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A Chronology of Legal Technology, 1842-1995

By Robert J. Ambrogi

<i>[I came across the following chronology among some old files. I originally compiled it in 1995 in conjunction with a magazine article I wrote.]</i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1842</b></div><br />The fax machine is invented by a Scottish physicist. Images were sent by wire and the receiving machine recorded the images on damp electrolytic paper.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1867</b></div><br />The typewriter becomes available.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1877</b></div><br />Carbon paper invented.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1881</b></div><br />The mimeograph invented.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1890</b></div><br />West Publishing introduces Key Numbers<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1938</b></div><br />Xerography developed.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1944</b></div><br />First electronic digital computer, ENIAC, weighing in at 30 tons and containing 18,000 vacuum tubes. Price: $487,000.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1950s</b></div><br />Transistors and miniaturized circuits lead to invention of the silicon chip.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1960</b></div><br />Xerox introduces the first office copier.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1973</b></div><br />Mead Data introduces Lexis, providing full text of Ohio and New York codes and cases, the U.S. Code and some federal cases.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1975</b></div><br />West introduces a database of digests and key numbers, called Westlaw<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1977</b></div><br />Tandy Corp. becomes the first major electronics firm to produce a personal computer.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1978</b></div><br />Westlaw adds full-text information.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1979</b></div><br />Lexis adds Nexis, providing the Washington Post, Newsweek, The Economist, U.S. News & World Report, Dun's Review, and the Reuters and Associated Press news wires.<br /><br />VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet software, is introduced for the Apple II.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1980</b></div><br />Some 724,000 pcs are sold.<br /><br />Lexis reports annual sales of $31.9 million, up from $15.8 million in 1978 and $3.9 million in 1975.<br /><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />WordPefect, word-processing software for use with a Data General minicomputer, from Satellite Software.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1981</b></div><br />IBM introduces its first personal computer.<br /><br />1.4 million pcs are sold.<br /><br />Average price of a facsimile machine: $10,500.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1982</b></div><br />2.8 million PCs are sold, ranging from the $77.95 Timex-Sinclair 1000 to a $4,000 IBM. (Biggest sellers: Timex, Commodore, Atari, Apple, IBM and Tandy.)<br /><br />A Fortune magazine study determines that corporate legal offices would realize direct cost savings by using computers.<br /><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />Apple's Lisa computer, the first to allow users to carry out many functions by using a "mouse" to click on an icon.<br /><br />Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1983</b></div><br />Time magazine declares the personal computer the "Machine of the Year" for 1982, in place of its traditional Man of the Year.<br /><br />Harvard Law School prohibits students from using PCs during final exams.<br /><br />Lexis becomes accessible thru an IBM PC, rather than exclusively through Mead Data's proprietary terminals. (This was already the case with Westlaw.)<br /><br />The price of a Kurzweil Optical Character Recognition unit goes down, from $89,800 to $69,800.<br /><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />Syntrex introduces a new dedicated word processor targeted at the legal community, with automatic table of authorities generation, automatic index generaton, line numbering, and full-text searching.<br /><br />IBM introduces the XT microcomputer, with a 10mb hard disk, for $5,675.<br /><br />IBM introduces the System/36 minicomputer<br /><br />Lassen Software introduces Personal Lawyer/Wills, a general purpose will writer for the IBM-PC targeted at non-lawyers ($50)<br /><br />General Robotics Corp., La Jolla, Calif., offers an "electronic jury" for people who want to have their disputes resolved by computer.<br /><br />Legal Talk, intended for the blind, reads aloud the results of Westlaw searches.<br /><br />The Official Airline Guide goes online as an electronic database.<br /><br />The Matthew Bender Automated Will Drafting System is introduced for lawyers.<br /><br />A Westlaw interface for the IBM Displaywriter is introduced.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1984</b></div><br />Dialog Information Service adds Trademarkscan, a database of all registered and pending U.S. trademarks.<br /><br />Top-selling word processing software were WordStar and MultiMate<br /><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />The Macintosh computer, from Apple, which, in a radical departure, used a 3.5-inch floppy disk rather than the standard 5.25-inch. Price: $2,495 for 128K of memory.)<br /><br />The Laserjet, from Hewlett-Packard, the first "affordable" laser printer. Price: $3,495; $220 for each extra type font.<br /><br />IBM introduces the Portable PC, with 256K of memory and a 5.25 inch disk drive. Price: $2,795.<br /><br />IBM introduces the "Cluster Program," which allows up to 64 PCs to connect and share files.<br /><br />IBM upgrades memory of System/36 minicomputer to 1024K and stroage from 400 Mb to 800 Mb.<br /><br />IBM introudces new electronic typewriter that includes a disk drive for storage.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1985</b></div><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />Windows, from Microsoft.<br /><br />The Apple LaserWriter. Price: $6,995.<br /><br />WordStar 2000, the latest release of the popular word-processing software from MicroPro.<br /><br />The IBM PC AT, with an 80286 processor instead of the 8088s used in other IBM pcs. Price: $5,795.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1986</b></div><br />As WordPerfect takes the No. 1 slot among word processors, its parent company, Satellite Software, renames itself WordPerfect Corp.<br /><br />300,000 fax machines are sold, compared with 500,000 in all prior years.<br /><br />IBM discontinues its DisplayWriter dedicated word processor.<br /><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />Timeslips time and billing software. Price: $100. (Compare with another legal time and billing package then available that cost $18,000.)<br /><br />An upgraded IBM PC XT, which now includes a 20 mb hard disk. Price: $2,895.<br /><br />The Deskpro 386, from Compaq, with 40 Mb hard disk and 1 Mb of ram. Price: $6,499.<br /><br />A battery-powered "laptop" computer, from IBM. Price: $1,995.<br /><br />WordPerfect version 4.2.<br /><br />BRS/Search, a full-text-search, litigation-support system, from NBI. Price: $18,000<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1987</b></div><br />Computer Systems News declares the IBM System/36 and System/38 mimicomputers "dead products."<br /><br />500,000 fax machines are sold, as the average cost of a machine drops to $3,000.<br /><br />Private e-mail services now have 5.6 million subscribers, up from 3.9 million a year earlier.<br /><br />Use of Telex drops to 200 million minutes, from a peak of 397 million minutes in 1984.<br /><br />Kelly Services announces that it will begin training temps to use PCs.<br /><br />Harvard law School and Lawyers Cooperative Publishing team up to create an interactive trial-skills tutor using PCs and laser disks.<br /><br />Corrections officers in Massachusetts begin using PC-linked "electronic bracelets" to monitor house arrests.<br /><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />IBM introduces its new operating system, OS/2.<br /><br />Macintosh II, from Apple. Price: $3,769; with 40 Mb hard disk, keyboard and color monitor: $6,996.<br /><br />The Series II Laser Jet, from Hewlett-Packard. Price: $2,495.<br /><br />IBM introduces four "Solution Pacs" for the legal profession: Lawyer Assistant, $1,991; Law Firm Secretarial, $1,921; Law Firm Financial, $2,632; and Law Firm Practice Management, $1,932.<br /><br />CompareRite document-comparison software, from JuriSoft.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1988</b></div><br />Cost of a low-end fax machine drops below $1,000.<br /><br />The IRS first experiments with electronic filing of returns via modem.<br /><br />Sales of Apple computers surpass IBM computers for the first time, 1.27 million to 1.23 million.<br /><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />WordStar releases a legal edition of its owrd processing software.<br /><br />West introduces its first CD ROM titles, including Federal Civil Practice Library, Federal Tax Libarry, Bankruptcy Library, Government Contracts Library.<br /><br />Timeslips releases a Macintosh version.<br /><br />WordPerfect version 5.0.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1989</b></div><br />Police in Ottawa County, Mich., begin using PCs and modems to transmit search-warrant applications to judges.<br /><br />A study concludes that automation has enabled attorneys in the U.S. Justice Dept. to increase the time they spend on "thought work" from 49 to 69 percent.<br /><br />Mead Data purchases Jurisoft, maker of CiteRite and CompareRite.<br /><br />A Minnesota law firm buys 750 Macintosh computers.<br /><br />In probably the largest deal to date in the legal market, Kodak Legal Systems contracts with Mayer, Brown & Platt for 1,000 networked workstations at seven locations, tied to 200 DECservers.<br /><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />WordPerfect introduces a version of Black's Law Dictionary to use with its spell checker.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1990</b></div><br />Fifty-nine percent of small-firm lawyers now use PCs, an ABA survey reports, but only 3 percent use electronic mail.<br /><br />U.S. Supreme Court begins distributing decisions electronically under the auspices of Project Hermes. <br /><br />Lexis reports nearly 270,000 users.<br /><br />Soon after WordPerfect releases version 5.1, it becomes the top-selling word processing software.<br /><br />"The PC revolution is over, and the PC industry has taken over the castle," declares Lotus Development Chairman Jim Manzi<br /><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />Compaq releases its LTE and LTE/286 notebook (under seven pounds) computers.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1991</b></div><br />Westlaw adds a "transparent" gateway to the Dialog news and business database.<br /><br /><i>Among new products:</i> <br /><br />A number of notebook computers are introduced at Comdex.<br /><br />DOS version 5.0 is released.<br /><br />WordPerfect for Windows is introduced.<br /><br />Apple releases the PowerBook portable computer.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1992</b></div><br />Lexis now has more than 621,000 users.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1993</b></div><br />The Securities and Exchange Commission announces plans to put EDGAR, its online filing database, on the Internet.<br /><br />E-mail grows in popularity among lawyers and firms.<br /><br />Apple announces plans to make the Macintosh DOS compatible.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1993</b></div><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />The Thinkpad computer, from IBM.<br /><br />WordPerfect version 6.0 for DOS and Windows.<br /><br />Windows NT.<br /><br />The Newton MessagePad personal digital assistant, from Apple.<br /><br />The Pentium chip, from Intel.<br /><br />DOS version 6.0, from Microsoft.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1994</b></div><br />Venable, Baetjer, Howard & Civiletti becomes first law firm to establish a site on the Internet's World Wide Web; a number of others follow.<br /><br />An Arizona law firm creates controversy by posting ads to thousands of news groups on the Internet, a severe breach of Netiquette.<br /><br />Novell and WordPerfect merge.<br /><br />Reed Elsevier buys Mead Data, owner of Lexis/Nexis, for $1.5 billion.<br /><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />Several companies introduce automated speech-to-text dictations systems.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1995</b></div><br />Eighty-seven percent of solo and small-firm lawyers now use a PC, an ABA survey finds, and 23 percent use e-mail.<br /><br />Lexis Counsel Connect and Martindale-Hubbell announce that they will assign every lawyer an e-mail address.<br /><br />Lexis has 707,000 users.<br /><br /><i>Among new products:</i><br /><br />Windows 95.<br /><br />Law Journal Extra, an online service from the publisher of the National Law Journal.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Copyright 2010 Robert J. Ambrogi</i></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3958829-7258471382034579444?l=www.legaline.com%2Flawsites.html' alt='' /></div>

Full post as published by Lawsites on February 15, 2010 (boomark / email).