iPad Apps for Lawyers - Part VII: Trial Evidence Prep and Presentation

PowerPoint and KeyNote are popular go-tos for presentations, but there are other, more courtroom oriented ways of presenting your case.

ExhibitView: Useful for organizing case exhibits and presentations. ExhibitView enables users to organize, create sub folders, take notes and create white boards. Presentation tools include call-out features, highlighting, a freehand pen tool, laser pointer, and control of your output to TV or projection device. Additionally, there is a PC version! This is particularly nice, for creating presentations on your PC and saving to an iPad come trial time.

TrialDirector: With TrialDirector you can create a case folder, add exhibits to your case through OneDrive, Box, Dropbox, WebDAV or iTunes, and interact with evidence using annotation and presentation tools. As with ExhibitView, tools include call-out, freehand writing, highlighting, and laser pointer. For being FREE, it's a really powerful app and comparable to some of pricier apps that do the same thing.

TrialPad: TrialPad, obviously works very similarly to TrialDirector and ExhibitView; call-out sections of documents, highlight text, compare documents side-by-side, edit and show video clips, add exhibit stickers to documents, and search document text. File formats supported include PDF, JPG, PNG, TIF, TXT, and all audio/video formats that are supported by iPad. You can import multiple files at once, keeping file and folder structures intact, via Box, Dropbox, Citrix ShareFile, Transporter, WebDAV.

Timeline 3D: Different from the above apps, this one focuses on timelines. Enter events and images, movies, or PDFs, then Timeline 3D does the rest for you. Notes, weblinks, and tags can also be added to timelines. There's a variety of backgrounds or styles to choose from, and timelines can be exported to PowerPoint and Keynote.

And that, wraps it up! I hope that this was helpful, if even just a little. Please, feel free to borrow an iPad from us and give these apps a whirl.


Be Aware: While the apps discussed in this series are helpful tools, they are in no way meant to replace official law sources. Please, rely on your McKusick Law Library or certified government websites for reference.

iPad Apps for Lawyers - Part VI: The Jury

Gentlemen of the Jury by John Morgan

Darlings of USD,

Jury selection apps - they make collecting juror information and jury selection a little more organized.

iJuror: It has an intuitive, simple interface. You can navigate your jury either by seating arrangement or name. Adding and dismissing jurors is as easy as "dragging-and-dropping," because that's exactly what you do; drag, and then drop. iJuror allows you to share and email information with colleagues, add notes throughout the trial, and store all your trials in one location.

iJury: Provides you with metrics (graphs) based on how you score each jurors questionnaire responses and demographic information. This can alert you to potential gender, race, wealth bias to help you pick your best jury.

JuryTracker: This is where we deviate from jury selection to jury observation. JuryTracker uses gestures and emoticons to streamline note taking observations. Typed notes can also be added to the report. All notes are time stamped so they can be cross referenced with the transcript to better understand what jurors were reacting to. JuryTracker includes reports that can be saved for later review, or emailed. Reports include juror responses sorted by juror, by party presenting, by type of response and in chronological order.

I don't need to preach to you about the importance of preparation, but as a friendly reminder - keep them tech skills sharp. Learning about and using apps like these can only help as technology in the courtroom changes.

In our next, and final installment of the iPad apps for lawyers series we'll talk about evidence preparation and presentation. Move over PowerPoint!


Be Aware: While the apps discussed in this series are helpful tools, they are in no way meant to replace official law sources. Please, rely on your McKusick Law Library or certified government websites for reference.