Twelve Ways Technology Can Make You a Better Trial Lawyer

By David Swanner

The tagline of my weblog is ‘Using Technology to be a better Trial Lawyer’. While I am a gadget freak, this does not mean that using gadgets and tech toys will make you a better trial lawyer. Matt Buchanan of Promote the Progress wrote a great post on gadgets are not the answer. Here are the Top 12 ways I feel that technology can make you a better trial lawyer:

1. Use Listservs to Stay on Top of the Law – As much as I love weblogs, I love listservs even more. The ability to send a single e-mail and have it go out to 500 trial lawyers in the state, is a magical thing. If you have questions on case law, insurance coverage, defense attorneys, experts, judges, practice management or just need to vent you can get answers.  For South Carolina trial lawyers the South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association listserv is great. In addition to your state TLA, check out the ATLA listservs and the San Antonio Trial Lawyers listserv which is considered one of the best in the country.
2. Use Weblogs and Internet Searches for Trial Techniques and Tips - Both Evan’s Illinois Trial Practice and my South Carolina Trial Law collect trial techniques and tips. There aren’t a lot of plaintiff oriented trial weblogs yet, but there are a lot of great articles on the internet from attorneys all over the country. If you don’t see Evan or I talking about what you want to know about, do a search for the information.
3. Use Software for Trial Preparation – Use programs like CaseMap to nail down the details of your case. CaseMap allows you to enter all of the people, places and things about your case. You identify the elements of your causes of action and then link your facts to the causes of action. You can then sort the information by cause of action to see exactly how you will prove each element, or by witness to produce an automatic witness outline to show what you will prove with that witness. Dennis Kennedy explains CaseMap in more detail in this ABA Law Practice Today article. For the more free-thinking minded (yeah, that’s common in lawyers) you can try MindManager mindmapping software. Promote the Progress and Inc. tell more about the mindmapping software.

4. Use Trial Presentation Software to Present Information – Sanction and Trial Director are the top of their class. They allow you to show video depositions without editing, present documents and photographs. The programs allow you to highlight, zoom in and draw arrows to any piece of evidence. The great thing about this software is that it can be done on the fly, instead of a pre-set order like on PowerPoint. The other great thing is with video-depositions. You can put in the page and line numbers just like you would a deposition designation and the video will play only that section of the deposition. Neat, neat stuff.

5. Use Software for Demonstrative Exhibits – TimeMap and Timeline Express are two great programs that generate timelines. Keyhole allows you to use aerial photography by typing in the street address of the area you want. MindManager, which I mentioned above, can also simplify complex relationships and show them in easy to understand graphical format. One of the nice things about MindManager is that you can portray your information with different colors and different ‘levels’ so you can start off with the basics and work your way down to the details. Done properly, you can make very complex information easy to understand. You can also use a wide format printer to print your own exhibits inexpensively.
6. Use the Internet for Research on Injuries and Defendants – Accurint is a great source of information on people. We can get as much from a $5 search as we were getting from $100 investigator searches. Check out the background of your defendant. Research your injury. With Google having an image search, this makes our job a lot easier. Jerry Lawson at Netlawblog explains how to do an image search. Research the product, the defendant, the injury and anything else regarding the case. The internet is a free ice cream shop. Grab a scoop and dig in.
7. Use Software for Increased Efficiency – Activewords allows you to turn anything into a shortcut and/or a hotkey. Al Nye the Lawyer Guy did a great review explaining ActiveWords. Notemap is an outlining program that can help save time, TimeMatters 6.0 also has an outlining program built-in. Also, TextMap and Summation can help you summarize depositions. Hot Docs can help you automatically generate documents based on rules and greatly reduce the time necessary to generate documents.
8. Use Weblogs to Stay Current on Technology – This is where the blogosphere starts to soar. There is a tremendous amount of talented, tech savvy lawyers who are willing to share their knowledge. Some of the major players are  Dennis Kennedy, Jerry Lawson’s Netlawblog, Lawtech Guru Blog by Jeff Beard, the Digital Practice of Law, Strategic Legal Technology by Prism Legal Consulting, Tech Law Advisor by Kevin Heller. Reading these guys will help you stay abreast on technology and how other lawyers are using it.
9. Use Weblogs to sty on Top of Productivity News and Thinking – As a natural procastinator, I’ve been focusing on productivity and how to get more work done with less effort. David Allen of Getting Things Done, Michael Hyatt’s Working Smart, Buzz Bruggemman of ActiveWords Buzznovation, theofficeweblog,  Brendon Connelly’s Slacker Manager, Frank Patrick’s Focused Performance Business Blog, Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders and Steve Pavlina’s Blog are good places to start.
10. Use Software to Manage your Case Load – Whether you go with Amicus Attorney, Time Matters, PC Law, ProLaw, Client Profiles, Perfect Practice, Needles or TrialWorks, having a good case management system and using it can greatly increase your effectiveness as a trial attorney.
11. Use Weblogs for Practice Management Advice – Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips and Reid Trautz’s Reid My Blog are two new blogs by established law practice management experts. Matt Homann’s the [non]billable hour offers practice management tips, marketing advice and other good business ideas. Bruce MacEwen’s  Adam Smith, Esq. examines large law firm economics. Even though I’m a sole practitioner, I find most of his posts relevant to managing my own practice. Courtney Kennedy, South Carolina’s practice management advisor also has great information.
12. Use Weblogs for Marketing Advice/Help – There’s a world of legal marketing and other helpful weblogs out there. Some of the blogs that I find helpful are Larry Bodine’s Professional Marketing Blog, Ed Poll’s LawBiz Blog, Tom Kane’s Legal Marketing Blog, Tom Peters Blog, Beyond Branding, Church of the Customer, Bob Bly’s Blog, Lipsticking or Kerry Randall’s The Lawyer Marketing Guy Blog. It’s amazing the wealth of knowledge out there.

Bonus: Use Weblogs to Learn About New Gadgets – And when you’re done with that and want to check out the gadgets try Engadget and Gizmodo.

About the author: Dave Swanner is a plaintiff’s attorney in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He has previously been a computer programmer and consultant, an interrogation instructor for the Army and cooked in the world chili cook-off in Terlingua, Texas. When he’s not at the beach, he can be found at his firm or his weblog South Carolina Trial Law Blog.

 

Comments

[Al Nye]

Nice job Dave. You mentioned all the major products that help lawyers become successful. Now if lawyers could only learn to use those products ....

Al Nye

[Taco John]

I'm just a lowly little 0L, so excuse me if this is a dumb question, but are laptops not allowed in court? When I served on a jury this summer, I was surprised that legal pads and pens were the order of the day rather than something like OneNote, or more specialized legal software. I've been to court a couple of other times, and never seen a lawyer with a computer. It seems like the advantages of having a laptop (or even better a tablet) would be great over pen and paper. Or maybe I just saw a couple of oddities.

[charley hardman]

wow! great stuff, david.

[Evan]

Taco John: I use computers at trial for big-ticket items--trials, class-certification hearings, that sort of thing--but for routine motions (which includes most motions) a yellow notepad is plenty. In fact, even the notepad is just a crutch--it works best if you can pack it all in your head then respond to the other side on the fly.

Lowly 0L or not, your brain has a pretty powerful processor inside--though I don't mean to take anything away from David's great post.

[Dave]

Taco John,

I'm going to agree with Evan on this one. I use a laptop at trial to show exhibits, but not for other stuff. When I go to trial, I already have broken down what I want to prove with each witness, what exhibits I'm going to use, how I'm going to prove the stuff and already have the whole thing put together.

I have set up a notebook system to allow me to follow the trial easily, but basically 'over' prepare and have every thing laid out so that it goes smoothly at trial.

Plus, lawyers are notoriously non-tech.

[Taco John]

Maybe being brought up on computers is just what you said, a crutch. I love being able to have a prof or group member as a question, and a quick search in OneNote gives me the answer. Someone called it being able to "Google your life." I like the analogy. Naturally, a lawyer still has to use his/her brain to connect everything together and present it properly, but I like the idea of taking the load of managing information off it.

[Dave]

I agree 100%. But by the time you get to trial, you've been working on the case for 2-3 years (or longer) and all of that work should be done.

For example, anything that I even *think* might be an issue, I do a mini-brief beforehand and it's filed in the appropriate section. If the other side has an objection or the judge has a question, I whip it out and show them that I've already thought of the issue and here is what the correct answer is.

Yes, the computer manages things very well, but in my opinion the time for that is before trial, and not at trial.

That said, that's just my opinion and it's still a good question on your part. I could also think of times when it would be good to have a legal assistant by your side in a big commercial transaction, searching the database based on some of the answers.

Good luck with law school. It's a lot of work, but as long as you don't mind working is not that difficult. Remember, Dan Quayle is a lawyer.

[Bren]

Wow, great roundup and comments here. Glad I stopped by...you're going in my feed reader!

[Dave!]

Very nice list! I'm going to go check out Sanction and Trial Director, those sound great!

But beware Engadget and Gizmodo--both have been shown in clinical trials to contribute to the depletion of "disposable" income. :)

[Beldar]

GREAT post. As between Sanction and Trial Director, any recommendations?

[Dave]

Beldar,

It's hard to say. Trial Director was first, then several of the top programmers from Trial Director broke off and started Sanction. Sanction had a ton of new innovations for half the price. Trial Director didn't take that sitting down so matched the innovations (along with a few of their own) and dropped the price.

At this point it's almost a Ford / Chevy type of decision. They are both full featured, mature products, but with slightly different approaches. My personal preference is to Sanction, but I know a number of people that love Trial Director to death.

[Beldar]

Thanks Dave, exactly the kind of info I was hoping for. Got a document/video-depo heavy trial coming up next month, so I think I'm likely to invest in one or the other.

[Matt Buchanan]

Wonderful post, Dave. I think its very interesting that 5 of your 12 items involve blogs (6 if you include the bonus!). I continue to be amazed, though, by the number of attorneys that are completely unaware of the wealth of information available in blogs, especially when I consider the efficiencies offered by RSS technology.

Here's one suggestion: We (bloggers) should include an OPML file ready for incorporation into an RSS aggregator when we make posts like yours that accumulate a number of blogs in one place. For example.... "Like this post? Start reading all of these blogs today by downloading XXX aggregator and this OPML file...." With any luck, this would nudge a few more lawyers into the blogosphere...

[Evan]

Matt: That's a good idea. I had sort of the same thought this morning, as I started adding some new-to-me-weblogs from this post into my bloglines reader. It occurred to me to make all the feeds from the weblogs mention in this post public and point to it in a comment.

My solution wasn't very elegant, and I ran out of time. Your suggestion makes more sense--unless you scare would-be blog-readers off with the mention of OPML.

[Derek]

Taco --

One thing you will find in practice is that unless the case involves a lot of money, it just isn't cost-effective to spend your time inputting everything into a computer. For complex trials, using a computer can be a god-send, but in private practice's endless pursuit of the billable hour, you have to be extremely conscientious of efficiency. The client isn't going to pay you to enter data into a computer unless it's necessary or cost-effective.

Also, there are times when going low-tech can provide a tactical advantage. For example, many personal injury lawyers (at least successful ones) have two cars: a good one and a crappy one they drive to court on trial days so jurors don't think they are wealthy leeches on the justice system. I know one successful trial attorney who likes to trip on his easel during trials so that the jury will perceive him as more folksy. Similarly, not using a computer might make an attorney more appealing to a jury in certain circumstances.

[Beldar]

No offense to Derek, but each night, among my prayers is: "And dear Lord, please bless me with more opponents who have such small regard for the fraud-and-phony-sniffing ability of juries that they try to manipulate their juries by pretending they're someone they're not."

A trial lawyer must be a performer, yes, but not an actor. If you really are the sort of well-organized geek who'd benefit from using a laptop in court (and I plead guilty to that charge), don't hide it; just be that geek.

[Malaga]

Thank you very much for the info I was looking for, and Greetings from Malaga-Spain Antonio

[Hans Poppe]

E-discovery has been a buzz word for the last several years; however, with the advent of the new discovery rules in federal court, it has become more important than ever.
It is certain that the failure to properly conduct E-discovery will lead to legal malpractice cases against law firms who fail to conduct it or fail to do it properly with experienced computer forensic experts.
A company in West Virgina offers a course and you can even get cle credit. Read the story here: http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=19340