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I
have to stop and pinch myself when reflecting on what
your volunteer leaders, including the members of the
Task Force on Future Internet Presence, Board of Governors
and House of Delegates, have accomplished through
Arkansas VersusLaw. As state and metropolitan bar
associations around the United States go, the Arkansas
Bar Association is one of the smallest and is voluntary
(most state bar associations are mandatory.)
Yet we now have an online
legal library for our members, including an excellent
search engine. Initial feedback from many of you confirm
what a tremendous accomplishment this is for our entire
membership. (Firms not yet using Arkansas VersusLaw
have seen their costs for online legal research reduced
because of Arkansas VersusLaw, and members in government
agencies which provide online legal research now have
free online research outside the office.)
Free Customer Service.
This service from the experts at VersusLaw is available
at 1-888-377-8752 (88-VERSUSLAW). Customer service
hours are Monday - Friday 9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m., and
Saturday from noon until 7:00 p.m. These experts will
answer your questions about Arkansas VersusLaw as
well as its content.
If you experience problems
which customer service cannot solve, please contact
Rando Hicks at this office: (501) 375-4606, (800)
609-5668 or rhicks@arkbar.com.
Help. At the
top right of each page/ screen in Arkansas VersusLaw,
there is a red "help" link. This takes you
to complete information on researching VersusLaw,
and they have a printable version of the entire research
manual.
Quick Reference Guide.
This Guide is available on the second page of Arkansas
VersusLaw. Further, you may contact this office for
a laminated version of the Quick Reference Guide which
is handy for keeping by your computer.
Training. The
next training on Arkansas VersusLaw will be provided
during the Annual Meeting in June. We plan to run
the training sessions almost continuously during June
11, 12 and 13. Experts from VersusLaw will conduct
the training.
Save As / Print.
A neat feature is the ease with which one may copy/paste
text from a search to a workable document. Simply
click on the save as / print link at the top
of the page. On the "search results" page
which lists the different documents found for your
specific search, this link is at the top right of
the page. On the "document view"
page on which the entire document is presented, the
link is on the left top of the page.
E-mailing the research
results or document. If you wish to e-mail the
search results page or a specific document, click
the "File" button on your tool bar, and
then click "send". This gives you the option
to select the e-mail function, and once you click
on it, your e-mail program will appear with the document
in it. [Not sure this is available on all software
programs. It is on Microsoft.]
Password system.
One may change her/his password on our website. If
you experience difficulty in doing so, please contact
Rando Hicks.
Supreme Court Number.
It is essential to remember that there is not a dash
(-) in Supreme Court Numbers. If you enter a Supreme
Court Number with a dash or any other extraneous symbols,
your log in attempt will fail.
Terms and Conditions.
At the bottom of the Arkansas VersusLaw page, there
is a link to the terms and conditions for utilizing
the online library. As an Arkansas Bar Association
member, you ignore the condition about payment of
a monthly fee since your fee has been paid by your
Association.
Member Directory.
This is the only other password-protected part of
our website. Members may access up-to-date
contact information on individual members as well
as see which attorneys in a specific city in Arkansas
or another state are Association members. The directory
includes a live e-mail link for individual
members, thereby enabling one to click on that individual
and send him/her an immediate e-mail using your computer's
e-mail software.
We welcome any and all
questions about Arkansas VersusLaw and other features
on our website.
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