The Gazette 1981

APRIL 1981

GAZETTE

a lot of changes, we produce them straight away as engrossments. Our standard short Will is equivalent to approximately four pages of double spaced A4. To copy the precedent, type in the non-standard names and addresses and then produce the engrossment with a carbon takes, from start to finish, approximately ten or fifteen minutes. Giving our standard Discretionary Trust Wills (approximately 10 pages only) the same treatment, it takes from start to finish approximately twenty minutes. Deeds and Memorials Deeds, when drafted and approved, can be engrossed as quickly as it takes to print them out. The Memorial is prepared by making the standard alterations and a few additions here and there and by deleting everything else. The Memorial is then printed out on Memorial paper. Affidavits, Contracts, Endorsements of Claim These can all be drafted on the Word Processing machine and, when checked and found satisfactory, can be printed out very quickly. If you have a specially drafted document for a particular case, which document may be required several times in that case (for example a standard letter, or a specially drafted service contract for the staff of a particular client) the basic document would need to be done only once. It would then be copied the appropriate number of times and the variables would be added in. Conclusion This article has dealt with some of the problems which you can have when you buy a Word Processing Machine. It is not intended to be pessimistic or off-putting. On the contrary, its purpose is to suggest to you that not only is a Word Processor of great advantage to a solicitor's office, but it is well worth taking the considerable amount of time and trouble and hard work necessary to get full value from your Word Processor.D

Speed If you have not actually used a word processing machine, the technical specifications for printers are at once un- believable and unreal. Our printer is a standard Qume printer. The following is a rough idea of the time it takes to produce certain documents. These times are only an approximation, because they allow for telephone interruptions, the fact that some of the secretaries are not as familiar as others with using the machine and the fact that we are not as organised as we ought to be to get the full benefit from our equipment: Leases Our first recording of a precedent long Lease contained approximately 150 typing errors. Once it was corrected and redrafted, it was possible quite quickly to make up other basic standard drafts. With a standard draft in front of him and assuming he has taken proper and complete instructions, a solicitor ought to be able to dictate in about fifteen minutes all the instructions needed by a secretary to produce a lease. His secretary then ought to be able to produce on the screen (before she prints it out) a newly drafted lease in approximately forty-five minutes, which time allows for some interruptions for telephone calls. The draft Lease (about 28 pages of double-spacing on A4 paper) can be printed out on A4 continuous draft paper in approximately eighteen minutes. While it is being printed out it can be ignored and the screen used for something else, if necessary. For a long time we were not doing our engrossments in the easiest way and they took from one hour to an hour and a half, depending on a number of interruptions and the number of mistakes made; it was easy to repeat a page by accident or give an incorrect print instruction to the machine, as a result of which the page might need to be redone. However, done efficiently, such a long Lease can be engrossed in approximately forty-five minutes, with very few errors. Wills We have a number of standard Wills and, unless there are

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