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 | Tech Tools for Lawyers |
 | I feel strongly that technology can help lawyers tremendously, if used in the right way. I practice litigation so my tips are geared toward the litigator. I think that litigators need three things primarily: (1) a case management program (to organize information about theories, witnesses, documents, and relationships between key facts), and (2) a transcript management program (to consolidate information in depositions and other transcripts), and (3) a document management system (to manage scanned images of the documents that are produced or received in a case). Below are the programs that I use for these purposes, as well as other tools and tips. |
| a great tool to organize case information. If you've ever used a chronology to keep track of significant dates then you need to download this program now. You can try it for 30 days for free. It costs about $500 per license, but they will let you install it on up to three computers, if they are all your personal computers (i.e. you can't share with your secretary). If you don't use it for anything but creating fact chronologies it would be worth it, but you'll never know how valuable it is unless you try it for yourself. And, like I said, it's free to try. So what are you waiting for? |
| This is another expensive program (about $500), but if you buy it you'll be able to search across all deposition, hearing, or trial transcripts for key words and phrases. This program makes it a cinch to collect valuable information from depositions. Again, you have to use the program to understand the scope of its power. It also can be tried free for a short period of time. The competing product is called LiveNotes, but from what I can tell E-Transcript is better and more widely used (by a small margin). |
| I have written a lot about this great program. Click here for more. Basically, you need some way of scanning key documents and tagging them with your notes. If you want to spend $10,000 for a full-fledged document management program then by all means do so. But if you are willing to learn how to use this $250 program you will find that you are actually better off, but if you aren't inclined to roll up your sleeves and learn to use a computer program then you aren't likely to get the most out of your $10,000 program either. Maybe you can hire someone to do it for you? Fine. But if you come across an opposing counsel who is using Acrobat and who understands the importance of managing their documents in a digital form then consider a quick settlement. |
| This is an indispensible program, but you have to make a commitment to learn to tap into its vast power. If you do you'll become dramatically more productive with your computer. Basically, it lets you create macros that trigger actions in any context in any program that you are running on your computer. I have written about it at length (click here) |
| Attention Lawyers!!! - There is a plug-in (shareware) that lets you tap into certain laws: Federal, Texas, and Louisiana. It's available here at RoySalvagio.com. Roy is a computer wizard and aspiring law student who created these plug-ins. We're working up some documentation, but if you use the Lousiana one just type "LaLaw" (don't type the quote Mark's) and you'll be given choices to drill down to. This is sort of a beta-test project, but the thing that is happening is that you will use ActiveWords to take you to an official Louisiana law source without a lot of noodling around. If you are like most lawyers, you are busy and just want the law delivered to you quickly. Right? |
 | Forms |
| Palm Pilot Stuff |
| There are a lot of utilities that lawyers can add to their Palm devices that are helpful. Most of them are free or don't cost much money. See below. |
| Treo Cellphone |
| I have long wanted a cellphone that merges the features of my Palm pilot. The Treo lets me carry one device that acts as a phone and also has a PDA built in. It also lets me access my corporate E-mail and has a built in web browser. See below for more observations. |
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© copyright 2003
by Ernest Svenson.
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