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Royce Smith Griffin LLP, is not reassured. "That' given in the past. We're concerned about inconsistent information. We're operating in a vacuum," she says. Why all this concern about one piece of software? It's because Summation has s not the information we have been long been the lifeblood of most Canadian law firm litigation departments, the fun- damental tool used for case management, says Christopher Walker, manager of liti- gation technology services at Torys LLP. "Everyone is very heavily invested in it and very heavily dependent on it." Making the transition to a new product — whether firms choose the new version of Summation or one of its competitors — will be very expensive, since it may require deploying new hardware and it will cer- tainly involve a significant investment in moving data, applications and processes, training tech- nology support staff in how to manage it, and training litigation support staff, as well as lawyers and law clerks, in how to use it. But the question Walker is asking is integrating it with other the database, whereas users of the old soft- ware must spend hours going through all the material on a hard drive to figure out what files are relevant to each case in order to enter only the relevant information into the database. Leehealey maintains that the con- tinued popularity of the legacy software north of the border is largely due to the fact that images of electronic documents are still acceptable in Canadian jurisdic- tions, whereas Americans have stricter standards with regard to the use of native document formats that contain metadata (information about such things as when and by whom the document was created, copied, or accessed). In any event, an explosion in the use whether firms are in a position to make all these changes without being sure the software is reliable enough to meet the exacting demands of a legal environ- ment where lost or compromised files could have severe consequences. "We're not asking questions that are extreme. We're asking, 'What is your development schedule? Can we see the product? Can we talk to people that have used the product?' Generally, the response has been so far: 'No you can't. And please sign this contract.'" Yet, no one is forcing law firms to give up their legacy software, says Leehealey. "If you're really solving your problems, have relatively small cases, and are happy with the existing product, I'm not asking you to move. We're here to support you. However, Leehealey adds, the old soft- " ware is limited by the amount of informa- tion that can be fed into it and the fact it handles images of documents rather than native electronic documents. The new software provides a relational database that allows users to find information and link files together in much more flexible ways than the flat database of the legacy software. Also, perhaps most important- ly, the new software provides tools for reviewing files and filtering them out of of e-mail and other electronic docu- ments may make it necessary for firms to upgrade to more powerful software applications, says legal technology expert Martin Felsky, partner and co-founder of Harrington LLP. But such changes may not be too expensive, he adds, since many web-based tools are now available on a pay-per-use basis, which could level the tain degree AccessData could be doing Canadian law firms a favour. "In Canada, the industry is behind the times. People have fallen into dealing with legacy soft- ware and haven't given a lot of thought to it. The way the AccessData situation has played out has forced people to start thinking about the bigger picture and how things are fitting in. It' playing field for smaller firms. Walker acknowledges that to a cer- a move that they would have had to make eventually. lack of transparency about the reliability of the new software could result in people making hasty and ill-informed decisions. "This development could force a lot of change. We just want to make as many lawyers are aware of this as possible, so they can do it in a planned for, cost effec- tive way that doesn't put their clients' data or their law practices at risk," she says. Freelance journalist and business writ- er Kevin Marron can be reached at kevin@kevinmarron.com. ONTARIO FAMILY LAW EXAMINED NEW PUBLICATION PROPERTY RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS UNDER ONTARIO FAMILY LAW ROBERT M. HALPERN, LL.B. Strengthen your knowledge of Family Law's core areas with Property Rights and Obligations under Ontario Family Law. 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