This week we start a new series which is going to look at all those aspects of legal IT that nobody ever tells you about when you buy a computer system - but which you subsequently wish you had known about before you embarked upon the process.

I call it 'Legal technology: the missing user manual' and it is in effect a survivor's guide or master class on how to cope with law office automation projects.

Let's start with some of the fundamental laws of law office computing that apply to all IT projects.

And, while they may make for depressing reading, if it is any consolation at all, these rules apply to everyone, no matter how big or small the firm.

So, when you find yourself thinking 'I could kick myself for making such an obvious mistake', take heart from the fact you are not alone and that in law offices up and down the land, there are other solicitors equally in despair over IT projects.

For example, most cost-conscious firms - particularly smaller practices and sole practitioners where price really can be an issue when it comes to buying equipment such as new desktop computers and laptops - will at some time have fallen foul of the first law.

This states that it does not matter when you buy a computer, as it will always be about one week before your PC supplier launches a new model that has twice the processing power of the one you have just bought, yet costs substantially less.

There are two immutable forces of nature at work here.

The first is a technology concept known as Moore's Law, which, roughly translated, holds that raw computing power - in terms of microchip processing power, speed and capacity - doubles approximately every 18 months.

And the second force is the every increasing efficiency and cost-reducing capabilities of the computer manufacturing industry.

Combine them and the net result is that while a once state-of-the-art '486' PC would have cost you the best part of 5,000 when it was launched in 1989, you can now buy for less than 500 a PC containing features and offering performance levels that were undreamt of 15 years ago.

Next time, we will look at how to live with the first law.

Charles Christian is an independent adviser to the Law Society's Software Solutions guide