Advance Arctic

Advance Arctic

It Landscape For Legal 2010

Access – DPS Clients proved their mettle by braving the near‐Arctic conditions to attend the DPS Software User Meeting on Wednesday 13th January.

Microsoft played host to this year's meeting at the rather plush surroundings of the London Customer Centre in Victoria, the perfect setting for a technical discussion of the IT landscape for 2010.

Osman Ismail, Managing Director at DPS, opened the meeting with an overview of 2009 and development plans for 2010. He also welcomed Access clients to their first User Meeting.

As the world of technology is constantly changing, it is becoming increasingly difficult for solicitors to keep up. Scott Ridley, Technical Director, discussed the reasons behind why many solicitors are turning to hosted solutions to remove this burden. He also gave clients an insight into the world of Software as a Service, Facilities Management, Virtualisation and Business Continuity.

This year saw us welcome a guest speaker. Sukhi Dhillon, Land Registry Product Manager, HM Land Registry. Sukhi discussed the new Business Gateway which will enable property professionals to conduct preliminary searches and submit the Charge. The Business Gateway will work alongside the existing Portal.

Scott Ridley took to the floor a second time to discuss the LSC changes planned for 2010. Plans for Civil work in 2010 include:
• Civil contracts to be extended until October
• Changes to standard fees f including advocacy
• E‐forms rollout in Q1
• Phase 1 of Delivery Transformation

Criminal changes in 2010 include:
• Crime contracts extended until July
• Reduction in 88 schemes for fixed fee at police stations
• Escape set at old fixed fee
• E‐forms rollout Q1
• NO BVT pilot
• No time table for Delivery Transformation
• Crown court means testing rollout
• Committal fee moved from Magistrate bill to LGFS bill (£318)
• Changes to Expert fees and AGFS rates in July?

An important part of the DPS User Meeting is to give clients the opportunity to discuss problems or issues of direct relevance to themselves as users in a face‐to‐face environment. To ensure that all delegates were given this opportunity, DPS staff presented at smaller focus groups. These groups covered: Crime, Family, Personal Injury, Probate, Access and Cashier. The day closed with a showcase of all the new products mentioned during the course of the meeting.

Osman Ismail commented on the success of the day: "User Meetings are a valuable way of keeping in touch with our clients. We welcome the opportunity for our clients to tell us how they would like their software to work and in return we keep them abreast of the company's plans for the forthcoming year. Every year the success of these events grows and we look forward to when we all meet again in a year's time."

About the Author

Founded 25 years ago, DPS Software are one of the UK's leading providers of case management and accounting software for solicitors. Their award-winning case management systems cover Conveyancing, Crime, Matrimonial, Personal Injury, Wills & Probate and are complemented by fully integrated Accounts and Digital Dictation systems.

Southern Arctic Canada Questions?

I need negative and positive facts about living in the Southern Arctic ecozone of Canada, the facts must be about living and traveling there and must be practical please. 5 Stars for good facts and examples. Thanks in advance.

The population there is VERY small. Less than 15,000 people spread out in an area the size of France. Does that suggest that it is a very hard place to live ? yes it is. Unless you are a Inuit, who has all ways lived there, you won't like it.

There are NO roads. The few communities are small and to get supplies of man made things like gasoline and tools, everything has to be brought in by air plane, which results in very costly prices for every day items, that are much cheaper " down south ". A five dollar package of chewing gum for instance.

There is very little paid work. Most of the native people live on welfare payments, each month. They hunt and fish to add to their diet. Once they are finished school, they have no place to work, unless they go south to a city like Winnipeg or Vancouver. Many of them become drug or alcohol abusers, with early suicide deaths being a big problem.

A dreary place to live. The natives are stuck there, why would you go there, if you have a choice ?

Jim b. Toronto.