Cliff Maier of WaffleTurtle Software has written several iPhone apps that give you the text of commonly used parts of the U.S. Code. As a litigator, the one I find the most useful is FRCP, a $1.99 $2.99 app that gives you the full text of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, so I will discuss it first. I list below several other apps from Cliff Maier including "Bankruptcy" -- an app that iPhone J.D. reader John Rogers told me is indispensable to his bankruptcy law practice.
The interface of FRCP is simple. Start the app and you are presented with Titles I through XI (plus a link to the Hague Conventions on service abroad, taking evidence abroad and civil procedure). Tap on a title and you see a list of all of the rules under that title. Tap on a rule to see the full text of the rule (for shorter rules) or a list of the subsections that you can tap for the full text of a subsection.
The app has a useful search feature. For example, if you search for the term "summary judgment" you see a list that includes not only subparts of Rule 56 (the summary judgment rule) but also Rule 41(a)(i)'s provision that a plaintiff may voluntarily dismiss an action without a court order by filing a notice of dismissal before the opposing party serves either an answer or an MSJ. The app starts to search as you type each letter of your search terms. This is good because you don't even have to type a complete word to find something, but the downside is that the app does become unresponsive for a second or two while it is searching and you are trying to type. [UPDATE 12-11-2008: Version 1.7 of FRCP substantially improves this, as the developer notes below in his comment.]
When you are looking at a rule, you can also tap a button at the bottom left to e-mail the text of the rule to someone. It is handy to e-mail a rule to yourself so that you can cut-and-paste it into a brief that you are drafting on your computer.
The layout of this app -- a list of rules, click an item to read the rule -- is similar to Constitution for iPhone, an app that I recently reviewed. I prefer the fonts and graphical layout of Constitution for iPhone, although the design of FRCP is certainly functional. Also, Constitution for iPhone includes notes on each article whereas FRCP does not include any commentary with the text of the rules, although that omission is largely irrelevant as you won't be using your iPhone for in-depth procedural research; you will just use it to quickly find the text of a rule. For only $2, the app is well worth it and is a useful tool on the iPhone of any litigator.
Click this button 
to download FRCP from the iTunes app store for $1.99. [UPDATE 12/29/08: The app was updated to add more features, such as admiralty and maritime rules, and the price is now $2.99.]
Using the exact same design as FRCP, Cliff Maier developed the following apps:
- Bankruptcy gives you Title 11 of the U.S. Code. $2.99.
- FDCA gives you the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act as codified in Title 21 of the U.S. Code. $3.99.
- FRAP gives you the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. $1.99.
- FRCrimPro gives you the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. $1.99.
- FRE gives you the Federal Rules of Evidence. $1.99.
- Lanham contains the Lanham Act, the portion of 15 U.S.C. that defines federal trademark law. $1.99.
- Patent Rules contains the local patent rules from five federal district courts (N.D. Cal., S.D. Cal., N.D. Ga., W.D. Pa. and E.D. Tex.) $1.99.
- Sarbanes Oxley gives you Title 15, Chapter 98 of the U.S. Code. $1.99
- Securities gives you Sarbanes Oxley plus the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. $4.99.
- Title 17 gives you the federal copyright code. $1.99.
- Title 35 gives you the federal patent laws. $1.99.
Cliff Maier also has a version of the Constitution for $0.99. As noted above, I prefer the design of Constitution for iPhone, which also has the advantage of being free. But Cliff Maier's version lets you search the full text, and for that feature alone you might want to pay the dollar and keep both versions on your iPhone.
Also, if you are a California lawyer, Cliff Maier has versions of the California Evidence Code ($1.99) and the local patent rules for the N.D. Cal. ($0.99) .
