Currently, 19 percent of lawyers surveyed are using wireless technology to access the Internet away from the office, up from 8.3 percent in the previous survey. There has been especially significant growth among solo lawyers, of whom a full 25 percent report using a wireless Internet connection away from the office compared to 8.7 percent in 2003.

The survey is a comprehensive look at how the legal profession uses technology. More than 1,500 ABA lawyer members in private practice in the United States returned questionnaires relating to law office technology, litigation and courtroom technology, Web and communication technology, online research and mobile lawyers. The survey covers issues including technology training, budgeting and hardware and software purchases, as well as where and how lawyers use technology

Among the results:

Consistent with previous surveys, 98 percent of lawyers who responded to the survey use computers at work; most of those who don't are age 60 or over, while 100 percent of lawyers up to age 49 do.

Lawyers are becoming progressively more mobile. Eighty-eight percent of those who responded to the survey have Internet access away from the office. Almost a third are using cable modems, followed by DSL users and dialup modem users with 24 percent each. Connection from public terminals or kiosks has also seen an increase, from less than 10 percent in 2002 to 19 percent in the current survey.

While anti-virus software availability has remained consistent with past surveys at 92 percent, firewall software availability has risen to nearly 66 percent from 43 percent in 2002, reflecting heightened concerns about hacking and distributed denial of service attacks. Availability of encryption software has increased to 24 percent, but about half of respondents are not using encryption at all.

Surprisingly, just slightly more than half of the law firms responding to the survey had policies regarding acceptable use of office computers, Internet and e-mail. Just over 40 percent had disaster recovery or business continuity plans, despite an increased awareness in the susceptibility of businesses to terrorism and other threats.

The legal profession remains document-centric, with word processing software available at 97 percent of law firms, although it's used personally by only 69 percent of the responding lawyers. Microsoft Word continues as the leading word processor in law firms, in use by 70 percent of respondents, with 28 percent using Corel WordPerfect. Microsoft Excel dominates the spreadsheet market, with 84 percent of respondents citing its availability in their office, trailed by Quattro Pro at 6 percent.

The survey is an annual project of the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, a specialized unit providing lawyers, bar associations, law schools, and other legal organizations with information on technology and its use in the practice of law. The Center's professional staff research and write on technology issues and provide continuing legal education on practice management using technology. For more information on the 2004 - 2005 survey or the resource center, visit http://www.lawtechnology.org/ or call 312/988-5465.

With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law in a democratic society.

Source: American Bar Association