It’s no secret that modern technology has profoundly changed the landscape of many professions, and the legal field is no exception.
The age of technology is a blessing and a curse for lawyers. While smartphones make it convenient to timely respond to a client’s email from the carpool line and the dentist’s office, they also can be a burden by constantly intruding on our personal lives with work-related calls, emails and notifications.
One of the most talked about New Year’s resolutions and Lenten vows was spending less time tethered to smartphones.
Yet, maybe it’s not the smartphones themselves that are the problem.
Not all apps are productivity killers. There are lots of apps that can help fulfill your iPhone addiction without depleting your productivity.
So, the next time you are tempted to scroll through mind-numbing status updates, check out one of these cool apps instead. These are all iOS apps, but some have also been developed for Android. They include:
AgileLaw
Cost: Free
Description: Enables attorneys to conduct paperless depositions using a tablet and witnesses can annotate documents on the screen.
Cite-Checker
Cost: $2.99
Description: A quick guide to Bluebook citations with explanations of rules and examples.
Courtroom Objections
Cost: $2.99
Description: A quick guide to making and responding to objections in court. You can easily review objections by category (form of question, admissibility).
CudaSign
Cost: Free
Description: With this app you can sign documents anywhere. Simply upload any PDF or Word doc from your email or even take a photo of the document and then sign with your finger. You can also use it to fill in PDF forms, turn a picture into a PDF and get signatures from clients on their mobile devices.
FastCase
Cost: Free
Description: This free legal research application puts the American law library in the palm of your hand. It contains cases and statutes from all 50 states and from the federal government. Search by citation, keyword, or browse statute collections.
Hours Tracker
Cost: Free
Description: This is a timekeeping app that allows you to utilize the “clock-in” style of timekeeping or record it after the fact. You can activate a timer, and once you “clock out” Hours Tracker creates a new time entry. The location awareness feature helps you track all of your time and automatically creates a new time entry with details to be added later whenever you leave the office.
iWrite Legal
Cost: Free
Description: This app was designed to help legal writers improve their writing skills. The app provides writing tips and legal writing checklists to help overcome writer’s block and to revise, edit and proofread a legal document.
iJuror
Cost: $19.99
Description: This iPad app allows users to tap seats to add juror information, email jury information to colleagues, configure a seating chart of up to 60 jurors and add notes throughout trial.
Jury Notepad
Cost: $4.99
Description: Allows you to create a notepad with juror information during the jury selection process. You can store all of your trials in one location and look for patterns over time.
Legal Edge
Cost: Free
Description: Streams by subject all of the latest alerts, articles, newsletters, blog posts, court filings, and other legal content uploaded to JD Supra. Subjects include immigration, bankruptcy, real estate, banking & finance, tax law, insurance, intellectual property, and law marketing, among others.
Mobile Transcript
Cost: Free
Description: 24/7 online access to deposition transcripts and exhibits. You can create transcript summaries and automatically log your billable time while reviewing transcripts.
Must Do Legal
Cost: $4.99
Description: You can create a to-do list, delegate tasks and track billable time.
Picture It Settled
Cost: Free
Description: This app guides users through an assessment of likely outcomes, asking them to estimate the best and worst scenarios. It then helps litigants analyze settlement strategies and tracks dollar moves in negotiations to inform calculations of future offers.
Presentation Clock
Cost: $0.99
Description: This app does one thing but it does it extremely well. It is a timer that you can use for rehearsing and timing presentations, oral arguments and opening/closing statements. Large, easy to read numbers change colors at thresholds you determine. When the timer hits 0:00, the colors invert and continue counting so you know how long you’ve gone over.
TrialEvidence
Cost: $1.99
Description: A reference guide for getting evidence admitted by laying the proper foundation.
TrialPad
Cost: $89.99
Description: TrialPad is a legal document management and presentation tool for the iPad. It allows you to highlight text, create side-by-side document comparisons, edit and show video clips, add exhibit stickers to documents and search document text.
So, there you have it. Some options other than Facebook and ESPN.com to look at the next time you’re waiting in line at the DMV.