Posted October 17, 2012 in Conference, Education, Legislation, Membership
CALSPro would like to thank everyone who attended and supported the CALSPro Annual Conference in Anaheim, “The Happiest Conference On Earth”. ServeNow has posted a short “Conference Highlights” article that you can read here:
Stay tuned to our Blog, Twitter and Facebook for updates and information about next year’s conference. And again, thank you for supporting CALSPro!
Posted October 3, 2012 in Conference, Education, Legislation, Membership
ONLINE REGISTRATION & BROCHURE NOW AVAILABLE!
Here are some highlights for Saturday, October 6th
CONTINUING EDUCATION SESSION
Case Law Presentation – Four speakers will provide information on past and present case Law.
Copy Industry Presentation — Mick Isbell will focus on where the industry is headed, recent legislation/bills that threaten the industry and other informative updates. Our copy industry members will truly benefit from Mick’s expertise in this field of legal support service.
SEO Marketing – ServeNow will get us up to speed on Search Engine Optimization for your company. Internet marketing is the fastest way to reach your target market and Adam Camras/Trent Carlyle will be at Conference to inform you in this very important, rapidly changing arena of marketing.
Stephanie Sayler
Conference Chair
Posted September 19, 2012 in Education, Legislation, Membership
AB 1481 was signed into law on Sept. 17, 2012 and takes effect immediately.
CCP§631(b) is amended to read:
At least one party demanding a jury on each side of a civil case shall pay a nonrefundable fee of one hundred fifty dollars ($150), unless the fee has been paid by another party on the same side of the case. The fee shall offset the costs to the state of providing juries in civil cases. If there are more than two parties to the case, for purposes of this section only, all plaintiffs shall be considered one side of the case, and all other parties shall be considered the other side of the case. Payment of the fee by a party on one side of the case shall not relieve parties on the other side of the case from waiver pursuant to subdivision (f).
Key points are that the fee is nonrefundable and the clerkcan only collect one fee from each side of a case.
Brett Peters
Legislative Chair
Posted September 17, 2012 in Education, Legislation, Membership
The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution introduced on September 25, 1789 is the hallmark of the American legal system, guaranteeing that no person shall be “deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.” The 14th Amendment expanded those rights. The National Association of Professional Process Servers honors this essential and sacred element of our way of life with National Due Process Day – a public awareness campaign designed to ensure that each and every American’s right to a fair trial is forever preserved.
Due Process plays an important role in the legal process. In serving legal notice that a person is facing a lawsuit, private process servers are instrumental in protecting the rights of every American during a trial. Should you ever face legal action or be involved in a court case, due process ensures that you will be alerted within a reasonable time. It is a right that continually protects the freedom of every American in the United States.
To see the full article, click here
Posted August 27, 2012 in Education, Membership, Technology
Below is a piece that I came across that I felt may be of interest to many of our members. We are all familiar with computers getting viruses or being hacked into, but how many of you knew that you could get a virus on your smart phone? Two of the main ways that people become more vulnerable to this type of danger would be by connecting to an unsecured Wi-Fi connection and through downloading apps. Personally, I rarely research an app before installing it on my phone, but after reading this article, that is going to change. This article was published on www.insuretrust.com and I have included the full text below.
“When it comes to computers, most of us are at least somewhat familiar with the nefarious tools at a hacker’s disposal, including viruses, spyware, and bogus emails. However, virtually none of us have been exposed to such security threats on our smart phones. Yet.
The number of attacks against mobile devices is increasing, and experts see this trend only getting worse. The main reason is the huge number of people who now own smart phones and use them more and more like handheld computers, to store sensitive data, bank online, and conduct private conversations via text messages, for example.
According to Trend Micro, the malware count for Android devices is 25,000. Taking on the appearance of legitimate apps (some very popular – like Skype and Instagram), the malware can steal data, spy on phone activity, or defraud users engaging in mobile purchasing.
The iPhone operating system (iOS) and App Store were free of such problems until recently, when reports The Register, an app called Find and Call snuck past Apple’s screeners. The app secretly stole users’ contacts and also tracked their location. Other instances of hacks against Apple devices are likely in the future.
But inadvertently installing rogue apps isn’t the only way your phone can be hacked. Using an unsecured Wi-Fi connection gives a cyber criminal much easier access to your phone. So does failing to password protect your phone in the event of theft or loss.
Considering the value of data stored on smart phones, it is surprising that only a fraction of users have security apps (think of them as antivirus software for a phone) in place to help guard against attacks. Hackers know this, which makes smart phones even more of a target.
As if all this weren’t bad enough news for the individual, it is even a more complex problem for businesses, because many employees conduct at least some work functions on their smart phones, leaving potentially valuable data vulnerable to hackers”
This article was published by INSUREtrust.com
Jeremiah Jones
Technology Chairman
Posted August 3, 2012 in Conference, Education, Legislation, Membership
ONLINE REGISTRATION & BROCHURE NOW AVAILABLE!
Here are some highlights for Saturday, October 6th
CONTINUING EDUCATION SESSION
Case Law Presentation – Four speakers will provide information on past and present case Law.
Copy Industry Presentation — Mick Isbell will focus on where the industry is headed, recent legislation/bills that threaten the industry and other informative updates. Our copy industry members will truly benefit from Mick’s expertise in this field of legal support service.
SEO Marketing – ServeNow will get us up to speed on Search Engine Optimization for your company. Internet marketing is the fastest way to reach your target market and Adam Camras/Trent Carlyle will be at Conference to inform you in this very important, rapidly changing arena of marketing.
Stephanie Sayler
Conference Chair
Posted July 30, 2012 in Conference, Education, Membership
Help protect our profession and strengthen your business by joining CALSPro! With others, you can help provide a powerful and unifying voice for California’s Legal Support Professionals. Together, we can be heard!
BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP
Your CALSPro membership will enable you to:
Everyone is invited to join — Whether you’re a business owner, vendor, independent process server, professional photocopier, investigator, legal secretary, paralegal, attorney or work in another capacity in the legal profession, we would love for you to join CALSPro Today!
Larry Kirlin
Membership Chair
Posted July 6, 2012 in Membership, Technology
What is cloud computing? Most often when hearing this phrase people come up with a variety of different ideas about its true meaning due to its complex nature. “The cloud” is used as a metaphor when referring to the Internet. An expansive interpretation of cloud computing is the belief that anything outside of a firewall is considered to be a part of “the cloud”. On the other hand vendors and analysts characterize cloud computing as virtual servers which are accessible on the Internet.
An easy way to understand the term cloud computing is to get to the root what an IT’s needs are. These include licenses for new software, training for personnel, boosting capacity, and additional capabilities all of which are needed without creating a new infrastructure. Anything that can be paid per usage or uses a subscription on the Internet is under the umbrella term we call cloud computing. There are a variety of forms being used today. These different types of cloud computing are as listed: Software as a Service (SaaS), platform as a service, managed service providers (MSP), utility computing, Internet integration, and service commerce platforms.
Cloud computing is beneficial to the Attorney Service industry because many helpful applications have been created by using “the cloud”. Software companies are building their applications to harness the cloud’s efficiency and Process Serving companies would be wise to take notes. Data Integration, .asp or (.Asp .NET) websites, connecting multiple branches; all of these things work better and work faster in a cloud. Investing in cloud technology makes sense. Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of improved uptime, quicker access to data, safer server environment, built in redundancy, and application portability?
Dennis Chaples
www.TristarSoftware.com
Posted June 29, 2012 in Membership
Dear CALSPro Member,
Over the past two days Governor Brown signed the fiscal year 2012-2013 state budget and related “trailer bills.” One of the trailer bills contained various increases in civil filing fees, and in the case of jury deposits, a change in the deadline for making deposits. The following link provides a complete listing of filing fees; those which are highlighted in yellow denote changes and increases – http://courts.ca.gov/documents/fee-schedule-062712.pdf
As in the past, the changes take effect immediately, although courts will vary in how quickly they implement the new amounts.
All together, these fees are expected to raise approximately $50 million annually to support the court system.
As new information becomes available, CALSPro members will be notified.
Thank you for your support of the association.
Chad Barger
California Association of Legal Support Professionals
2520 Venture Oaks Way, Suite 150
Sacramento, CA 95833
916.239.4065 – phone
916.924.7323 – fax
Posted June 29, 2012 in Membership, Technology
The State of California, Court of Appeals, Fourth Appellate District has just begun electronic filing. On May 1, 2012 Divisions 1 (San Diego) and 2 (Riverside) began to accept electronically filed documents and Division 3 (Santa Ana) is not far behind. More details can be found at http://www.courts.ca.gov/17948.htm.
This represents a drastic change from the previous policy at the Court of Appeals where they would only accept documents with original signatures (in most cases), wanting multiple copies of documents and requiring that documents be specially bound. Although this may not be a major portion of most attorney services business, it will become a loss of some work for many attorney services. More importantly, it is a sign of things to come.
E-filing may have suffered a setback with the Judicial Council halting the statewide deployment of version 4 of CCMS which would have allowed for e-filing in all Superior Courts in California, but eventually it will be here. Court filings are a large portion of many of our members business. For anyone that is involved in the legal support industry, you need to start preparing (if you haven’t already) for how you are going to adjust your business model to compensate for e-filing. Robert J. Ringer once said “If you are prepared, then you are able to feel confident.” As members of CALSPro, we need to take the necessary steps so that we are prepared for any obstacles or changes that may come our way. We need to be flexible, adaptive and always looking towards the future so that we can have the confidence that our industry and our individual businesses will remain relevant for years to come.
Jeremiah Jones
Technology Chairman
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