Technology Trends for Cases & Practice Seminar Handbook

The Kentucky Bar Association Young Lawyers Division presents

Technology Trends for Cases & Practice CLE Seminar

This program has been approved in Kentucky for 2.00 CLE Credits including 1.00 Ethics Credit.

Compiled and Edited by: The Kentucky Bar Association Office of Continuing Legal Education for Kentucky Bar Association Young Lawyers Division

Editor’s Note: The materials included in this Technology Trends for Cases & Practice CLE seminar handbook are intended to provide current and accurate information about the subject matter covered. The program materials were compiled for you by volunteer authors. No representation or warranty is made concerning the application of the legal or other principles discussed by the instructors to any specific fact situation, nor is any prediction made concerning how any particular judge or jury will interpret or apply such principles. The proper interpretation or application of the principles discussed is a matter for the considered judgment of the individual legal practitioner. The faculty and staff of the Kentucky Bar Association disclaim liability therefor. Attorneys using these materials or information otherwise conveyed during the program, in dealing with a specific legal matter, have a duty to research original and current sources of authority.

Technology Trends for Cases & Practice CLE Seminar

Table of Contents

Agenda...... i

Speakers ...... iii

The Ethics of Investigating with Social Media ...... 1

Effective Use of Technology in Your Office, on the Road and in the Courtroom ...... 11

Technology Trends for Cases & Practice CLE Seminar March 14, 2013 Louisville Bar Association Louisville, Kentucky

11:00-11:30 a.m. Registration & Lunch

11:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m. The Ethics of Investigating with Social Media (1.00 Ethics credit) Shawn D. Chapman Supreme Court of Kentucky

Stefan J. Bing Supreme Court of Kentucky

12:30-1:30 p.m. Effective Use of Technology in Your Office, on the Road and in the Courtroom (1.00 CLE credit) Bradley J. Sayles Barnett, Benvenuti & Butler, PLLC

ii SPEAKERS

Shawn D. Chapman Supreme Court of Kentucky 300 West Vine Street, Suite 2201 Lexington, KY 40507 859.246.2220 [email protected]

Shawn D. Chapman is the senior law clerk for Deputy Chief Justice Mary C. Noble of the Kentucky Supreme Court. He previously clerked for Justices John Roach and James Keller, and Judge Phil Patton of the 43rd Judicial Circuit. Mr. Chapman has also taught legal writing at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Prior to working for the judiciary, he worked in private practice as an associate in a general civil practice firm with an emphasis on tax and business law. Since 2009, he has served on the Board of Directors for the University of Kentucky College of Law Alumni Association and as the Fifth District Representative for the Kentucky Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. He recently began serving on the Fayette County Bar Association's CLE Committee. Mr. Chapman received his B.A., with honors, from the University of Kentucky, and his J.D. from the UK College of Law, where he was a member of the Moot Court Board and served as Articles Editor for the Kentucky Law Journal. He is a member of the Kentucky and Fayette County Bar Associations.

Stefan J. Bing Supreme Court of Kentucky 3528 Creekwood Drive #6 Lexington, KY 40502 859.321.5839 [email protected]

Stefan J. Bing is the junior law clerk for Deputy Chief Justice Mary C. Noble of the Kentucky Supreme Court. He received his B.A., cum laude and with honors, from Case Western Reserve University in 2005 and his J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2012, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Kentucky Law Journal. Prior to law school, Mr. Bing completed coursework in Latin American Studies with a focus on statistical methodology at Vanderbilt University Graduate School. He is a member of the Kentucky Bar Association and its Young Lawyers Division.

iii Bradley J. Sayles Barnett, Benvenuti & Butler PLLC 489 East Main Street, Suite 300 Lexington, KY 40507 859.226.0312 [email protected]

Bradley J. Sayles is an associate with Barnett, Benvenuti & Butler PLLC in Lexington, where he practices health care law, regulatory compliance and medical malpractice defense. He received his B.S. and Master of Public Administration from Northern Kentucky University and his J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law. Mr. Sayles is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association and the Kentucky Bar Association. He currently serves as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Kentucky Bar Association Young Lawyers Division.

iv THE ETHICS OF INVESTIGATING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA Shawn D. Chapman and Stefan J. Bing

I. INTRODUCTION

This program is intended to be a basic introduction to some of the ethical and legal limits on social media use in the context of investigating various groups in the practice of law. Specifically, we intend to discuss investigations of witnesses, opposing parties, clients, and jurors.

The program is not meant to be a practical, how-to guide to investigating. While some of that topic inevitably arises during discussions like this one, it is ultimately a different topic. The focus today is on the ethical dimension – how to avoid violating an ethical duty – rather than the practical aspect.

II. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY SOCIAL MEDIA?

This is actually a more difficult question than you might imagine, at least at the edges.

A. A technical definition: “Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” Andreas M. Kaplan & Michael Haenlein, “Users of the World, Unite! The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media,” 53 Business Horizons 59-68 (2010).

B. For the most part, you know it when you see it. Examples include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Tumblr, and blogs.

III. WHY IS SOCIAL MEDIA SUCH A BIG DEAL FOR LAWYERS?

A. It Can Affect Other Ethical Obligations

1. Being connected to people and companies could lead to conflicts of interest. SCR 3.130(1.7) to (1.10).

2. Use of social media could affect client confidences, especially given how easy it is to send a message out to the world via social media. SCR 3.130(1.6).

3. Depending on its use, social media could affect still other obligations.

B. Social media work is likely to be given to subordinate personnel – e.g., associates, paralegals, investigators, or marketing personnel – which creates a lot of potential for mischief when you are the supervisory lawyer.

1. Supervising other lawyers.

a. Supervisory lawyers have an ethical duty to “make reasonable efforts to ensure that the other lawyer conforms to the Rules of Professional Conduct.” SCR 3.130(5.1)(b).

b. Supervisory lawyers can be held responsible for the supervised lawyer’s behavior if they order or ratify the conduct, SCR 3.130(5.1)(c)(1), or “knows of the conduct at a time when its consequences can be avoided or mitigated but fails to take reasonable remedial action.” SCR 3.130(5.1)(c)(2).

c. The supervised or “subordinate” lawyer can’t just “follow orders.” Subordinate lawyers are bound by the rules even when directed by another lawyer.

2. Supervising non-lawyers.

Lawyers can be held responsible for their non-lawyer employees and other agents under SCR 3.130(5.3).

a. Requires the lawyer to “make reasonable efforts to ensure that the person's conduct is compatible with the professional obligations of the lawyer.”

b. Specifically makes a lawyer responsible for the acts of a non-lawyer employee, so long as the attorney orders or knows about the conduct, or is a partner in the firm and knows of the conduct early enough for it to be avoided or mitigated.

IV. INVESTIGATION

One area where lawyers are likely to deal with social media is in the course of background investigations of opposing parties, witnesses, potential clients, and jurors in trials, all of which can be touchy subjects. The following lays out some of the statutes and ethical rules that could affect how you use social media in the investigatory process.

A. Jurors

This is the touchiest subject. Many lawyers, especially those who are not particularly social-media savvy, are terrified about using social media to investigate potential jurors, even though they think jury selection is incredibly important when they try a case. The simple answer is that lawyers are permitted to use social media to investigate jurors. The problem is that there aren’t really any simple answers.

1. What governs interacting with jurors?

a. SCR 3.130(3.5):

“A lawyer shall not:

(a) seek to influence a … juror [or] prospective juror … by means prohibited by law;

(b) communicate ex parte with such a person as to the merits of the cause except as permitted by law or court order;

1. the communication is prohibited by law, local rule, or court order;

2. the juror has made known to the lawyer a desire not to communicate; or

3. the communication involves mis- representation, coercion, duress or harassment ….”

b. Avoid jury tampering.

“A person is guilty of jury tampering when, with intent to influence a juror's vote, opinion, decision or other action in a case, he communicates or attempts to communicate, directly or indirectly, with a juror other than as a part of the proceedings in the trial of the case.” KRS 524.090.

c. Sluss v. Commonwealth, 2011-SC-000318-MR, 2012 WL 4243650 (Ky. Sept. 20, 2012). This opinion was final as of October 11, 2012.

2. Practically speaking, what do these authorities do?

a. Ultimately, looking at public information is permitted. So a public Facebook account, blog, or Twitter feed is fair game.

b. The danger comes in actually trying to communicate with the juror, whether by direct messaging or trying to “friend” the juror to see his or her private profile. You cannot do this. For more detail on where to draw the line, see Sluss and the New York County Lawyers Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics Formal Opinion No. 743 (May 18, 2011), which is available at http://www.nycla.org/siteFiles/Publications/Publications145

0_0.pdf, or http://tinyurl.com/9a4qjvm, which was a substantial basis for that opinion.

c. There is also danger in inadvertently communicating with the juror. Perhaps the best example is when you use a site that allows users to see who has looked at their profiles (e.g., LinkedIn). As stated in Sluss, a lawyer may not “communicate in any way with the juror or act in any way by which the juror becomes aware of the monitoring.” Sluss, 2011-SC-000318-MR, 2012 WL 4243650, at *10 (quoting N.Y. Cnty. Lawyers Ass'n Comm. on Prof'l Ethics, Formal Op. 743 (May 18, 2011)) (emphasis added).

B. Opposing Parties

1. What is allowed?

Looking at publicly available information is fine. Information that a person makes completely publicly available on a social media site is not very different than if it were placed in the newspaper. Such information has, in essence, been published to the public.

2. What isn’t allowed?

a. Generally, there are limits on communicating with opposing parties. It’s very easy with social media to actually communicate with a person whose page you are looking at without meaning to. Be very wary! It may be better to rely on traditional discovery methods instead.

b. The scope of these limits depends on whether the person is represented by counsel or not.

i. Represented by counsel.

Generally, a lawyer may not directly contact a party that is represented by counsel without the consent of the party’s lawyer: “In representing a client, a lawyer shall not communicate about the subject of the representation with a person the lawyer knows to be represented by another lawyer in the matter, unless the lawyer has the consent of the other lawyer or is authorized to do so by law or a court order.” SCR 3.130(4.2).

ii. Not represented by counsel.

A lawyer may contact an opposing party that is not represented by counsel, but special care must be taken.

a) “In dealing on behalf of a client with a person who is not represented by counsel, a lawyer shall not state or imply that the lawyer is disinterested. When the lawyer knows or reasonably should know that the unrepresented person misunderstands the lawyer's role in the matter, the lawyer shall make reasonable efforts to correct the misunderstanding. The lawyer shall not give legal advice to an unrepresented person. The lawyer may suggest that the unrepresented person secure counsel.” SCR 3.130(4.3).

b) Limits on types of contact with non- represented opposing parties.

1) Some authorities allow an attorney to contact such an unrepresented person, such as by “friending” on Facebook, so long as no deception is involved. See, e.g., New York City Bar Ass’n, Formal Opinion 2010-2, “Obtaining Evidence from Social Networking Websites.”1

2) That presents an awfully fine line to draw, however, especially where the attorney may be using a paralegal or other person to do the investigation, and the party might know who the attorney is but may not know the name of the paralegal working for the attorney. This is why other authorities have been more conservative and require disclosure of the reason for the request. See, e.g., Philadelphia Bar Ass’n, Prof’l Guidance Comm., Opinion 2009-02 (March 2009).2

3) Kentucky has not yet decided exactly where this line is drawn. That

1 Available at http://www.nycbar.org/ethics/ethics-opinions-local/2010-opinions/786-obtaining- evidence-from-social-networking-websites or http://tinyurl.com/8fzyean.

2 Available at http://www.philadelphiabar.org/WebObjects/PBAReadOnly.woa/Contents/ WebServerResources/CMSResources/Opinion_2009-2.pdf, or http://tinyurl.com/cgwgwr.

is where the Ethics Hotline is invaluable. If you have concerns about whether your proposed interaction falls within the rules, you can request an informal ethics opinion under SCR 3.530(2). While these opinions are advisory only, “no attorney shall be disciplined for any professional act performed by that attorney in compliance with an informal opinion furnished by the Ethics Committee member pursuant to such attorney's written request, provided that the written request clearly, fairly, accurately and completely states such attorney's contemplated professional act.” SCR 3.530(5). In essence, they give you a safe harbor within which to act. Just remember, you have to get the opinion before you act!

C. Witnesses

1. Again, public information is fine to access. It becomes more difficult when trying to access non-public information that might require contacting the witness, either with a message or friend request. In some circumstances, it may be better to rely on traditional discovery methods instead. If the attorney wants informal discovery, however, there are limits.

2. Fortunately, you don’t have to avoid even revealing that you are investigating, as you do with jurors. Nothing in the rules directly bars contacting a witness, even in person, to ask questions. There are some limits to that communication, however.

a. You have to tell the truth.

“In the course of representing a client a lawyer: (a) shall not knowingly make a false statement of material fact or law to a third person; and (b) if a false statement of material fact or law has been made, shall take reasonable remedial measures to avoid assisting a fraudulent or criminal act by a client including, if necessary, disclosure of a material fact, unless prohibited by Rule 1.6.” SCR 3.130(4.1).

b. You can’t harass the person.

“In representing a client, a lawyer shall not use means that have no substantial purpose other than to embarrass,

delay, or burden a third person, or use methods of obtaining evidence that violate the legal rights of such a person.” SCR 3.130(4.4)(a).

c. Avoid witness tampering.

“A person is guilty of tampering with a witness when, knowing that a person is or may be called as a witness in an official proceeding, he: (a) Induces or attempts to induce the witness to absent himself or otherwise avoid appearing or testifying at the official proceeding with intent to influence the outcome thereby; or (b) Knowingly makes any false statement or practices any fraud or deceit with intent to affect the testimony of the witness.” KRS 524.050(1).

D. Clients

This section actually covers two groups of people: prospective clients and existing clients.

1. Prospective clients.

A lawyer may want to, and in most situations should, investigate a potential client. Not only is such research warranted as part of a due-diligence conflict check, it could readily show you don’t want to even take the case. For example, the potential client could be claiming a substantial physical impairment from an accident, yet photos on the person’s social media account might show a total lack of injury. Such information is likely discoverable and would make the case nearly worthless if not fraudulent. While often the lawyer may simply use a search engine such as Google, as more and more pertinent personal information is revealed on social media, using those sources to conduct such investigations is becoming commonplace. There are a few concerns for lawyers to consider before conducting these investigations.

a. Information revealed in discussions with a prospective client, like information learned from a client, is confidential, and is treated like information relating to a former client. SCR 3.130(1.18)(b). Presumably, this would extend to information learned in a due-diligence investigation if the lawyer postpones creating the attorney-client relationship.

b. Moreover, a lawyer’s investigatory conduct could be deemed to establish a lawyer-client relationship, or at least could create the question of the existence of one, which may affect other duties beyond confidentiality. While a simple due-diligence investigation of publicly available information likely does not establish such a relationship, other conduct could be problematic. For example, if the

lawyer, in an attempt to gain access to more personal information, “friends” a potential client, the client may believe that a lawyer-client relationship has been established. As the Kentucky Supreme Court has stated, “The lawyer/client relationship can arise not only by contract but also from the conduct of the parties. Courts have found that the relationship is created as a result of the client's reasonable belief or expectation that the lawyer is undertaking the representation. Such a belief is based on the conduct of the parties.” Lovell v. Winchester, 941 S.W.2d 466, 468 (Ky. 1997). While Lovell was concerned primarily with when the duty of confidentially kicked in, the actual start of the attorney-client relationship is also when the client can reasonably expect the lawyer to take steps to effectuate the representation, such as by filing a lawsuit.

c. The lawyer should be sure to determine whether a conflict of interest exists with a potential client, and also to be sure not to create a conflict of interest by undertaking the investigation. SCR 3.130(1.18) discusses duties to prospective clients, and subsection (c) forbids an attorney from representing a client with adverse interests to a prospective client where the attorney “has received information from the prospective client that could be significantly harmful to that person in the matter.” SCR 3.130(1.18)(c). Thus, the attorney must always consider any information that he discovered about a prospective client through the prospective client’s social media page when deciding whether he can represent either the prospective client or any other person or corporation with interests adverse to the prospective client.

2. Existing clients.

Once a lawyer takes on a client, the lawyer should further investigate the client’s social media. The social media profile may contain information that is vital to the client’s case, either as inculpatory or exculpatory, or information that reflects poorly on the client’s credibility. This information is essential if the attorney is to effectively represent the client.

a. This section’s principle consideration is to remind the lawyer that information obtained through a client’s social media profile is to be treated like any other kind of evidence that a lawyer obtains about his or her client: it is held to the same standard as other discoverable evidence. Thus, the lawyer may not encourage the client to delete any information or to deactivate his social media account, conduct that is tantamount to the destruction of evidence. SCR 3.130(1.2)(d).

8 b. The ethics rules present a potentially tricky situation for the lawyer, however, because the lawyer is still expected generally to keep client confidences. Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule, such as when the client consents, when the disclosure is necessary to prevent death or substantial bodily harm, or when the attorney reasonably believes the disclosure is necessary “to establish a defense to a criminal charge or civil claim against the lawyer based upon conduct in which the client was involved.” SCR 3.130(1.6). These exceptions are permissive under the rules. But the rules do require the attorney “if a false statement of material fact or law has been made, … [to] take remedial measures to avoid assisting a criminal or fraudulent act by the client.” SCR 3.130(4.1). Information learned through a social media investigation could potentially implicate these rules allowing or, in very limited circumstances, requiring a disclosure. c. Information learned from the social media account could also limit strategy in the representation. For example, if the attorney learns something from a client’s Facebook page and the client proposes to testify contrary to the information, the lawyer is on notice that the client intends to lie. That, of course, creates the classic scenario addressed in Brown v. Commonwealth, 226 S.W.3d 74 (Ky. 2007). Of course, most, if not all, information on the client’s social media account will be discoverable, especially in civil litigation, and is not covered by the confidence privilege. To that extent, it is unlikely that the Brown scenario will occur, since that conflict usually arises when the client discloses the proposed lie in a confidential communication.

EFFECTIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN YOUR OFFICE, ON THE ROAD AND IN THE COURTROOM Bradley J. Sayles

I. IN YOUR OFFICE

Many solo practitioners and small practices do not struggle with what hardware they need; most can do just fine with a relatively new laptop purchased from the big box stores and a printer-scanner combo. But obtaining cost-effective software and services to run and manage a practice can sometimes be tricky. Below I discuss cost-effective software that will meet your office's needs for time keeping and billing, productivity suites (document production), and phone services.

A. Time Keeping and Billing

There are several free billing and accounting options available, and several free options to track time entries. There are a few that do both. However, in my experience the programs offering to do both free, tend to do both poorly. Below are two free programs, one that handles billing and accounting and another that handles time entries; they each do their separate jobs well. For those looking for a program that handles both tasks well, I have also provided two cost-effective examples.

1. GnuCash.

GnuCash is the leading General Public Licensed financial software. For a small firm or solo practice, GnuCash may provide the needed invoicing and financial tracking. GnuCash has been recognized for its ability to meet the needs of attorneys, as the Canadian legal co-operative has stated, “The GnuCash software . . . should present a great alternative for lawyers looking for a solid accounting system at low cost [i.e. free].”1 Additionally, the Minnesota State Bar Association publishes a free trust accounting guide for use with GnuCash.2 If you are a solo practice or small firm, you should consider GnuCash when looking for a financial program.

At first, GnuCash can be intimidating and the tutorials that come with the program are of little help. But a quick Google search will reveal several guides (some at a cost) that will help the new user get started. The program has several ways to import your previous accounting activity and also comes with built in online banking functionality.

1 Slaw Practice Tips, “There’s G’No Cash Like GnuCash” February 3, 2011. Available at http://tips .slaw.ca/2011/practice/theres-gno-cash-like-gnucash/.

2 Gregory Luce, “MSBA’s Trust Accounting Guides Released Publicly” The Practice Blawg, April 18, 2011. Available at: http://practiceblawg.com/2011/04/msbas-trust-accounting-guides- released-publicly/.

Aside from the standard accounting functions, GnuCash offers several business futures including, invoicing, project specific accounting, and payment processing. The invoices produced by GnuCash look professional and are easy to create. Finalized invoices will automatically post to your accounts receivable. When entered as paid, the amounts then automatically move into your assets.

Lastly, GnuCash can generate a number of reports for your practice. While you may not use many of these, some are very useful. For example, you can print customer reports, employment reports, profit and loss reports, cash flow, equity statements, and many more.

2. Grindstone.

Grindstone is a free desktop application that allows you to create and organize tasks and to track the time you spend on that task. The tasks can be broken down into client and project based categories with subtasks for billing purposes. A log is created that can be used to copy and paste over into your billing software or directly onto an invoice.

The program functions with two small windows on your desktop. The larger of the two is a list window for managing tasks; the smaller window is a stopwatch feature that allows you to start and stop start time for tasks located in the managing window.

The program has some great features that make it worth trying. One such feature is Grindstone’s ability to detect your time away from the keyboard. So if you are in the middle of drafting Client A’s motion for summary judgment, and Client B calls with an issue that takes thirty minutes to resolve, when you go back to your keyboard Grindstone will ask you what you were doing for the past thirty minutes. This feature along with several others makes Grindstone worth a try.

3. Low cost time keeping and billing solutions.

As mentioned above, very few programs offer both billing and time tracking at no cost. However, without breaking the bank you can find several programs that offer both in one package. Below, I briefly discuss two such programs.

The first is RTG Bills and Timer. RTG’s user interface looks dated, but the program is designed specifically for law firms and is easy to use. Most importantly, RTG’s time tracking service automatically populates into the invoices, making time entry and pre-billing review easier.

RTG Bills and Timer come with a forty-five-day free trial period to evaluate the software. If it works for your practice, you can purchase it from rtgsoftware.com for a onetime license fee of $95.00. However, when new versions of RTG are released if you want to upgrade your version, you will need to purchase a new license key.

The second program that incorporates time tracking and billing is Freshbooks. Freshbooks is an online program that prides itself on being user friendly; and it is. But that comes at a cost. Freshbooks has a monthly fee starting at $19.95 a month per user with a twenty-five-client limit. On the higher end of the payment scale Freshbooks charges $39.95 a month with an unlimited number of clients and two users; each additional user is $10.00 per month.

Because Freshbooks is browser based, you can access your accounts from any computer with an internet connection. Freshbooks also has an app (MiniBooks) for $14.99, which will allow you to track your accounts and issue invoices on the go.

B. Productivity Suite

Microsoft Office is the most widely used of the productivity suites but for the average user it is expensive, unless it came pre-installed on your computer. If you purchased a computer that did not have a full copy of the Microsoft Office productivity suite, there a number of free productivity suites that truly compete with the tried and true Microsoft Office.

1. Google Drive and Microsoft Office Live.

Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) is Google’s productivity suite. It is free and all you need is a Google account to get started. Google Drive contains simplified versions of what most of us are accustomed to seeing in Microsoft’s Office, such as Word (Docs), Excel (Spreadsheets) and PowerPoint (Presentation). More importantly, Google Drive is for the most part compatible with Word, meaning you can save and upload your Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents into Google Drive and vice versa.

Google’s word processor, Docs, may lack some of the functionality that you would need for appellate brief writing, but works just fine for letter and memorandum drafting. When uploading most word documents the formatting is not an issue; however, some formatting may change during the conversion. While there are some flaws, Google is constantly updating and improving their products and I imagine that Google will continue to improve Docs.

Spreadsheets is Google’s version of Excel. For the average attorney’s needs, Google Spreadsheets meets or exceeds Excel.

Google Presentation is Google’s version of PowerPoint. While it takes some getting used to, it too has the basic functionality to meet the average attorney’s needs.

The great advantage of Google Drive is that it stores all of your saved documents securely online. You operate the programs through your web browser, so you can have access to your documents from any computer with an internet connection or from your mobile device (through either the browser or the Google Drive app). Another benefit of Google Drive is that you can share your documents with other Google accounts. You can control whether that Google account can just view the document or whether they can make changes to it. This ability to collaborate in live time can be invaluable. Google Drive only offers 5GB of storage for free. Additional storage options are available (25GB at $2.49 a month and 100GB at $4.99 a month).

To compete with Google Drive, Microsoft has launched Office Live, which offers users the Microsoft Office package for free through your browser with the full functionality of Microsoft’s productivity suite. Additionally, Microsoft offers 7GB of storage compared to Google’s 5GB. For an additional 20GB of storage you only need to pay $10.00 a year (50GB for $25 a year and 100GB for $50 a year). If you already own Microsoft Office, using Office Live for collaboration or document editing while away from the office is a no brainer.

2. OpenOffice and LibreOffice.

OpenOffice is a productivity suite that will look very familiar to those that use Microsoft Office. Not only does it look familiar, it is a viable replacement for Microsoft Office. OpenOffice is open source software, meaning that the program is free to download and use.

OpenOffice’s word processor is Write. The latest (and last) version of Write resembles Microsoft Word 2003 more than 2010, which has its benefits. However, there are some important differences. For example, the keyboard shortcuts are not the same. For those that used these shortcuts, adapting to new ones can be difficult. That aside, Write provides plenty of functionality and really does hold up to commercial-grade software.

OpenOffice’s spreadsheet program is Calc. Like Google Drive’s Spreadsheet, Calc will meet the needs of most attorneys. Again, Calc mirrors Microsoft Excel 2003. Impress is OpenOffice’s presentation program. Impress does the job, but does not really add to or improve upon PowerPoint. It will meet your basic needs for assembling and editing simple presentations, but it falls short on the layouts and multimedia integration.

You can download your free copy of Open Office at openoffice.org. The company behind OpenOffice was purchased by Oracle in 2009. The sale did not sit well with many of its core developers and in 2010, those developers broke off and created LibreOffice. Oracle later killed the OpenOffice project. You can still get a copy of the last version of OpenOffice, but for future developments LibreOffice may be the top open source alternative to Microsoft Office.

The current version of LibreOffice makes few improvements on the last version of OpenOffice. However, the presentation software in LibreOffice’s suite is markedly better. It does not feel archaic, but feels much like PowerPoint. LibreOffice also offers some mobile applications that give it functionality on the go, not as much as Google Drive, but an improvement over Microsoft Office. You can download the latest copy of LibreOffice at libreoffice.org.

C. Phone Services

For a solo practice or a small firm, office phone systems with service and equipment can be an expensive undertaking. Further, many attorneys may spend a majority of their phone time on their cell phones. Google Voice provides a free alternative to the traditional landline phone and UberConference and FreeConferenceCall.com provide free substitutes for your firm’s conference call needs.

1. Google Voice.

Google Voice is a free Web-based phone service for Google users. It provides you with a phone number and voice mail access. Google provides the telephone number and services free of cost. You can then link that number up to your cell phone and download the Google Voice app on your tablet, which will allow your incoming calls to ring on your cell phone, computer and tablet devices. In addition to forwarding your calls, Google Voice is packed full of neat features that make it worth considering.

Google Voice offers a visual voicemail. For non-iPhone users, visual voicemail is a listing of the numbers that have left you voicemails. This feature allows you to delete messages or select the message you want to hear without dialing a separate number and dealing with audio prompt to navigate through your voice mails.

Additionally, Google Voice provides voicemail transcriptions, allowing you to read your voicemails, rather than listening. Unfortunately, the transcriptions are more comical than helpful. Google openly admits that the transcription service is not perfect and that it is working to improve it. Even with its shortcomings, you can usually get the gist of the voicemail from the transcription.

Google Voice allows you to have multiple voice mail greetings, which allows you to tailor your greetings. You can select a contact and make a greeting just for that individual or you can place multiple contacts into groups and record a greeting just for members of that group.

Google Voice also allows you to send text messages (SMS) from your computer or from the app downloaded on your smart phone or tablet. When you use the Google Voice app to send text messages, your text-messaging plan is not effected. However, under most plans, calls made from Google Voice on your cell phone will use your plan’s minutes.

Google Voice does offer some simple conference calling capabilities. Similar to most landline systems, with Google Voice you can join a number of incoming calls on to the same line. But with this type of conferencing, you have to be available from the first to last call, which sometimes is not possible or practical. Below are two free conferencing services that pick up where Google Voice falls short.

2. UberConference and FreeConferenceCall.com.

Hosting conference calls can be an annoying hassle, but two services make it easy and free. UberConference was started by the brain trust behind Google Voice. It is currently in its Beta form and membership is limited. When approved you receive a dedicated number to use for all your conference calls. UberConference’s lines are limited on the number of callers. Every free account starts with a five caller maximum size, but with some work, you can maximize the free account to accommodate a call of up to seventeen participants.

While the call size is a downside, the draw of UberConference is its user interface. During a call, you can access additional control features by logging into your account from a web browser. UberConference has a unique dashboard that allows the call’s host to control the call, see who has joined the call, and who is speaking at any given time.

UberConference also allows you to mute members of the call, kick them out altogether, or even move into a separate private chat and then join back in to the larger call from the private chat. Additionally, with UberConference you can record each of your conference calls. There are several paid services that cannot match the functionality that UberConference is able to provide at no cost. If you would like to try UberConference, you can get on the waiting list to join by going to UberConference.com.

For those unable to get into UberConference, FreeConferenceCall.com is another free teleconferencing service.

While it does not come with the bells and whistles of UberConference, it provides all the features that most attorneys will be familiar with from other dial-in teleconferencing services and allows you to host a call with up to ninety-six participants. FreeConferenceCall.com offers you a permanent conference number, but you have to re-register every 120 days to keep it active. You will lose your number if you forget to re-register.

II. ON THE ROAD

A. Research on the Go

The capabilities of mobile devices combined with their convenience are starting to rival or surpass laptops and netbooks when it comes to many tasks that face the attorney on the go. Gone should be the days where an attorney would have to call an associate or summer clerk back at the office to look up a case just cited by opposing counsel. Instead, with your smart phone or tablet you should have much of what you need at your command to either search relevant cases or other useful information.

1. Case law.

Both West and LexisNexis offer mobile versions of their online legal research databases (WestlawNext and LexisNexis Get Cases & Shepardize). Both are free to download but require a subscription and your materials are limited to your subscription plan. WestlawNext offers more functionality on the iPad than it does on your android smart phone or tablet; however, the WestlawNext application is not available on your iPhone. You can use West’s mobile site in your web browser if using your iPhone.

Fastcase is a searchable case law database, similar in some regards to the online legal research of Westlaw and LexisNexis. Fastcase offers their browser based research at a monthly or annual subscription cost. The online version contains a reliable source of federal district and appellate case law, the United States Code, and Code of Federal Regulations, as well as law from all fifty states, including cases, statutes, regulations, court rules and constitutions. In addition to providing online search tools at nominal cost, Fastcase provides access to much of its available resources free through its mobile applications.

In 2010, Fastcase was the first company to launch an app for legal research with its iPhone application. Later the company was the first to launch a similar app for the iPad. In 2012, Fastcase moved into the Android arena launching its app for both Android smart phones and tablets. All of Fastcase’s applications are available in the app store for free!

As mentioned above, through the application you gain access to all federal appellate, district and bankruptcy court decisions. You

17 will also have mobile access to each state’s administrative regulations, statutes and appellate case law. According to Fastcase, its archives contain decisions from the Kentucky Court of Appeals starting in 1966 and the Kentucky Supreme Court from 1785. Since the Kentucky Supreme Court was not established until 1975, I am assuming that this is a misprint and that Fastcase contains decisions from the Kentucky Court of Appeals from 1785 and the Kentucky Supreme Court from its inception.

What you will not find with Fastcase is headnotes and other editorials that many attorneys may rely on heavily when doing quick research. Fastcase does offer an authority check report, which shows subsequent cases that cite back to a particular case. It does not include “treatment” information or signals such as “discussed,” “reversed,” “questioned” or the like. Instead, the report gives you a hyperlink to the subsequent citation so you can read the case and decide for yourself.

When performing searches the app will take you directly to the relevant terms within the case. You can also save cases and statutes for quicker access. If you have a subscription with Fastcase, you can download their Mobile Sync software (free) that allows full integration of the mobile apps with the desktop version.

Casemaker is a great legal research resource available to members of the Kentucky Bar Association free of charge. Casemaker contains federal appellate and district court cases, the United States Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. Casemaker also contains state materials, including appellate case law, statutes, regulations, and constitutions. While Casemaker does not offer an app, they have developed a mobile version of their website that you can access through your smart phone or tablet’s web browser.

To get started, go to the following address through your smart phone or tablet’s web browser: http://mobile.lawriter.net/. Once there, you will be asked to enter your user name and password. The mobile version of the website does not use your Kentucky Bar Association login information. So, if this is your first time, click the “Not Registered? Sign Up Here” link. You will then be prompted to enter your email address and create a password. You can also select Kentucky as your default jurisdiction at this point. After setting up your login information, return to the homepage and log in using your email address and the password you just created.

The mobile site functions much like an app but in your mobile browser. It is not as convenient as an application on your smart phone or tablet’s homepage but, it can give those accustomed to using Casemaker access to reliable case law on the go.

In addition to the apps offered by those in the online legal research community, others have developed applications for your mobile device that provide limited but useful legal research. The Chicago-Kent College of Law through its Oyez Project has been devoted to archiving the Supreme Court of the United States and its work in a multimedia format. The Oyez Project has two apps: OyezToday and PocketJustice.

OyezToday provides easy-to-grasp abstracts of every Supreme Court case granted review and summaries of the Court’s most recent decisions. OyezToday also provides searchable transcripts and audio recordings of the most recent oral arguments. OyezToday is offered for free. PocketJustice comes in a free or a full version for .99 cents. The free version comes with top 100 constitutional law cases and limited access to SCOTUS audio (oral argument recordings). The full version comes with 600+ constitutional law cases and over 300 hours of SCOTUS audio.

Other options for the iPhone, iPad and Android smart phone and tablet devices offer research à la carte. For example, on the Android app marketplace (Google play) you will find DroidLaw, which offers U.S. Supreme Court Cases ($9.99), Code of Federal Regulations ($14.99), and the United States Code ($14.99). Similar services are available on your iOS device.

2. Other.

In addition to access to primary resources, your smart phone or tablet can also provide you with tons of secondary resources on the road. The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a repository of scholarly research for social sciences and humanities, including law. Scholarly articles are uploaded directly to the site by their authors. Most papers are available to download for free. The SSRN app (iSSRN) is available on your iPhone or iPad and allows users to search over 260,000 research papers in the SSRN electronic library. There is no subscription required to access the available materials.

HeinOnline, like iSSRN, is available only on the iPhone and iPad. Unlike iSSRN, access to the materials available through HeinOnline will require a subscription. The app itself is free. HeinOnline (depending on your subscription plan) offers access to the world’s largest image-based legal research database, which includes the law journal library, Federal Register/Code of Federal Regulations, bar journals, and much more.

The Wolfram Lawyers Professional Assistant is an app available only for your iPhone or iPad for $4.99. The app includes a dictionary of legal terms, statutes of limitations for each U.S. state, and information about visa types including common issues and basic requirements. The app also comes with other useful tools.

Wolfram started in 1988 developing computational software for scientists and mathematicians, so it comes as no surprise that the app also provides useful computations such as the following:

 Calendar computations to determine dates items are due;  Financial computations, which include fee calculators, settlement calculations, current interest rates, historical value of money and federal U.S. tax rates;  Mortgage calculations, including closing cost estimation and average home sales and utility prices; and  Damages and estate-planning computations for occupational salaries, costs of living, life expectancies and present or future values.

While the Wolfram Lawyers Professional Assistant will not replace your economic expert in a personal injury suit, it does contain a wealth of knowledge that many attorneys may find useful.

Wolfram’s legal dictionary leaves much to be desired, but there are several other more complete legal dictionaries available in the app store. Thomson Reuters offers the 9th Edition of the Black’s Law Dictionary, edited by Bryan A. Garner which is available on your iPhone and iPad. The app is expensive costing $54.99. However, it is the most comprehensive law dictionary available with over 45,000 terms. The app also contains audio pronunciations for over 7,000 hard-to-say legal terms. Earlier editions of the Black’s Law Dictionary are also available in the app marketplaces for much less. For example, the Law Dictionary app uses the 2nd Edition Black’s Law Dictionary for only .99 cents. That version contains over 15,000 defined terms, which are available from your smart phone or tablet even when your device is offline.

For non-legal dictionary needs, Merriam Webster offers its dictionary for both Android and iOS devices. The Merriam Webster app is available in two versions, free and premium. Both provide you with full access to defined terms within Merriam Webster’s dictionary. The premium version costs $3.99 but removes ads that support the free version and comes with additional content, such as a full thesaurus. Dictionary.com also offers an app for free available on both iOS and Android devices. The Dictionary.com app comes with both the dictionary and thesaurus, which includes over two million definitions, synonyms and antonyms all for free.

Depending on your area of practice it may be useful to have medical information available on your smart phone or tablet device. If so, WebMD offers the MedscapeMobile app, which includes the following features:

 Drug reference: contains most current prescribing and safety information for over 8,000 brand, generic and over-the-counter drugs, herbals and supplements;  Drug interaction checker: check from mild to serious contraindications for any combinations of drugs, herbals and supplements;  Disease and Condition Reference: Review the latest in-depth clinical information for 4,000+ diseases and conditions, some containing images and videos; and  Procedures and Protocols: this portion of the app contains detailed step-by-step instructions for 600+ clinical procedures, including 100+ widely used tables and protocols.

All of this information is available through the MedscapeMoble app for free on your iOS or Android device. Another highly rated medical app, DK The Human Body is available for your iPad. The Human Body app contains over 270 specially-designed full color and zoomable high resolution images. Each image has detailed and expandable annotations. Another cool feature available with this app is a 3D rotatable human body with selectable layers. DK The Human Body is priced at $6.99.

Other areas of practice may find apps like Recalls useful. Recalls keeps you updated on all the most recent product recalls from the Food and Drug Administration, Consumer Product Safety Organization, United States Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, and more all in one place. The app puts recall data from 1965 to the present right at your fingertips for free. There is a pro version, which offers search capabilities (rather than scrolling on the free version), real-time alerts for new recalls, and no ads. The pro version is .99 cents.

The Weather Time Machine app can be a useful tool for personal injury attorneys. The app was developed in partnership with WeatherBank, Inc., a leading U.S. weather services provider. Weather Time Machine gives you detailed weather conditions from as far back as 1960 for over 40,000 locations across the U.S. and Canada. The app is available on your iOS device for $1.99.

Several legal magazines also make their editions available on iOS and Android devices. The ABA Journal’s app is available for free and brings up-to-the-minute legal news to your iOS and/or Android device(s). The American Lawyer is another legal magazine with an app available on both iOS and Android devices for free.

B. Tablets at the Deposition

Tablet devices have become more common in today’s law practices. The American Lawyer’s 2012 survey showed that in 57 percent of The American Lawyer 200 firms, over a quarter of the firm’s lawyers are using

tablets.3 A tablet may be very useful during and after a deposition for a number of reasons including many of the apps we have already discussed. Below I have reviewed a number of apps that allow you to take better notes using a stylus and the app, as well as some specific deposition designed applications that truly make a tablet a must have for depositions.

1. Note taking.

There are three apps that will meet your basic note taking needs, but before you download an app it is crucial that you have a stylus that works for you. The stylus you choose can really influence your note taking experience. A stylus can range in price from as little as $1.00 to $35.00. And as with most things you get what you pay for. I am not advising that you go right out and purchase the most expensive stylus, but do some research and choose wisely. I currently use Amazon’s basic stylus, which is available on Amazon.com for under $10.00.

Once you have a stylus you are ready to start trying some note taking applications. I don’t recommend completely relying on a tablet for all of your note taking needs, but during a deposition, uploading an outline to your tablet and using one of the following software to take notes within your outline can be very helpful. However, I would not throw out all your legal pads just yet.

The first I suggest trying if you have an iPad is Penultimate. Penultimate is the best-selling handwriting app for the iPad. The company behind Evernote, an app I discuss in the ten useful apps sections, is behind Penultimate. Evernote is a syncing and storage app that when combined with Penultimate really expands your iPad’s capabilities. Penultimate is only .99 cents and will give you a feel of what many of the other note taking iPad apps offer. Penultimate organizes your work into “Notebooks.” You can create as many pages as you like either, lined, grid or blank.

For your Android tablet I would suggest starting with the Quill note taking app. Like Penultimate, Quill only costs $1.00. Quill is extremely fast and responsive to pen strokes. The fountain pen mode makes the lines thicker and darker based on the pressure you apply while writing. There are various settings for different pen colors and thickness along with manual erase tools. You can label each page with various tags, which allows you to easily remember what notes are on what pages. The notes can then be exported as PNG or PDF files. While Penultimate is only available for iPads, with Quill you can still upload your notes to Evernote for

3 Information on The American Lawyer’s survey is available here: http://www.americanlawyer.com/PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=1202575625114&interactive=true&slreturn =20121025163907.

easy access or optical character recognition. Quill requires that you have Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) or greater.

Note Taker HD is available for your iPad and offers some additional features that make it worth the $4.99 price tag. Note Taker easily imports PDF documents (such as your deposition outline) and its zoom writing features allow you to easily write notes alongside your outline as you conduct the deposition. You can also open a “blank” page in the app and take free hand notes. The blank page is a ruled page with a yellow background that has the feel of a legal pad. Note Take also allows you to key in words using a touch screen keyboard. The way Note Taker easily incorporates PDFs makes it well worth the increased price.

2. Deposition specific apps.

In addition to using your tablet to take notes during a deposition, there are several deposition specific apps that offer various features useful when deposing a witness. As I mentioned the note taking apps work best, in my opinion, if you are writing on a deposition outline. The Deponent App is an application designed for creating deposition outlines. The app comes with a couple hundred questions already created for you, grouped into twenty different categories (admonitions, basis of opinion, education, health problems, etc.) You can add your own questions and categories. Adding case specific questions can be time consuming, but this may be offset by not having to type or write those questions that get used repeatedly.

The Deponent App also allows you to save exhibits within the application for easy access. You will still need to bring copies for the deponent and any other counsel present. You can “attach” exhibits to a particular question in your outline and pull up the exhibit as you have referred to it. There are three ways to upload exhibits to the application, through Dropbox, iTunes or directly to the iPad. The Deponent App is available on the iPad for $9.99.

If your court reporter uses Case CATalyst software, then with the iCVNet application on your iPad you can receive real-time text of the deposition as you are taking it. iCVNet works with the Case CATalyst software over a wireless network to send the streaming text. Your court reporter will supply you with a password and the real-time data is encrypted to ensure security while streaming. You can easily scroll through the transcript, review previous testimony, or use the search feature to find specific text. The app also allows you to underline portions of the text. When the deposition is complete, you can email the text to yourself for viewing later. The app is available for free, but your court reporter must be familiar with the program and use the Case CATalyst software.

In a similar fashion, the Live Deposition (available for both the Android and iOS tablets) app allows you to receive real-time transcripts directly from the stenograph machine. Live Deposition also allows you to view the video feed on your tablet for video recorded depositions. The Live Deposition app is free to download, but your court reporter must have a subscription with the livedeposition.com and use compatible software.

There are several apps that allow you to read and mark on deposition transcripts from your tablet device. TranscriptPad is available for your iPad and is the second most expensive app in this review, costing $49.99. TranscriptPad was developed by the same company (Lit Software, LLC) behind TrialPad, an app we discuss in the courtroom technology section. TranscriptPad allows you to group deposition transcripts by case and offers several tools to make deposition review easier. For example, TranscriptPad comes with a “play” option that scrolls through the deposition at adjustable speeds to make reading on tablets much easier. You can also highlight text in multiple colors, add notes or tags to key portions of the text, and you can “cut and paste” portions of the text and email them to yourself for later use.

Other apps such as Mobile Transcript and E-Transcript also offer transcription review capabilities. E-Transcript was designed by Thomson Reuters to read their e-transcript format (.ptx files). It offers some of the features as TranscriptPad, but only works with Thompson Reuters .ptx file formats and is intended for inclusion with the Westlaw Case Notebook software. The app is available for free. Mobile Transcript works for both iOS and Android devices and allows you to securely access transcripts for free using the free mobile app. But like Live Deposition and iCVNet, the court reporter service must pay a monthly subscription fee to offer this service to its attorney clients.

C. Ten Useful Apps

1. Billable Hours – ($1.99) Billable Hours is just that, a mobile time keeping app made for those of us who have to keep up with the six-minute billables. The app takes a little discipline, but once you create the habit, it is easy to use. At $1.99, the app will quickly pay for itself.

2. Court Days – ($0.99) Court Days calculates days before or after a particular deadline. The app has each federal district’s civil rules, so it knows that particular jurisdiction’s court holidays. This app may seem ultra-simple, but sometimes it is better to have Court Days do the counting for you.

3. Dropbox – (FREE) Dropbox is a service that allows you to store and organize files online. Once you have a Dropbox account you can access your uploaded files from their website or your smart phone. The basic account is free and comes with a sufficient amount of storage to meet most needs.

4. AroundMe – (FREE) AroundMe is a must have app for the road warrior. AroundMe is the most used local search application globally. AroundMe uses your mobile device’s navigation capabilities to perform location-aware searches. This allows you to search for the nearest gas station, ATM, restaurant or other business. The app is available on your iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet or Windows mobile platform.

5. Wunderlist – (FREE) Wunderlist is a very simple task management app. It easily allows you to lists tasks, place deadlines for each task and group tasks under user created categories. Wunderlist’s greatest asset is that it is available for your smart phone, tablet and desktop. Wunderlist syncs your tasks with each device you use.

6. Sign-n-Send – ($4.99) Sign-n-Send allows you to digitally sign PDF and Word documents and then send those documents to a recipient. The documents are stored and shared on an encrypted server to protect your signature.

7. Dragon Dictation – (FREE) Dragon Dictation is a voice recognition application that dictates straight from your smart phone. The program is based on the Dragon Naturally Speaking dictation software, which has been in the dictation game since 1997. The downside to this app is that it is not entirely hands free. You have to press several buttons to email or text your dictations.

8. Evernote – (FREE) Evernote is a tool that allows you to quickly create and save notes. Evernote operates in your web browser, making it easy to save whole sections of a website or just snippets. The application also offers to OCR (optical character recognition) your photos and images so you can find them later by searching for text in the image, meaning you can take a photo of a whiteboard in a meeting and later locate it based on the text that was written on the board. Evernote is available on your computer, tablet and smart phone. Just like Wunderlist, Evernote syncs with each device.

9. Priority Matrix – ($3.99) Priority Matrix is another “to-do” list app, but this one displays your tasks in a color coded manner, which may work better than other apps if you are a visual person. The app uses the “4-quadrant method” where tasks are placed into color coded quadrants by level of importance, deadlines, or other categories you create.

10. All the Google Apps (Voice, Maps, Calendar, Gmail, Drive etc.) – (FREE) The Google apps are not much more than mobile versions of the sites you can access through your smart phone’s browser. Still the services Google offers are worth having quick access to on your phone’s home screen.

III. IN THE COURTROOM

A. Tips on Using Technology in the Courtroom

While most Kentucky courtrooms may seem to be lacking in technological advances, new technologies are starting to creep into courtrooms either through updates made by the court or more often through technologically savvy attorneys who show up with laptops, tablets, projectors and other gadgets in tow. Either way, it is important that the attorney wishing to employ technology in the courtroom knows the courtroom, knows the judge and knows their audience.

Any attorney who has practiced in the Commonwealth of Kentucky knows that not all courtrooms are created equal. Just as you should before printing any traditional demonstrative evidence, check the courtroom out beforehand. But instead of just worrying about how large the font or image should be to be visible from the jury box, you must check to make sure the power cords will reach, whether the court has a screen available for projections or if you will need to supply one. If you plan to use any items with sound you will want to see what sound systems are available. If none are available for your use, then you may need to bring your own sound equipment.

The Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky publish their courtroom technological capabilities on their website. For example, the Louisville Federal courtroom includes a digital document camera (Elmo) to view documents, photographs, x-rays, 3D objects, etc.; touch screen monitor that allows you to mark on projected documents and images; and lastly a laptop connection for your computer generated demonstrations. If you have questions about the technological capabilities of a district or circuit court and you are unable to find out just by looking, I would contact the judge’s staff or the Administrative Office of the Courts’ Department of Technology Services.

Once you have ensured that your equipment will work, you will also want to check with the judge’s staff, the court clerk and/or with other attorneys who have practiced before your judge regarding the technology they permit in their courtroom. Some judges may be less permissible than others. It would be ill advised to commit the presentation of your case to particular pieces of technology without first checking with the judge presiding over your case.

Lastly, every attorney must know their audience. The point with using technology in the courtroom should not be to wow your audience with bells and whistles, but instead your goal should be to more accurately

and smoothly present your case with as little unattended delays as possible. If it would be quicker for you to find a foam board than to find an image in your trial presentation software then you should stick to the foam boards. The technology will not impress the jury panel if you do not seem smart enough to use it.

Even if used effectively, the best technology may not fit your case. There are a number of factors to consider that will vary depending on the jurisdiction and type of case. Needless to say, if you are representing a large corporation in a small town and opposing counsel is going to paint you as the high-powered outsider from the “big” city, it might do more harm than good to use needless technology that stands in contrast to your adversary’s.

Below I discuss some applications and software for use during voir dire and trial. The voir dire section is a relatively comprehensive review of applications for your mobile device that help you track the jury selection process in a convenient and useful fashion, while in the trial section I have provided examples of trial presentation and organization applications/software.

B. Voir Dire

A tablet really lends itself to use during jury selection. Below are six pretrial apps that may enhance your jury selection process:

1. iJuror – ($19.99) Is a jury selection software that is intuitive and easy to use. It allows the attorney to keep track of all aspects of jury management from the juror pool to strikes. You can customize the size of the juror pool and assign seats to a particular juror. iJuror also allows you to input demographics such as age, sex and race. You can also add notes to any juror in your jury pool. The app also allows you to categorize potential jurors with tags such as “like,” “dislike” or “don’t know.”

2. JuryTracker – ($4.99) While JuryTracker contains some jury selection features it shines in tracking the empaneled jury throughout the trial. JuryTracker’s jury selection features limit you to selecting either six or twelve jurors and only 0-2 alternatives. It also lacks in tracking the jury pool as efficiently as iJuror. Once the jury is empanelled, JuryTracker becomes very useful allowing you to add notes to jurors, tag jurors as key jurors or whether you believe they are leaning toward the plaintiff or defense. JuryTracker will also email you a text file of your notes and designations in a spreadsheet format. It may be worthwhile to shell out the $25 and have both JuryTracker and iJuror on your mobile device.

3. JuryStar – ($39.99) JuryStar was nominated as a 2012 Best Trial Prep iPad app by The National Law Journal. JuryStar offers much of the flexibility as iJuror, allowing you to select the number of jury

box seats, enter names and background demographic information, seat each juror in the jury box, view and track strikes by both sides, etc. But JuryStar comes with several other features making it a complete voir dire tool. With JuryStar you can enter specific lines of questioning and use questions from prior trials, assign value to individual answers and compare and contrast the entire group’s ratings from a single screen.

4. iJury – ($14.99) Uses visual cues to indicate whether jurors are positive or negative to your case. Like the apps discussed above, iJury allows you to track demographic information and keep notes on individual jurors all in one place. iJury provides several analytical tools that make it unique in a crowded market place. iJury presents your jury data in charts and graphs that give you an easy overall view of the pool and potential panel.

5. Jury Duty – ($39.99) Its name may sound like an app for those serving on your jury, but it is designed by Texas attorney Stacy Kelly as another competitor in the voir dire app market. Like the other apps mentioned, Jury Duty allows you to track jurors for multiple cases. Jury Duty is well laid out and contains better graphics and feel than most of the other apps. However, it offers little additional functionality. What I find most troubling about this app is that it does not allow you to add jurors easily, since all jurors must be added from the initial screen. It is clear that the app is designed for those with sufficient prep time to have the jury pool preloaded into the app.

C. Trial

The following is a list of four applications designed for use when organizing and presenting during a trial:

1. Exhibit A – ($9.99) Allows you to easily import documents, videos and images using Dropbox, iTunes, WiFi, or email for display during trial. You can also highlight, mark and call-out key sections of your exhibit instantly. The app comes with a zoom feature that can be very effective. To display on an external monitor, you need to connect the iPad’s VGA adapter to a projector input cable. Again, you should make sure that you have everything you need for a smooth presentation. This includes making sure your iPad’s sleep function is set to “never.” Once you have the app in presentation mode, it can be very clunky to have to “wake up” your app in the middle of a cross-examination or closing argument. The app also comes with a “whiteboard” view, which allows you to write directly on the iPad and have the items displayed on the projection.

2. RLTC: Evidence – ($4.99) As I believe I have said before, you often get what you pay for. RLTC: Evidence is proof of that. Like Exhibit A and the two items below, RLTC: Evidence in an image

presentation application. It only allows you to upload documents via iTunes, which I find needlessly restrictive. Additionally, you cannot set up separate case files. Instead, all exhibits are listed in the order they are uploaded. The app’s highlighting and underlining function leaves a little to be desired and can sometimes strikethrough or blur text.

3. TrialPad – ($89.00) The application is expensive, but is a highly usable trial presentation tool. Like many of the other options we have discussed, TrialPad allows you to import documents, images and videos through multiple avenues, including Dropbox, email and iTunes. TrialPad’s interface is slick and user friendly. Each case is assigned a file that resembles a classic manila folder. When the document is presented you can highlight, markup and enlarge the images. You can also tag documents in a way that allows you to pull up a list of documents with a particular tag.

4. TrialDirector – (Free) The TrialDirector Application for your iPad is free. It allows you to create and manage multiple case folders, import a single file or entire folders from Dropbox, email, etc. The application comes with callout and zoom features, freehand writing, highlighting and redaction. The TrailDirector app is a must have if you are already using TrialDirector’s presentation software “TrialDirector 6” ($695), but for free it may be a go to app for those without TrialDirector 6, too.