Legally Bound

TECHNOLOGY: Customised references for lawyers are now available online, and that should lower fees.

Time is money. Specially for those who have to shell out astronomical sums to their lawyers who in return, charge (for their services) by the hour. Can you imagine how much lower the bills would be if lawyers could get customised case references, details and allied information online?

Spectrum Business Support, a Pune-based information retrieval and knowledge management firm, has launched an application that can deliver exhaustive legal information at a click of a button of your web-enabled handheld device.

"eJurix will be one-stop information source for any legal query online. It's as easy as using Google or Yahoo, only difference being it's a paid search service," explains D B Modak, managing director, Spectrum Busines Support.

The service would be available at a subscription of Rs 5,000 per month (unlimited data usage).Comprehensive data, developed and collected over a period of 16 years, along with a user-friendly interface might turn out to be eJurix's marketing pillars. The database covers over 3,00,000 legal decisions from the Supreme Court, high courts and tribunal courts.

In the next step, the company is looking at niche verticals like medicine and architecture to extend its data retrieval services.

"The scope of industry-based information management is big and we might collaborate with international players like LexisNexis or WestLaw to expand our database in the existing domain," says Modak.

Not a novice in the business, Spectrum began with providing computerised law information with Grand Jurix, a dial-up service in 1993. "But information on CDs was totally incompatible in an environment going first online and then wireless," says Modak.

According to Spectrum, the PDA-based eJurix would be a handy tools for the 9,00,000-odd lawyers in the country. But does the legal fraternity fit the PDA-user bracket? The answer is a resounding "no". But Modak is undeterred. "Even if 10-15 per cent of the legal fraternity becomes our subscriber, we will be alright."

The company will also launch a SMS-based service soon so that anyone with a mobile phone can access eJurix. With a eye on the leading law firms, government bodies, banking and financial services sector, multinational and corporates, Spectrum has begun its trial, figuratively speaking.