The Millennium Bug - Part One

By Terri Olson

Most lawyers have probably already heard, perhaps many times, about the "Year 2000 [Y2K] problem," but may not know the details or what they should be doing about it. The so-called "millennium bug" is not a bug or error per se, it's a problem created by a combination of misplaced efficiency and lack of foresight among the designers of computer hardware and software. (We are defining "computer hardware" very broadly to include any equipment that contains computerized instruction sets). When setting up places to record and calculate dates, most designers used a format of MM/DD/YY instead of MM/DD/YYYY (03/11/98 instead of 03/11/1998, for example). There were logical reasons to do so: storage space was minimized and calculations simplified.

However, once the millennium changes, a big confusion may result: if a date recorded as 03/11/03, is it March 11, 1903 or March 11, 2003? Human beings usually have little difficulty interpreting two-digit year dates by context: if 3/11/03 is a birth date, it's obviously 1903, which is in the past; if it's a credit card expiration date, it's probably 2003, a date in the future. Some programs, however, are set to interpret an 03 entry as 1903; others will convert it to 2003.

Some everyday repercussions of the situation could include:

  • "Old" data removed from credit reports
  • Network logins expired
  • Billing data automatically purged
  • Calendaring software refusing to allow entries (if the program restricts, as many do, entries before today's date)
  • Files sorted beginning with 1999 and ending with the current entries
Generally, problems exist either in software that was programmed, or computers and other electronic equipment that were designed and built more than three years ago. Three years is not hard and fast, of course. There are programs designed for mainframes in 1960 that use four year dates and some sold today still have not corrected the defect. But the older your equipment, the more likely that it has a problem. For example, Microsoft Access 2.0, a popular database application released in 1994, is listed by Microsoft as non-compliant.

Will all of this be a major problem? Opinions vary from "it's totally overblown as an issue" to "the end of the world is upon us". There are several reasons why it's hard to get a complete picture of whether or not disaster is imminent. For one thing, many companies are now refusing to discuss their systems with outsiders. Whether this is born of a reluctance to strike panic in the hearts of the public or a desire to avoid potential litigation, it's hard to say. For another, many computer programs on mainframes are so large and so poorly documented that it's almost impossible to know what's in there to deal with. Some rely on programming languages that are used rarely today. And the complexity and interrelationships among programs have grown to the extent that it's very difficult to tell at what point one system will cease to have an impact on another.

It is not realistic to call this a non-issue. There have already been reports of systems that have had trouble because of date problems. I have had credit cards that contained a year 2000 expiration date kicked out by card verification services. (I will say, however, that those problems have already been corrected). Some users of old databases are already discovering that inputting a statute of limitations in the year 2000 produces odd results. But these problems are so far minor and fairly easily resolved.

Those who worry that the end of time is here are thinking more on a national or global level: what if banks lose track of accounts, investments with certain maturity dates go awry, transportation systems shut down, the social security databases lose or corrupt information and the like? And at least one worried writer has sensibly pointed out that even if the United States and other countries that have programmers and resources to devote to the task succeed in correcting most defects in time, what if other countries have serious problems that they fail to resolve? What will be the effect on the global economy and on political stability?

There are three different potential problem levels which might effect you: those experienced within the law firm, those experienced by third parties that work closely with the law firm, and problems experienced by an entire city or nation.

Y2K Problems within the law firm:

  • Computer hardware that may not read and calculate dates properly
  • Computer software that may not read and calculate dates properly
  • Other equipment within the law firm that may use date calculations to perform properly (telephone, copy, fax)
  • Building systems (elevators, climate control, security, building-wide telephone systems)
These issues are the easiest to spot and to correct. If you have brand-new computers that said "Year 2000 compliant" on the box, it may be as simple as checking with the vendors of all your software (case management, time and billing, word processing, etc.) to ensure that the versions you use are Y2K compliant. This is an area where small firm practitioners in small towns have an enormous advantage over their urban mega-firm counterparts. For one thing, the systems are more likely to be manual and thus excluded from consideration. For another, the systems are more likely to be small and independent of each other.

Next month, we will cover problems associated with services outside the law firm that the firm nonetheless is dependant on, as well as national and global issues that may arise come the turn of the millennium. In addition, we will be discussing practical solutions for checking and fixing your systems.

Teri Olson is the former Director of the Law Practice Management Program.

This article was originally published in the Georgia Bar Journal, October 1998, Vol.4 No.