Tom’s Tuesday Tech Tip: Don’t Throw Away Your Old Legal Nurse Consulting Razr or iPhone3 Yet!

Like most Certified Legal Nurse Consultants, I’ve recycled more than a few older phones – flip phones, handsets and various models of the Blackberry^®. I’ve always been a little uncomfortable wondering where exactly the final resting place for those phones is – have they been properly broken down or did they just end up in a landfill?

Well my CLNC^® amigos, worry no more! I just learned that the FCC requires that deactivated cell phones be capable of making an emergency call to 911. So instead of dropping that old cell phone into the recycle bin at your local electronics shop, consider sticking it and a car charger (I’m sure you have one) in the trunk or glove compartment in case of an emergency. It has to be powered up to call – hence the charger. Also, note that any GPS function on the phone will not work so you’ll have to know where you are (and I don’t mean “on the phone”).

We’ve all experienced the trauma of needing to make a stat call for pizza delivery only to find out that we let our smartphone die playing Words with Friends. If you’re ever in a real emergency, that old cell phone just might save a life – and it might even be yours.

Keep on techin’,

Tom