When posting messages to this Forum, follow these guidelines:
Please Don't:
- Violate laws. Including but not limited to state/federal/local laws and regulations affecting electronic communications.
- Discuss fees for our professional services. Since this is a closed group, we could be opening ourselves up to a charge of violation of the federal Anti-Trust laws. General discussions are acceptable. Specific discussions of amounts or methods of determining fees are prohibited.
- Violate client confidentiality. Although membership is restricted, you never know who might be “watching”. Messages can be forwarded, left on printers, etc. Change names to protect the innocent, and to keep yourself so.
- Discuss hypothetical situations regarding pending cases in your office. You never know if your opposing counsel will be getting access to your message. You may inadvertently reveal a weakness in your case, a thought process, or a confidential attorney-client communication which may give your opposition an opportunity to nail you. Or worse, you may end up as a defendant in a malpractice action, with one or more of us being subpoenaed to produce email correspondence records.
- Violate copyright law. Quoting an excerpt from a published article is ok but sending the full
text is a copyright violation. - Post a message from this forum to another forum without the original poster's permission and vice versa.
- Quote the entire message in your response. The proper Netiquette is to quote just enough of the message that readers will be able to follow the context of your reply. This is one of the most annoying problems in discussion forums. Your cooperation in this matter will be greatly appreciated by all other members.
- Use ALL CAPS 😊
Please Do:
- Be polite, courteous, and use common sense.
- Be concise.
- Refrain from personal replies in the forum.
- Include attachments if warranted, but only if you have a reliable anti-virus program.
- Source documents. It is preferable to reference the source document and provide instructions on how to obtain a copy; or if appropriate, make the source document an attachment to your message.
- Include the words “Long Message” on the Subject line. Long messages or responses are over three or four paragraphs. This is simply a matter of courtesy to fellow forum members. Some don’t like to read long messages. Indicating that you have a lengthy or detailed message gives readers advance warning.
- Share humor whenever possible. Let’s lighten up the forum once in a while. Only funny jokes are allowed; all others are prohibited. Please do not post “off color” or potentially offensive jokes. Lawyer jokes, however, are encouraged. We all need to laugh at ourselves a little.
- Most importantly, have fun.
How to Post a Message
-
- Click on your “Compose Mail” or “New Message” button in your email software.
- In the “To” box, type: fl-re-attorneys@mail-list.com
Tip: Add this to your address book so that you don’t have to remember it each time you want to send a message. - In the “Subject” box, type a helpful title to assist members in anticipating the substance of the commentary. This also is helpful for members who want to index messages for later review of conversation “threads.”
- Type your commentary or message. When creating your message, please use the following guidelines:
- 1) Use short sentences and frequent paragraphs. This makes the messages easier to read and follow. Remember, this forum is primarily for conversation.
- 2) Use fairly good spelling and grammar.
- When you are done composing your message, click “send” and you’re finished.
Don't forget to sign all messages with your name and email address at the end. There are too many members to remember who you are from the headers on the email.
Tip: Setup an alternative email signature for your messages that include your name, email and let's other members know how to contact you.
Replying-to Messages
Any time you hit “Reply”, check to see whose email address is in the “To” field.
- A Directly/Private Response. In the “To” field, if the email address is the sender of the message to which you are responding, then a response will be sent only to that person.
- A Entire Forum Response. In the “To” field make sure that you see fl-re-attorneys@mail-list.com. This will send the response to the sender of the message and will also be posted for the entire forum to read.
The forum is setup so the forum address should show up in the “To” field when you hit the “Reply” button. If it is not in the "To" field use one of the following alternatives:
- A. Hit the “Forward” button, and put fl-re-attorneys@mail-list.com in the “To” field; or
- B. Hit the “Reply All” button, which puts the forum list in the “To” field, and depending upon your email software, may include the email address of the original sender.
NOTE: If you choose alternative B above, the person to whom you are replying may get two copies of your reply – one a direct reply as listed in the “To” field, and another as part of this forum. So, the preferable alternative is A. Please add fl-re-attorneys@mail-list.com to your address book so that you can easily access it and make this an almost automatic process.
if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us via email at forum@thefund.com.