by Brian Focht | Nov 30, 2013
Plenty of new apps were released or updated in November. While you were eating Thanksgiving dinner, I was… well, probably eating Thanksgiving dinner. But afterwards, I put together the Best New Apps for Lawyers from November 2013 for both iOS and Android. iOS: Knock (to Unlock) by Knock Software, Inc., $3.99 Although this app has relatively limited applicability (only for iPhone owners who also own a Mac computer), my recent discussions about security and the sheer ingenuity of this app requires its inclusion in this article. The concept: using a Bluetooth Low Energy connection, you can unlock your password-protected Mac with just two taps on your phone. You don’t have to open the app or even take your phone out of your pocket. Two taps, and your computer is unlocked. Also, since it utilizes Bluetooth connection, you’ll never accidentally unlock your computer by tapping on your phone while miles away at work. The only caveat: it may not work for older Macs. So check the compatibility first! TextExtractor – OCR Scanner by Alex Lesley, $0.99 We have plenty of experience now with apps that are able to scan documents into electronic format. Now, the next step: optical character recognition. TextExtractor is designed to be an easy-to-use app that provides state-of-the-art character recognition of any document you scan into your iOS device. Able to analyze documents that have been scanned in via your device’s camera or saved in the photo album, TextExtractor is able to recognize English, Russian, French, German, Spanish, and Italian text. Once captured, you’re able to copy, edit, and save the recognized text in your archive. You’re... read more
by Brian Focht | Nov 8, 2013
Part IV in my series reviewing three of the top cloud-based case management software services available to attorneys. Part I: Clio Part II: Rocket Matter Part III: MyCase Part IV: Review and Comparison Over the course of my last few posts, my cloud-based case management software review has discussed three top services individually: Clio, Rocket Matter, and MyCase. Evaluating their strengths and weaknesses in several key areas that I consider to be highly important for case management software, I attempted to provide an in-depth look at the services that could prove useful to small and mid-size law firms, looking for a more cost-effective alternative to the incredibly pricey practice management options currently available. By focusing on the case management software that each service provides, I deliberately ignored the billing/timekeeping/accounting functions available. I did this partially because I really wanted to focus on how effectively these systems handle case management, and partially because to be all inclusive would preclude the in-depth analysis I wanted to do. Now, the fun part: which of the services is best: Case/Matter Information: Clio MyCase Rocket Matter I’ll be honest, it was really difficult to decide between Clio and MyCase on this one, so it came down to a single factor: contact roles. Clio allows users to designate the role of case contacts on a case-by-case basis, whereas MyCase does not. The ability to designate a contact as an attorney in one case and an arbitrator in another, or a treating physician in one case and an expert witness in another, is crucial in litigation. Both Clio and MyCase put all the most important information... read more
by Brian Focht | Nov 7, 2013
Part III in my series reviewing three of the top cloud-based case management software services available to attorneys. Part I: Clio Part II: Rocket Matter Part III: MyCase Part IV: Review & Comparison My reviews will focus on how effectively the services provide case- and matter-management. My reviews will not discuss the accounting/timekeeping/billing aspects of the services. Instead, I will focus on the accessibility/presentation of case information, contacts, calendar & tasks, documents, document assembly, and unique features each service provides. Product: MyCase by MyCase, Inc. Price: $39.99 per month for attorneys, $29.99 per month for staff MyCase advertises itself as “an affordable, intuitive and powerful legal practice management software designed for the modern law firm.” A full-service cloud-based case management software service, MyCase’s biggest selling point is that it is the only case management system that offers an integrated client portal, allowing you to keep your clients updated on everything going on in their case. Case/Matter Information Accessing case/matter information easily and quickly is a major strength of MyCase. The matters are organized by name, and can be further organized by practice area, so that you can easily access your cases (particularly important in a firm with a large number of cases). The main screen for individual matters is nicely organized, with the basic case information available immediately. Tabs give in-screen access to the case’s calendar, notes, tasks, messages and contacts. Custom fields for each case are given a prominent location on the case information screen, proof that MyCase has placed great importance on a user-controlled experience. Another great benefit is direct access to case-specific Workflows (see Unique Feature,... read more
by Brian Focht | Nov 6, 2013
Part II in my series reviewing three of the top cloud-based case management software services available to attorneys. Part I: Clio Part II: Rocket Matter Part III: MyCase Part IV: Review & Comparison My reviews will focus on how effectively the services provide case- and matter-management. My reviews will not discuss the accounting/timekeeping/billing aspects of the services. Instead, I will focus on the accessibility/presentation of case information, contacts, calendar & tasks, documents, document assembly, and unique features each service provides. Rocket Matter by Rocket Matter, LLC Price: $59.99 per user, per month Rocket Matter advertises itself as “the blazingly fast, leading legal billing and law firm management software.” As I will discuss in greater detail below, Rocket Matter clearly sees itself as a billing software first, as demonstrated by the testimonial quotes contained on their main page (two address billing, none address case management). However, they have grown to be one of the most used cloud-based case management software systems on the market. The real question is, how does their case management portion stack up? Case/Matter Information Rocket Matter emphasizes it’s ability to provide billing and accounting to small firms, and its focus on the accounting side is probably felt the greatest in the display of case/matter information, which is sadly neglected. That said, Rocket Matter really does a lot of things right in this area. Rather than putting case information and details in the most prominent location, as Clio and MyCase both do, Rocket Matter puts your upcoming calendar appointment and tasks front and center for each case. The case information, including a full calendar, your to-do list, and... read more
by Brian Focht | Nov 5, 2013
Part I in my series reviewing three of the top cloud-based case management software services available to attorneys. Part I: Clio Part II: Rocket Matter Part III: MyCase Part IV: Review & Comparison My reviews will focus on how effectively the services provide case- and matter-management. My reviews will not discuss the accounting/timekeeping/billing aspects of the services. Instead, I will focus on the accessibility/presentation of case information, contacts, calendar & tasks, documents, document assembly, and unique features each service provides. Clio by Themis Solutions Price: $49/month for lawyers, $25/month for support staff. Clio advertises itself as a cloud-based “practice management, time & billing and client collaboration platform for small- to mid-sized law firms.” Advertising bank-grade security for your information and a fully-functional iPhone app, Clio offers all the basic aspects required to serve as case management software for lawyers. Case/Matter Information One of the biggest strengths of the Clio case management software is the matter display tab. The design is simple, and allows for easy organization of your cases. However, the true beauty of Clio’s system comes when you open one of those matters. Without scrolling (unless you’ve added an obscene number of custom fields), all of the basic information for your matter is displayed on screen. Just beneath the case information section is a series of tabs: Client, Transactions, Contacts, Tasks, Calendar, Notes, Time, Expenses, Documents, and Communications. Each tab allows one-click access to a summary page for the respected area. Want to see which of your contacts are linked to the case (and for what role)? Just click on the contacts tab, and they’re displayed without your... read more
by Brian Focht | Oct 28, 2013
It can be tough to keep up with the newest offerings in the world of apps these days. So this will be my first installment of what I hope will be a monthly series to help keep you updated on the newest apps to assist you in your law practice, for both iOS and Android. This month has been packed to the gills with product announcements all over the tech industry, not least of which was Apple’s iPad event. Without further delay, here are the Best New Apps for Lawyers from October 2013: iOS TweetBot 3 by Tapbots, $2.99 for a limited time, $4.99 regular price. For attorneys who rely on Twitter as part of their social media strategy, or just as part of their daily routine, Tweetbot was already a valuable tool. Tweetbot’s best feature, though, was that it always made using your Twitter account less tedious and, dare I say, a lot more fun. Functionality may have come after form for Tweetbot, but this complete redesign makes Tweetbot 3 an incredibly functional way to enjoy using Twitter. Rebuilt from the ground up, Tweetbot 3 incorporates a new interface design that closely resembles the slick new artistry of iOS 7. Additionally, you are now able to mute Tweets from certain people, hashtags or keywords (as Gizmodo suggests, potentially to ignore things like spoilers for TV shows) without having to unfollow anyone. Extra functionality has also been added to allow you to sync your activity between your phone, tablet and computer. Cannonball eMail by Cannonball Corp., free. Why would we need another email client, you might ask? Well, if... read more
by Brian Focht | Oct 23, 2013
While researching the apps that I included in my recent review of jury selection apps a few weeks back, I came upon an app that offered the most unique approach to voir dire I’d seen in an app. Although the app didn’t really fit into what I was hoping for in a jury selection app, the promise of the app brought me back, and after spending some time with it, I’m definitely more impressed. Jury Strike for iPad, designed by Atlanta attorney Jennifer Jordan of the Jordan Firm, was designed to assist attorneys in her firm to pick juries. Based on her own trial experience, the app allows attorneys to create a list of general voir dire questions, follow up questions, enter personal information about jurors, and track juror challenges. This is what you get when an attorney designs an app to meet their own needs rather than what they perceive others need: … an innovative app that beats every app on the market for General Voir Dire. It Helps Me Do… The biggest point that Jury Strike advertises is the ability to ask general questions to a panel of jurors, which is something that none of the other jury selection apps have really tried to address. And they should keep advertising it, because it’s awesome. It Helps Me By… Jury Strike begins by prompting you to enter some basic case information (case name, judge, venue, number of jurors, row width, and seating direction). Next, you move on to your questions. Here’s an area of voir dire that the other apps in this group seem to completely ignore: there are... read more
by Brian Focht | Oct 16, 2013
Among the most powerful tech tools available to the mobile attorney is the electronic signature. All an attorney needs is their tablet and an internet connection, and documents that formerly needed to be printed and signed at the office can now be signed and sent without ever taking paper form. Among the most popular apps on the market for electronic signatures is eSign by Landtech. And it’s popular for a reason. This fantastic app allows you to electronically sign any PDF document and email it to its recipient, right from your iPad. What’s the big deal, a lot of apps do that? See for yourself… eSign comes built in with a number of options for opening documents AND for what you can add once you’re there. When you first open the app, it will request a default email address. This is the email that all of your signed documents will be sent to once signed (don’t worry, you’re able to specify a different email or additional emails at that point). The strength of the app becomes apparent immediately when you realize how many different ways eSign allows you to import a document for signature. Opening a document eSign allows you to receive a document for signature in a variety of ways. As you can see, you’re able to open documents from email, from your Dropbox account, or by photo-scanning a document with your tablet’s camera. However, this list truly gives an incomplete look at how many ways you can open documents for signatures in eSign. With an easy-to-use interface, and step-by-step instructions available, eSign allows you to add a... read more
by Brian Focht | Sep 26, 2013
Fresh off my recent list of jury selection apps that left me a little bit underwhelmed, I stumbled across a brand new one in the Apple App Store: Jury Selection for iPad. Offering a free 10-day trial, I figured it was worthwhile to take a look and see if this new app offered solutions to any of the problems I identified with the other available selections. Jury Selection for iPad bills itself as being able to make jury selection “more efficient and effective!” Unfortunately, although it certainly possesses a handsome main screen of a courtroom, with several open seats, Jury Selection for iPad falls short of its claims. Jury Selection for iPad’s advertisement suggests that its features will allow users to “spend more time focusing on the panel” and less time “fumbling around with handwritten notes and/or charts.” However, in its initial offering, it falls far short of most of the other existing jury selection apps on the market. Key Feature: Main Courtroom Screen Jury Selection for iPad does boast a very nice display of the courtroom and, once you have input information about the individual jurors, a relatively handy ability to access the notes for each juror without leaving the main screen, including access to a 3-level preference indicator (like – neutral – don’t like). The panels are adjustable for size and shape, and the app also allows you to adjust the seating in the veneer from one side of the courtroom to the other, to match the setup of whatever courthouse you’re in. Fatal Flaw(s): Several 1) Juror information input is clumsy, ineffective, and buggy. First, the app itself... read more
by Brian Focht | Sep 11, 2013
Ok, we’ve all taken a day to cool down from the highs of Apple’s new products announcement yesterday. What’s that? You didn’t experience euphoria? Well, even if you didn’t absolutely fall in love with the products and software that Apple announced yesterday, I’m going to tell you 4 reasons lawyers will love the iPhone 5s. Or, at least, why they should. There are a number of features that the new iPhone 5s comes packed with, ranging from hardware upgrades to a full suite of free software that seem almost geared towards making the iPhone an even more obvious choice for lawyers. (Unlike the rest of the population, lawyers tend to already prefer the iPhone and the iPad to their Android counterparts by a significant margin, according to the ABA.) However, first, I will start with the one you’ve probably heard about, but is so significant for attorneys that it bears mentioning: 1) Fingerprint Reader Yes, I know that a lot of critics on the internet are calling this a gimmick, but even top-level electronic security people are saying that the new fingerprint reader gives the iPhone the potential to have two-level security that no other phone can match. The ideal electronic security system, according to Christopher Pogue, director of security vendor Trustwave’s SpiderLabs security research team, uses some combination of something you know, like a password or a PIN, something you have, like a token, or something you are, like a biometric feature, including fingerprints. The iPhone 5s is the first mobile device that will truly allow for the use of a biometric feature. So yes, although the fingerprint... read more
