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ABA Journal praises local legal software company
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: September 23, 2015
In a legal software world dominated by very large companies, a small Hinckley-based company is generating some very good national reviews—particularly for its domestic relations programming.
Puritas Springs Software (http://www.puritas-springs.com), named after an old west side Cleveland amusement park, has caught the attention of the ABA Journal, which just listed the company in its list of “The Best Software and Apps for Family Lawyers.”
That listing took company founder and president Ernest Zore by complete surprise. “We have never been written about before,” said Zore, who also added that, “I have never been interviewed for a story like this.”
Zore, 64, laid the foundations for Puritas Springs in his parents’ basement in the early 1990’s, he said, combining his knowledge of the legal field with his science background.
He is a 1978 graduate of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and received his undergraduate degree from Cleveland State University in biology and chemistry.
Zore began his programming career, “in the beginning of the computer age for attorneys,” he said.
“In October of 1991,” he said, “I was walking to my office in Kamm’s Corners, and I saw an early Tandy computer at the Radio Shack. You plugged it into a television set. I got one and learned how to program by following the instructions step-by-step.”
Zore had a solo general practice, doing everything, he said, “except for antitrust.” His first program was for the then-recently-developed Ohio Child Support Guidelines.
“I would go into a child support hearing and everyone was asking me where I got those printouts,” said Zore.
He said that he decided to clean up the program and try to sell it to a few people.
The program was a hit. Over the next three years, he said, “it perfectly replaced my income from practicing law. As I was making more from software, I was taking fewer cases, until I left law practice completely to do this software full-time in 1994.”
Zore always kept his staff very small, from anywhere to one to five other people, and has always done his own programming. He has no sales staff, saying “word of mouth is the best way to sell,” and has personally provided all customer support.
But despite the small size of the staff, Puritas Springs has done very well for the Zore family.
“Once I started making money from the guidelines software, I thought that I could make more money writing more programs.” The original product was followed shortly after by Ohio probate forms and then by Ohio estate tax forms.
After that, he said, he wrote, “whatever came along,” often writing programs for 12 hours a day or more. [If any techies are interested, the programs are all in Object-Oriented Pascal]. Although Zore does some federal work, he said that 90 percent of his sales comes from Ohio attorneys.
Today, Puritas Springs Software offers programs for adoption, bankruptcy, business dissolution, real estate documents, family law, HUD forms, living trusts, various taxation forms, spousal support and much more. He has written his own database and his own graphics program.
The information-intensive company website has an up-to-date news feed and Zore writes and sends out a monthly newsletter to customers. Product demonstrations are available.
Even with the growth and success of the company, Zore is proud that he has always kept the personal touch with customers and potential customers, something that he said the larger software providers have a difficult time achieving. At the same time, the company’s size limits its potential product line.
For instance, Zore said, “I wrote a tax program but once Intuit came along I couldn’t compete.”
Over the course of time, customer service has been the company’s calling card. Zore takes every customer call and walks each one through the solution to the problem, even going so far as to remotely tie into a customer’s desktop.
Though today he said that, “users and law offices have become far more sophisticated so I hardly do any tech support anymore.”
To date, all of Zore’s products are based in the desktop/laptop arena, although his programs can compile into any format. This means that the programs can be made available for Apple and Windows products as well as, theoretically, any phone or tablet format.
At this point, Zore said that he thinks that his programs are too rich and complex to be accessed “from those little phone keyboards.”
But as always, he said he is open to anything in the future.