I wanted to get Richard Dawson to kick off this post with his trademark “Survey Says…” but I could not get in touch with him. So, you’ll have to settle for me.

Back in December we asked you to fill out a survey regarding practicelaw. Some respondents wanted to know what we heard. Survey Said:

Who responded
Of the 276 respondents, nearly half had over 21 years of experience and 80% were in solo or small firms (2-5 attorneys). Only 16% had practiced less than four years.

What you told us about practicelaw
Nearly two-thirds of the respondents indicated that practicelaw was “important or very important” in their decision to maintain their MSBA membership.  In addition, 86% of respondents stated that they were “satisfied or very satisfied” with the materials available on practicelaw, with 91% indicating that the materials or services on the site were “good or excellent.”

Why you came to practicelaw in 2009
Real estate forms continue to drive traffic to the site, with 65% and 67% of respondents, respectively, indicating that they used or relied upon the Uniform Conveyancing Blanks and Residential Real Estate forms in the past year. 52% of those polled stated that they utilized the probate materials.

Forms by far are the most demanded service, with 89% of those polled indicating it is the most important service on the site.

What you’ve been up to
Internet Explorer is slipping in the browser war. In 2008 71% reported using IE as their browser, in 2009, 62%, with both Firefox and Safari gaining ground. For the first time more than half (51%) use Microsoft Word 2007 as word processing software. The 15% of you that used WordPerfect in 2008 held firm in 2009.

That last stat may have you thinking, a zebra does not change its spots. Au contraire. Check out the social media stats:

Facebook usage up from 23% to 40%
LinkedIn usage  up from 31% to 49%
Twitter usage up from 4% to 10%

Respondents also jumped on the Fastcase bandwagon. In 2008, 40% used Fastcase and in 2009, 58%. Yikes, you like free stuff!

Practicelaw usage is increasing as well. On average, approximately 2,600 members accessed practicelaw each month in 2008. In 2009, that number increased to an average of 3000 members per month.

We want to help but
Some of you asked questions, but didn’t give us your contact information. So, ask again if you don’t get an answer. We’ll try to answer some commonly asked questions in this blog over the coming weeks as well.

Whew, I went through all those stats without the help of Richard Dawson. If that’s not enough for you, David Letterman has one more helpful survey stat. “USA Today has come out with a new survey: apparently, three out of every four people make up 75% of the population.” That’s a wrap.