The San Francisco Chronicle reports that California consumers racing to make the deadline for claiming benefits from a $1.1 billion Microsoft court settlement are hitting a virtual wall — the Web site containing the claim form they need gives them gobbledygook or aborts their request. Curious, I gave it a try. I had no problem generating the form. But something strange of a different sort happened to me. I visited the site using the Firefox browser, but when I clicked the “Create Printable Claim Form” button, the document-creation process forced my computer to open Internet Explorer and display the resulting PDF document there. The site is not run by Microsoft, but by a court-appointed, independent claims administration company.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.