Briefs: QuickBooks Goes Online, Fastcase Sues Casemaker, the Texas Law Hawk Eats Tacos, Etc.

Intuit Removes APIs from QuickBooks Desktop and Shifts Focus to QuickBooks Online

In a press release announcing its new integration with QuickBooks Online, Rocket Matter dropped this bomb:

As Intuit changes its strategic focus to the cloud, they are eliminating communication channels (APIs) to their desktop product that companies rely on for synchronization.

In other words, if you want to be able to do anything interesting with QuickBooks going forward, you are going to need to use QuickBooks Online, not the QuickBooks Desktop product. If you are dead set on using QuickBooks Desktop (Pro and Premiere), you will be able to. Intuit’s VP in charge of QuickBooks has said “I can’t see a time when we are not doing a desktop release.”

But the writing is on the wall: the future of QuickBooks is QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Desktop probably isn’t going to get much more love from Intuit.

Don’t Worry, Lawyers Are on the Scene of the NYC Crane Collapse

From Wikipedia:

Ambulance chasing, sometimes known as barratry, refers to a lawyer soliciting for clients at a disaster site. The term “ambulance chasing” comes from the stereotype of lawyers that follow ambulances to the emergency room to find clients.

In addition to being in really poor taste, Eric Turkewitz points out that this textbook example of ambulance chasing is almost certainly unethical under New York’s anti-solicitation rule. [New York Personal Injury Law Blog]

Casemaker Says Nobody Else Can Publish Georgia Law. Fastcase Calls Bullshit and Sues.

Bob Ambrogi gives the background:

Casemaker’s parent company, Lawriter, has an agreement with the Georgia Secretary of State designating it as the exclusive publisher of the Georgia Rules and Regulations and giving it the right to license that content to other publishers.

You can’t copyright the law. It’s not even a question. And yet lots of states do claim copyright in order to enter into similar publishing agreements.

This makes it harder for anyone to come along and do anything innovative. As Fastcase CEO Ed Walters told Bob Ambrogi, “[i]f we can establish that private publishers can’t own public law, then the implications could be huge.”

By the way, stay tuned for my conversation with Sarah Glassmeyer and Ed Walters on open access to law. That will be in Episode 55 of the Lawyerist Podcast. [LawSites Blog]

Lawyers Circle the Wagons Against the Threat of Non-Lawyer Competition

The ABA wants to open the door to allowing non-lawyers to provide legal services. Its one-page resolution on regulatory objectives contains uncontroversial objectives like “[p]rotection of the public,” “[e]fficient, competent, and ethical delivery of legal services,” and “[p]rotection of privileged and confidential information.” But it also says state regulators “may choose to develop [regulations] concerning non-traditional legal service providers.”

Well when some ABA delegates read that last line, they lost their minds.

The ABA’s Litigation Section, as well as the bar associations of Illinois, Nevada, New York, New Jersey and Texas, are all on record opposing Resolution 105 …

But if there’s a way for non-lawyers to provide competent, ethical legal services, what is the objection? I suspect the real reason for the opposition is fear of competition.

I’m not convinced that allowing non-lawyers to own law firms or provide legal services will have a big impact on the access-to-justice gap. My own experience and my podcast with Billie Tarascio suggest people would rather hire lawyers even if the lawyers are preparing the same documents they can get for free. LegalZoom is working with lawyers for similar reasons. But maybe the collective impact will be greater than I think, and anyway I see no reason not to try as long as new regulations meet the ABA objectives.

No reason, that is, except fear of competition. [The American Lawyer / Jordan Furlong]

New Video from the Texas Law Hawk … and Taco Bell?

This has got to be the first example of a lawyer’s viral ad campaign (which is rare enough in its own right) getting picked up for a major corporation’s viral ad campaign?

It will probably work, anyway. Bryan Wilson’s original viral Texas Law Hawk video has about has about 478,000 views. Even the Taco Bell “preview” video has over 82,000 views.

Does anyone know if this is showing on TV anywhere, or is it YouTube-only?

Featured image: “CIRCLE THE WAGONS” from Shutterstock.

Briefs: QuickBooks Goes Online, Fastcase Sues Casemaker, the Texas Law Hawk Eats Tacos, Etc. was originally published on Lawyerist.com.