Magazine of Normative & Developmental Law

EVER THOUGHT of a lawyer and programmer in one? Well, Atty. Ritche R. Regala, a Bicolano, tells his inspiring story:

When I was still a law student, my law professors required us to digest numerous cases decided by the Supreme Court. Since I was not so engrossed in taking the law course, I resorted to copying the digests of my classmates. When I reached 2nd year, copying was no longer an easy option because they would ask for my own digests in return. This was the first time that I met a software for legal research. Of course, the copy was a pirated one. Not by me but by some computer geek who had no respect for a copyrighted material. The original copy was too expensive that only the wealthy few and the dedicated ones could afford to buy. I decided to learn how to program a software and fell in love with it.

Unfortunately for my programming hobby, I eventually passed the bar and became a lawyer. I had to work as a lawyer. This time my need for a software-based legal research became compelling because of my allergic aversion to ubiquitous dust mites on printed materials, specially the old SCRA/SCAD volumes. I downloaded a shareware version of the dtSearch software and indexed the Lawphil and Supreme Court websites. The result was a free but working legal research tool. However, just like the expensive legal research softwares, my first tool was inadequate to the demands of legal research. Specifically, I needed to save and organize the results of my searches so that I don’t have to search all over again every time. I also needed to combine the results of my searches from laws, rules and jurisprudence. Out of these needs, haiNa was born..

Atty. Ritche is the sole developer of haiNa. He is a practicing lawyer and a hobby programmer. He claims to have no formal education on computers as his self-taught skill-set is merely a fruitful result of his passionate and relentless curiosity.

Now, what is haiNa? According to Atty. Ritche, haiNa is the answer to the common need of lawyers, law students and legal professionals for an affordable and useful software on Philippine legal resources.

In this table, Atty. Ritche has outlined the Comparative Features of Electronic Databases on Philippine Legal Resources where prices, searching issues, retrieval of data, program outline and internet capabilities of the other like softwares including Folio Views and E-Library and CD Asia or Lex Libris are compared with haiNa.  On top of affordability, haiNa excels in almost all of the aspects of electronic database program.

haiNa’s interface with sample searches are shown in the following screen shots (click to view):

But wait, there’s more! “haiNa practically removes the distinction between internet search and desktop search. With internet access, the user can use the multi-page browser of haiNa which harnesses the power of the Google search engine through api customization in order to narrow down legal queries to the specific portions of the websites of the Supreme Court, Chanrobles, Lawphil, Senate, Congress and other government websites containing only jurisprudence, statutes and issuances that are relevant to the needs of the user. A user with constant internet access does not even need to purchase content updates of haiNa.”

According to its site, “[c]urrently, haiNa volumes only include Philippine Laws and Jurisprudence. Soon, a volume on BIR issuances will be available. Unfortunately, the full text of other legal resources such as Opinions of the DOJ Secretary are not available on the web. But then, when there is a will, there’s always a way.”

“haiNa may only be a legal research tool at this point. But as evident from its interface, haiNa is not only a tool but a platform with unlimited possibilities. The current version has already a limited but functional word processor and a multi-tabbed internet browser. In the future, haiNa can host full-featured electronic notarial systems, document encryption and authentication application and a case management system. Even a full relational database management system (RDBMS) can be easily integrated into haiNa.”

As for the minimum system requirements, haiNa suggests that for smooth and error free operation, it must be installed on a computer with the following minimum features: 1 Gigahertz processor; 1 Gigabyte RAM; 2 Gigabytes of harddisk free space; Windows XP OS or later versions including Windows Vista.

haiNa is one sure groovy and essential tool for lawyers, law students and law enthusiasts.  With haiNa’s introduction in the market, we will be expecting the competition of electronic jurisprudence database softwares to be more tight and bring more benefits to its consumers.

haiNa’s price quotation:

Introductory Price: (Available until December 2009)
Combined Laws, Rules and Jurisprudence in a single Volume (Period: 1901 to August 2009)
Updates are free within the year of purchase of haiNa.

• P10,000.00 – Lawyer Edition
• P7,000.00 – Student Edition

Updates

• Quarter (P300.00)
• 2 Quarters (P500.00)
• Annual (P1000.00)

Cumulative content updates will available to the user within the next day that new decisions are posted on the Supreme Court website.

For more information, you may contact Atty. Ritche:

Phone: 052.435.4480 | 052.480.4480
Cellphone: 09199103910
Email: tzitech@gmail.com
attyrregala@gmail.com

Rm. 206 2nd Flr. Pineda Bldg.
Rizal St. Legazpi City

or visit: http://tzitech.webs.com/

The above images and information is from tz! technologies and all other copyrighted materials above as used remain to be that of its owners and no trademark or copyright infringement or destructive exploitation is herewith intended in any form whatsoever other than use for discussion and academic purposes.

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