quality services in: Tabs3 & PracticeMaster; LexisNexis Time Matters/Billing Matters & PCLaw; Worldox; Pensoft; PDFDocs; and Summation. About Affinity Consulting With six offices nationwide, Affinity Consulting offers a variety of legal technology products and solutions in the following areas: document automation; case and practice management; time, billing, and accounting; document management; document scanning and imaging; litigation support; advanced legal training in Microsoft Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, and Adobe Acrobat; digital dictation and speech recognition; and a wide range of IT services from hardware to help-desk. About Strategic Legal Technology Consultants Based in Miami, FL, Strategic Legal Technology Consultants was founded by Sandra Adams. The firm specializes in working with law firms, legal departments and professional service firms to properly plan, implement and use technology to become more efficient and competitive. SLTC focuses on time/billing and accounting for small firms; practice management systems for law firms and legal departments; document management; document assembly and litigation support. SLTC works with LexisNexis Time Matters®, Worldox and STI’s Tabs3 & PracticeMaster. SLTC was named to the 2010 President’s Circle for Tabs3 and PracticeMaster.

In case you missed the early December official announcement, the 2010 IRS business mileage rate is reduced to 50 cents per mile to reflect lower transportation costs - mostly a drop in gas prices from 2009. You may need to manually change this rate in your time/billing/accounting software. If you need assistance with this task, contact your Affinity Consulting Group office. If it is part of your job to stay up to date with changes in IRS rules, you can subscribe to IRS email updates here.

On October 15, 2009, the President of Software Technology, Inc., announced that Version 15 of Tabs3(R) billing and PracticeMaster(R) practice management software is compatible with Windows(R) 7. Software Technology, Inc. is also a Microsoft Gold Certified partner. As always, before upgrading your PC to Windows 7, we strongly advise consulting with your Affinity Consulting Group partner company for advice on how that upgrade may affect other software or hardware in your office.

If your firm uses PCLaw, you should seriously consider the PCLaw Annual Maintenance Plan (AMP). Until December 18, 2009, you will save 15% on the AMP. The PCLaw AMP: Provides access to PCLaw's industry-leading customer support call center. Keeps your product updated with the latest service releases. Includes access to software version upgrades for the life of the plan. Offers OnDemand Anytime Training, an interactive resource that lets you or staff train on basics at a time that's convenient for you. Contact your Affinity Consulting Group partner company for additional information.

Gavel & Gown software announced discount promotions on Amicus Attorney valid through December 31, 2009. Amicus Attorney is the world's leading practice management software for law firms. Amicus Attorney software solutions are designed specifically for law firms. With Amicus software, legal professionals will improve the efficiency and profitability of their firms and get the most out of the time they spend practicing law. Amicus products are used by tens of thousands of law firms around the world every day to manage their busy practices. New Amicus Attorney customers are offered a: 15% discount on Amicus Attorney 2009 licenses 30% discount on Amicus Attorney 2009 licenses if an Amicus Maintenance Plan is purchased. Amicus Attorney customers who do not currently have Amicus Accounting are being offered a: 30% discount on Amicus Accounting 2009 licenses For details, contact your Affinity Consulting Group partner company.

Affinity Consulting Group was awarded a LexisNexis Practice Management Platinum Achievement Award at PMAC 2009. This is the first joint award for the members of the Affinity Consulting Group

When you enter/pay an overhead expense in PCLaw, be sure NOT to allocate that expense to a "firm" related matter. Doing so makes PCLaw "think" that you are allocating the expense to a matter for billing and your financial reports will be wrong. Always ensure that matter related expenses are NOT allocated to a matter and, by the same token, never post an overhead expense to your client disbursment clearing account.

If you are a user of PCLaw, don't upgrade to Internet Explorer 8.  PCLaw requires either Internet Explorer 6 or 7.  This problem will hopefully be resolved soon by Microsoft.  Below is the notice from PCLaw to its consultants:

A bug has been found when running some reports in PCLaw 8.10 (both regular and SQL versions).  Reports affected include:  Payment Allocation Listing, Billing Fees Journal and Collection Summary reports.  When these reports are first requested by the user, the balances may be wrong or may show "0" when you know data is there to populate the report fields.  Upon re-running the report, PCLaw may quit unexpectedly.  This error has been reported to the quality assurance department at PCLaw and a patch to fix this is in development.  Stand by for further updates from your Affinity Consulting Group partner.