LSC FLOATS QUALITY STANDARD IDEA FOR LEGAL WEB SITES
The UK's Legal Services Commission (previously the Legal Aid Board) has just published a consultation paper on a proposed quality mark standard for web sites operated by law firms providing legal services under the auspices of the Community Legal Service scheme.

The CLS already has its own quality mark system to ensure that law firms and other providers of legal services operate to a minimum quality standard and the idea behind this latest consultation paper is to carry the system over so it also applies to those organisations' web sites. The LSC consultation paper also makes it quite clear that this initiative will go hand in hand with the recent consultation paper from the Lord Chancellor's Department on the categorisation of metadata used in legal information web sites targeted at the general public. But is any of this really necessary?

Here on Legal Technology News.com we've always believed the dead hand of bureaucracy has no place in the regulation of something as dynamic and fast moving as the internet. We are also highly skeptical about the value of quality standards generally - nice plaque on the wall but shame about the service - although we do appreciate they can serve a useful job creation role for consultants.

Rather more pertinently, we are concerned that it appears the proposed quality mark will only apply to web sites providing legal information - as distinct from legal advice - yet in the real world many legal web sites already blur the boundaries between these two concepts.

Also, how will the scheme operate if a law firm has a multi-purpose web site offering both information on CLS-related legal services and private client/commercial law services outside the scope of the CLS?

Given that internet sites should be an integral part of a law firm's overall marketing mix, the CLS requirement that clients should receive a "seamless service" - which as far as the web quality mark is concerned means providing "signposting" or hyperlinks to other law firms who can offer the services you do not (the consultation paper talks about the web as "not a one-stop-shop") - should go down like a lead balloon.

And, we note that law firms are "likely" to be charged for the application and audit process. Unfortunately the consultation paper gives no details of what these charges are likely to be, which is a pity as the success or failure of the whole scheme may depend on whether cash strapped CLS firms feel this is an additional financial burden they can afford to carry.

However, to end on a more positive note, it is good to see the LSC is in favour of making compliance with the so-called Bobby test for web site content accessibility (both for people with disabilities and those lacking the latest technology) a requirement of the new standard.

The closing date for consultations is 28th February 2001 - responses should be sent to Peter Watson at the LSC (email: qualitymark@legalservices.gov.uk). The full text of the consultation paper can be found at www.legalservices.gov.uk

Assuming the scheme goes ahead as planned, the LSC hopes to have finalised the standard by the spring of this year and applicants will then have twelve months (or until 1st April 2002 or whichever is the earlier) to ensure their web sites are compliant.

CRUNCH TIME FOR LERNOUT & HAUSPIE
It is crunch time - again - for the troubled Belgian speech recognition company Lernout & Hauspie which yesterday went back to court to file a new petition for concordat (the Belgian equivalent of Chapter 11 protection). The commercial court in Ieper has up tp 15 days to make a ruling but is expected to announce its decision on 12th January. Since the company was last in court in December, further information has come to light about the company's financial plight with auditors KPMG warning of "widespread accounting fraud" that may have seen L&H "invent or misrepresent" up to $277 million in sales over the past three years.

Meanwhile in another Chapter 11 related development, despite applying for a moratorium on its debt repayments in a Dutch bankruptcy court earlier this week, the pan-European online retailer Letsbuyit.com has been allowed to resume trading in its shares on the Neur Markt stock exchange. A spokesman for the exchange said investors in the company needed the opportunity to be able to buy and sell their shares. Both the UK's Financial Services Authority and the US Securities & Exchange Commission said that under their rules Letsbuyit.com would not have been allowed to resume share trading.

IT PAYS TO MONITOR THOSE OLD PATENTS
In a controversial move, shortly before the Christmas break British Telecommunications filed a lawsuit against US internet service provider Prodigy Communications arising from BT's claim to own the patent for internet hyperlink technology. According to BT, the US patent for hyperlinks was granted in 1986 and does not expire until 2006 but became 'lost' until the company recently began an audit of its 15000 strong archive of patents.

The idea for hyperlinks came out of BT's Martlesham Heath site as part of the development of the old Prestel viewdata system. So far BT has approached 18 ISPs for royalties for their use of hyperlinks and does not rule out contacting more service providers. A spokesman for BT said: "We are not claiming we own the internet, we just want a reasonable return from our intellectual property." Prodigy, for its part, said "BT's groundless claims have the dangerous potential of stifling those who are truly innovative in this field. Prodigy intends to vigorously defend this lawsuit."

LESS CENTRAL CONTROL OF THE WEB UNDER BUSH ?
Senator John Ashcroft of Missouri, who has just been nominated as attorney general by US president-elect George W Bush, is expected to take a more relaxed approach to the regulation of the internet. In a recent interview commented that "Would be regulators must recognise that the internet industry has already responded to consumers' privacy concerns." However his appointment may not make much difference to the ongoing antitrust litigation against Microsoft where he is on the record for saying that Microsoft "has a monopoly share of the market whether you call it a monopoly or not."

SOLUTION 6 BUYS ASIA PACIFIC DISTRIBUTOR
Solution 6 Holdings last week announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Horwath Computer Systems Pty Ltd (HCS), the distributor of CMS Open in the Asia Pacific region. CMS Open is the flagship practice management product of Florida-based CMS/Data, which itself was acquired by Solution 6 in October 1999.

The purchase consideration is 6.4 million ordinary shares in Solution 6 Holdings with a further tranche of shares subject to the achievement of earnings for the year ending 30 June 2001. The maximum number of shares is set at 8.4 million shares. HCS is the exclusive distributor of CMS Open in Australia, New Zealand and Asia and has 23 employees in offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Auckland. HCS's customers in the region include Freehills, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Clayton Utz, Simpson Grierson, Russell McVeagh, PriceWaterhouseCoopers Legal and ComTech Communications.

Commenting on the deal Solution 6 CEO Neil Gamble said: "This acquisition makes very good sense and further confirms the importance of CMS Open to Solution 6. The CMS product has a bright future and has commenced expansion into new markets. HCS has served this marketplace well for seven years and with their detailed market knowledge of the legal profession they bring tremendous value to Solution 6. HCS will serve as a natural springboard for Solution 6 into the Asia-Pacific legal market."

YAHOO! TO BAN ALL NEO-NAZI SALES
Although the company says the move has nothing to do with its recent defeat in the French courts, from next Wednesday (10th January) the internet company Yahoo! is to ban the sale or auction of Nazi-related items and other 'hate' material from all the web sites that are carried on its web portal. After unsuccessfully arguing in the French court that the international nature of the web made it virtually impossible, from a technological point of view, to prevent users in any one given country from accessing certain web sites containing unlawful material, Yahoo! says it now intends to take a pre-emptive approach by installing "software that scans items before they are listed so [that] objectionable goods aren't put up for sale".

FTC WARNS ON CYBER-QUACKS
The US Federal Trade Commission this week expressed concern about the growing number of medial advice web sites springing up on the internet. Between 1998 and 2000 the number of health-related web sites increased from 2.8 million to 9.5 million and within the last 12 months an estimated 34.7 million Americans have gone online to seek healthcare advice. What concerns the FTC is the number of "cyber-quack" sites offering misleading and inaccurate advice - one suggests that under-arm deodorants are a major cause of cancer - or else engaged in "questionable promotions for products and services" - one site sells bottles of herbal tea as a cure for cancer and Aids. To-date the FTC has identified 800 sites containing questionable material and has already commenced fraud proceedings against two that were unwilling to drop their unfounded claims.

SEGAL QUITS LAW FIRM FOR SEARCHSPACE
Arnold Segal, one of the UK pioneers of IT law, is to join the software development company Searchspace as general counsel. Segal joins the company from city law firm Theodore Goddard, where he both established and led its IT (later e-commerce) law group.

JERSEY SEES FLURRY OF INTERNET ACTIVITY
FirstJobCV.com Limited, the Jersey-based internet company best known in the UK for its LegalCV.com online recruitment site, has just launched a 'virtual networking' web site for businesses and individuals wanting to have access to expert advice about the tax and other benefits associated with locating their operations offshore on Jersey.

The site will allow users to locate sources of advice while the planned revenue stream will come from web banner advertising and "partners" wanting to sell their services into the Jersey market. For more details email Lisa Preston at: info@jersey4e-com.com

Meanwhile Peter Harris, an advocate with Jersey law firm Crills has alerted Legal News Media to an unusual domain name dispute that has blown up. Apparently the States of Jersey Tourism Committee has issued proceedings against the registrant of www.jerseytourism.com (a Guernsey resident for whom Crills is acting) for the transfer of the domain name.

Harris says the proceedings are defended for a number of reasons which may make for interesting argument. These include the fact that the Committee actually registered a domain name some three years earlier than the defendant and thus had first choice - for some reason they chose www.jtourism.com. Secondly there is no trademark or registered name issue, so it is a question of whether there is sufficient association of the otherwise generic words with the plaintiff. Harris says there is also no question of passing off as can be seen from the site and from their client's other site in relation to Guernsey at www.guernseytourism.com.

LEGAL TECHNOLOGY NEWS.COM - FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF LEGAL TECHNOLOGY INSIDER. NEXT ISSUE 11.01.2001