Front Office Enquiry (FOENQ)

For almost as long as the author continued to practise law he has sought an inexpensive answer to the problem of systematizing the retrieval of information about matters handled and deed held in safe custody.

This retrieval process can , in the absence of proper record keeping , take up an inordinate amount of time in any law office , small or large, the amount of wasted unbillabe time being directly related to the paucity of the original recording process.

Front Office Enquiry therefore is an attempt to show just what can be done, and done with old , no longer fashionable, data file formats. In this case dbase. The world, particularly the Windows one, has long ago moved on to fashionable formats such as XML , and SQL and anything else which can have the effect of slowing up the office computer system so as to encourage the purchase of new and faster hardware which will in its turn be slowed up by the next big thing in software.

The programme you will download consists of one executable file and three dbase (also called xbase) files which contain totally fictitious records of clients (20,000), matters handled (50,000) and a register of deeds held or disposed of (35,000). It will take much less time to download than a 10 megapixel photograph.

It won't allow the user to edit or add to the files, which it treats as readonly, but will allow backoffice editing and additions to the file entries at the same time as they are being displayed by foenq.

The data entry modules are not as yet written and, with necessary error checking procedures, will consume significantly more time and effort, but they can be done. Unless either a lwell resourced firm or the various state law societies are going to make it happen. the ods are that it may not.

In the meantime just view (literally) foenq as an example of what could be.