Certified computer law mediators ready with advice and assistance.

It's Monday, January 3, 2000, and when you open your law office, there's a gaggle of people waiting to see you.

One client was withdrawing $200 from an ATM when the new year began, and got only $20, even though the machine insisted he got the full $200. He also found his savings account drastically reduced in the new year, with the bank vowing no mistake had been made.

Another client contracted with an outside company to prepare and send checks to vendors for her business. To guard against the Y2K bug, she had all of her current checks prepared last week, but forgot the date would be postdated to the new year. She just got a list from the company, and all of the checks, which have been mailed, are substantial overpayments.

Another business client is in a near panic. He hired a computer expert to ensure his system was ready for the new year, following guidelines set out in new federal and state laws. But now his computers aren't working, and his customers are clamoring for records and services he can't provide -- and threatening to sue. The high-priced "expert" is nowhere to be found.

While experts now say that massive interruptions -- such as widespread power failures -- from the Y2K bug (the inability of older software to distinguish between the years 1900 and 2000) are unlikely, there probably will be lots of lesser problems, like those cited above.

And victims of those problems are likely to want legal help, as are potential defendants and those caught in the middle.

If you are faced with such a situation or question, the Computer Law Committee of The Florida Bar is ready to help you. This committee has a 14-member panel of certified mediators of computer-law disputes, ready to provide mediation services, as may be desired, and can act quickly on a local basis for most situations.

"There are many vendors and many customers, of computer software that have not maintained nor modified their computer applications to be Y2K compliant, and are sure to face technical difficulties which will affect their internal operations, as well as customer or' client files and activities," said Computer Law Committee member E.P. "Ike" Iaconis. "Even the largest' software companies in the world cannot fully guarantee that. their customers will not experience Y2K technical problems."

While it is not anticipated to be catastrophic universally, since many companies and government agencies have prepared and are already Y2K compliant, there will still be major...