Last week I had a draft agreement hit my desk that allowed notice to be sent by regular mail, fax, overnight courier or email.
That triggered a search through my rag-tag collection of Internet bookmarks; and a link to Real Lawyers Have Blogs which reported that a high percentage is not opened or read, and a similar high percentage is blocked by antivirus programs or directed to junk mail folders.
So if you think you’re sending notice by email, no one may get it, you may never know, and just try proving receipt in court.
Denise Howell just noted that registered email may soon be available in Switzerland. Another reason to remain neutral. Applications for this are available.
Ernest Svenson has another take, when he reported from the recent LegalTech in LA. Number 3 in his hit parade was the observation that email is out of control; people can’t manage their regular, non-spam messages. That’s certainly my experience, although some spam is actually interesting compared to my work email. No one at the office can lower my mortgage interest rate for a limited time only.
Sending email is easy. Too easy, much of the time. I hope Bill Gates disables “Reply All” in the Longhorn version of Outlook; it would also be great to specify that an email cannot be forwarded (calling Mr. Scoble)?
In a rare unplugged moment, I recently found letterpress stationery from an awesome printer in the 94608. If you want to absolutely blow someone’s mind these days, send them a short handwritten note. It’s always opened first.