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Issue 6/2006 |
13 July 2006 |
A Newsletter from LegalSuite Software
5000 USERS AND GROWING
We have been working really hard this year trying to improve the LegalSuite program and put in the features that make your life easier and your work environment more productive. Our hard work seems to be paying off as the program is growing more and more popular. We recently passed the 5000 user mark! Yes, there are now over 5000 people using LegalSuite every day.
Once again, thank you for your continued support and we hope we can continue to provide the after-sales service we are renowned for. In this edition, there are some really useful tips (especially regarding the Address Book) as well as some important announcements for our Conveyancing users.
In this issue:
Know your program - New
"Litigation" tab in the Matter take on Screen
Tip of the day -
Cleaning out the Address Book
Important notice -
LawLink V12 Update
Thought for the day
Bits and Pieces
Humour Dept
Employee Profile -
Tarri-Dee Botes
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New "Litigation" tab in the Matter take on screen. We are expanding the functionality of the Litigation module in LegalSuite to cater for those users who do a lot of court work and who need to manage defended Matters. For example, we are improving the To Do Notes so that they can be programmed to calculate the number of days based on the rules of court (e.g. the first Thursday in 3 weeks time). With this in place the program can alert users when Notices need to be responded to and when various documents need to be served. This revamp is currently under development and should be released within a few months. We will keep you posted. As part of this re-design, we have moved the litigation information of a Matter to a separate Tab called “Litigation”. This gives us more space to allow the user to capture more information when taking on a litigation Matter. Note:
This screen is only be visible if the Document Set is Mag or
High Court.
New Field: Important Date We have also added a new field in the Miscellaneous Tab called “Important Date”. This is just a date that the User can use if they need it. For example, we have a client who needs a report that shows Payments after a certain Date (and the date changes on every Matter). You can now capture this date for each Matter and the report will then use this date to show the different transactions for each Matter. Other users need it to calculate court days etc. and could use this date. Basically it may be useful to some advanced users while many others may just ignore it.
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Cleaning out the Address Book Clients often ask, "What is the best way to clean out the Address Book of all the duplications?" We have added an item, Consolidate this Party on the right click menu in the Address Book which can be used as follows: You must tag the Parties YOU WANT TO REMOVE and then RIGHT CLICK on the Party YOU WANT TO KEEP (do not tag it) and choose "Consolidate this Party" from the menu. So if you have got 10 ABSA Banks in your Address Book, tag the 9 you don’t want and then Right Click on the one you want to keep. This re-allocates all the underlying files to the one item in the Address Book and then deletes the others.
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LawLink V12 update We have been advised by Lawyers Access Web and the various banks and councils that mandatory changes need to be made to the LawLink program and documents for the various document sets. These changes are effective from 24th July 2006, and you need to run a Live Update on your system on this date. Please note that if your LawLink program is not updated to Version 12, you will not be able to receive electronic instructions via L@W and any messages that you try to send from your LawLink will be rejected by L@W if they are sent on the old version. LAW and the Vendors are scheduling training sessions that will highlight the changes to the program and process flows. These training sessions are free for two delegates per firm. Please make an effort to book for these sessions as it is important that you understand the changes. (See table below for dates and venues). The LegalSuite Live Update (program and documents) will be available from Sunday 23rd July 2006. If this update is not run, you will not be able to receive instructions and messages from L@W and any messages sent to L@W will be rejected. To view the release notes of all the changes, click here. You can book for the training sessions on the L@W website: www.lawactive.co.za
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If your
computers were all destroyed in a fire (or stolen), how
long would it take you to get back up and running . . .
and how much would it cost your firm?
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Message to Attorney Panel: The National Securities Centre (NSC) in Kempton Park is experiencing high volumes of bond and title deeds that are returned as a result of:
This makes it difficult to acknowledge the information on Reginet. This also leads to delays in capturing the information and an increase in replacement costs due to lost documentation. Other errors on the increase are title deeds that are sent through to the NSC with no deed seals. This needs to be returned to the attorneys and hence causes delays in the system or documents that get lost in transit. Your assistance in paying attention to the above will be appreciated.
FICA is a requirement as set out by Government and needs to be met by all financial institutions. It has to be borne in mind that the majority of customers are going to move once registration takes effect, FICA specifically states that the customer’s address and identity needs to be verified and that if a change of address takes place then FICA has to be done again. Absa has to ensure that its customers received the best customer service at all times. It has therefore been decided to expand the Affidavit to include the customer’s future address details, as well as an anticipated date of occupation. The Affidavit and current supporting FICA document process remains as is. The inclusion of the new residential address must be completed by the customer. If the customer is, however, not able to provide the FICA documentation to support this it will be acceptable, considering that the customer is not living in the new property yet. The reason for not insisting on supporting documents to verify the new address is due to the fact that the customer is registering a bond over the property and Absa will then have the title deed and bond to verify the new address. The Fica affidavits have been updated accordingly and are available on the latest version of LegalSuite. Cape Town - Rates Applications The rates clearance department of the City of Cape Town requested that attorneys be advised that with effect from 1 July 2006:
First National Bank issued a circular regarding payment of
Guarantees on Registration. Please
read this circular and do your best
to honor this agreement. *For security reasons this attachment has been removed*
First National Bank released a circular providing a summary of the customer identification and verification requirement that are acceptable to them in respect of the following:
*For security reasons this attachment has been removed* Regibond - Cape Town and Eastern Cape Attorneys Regibond have made changes in the way they are going to implement Port Elizabeth Processing Unit. They are going to start PE fresh on June 25th 2006 and all applications that were started in Cape Town will remain with Cape Town. The following Eastern Cape branches will link up to Port Elizabeth Processing Unit with effect June 25th 2006. Contact telephone number 041 393 7709. Postal address: PO Box 577, Port Elizabeth, 6000. Street Address: Greyville House, c/o Greyville & Cape Road, Port Elizabeth, 6045. Fax number 041 363 4808.
What role do estate agents play in the selling process and whose interests do they have at heart? Homebuyers quite often blame estate agents for everything that goes wrong in a transaction. The reason being that they don't understand the position of estate agents, what is expected of them and to what degree they have control over the selling process. Estate agents are salespeople. Their training and skills are based on marketing – and a difficult form of marketing that is - as the products they sell are not manufactured at a factory. Estate agents spend many days looking for good properties to sell, and when they find them, they have to rely on the seller to put all the cards on the table about the product that needs to be sold. That said, the seller is the first person in the chain. He is, in most cases, the one who starts the selling process by contacting an estate agency. He is, therefore, the one that provides the agent with information about the product, which should include defects and exclusions from the sale. . . To read the complete article on Property 24, click here. |
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Tarri-Dee Botes
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You can view back issues of our Newsletter and the Attorney circulars from the financial institutions on the website at www.legalsuite.co.za.
If you have any questions, queries or comments about this newsletter, please contact Susan Brown: susan@legalsuite.co.za
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