While it’s true paper will never go out of style for attorneys, technology – specifically mobile apps – has made the legal profession much easier to navigate. Apps are the perfect tool for lawyers and legal professionals who are always running between the office and court room. From billing to jury selection, here are nine apps that will make your life as a lawyer a little bit easier.
1. Barron’s Law Dictionary
Every lawyer should have a copy of this app, which puts more than 3,000 legal terms at your fingertips. Not only are terms clearly defined; many offer audible pronunciation samples as well. The dictionary also let’s you “drill-down” to any other legal term found in a given entry, and maintains a history to make navigation back to the original word fast and simple. Cost: $14.99
2. LawLibe
This app is like having a law library on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. It contains every tidbit of information you ever wanted or needed to know about the U.S. Constitution — such as the U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations, statutes per state, patenting information, and much more. It also offers the following state laws: California, New York and Texas. Cost: Free
3. TrialPad
TrialPad is a full-feature courtroom presentation tool on an iPad. TrialPad makes it easy for attorneys to access documents, play videos, and annotate or zoom in on evidence during a trial. The app allows you to find documents, highlight text, create slide-by-slide comparison charts, and even search full document text. This is a great system to use rather than investing thousands of dollars on desktop software that isn’t nearly as easy to transport to trial. Cost: $49.99
4. TranscriptPad
Made by the creators of TrialPad, this application allows attorneys to access multiple deposition transcripts directly from within the app. The program allows you to color-code text, flag or email sections, and generate reports to email or print. In addition, TranscriptPad can be used like a teleprompter with a scroll with adjustable speed. Currently the app only works with transcripts in a TXT format. PDF transcripts do not work; however PDF exhibits are accessible within the app. Cost: $89.99
5. iJuror
This app turns your iPad into a jury selection consultant. iJuror was developed with the help of attorneys to create an electronic system to help with voir dire. Some of the program features include being able to tap on the seats to add juror details and easily email information. The jury is configurable for seating arrangements of up to 60 jurors, and you can drag and drop to help you during jury selection. Litigators can also rank potential jurors and color-code the seats for easy reference. Cost: $14.99
6. Fastcase
This powerful app gives you access to the entire Fastcase law library and legal research system of state and federal case law and statues. Both the iPad and iPhone versions include all the information in the web-based legal research program. When you search for cases through Fastcase, the best search results rise to the top of a list (similar to Google), allowing you to find the most important cases right away. You can then sort the results in different ways, such as relevance, number of citations, date decided, and more. The system includes primary law from all 50 states. Cost: Free
7. Penultimate
Created by Evernote, Penultimate is an easy-to-use handwriting application for the iPad. You feel as if you’re writing with a pen and paper, but you then have the flexibility to sync your notes with Evernote. You’re not at risk for losing valuable notes and information on physical sheets of paper because it’s automatically saved in the application. Penultimate serves as a legal notepad and is a great tool for litigators. You can also save notes as a PDF or send them via email. Cost: Free
8. Dropbox
This file-sharing program is a web-based, cloud storage system commonly used on desktop computers. Upon creating a Dropbox account, users receive up to 2GB of free storage. The mobile app is connected to your personal Dropbox account. You can increase your storage with a tiered fee structure based on the amount of space you need. Unlike many other apps, Dropbox works on Android operating systems as well as Apple. It’s important to note that Dropbox does not allow encrypted files to be shared through its system. So attorneys may want to think twice before sharing confidential client information via Dropbox. Cost: Free (storage space ranges from $99 to $499 annually)
9. TimeMaster
For most attorneys, it’s all about the billable hour. The TimeMaster app helps you track your client time on the convenience of your iPhone and iPad. All you need to do is create a task, and then manually enter the time spent on the item or use a task timer to track it. The app allows you to enter tasks by client and sub-categorize by projects and tasks. It also has the capability to round time by the hour, minute or second. You can also track expenses directly in the app, which can be linked directly to the client’s billing account. Cost: $9.99
