17/01/2005


Rapidocs® chosen by Sweet & Maxwell to power 'Rapidforms'

Strengthening Epoq's position as the leading provider of digital legal solutions

Rapidocs document automation technology developed by the digital legal solutions provider, Epoq Group, has been chosen by legal publisher, Sweet & Maxwell, to power Rapidforms - a desktop tool which allows official court forms to be edited, saved and e-mailed.

A number of these forms are available immediately through Sweet & Maxwell's Westlaw UK Civil Procedure, the most authoritative online legal information service. From April 2005, the service will also be available through the prestigious White Book Service CD-Rom. This is the most comprehensive and well known source of reference on Civil Procedure in England and Wales. Its authority is considered to be second to none by judges, barristers and solicitors alike.

Jitendra Valera, Legal Online Director at Sweet & Maxwell, a Thomson business (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC), said: "Rapidocs presented us with the best interface enabling both CD and Web deployment for The White Book Service, and we found Epoq to be highly professional and responsive to our particular needs - delivering on time and to budget."

Westlaw UK Civil Procedure and The White Book Service CD-Rom specifically use Rapidocs' PDF form facilities, and brings a combination of usability and functionality unavailable elsewhere. This includes saving the answers to a PDF form and outputting to the PDF file format at any time. It also has a unique continuation sheet feature - allowing instant creation of continuation sheets for any sections of a form that has limited space, without the overhead of creating a separate file.

Commenting on Rapidocs' selection, Grahame Cohen, Joint CEO of Epoq, said: "We have been committed to developing a technology that is both powerful and accessible to deliver legal solutions to all segments of the market. We are, therefore, delighted to be working with Sweet and Maxwell. I believe this represents the next stage in Epoq's development - and a clear demonstration of our ability to provide valuable solutions to legal professionals."

"Rapidocs fought off competition from other well known technologies; its selection represents a significant vote of confidence and a testament to the maturity of the platform, now in its third generation."