Mobile Lawyering

by Tom McNichol

It wasn't long ago that only a handful of rudimentary phone applications were useful in the practice of law. Now, with the explosion of the iPhone and the iPad, the continued strength of the BlackBerry platform for business, and the growing popularity of phones running Google's Android mobile operating system, the problem with phone apps for the law is figuring out which to choose. Here are some mobile apps that many attorneys are finding handy.

General Legal Research
The most controversial legal app of all may be the one that delivers the digital version of Black's Law Dictionary to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Not because the application doesn't deliver the goods?users get a well-thought-out mobile version of the definitive legal dictionary, whose massive print version has been sagging the shelves of attorneys' bookcases since it was first published in 1891. What's controversial is the price. In a world where most apps are either free or cost just a few bucks, the Black's Law Dictionary app costs a whopping $49.95. Still, that's little more than half the retail cost of the hardcover print edition, and the mobile version has enough additional features that paying 50 dollars for the app starts to seem reasonable.

The Black's app contains more than 43,000 definitions of legal terms and law-related abbreviations and acronyms, along with about 3,000 legal quotations. You can look up terms by typing keywords into a search bar, and results will appear immediately, sometimes even before you've managed to finish typing the entire keyword, thanks to the auto-fill feature. Once you've located the term you're searching for, you simply tap on it and the definition pops up.

So is the app really worth $50? Well, it does put the premier legal dictionary in your pocket?something that can't be said of the print edition (unless you have really big pockets). And one extra feature of the mobile version alone may be worth the price: the pronunciation tool. You can tap your finger or use a cursor on about 7,000 of the legal terms to hear the word or words pronounced by a voice that actually sounds human. It's a handy tool to have when you want to, say, drop a devastating Latin legal phrase but aren't sure how to pronounce it. (BlackBerry and Palm users have to settle for the Bouvier's Law Dictionary app. It costs only $20, but it doesn't have nearly as many definitions or features as Black's, nor Black's longstanding reputation.)

Case Law
If you've ever found yourself sitting in a dimly lit courtroom hallway wishing you had a few more cases to cite for your upcoming oral argument, Fastcase for the iPhone and iPad may be just the ticket. It's a nifty and surprisingly full-featured legal research app, and it's free (though you'll need to register and sign up for an online account). It's no substitute for thorough legal research, but it's a quick and easy way to put a lot of case law in the palm of your hand almost instantly.

The app draws on the search technology of Fastcase's Web-based legal research site (www.fastcase.com). It lets you search by key legal terms, sort the most relevant results, then integrate citation-analysis tools into the results. You can even look up a specific case by the reporter citation. And because the cases you've searched for can be saved and the app automatically logs your search history, you don't have to redo your research from scratch every time you exit the app.

Time Management
Time is seldom a lawyer's friend?there's usually not enough of it. Especially if it's billable. One of the most common time-related questions attorneys face is, How many days until I have to do something on this matter? The Court Days app for Apple mobile devices is a simple and inexpensive (99 cents) calculator that instantly figures the exact calendar date for a certain number of days in the future. It can be invaluable for coping with the multiple due dates that attorneys routinely face, such as court dates or deadlines for filing motions. You can count days forward or backward; the app automatically starts with the current date unless you change the reference day.

If your concern is billable time, the Timewerks Mobile Billing app ($9.99 for the iPhone or iPod touch) lets you track your time and even send invoices on the go. (An app called My Time Tracker?also $9.99?offers similar features for BlackBerry devices.)

Dictation and Note Taking
There are lots of dictation apps on the market, and most smart phones give users the option of recording voice memos directly to the phone. But then you have to remember to go back and listen to your recorded pearls of wisdom?and do something with them. The Note2Self app for BlackBerry solves your problems (it's $4.99, but you can sign up for a free trial). The app records your voice message and then sends the audio file to your email address (or any other address, such as an assistant's) with a few simple button clicks. It's perfect for legal folks who like to have all of their notes and tasks stored in email instead of fumbling to play back audio dictation from their cell phone or pocket recorder. Note2Self doesn't have many additional features, but in this case simplicity is a virtue. (There's a similar app for the iPhone called Dictamus, costing $9.99.)

Get Out of Jail Free!
Here's a subversive app that surely every lawyer can use: It provides suffering attorneys with a graceful way to exit an interminable meeting that's threatening to destroy their souls. The app is called Fake-A-Call (there are Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, and iPod touch versions, ranging in price from free to 99 cents), and it turns your cell phone into a lifeline by ringing your handset at a time of your choosing, thus providing you with a credible reason to leave. A setup screen also lets you choose "Fake Call Now!" to unleash the bogus incoming call immediately. You can record a voice message beforehand and have it play on the other end of the line when you pick up, or choose from a menu of prerecorded samples to summon you away for a variety of pretexts. This app won't necessarily make you a better lawyer, but it could very well make you a happier one.

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