Law Practice Tips
Online with the OBA
By Jim Calloway, Director, OBA Management Assistance Program
The Oklahoma Bar Association strives to provide the best of online services for its members and the Oklahoma Supreme Court strives to provide the best of online services to the public. From free legal research online to Internet information about legal services to free e-mail services, there are many ways that Oklahoma lawyers can make use of the Internet in their law practices.
Judging from the calls we receive at the OBA Management Assistance Program, there are so many online services available to Oklahoma lawyers that there could be some confusion about which service to utilize for what project. We suspect that some of you may be missing out on some very valuable (and free) online services.
This month we will provide a primer on the use of the various bar and court-related online services.
First, we’ll identify each of these Oklahoma law-related Web sites with a brief description and then include instructions and tips for using the OBA sites. Hopefully, after reading this article, many lawyers will want to share copies of this primer with some members of their staff who might benefit from reading it.
OSCN.net — The Oklahoma States Court Network is published by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. All of the reported decisions of Oklahoma appellate courts can be found here in a searchable format. Current statutes are online as well. Docket information for appellate courts can be reviewed. District court docket information from Canadian, Cleveland, Comanche, Garfield, Logan, Oklahoma, Payne, Pushmataha, Rogers and Tulsa counties is also available. There are official forms for download as well. This should be your first stop for free Internet legal research.
Court of Criminal Appeals — The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals provides the court rules and official court forms, including jury instructions, on its Web site. There is also information about the history of the court and the present judges. There are links to the appropriate legal research databases.
Okbar.org — Okbar.org is the official public Web site of the Oklahoma Bar Association. The site features OBA news and information. You can find contact information for the OBA Board of Governors, OBA section officers and county bar presidents. The Bar Journal Section of the Web site includes both subject and author indexes of Bar Journals commencing at the start of 1994. Beginning with 1997, the full text of most Bar Journal articles is available on the site through these indexes. There are many items that are useful to the public as well as lawyers. This is also the portal with links to the other OBA Web sites.
OBA-NET — OBA-NET began its life as a private forum on CompuServe. It was then a paid premium service of the OBA and now is a free service for all OBA members. There are still some inexpensive, valuable premium services available for members online there. This is the user participation area where questions are posted on a wide range of topics, with the questions hopefully being answered and discussed. There are many forms and other files available for download here. Please note that OBA-NET and my okbar do not use the same user name and password. Registering with OBA-NET is the way you obtain your free professional e-mail address from the OBA. A bit later in this article we’ll give you all the information you need to register with OBA-NET.
Oklahoma Find a Lawyer — OklahomaFindaLawyer.com is a public Web site that can be used by anyone to find a lawyer who practices in a certain area, both substantive and geographical. It can be used by OBA members to locate lawyers for referral purposes. Not all Oklahoma lawyers are listed. But all Oklahoma lawyers can be listed if they sign up for a free listing through my okbar.
My okbar — My okbar is the password-protected gateway for your personal information and interaction with the OBA. This is the location to sign up for and list your practice areas with Oklahoma Find a Lawyer.com, to change your official address, to check your MCLE records, and to register for CLE programs. We refer to the password to this area as your PIN number and it is printed at the bottom of your dues statement.
Odcr.com — Although this site is not sponsored by the OBA or the Supreme Court, it is the portal for docket information for approximately 30 Oklahoma counties’ district court records. The range of the records varies and can be located by scrolling down on the home page of the site. Delaware County records start at the date of June 1, 1991 while Muskogee County records commence on Jan. 3, 2003.
LawOklahoma.com — LawOklahoma.com is not really a Web site at this time. If you go to this web address, you will find an alternative way to log into OBA-NET. Our free professional e-mail addresses are given in the following format: firstname.lastname@lawoklahoma.com. You can use this e-mail address as a Web-based e-mail or you can have it forwarded to another e-mail address. We do have this domain name reserved for future use by the OBA.
TIPS FOR ACCESSING AND USE OF THE OBA WEB SITES
Okbar.org — We assume that everyone reading this article has been to the OBA’s home page. The most important thing to remember is that looks can be deceiving. There are huge amounts of information lurking behind our home page. As we mentioned before there is quick access to almost every article published in the Bar Journal beginning with 1997. Just click on the Bar Journal tab and select one of the two indexes for that year.
A tremendous ethics research page can be found by clicking first on the general counsel’s link or by going directly to http://www.okbar.org/ethics. The current month’s CLE offerings can be found by clicking on the CLE link. You can also see the CLE programs OBA produced for previous years. Clicking on the Mandatory CLE link takes you to Frequently Asked Questions about MCLE and forms. So if you want to apply for MCLE credit for a program in your area, you can download the form to do so. We also have a great Internet Directory at http://www.okbar.org/link.
So the most important tip for using the OBA home page, www.okbar.org, is to dig deep. There is a lot beneath the surface.
OBA-NET — The first thing you should know about OBA-NET is that most parts of it are now free to OBA members.
Slightly less than 3,000 OBA members have signed up for OBA-NET. Some may have just signed up to download one particular form that they saw mentioned in a Bar Journal article. Others log into OBA-NET almost every day. Eufaula lawyer Deborah Reheard stated some time ago, “I start each morning with a cup of coffee and the OBA-NET.” The great thing about the OBA-NET is that it is there for you on your schedule – 24 hours a day. Clearly a lot of OBA members are finding great value in the OBA-NET. Our records reflect 174,783 OBA-NET page views in January 2004.
Let’s briefly outline how one can sign up for OBA-NET. First of all you must have your current e-mail address on file with the OBA and it has to have been on file with us for more than 24 hours. If you have been receiving the OBA E-news we do have your current e-mail. If not, or if you are not sure, skip down to the section on my okbar, log in and change your OBA records to your correct e-mail address. Then wait 24 hours and continue.
To register go to www.oba-net.org, and click on “Sign up.” (You should also note that if you forget your OBA-NET password, you can click “Forgot my Password” link here and have it e-mailed to your official e-mail address.) On the next page, you must answer certain questions to verify your identity so that your log-in information can be e-mailed to you when you complete this process. For security reasons, that information can only be sent to your official e-mail address on file with us.
To complete the process, you must also choose which option you wish for your complementary OBA e-mail service. Specifying which of the two e-mail options you wish to use will be part of this initial sign-up process for the OBA-NET. You might want to make this decision before you log in.
TWO OPTIONS FOR YOUR LAWOKLAHOMA.COM E-MAIL ADDRESS
The e-mail address for each member will be: firstname.lastname@lawoklahoma.com. (Middle initials may be used for those members with the same name.)
This address can be used in one of two ways: 1) the lawoklahoma.com can be used to forward the e-mail to another e-mail address or 2) it can be used as a separate Web-based e-mail account. The great advantage of both options is that a lawyer can establish a “permanent” e-mail address for professional use. Every lawyer who has ever changed his or her Internet service provider (and therefore their e-mail address) and dealt with an outdated e-mail address printed on stationary and other promotional material will appreciate this convenience. Many will also believe that the lawoklahoma.com address appears to be more professional than some of the Internet service providers.
It’s really a simple choice. Some will chose forwarding so that e-mail sent to that address appears in the inbox that they now use. Others opt for the Web-based e-mail service. It works the same way a Hotmail or Yahoo web mail account operates. With this option you can check your e-mail from any Internet-connected computer. Simply log into the OBA-NET and click the e-mail link at the top of each page to be taken to you Web mail inbox.
Hint: If you believe that you do not want to use this e-mail address and service, choose forwarding. You can change to the web-based service at any time by logging in the OBA-NET.
LawOklahoma.com e-mail comes with some spam filtering and significant anti-virus filtering. Some have started utilizing the Web-based e-mail service for their primary e-mail account. Note: we cannot guarantee the effectiveness of anti-virus measures as new viruses still emerge. However, our virus definitions will likely be updated more quickly than yours will be when there are new threats.
Next you will be given the option to subscribe to the premium services. You need not do so, but there is a lot of value in the premium services.
CLE Premium Service — This premium service, gives you access to the downloadable versions of the OBA CLE books that are distributed at the seminars. These will be placed online about six months after the last date a seminar is presented. The fee for this service is $100 per year. Current OBA-NET users have grown to appreciate this service, which saves both money and bookshelf space. The online archives of these publications date back to 1996. There will be some “syndicated” programs featuring national speakers that will be omitted from this service.
Just imagine how much valuable information is contained in these dozens of publications that can be yours for only $100 per year.
Silver Premium Service — This premium service costs $50 per year. This option is for the person who likes the idea of getting spam filtering and virus protection, but they would like for their e-mail to continue appearing in their Outlook inbox just like it always has. This can be done with either a newsreader or POP3 access, which is what the Silver Premium Service provides. One weakness of the free e-mail forwarding service is that when you reply to an e-mail the return address will be shown as your actual e-mail address instead of Lawoklahoma.com. That could confuse some people. For $50 per year you can use this professional e-mail address just like you would any other e-mail service without worrying about forwarding or logging into the OBA-NET to check your mail. More informative is available by logging into OBA-NET and clicking options, then premium services. This premium service also increases your storage capacity from 15 megabytes to 25 megabytes, which is a lot of e-mail.
Gold Premium Service —This premium service costs $100 per year. This option increases your storage capacity to 35 megabytes. It gives you the use of a newer protocol called IMAP in addition to newsreader and POP3. Without going into the details here, IMAP would be very useful for those who have multiple e-mail addresses and want to access their e-mail in different ways.
A truly great feature of the Gold service is a personal Web site which will be located at www.lawoklahoma.com/your.name. You can upload family photos to share with friends or files for clients to download. For a solo attorney, this could even be a place for a law firm Web page. With larger firms this is less likely to be useful as one lawyer’s name must be used in the address. Please visit my personal web space at http://www.lawoklahoma.com/jim.calloway to see how I designed a simple Web page using only my word processor and to see an article with tips on designing a personal Web page using the Gold Service.
In addition, subscribing to both the CLE service and either the Gold or Silver services will give you a 10 percent discount on the annual fees.
If you have already registered for OBA-NET and now want to subscribe to one of the premium services, just log into OBA-NET and click on Options, then Premium Services.
OBA-NET Tips — My primary tip for using OBA-NET is that you cannot read every message. Often there are over 100 messages posted in a single day. Use the link to Today’s Messages to see if there are any hot topics of interest to you. Use the left hand navigation area to look at the subject areas and navigate to the message threads that impact your practice. Feel free to make your own posts disagreeing with other’s logic or conclusions, but do not engage in personal attacks on other lawyers. The lawyer you attack might have the answer to your question of tomorrow. We have two forums with wide-ranging debate and discussion. These are called “Current Events” and “Chewing the Fat.” Try to stick to the topic in the other forums.
Use the search function to search hundreds or thousands of messages. Many times questions you might
need answered have been discussed previously, and finding that prior message thread will mean you get your answer immediately instead of waiting for it.
While others may disagree, I believe you should set your messages to be marked as read automatically when you read them. To do so go to Options, then Forum Prefs and check the box by “Automatically Mark Messages as Read.”
Once you learn how the message areas work, then the file areas are a breeze because they look just like the message areas. The only difference is an icon at the bottom of the message. You click on the icon to open the file and look at it online. To transfer it to your computer, you should right click on the icon and select “save target as.” But pay attention to exactly where it is being saved on your computer.
The most important tip is to jump in and have fun. The more you give, the more you receive. When people see you taking time to answer other’s questions, they will go out of their way to assist you.
My okbar — My okbar is very simple, but you first have to know your PIN number. If you do not know it, then click on the my okbar link from the OBA web page. Click on the “Forgot PIN” button. Your PIN number that will be e-mailed to you at the e-mail address on the OBA roster. Watch the message that appears after you click on the “Submit” button. It will show you the e-mail address the PIN is going to - just in case you’ve forgotten to update your OBA roster information. You will receive an error message if the OBA does not have your e-mail address. If you do not have your email address on file, locate your last OBA dues statement. The PIN number is printed on the lower corner.
If you cannot find your dues statement, then you need to update your e-mail address on the OBA roster “the old fashioned way.”
On your office stationery, write a one-sentence letter to the OBA requesting a PIN number. Include your current e-mail address and request that your new PIN number be e-mailed to you. Be sure to include your OBA number. You must sign the letter. Mail or fax the letter to (405) 416-7001, attention OBA Membership Department. That’s it. You will receive your PIN number very soon.
After logging into my okbar, all of your options are at the left side of the page. At this time they include:
My OkBar — Serves the same as a home page button to take you to the place you began on myokbar.
Roster Info — The place for you to edit your contact information in the OBA database.
CLE Courses — Link to the OBA CLE online area
MCLE — Lets you view you MCLE Credits as reflected in the records. At times during the year this information may not be current. Not all CLE providers turn in their information quickly.
List Servers — allows you to subscribe to the OBA CLE Newsletter or the Young Lawyers Division e-mail list. OBA section members are now automatically subscribed to their section e-mail list.
Bar Journal Forms — The Oklahoma Bar Journal theme issues often reference download forms that the authors have supplied. These are posted here as well as on OBA-NET.
Member Lookup — This is a searchable database of all OBA members. You can get phone numbers, addresses and fax numbers of other attorneys 24 hours a day.
Ok Find A Lawyer — This is where you list your information on OklahomaFindaLawyer.com.
Change PIN — If you do not like the PIN (aka password) you were issued, you can change it to something else. You may use letters, numbers and some symbols.
Logout — Return to okbar.org.
We hope that this brief overview will help you better utilize your OBA online services. Feel free to contact Jim Calloway, Director of OBA Management Assistance Program, with questions about OBA-NET, and Carol Manning, OBA Director of Public Information, with questions about www.okbar.org.
