There are a few different companies selling iPhone apps containing the text of statutes, rules, etc., and the usual practice is to sell a different app for each set of laws. For example, four different iPhone developers are currently selling apps containing the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. But Nicholas Zeltzer has a different approach: a single iPhone app that contains all of the legal reference texts in one place, with the ability to purchase additional texts from within the app. Zeltzer, who is currently working as a judicial law clerk in Santa Clara, California, calls his app LawBox.
Upon launching the app, you see a list of legal reference texts. The app comes with the U.S. Constitution, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Federal Rules of Evidence. And you get all of this for free, which makes this the least expensive way to get an iPhone app containing that law. (More on the free nature of the app is below.)
Tap on a source to see the law. For example, if you tap on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, you get a list of Articles. Tap on an Article and you get a list of the rules. Tap on a rule to see the text of the rule. You can select a portion of the text to copy it, or you can tap the button at the top right to e-mail the full text of the rule (or a portion of the rule if you select part of the text and copy it before tapping the e-mail button).
After you tap on a source, you can also tap the search button at the top right of the screen. The search feature is different other legal reference text apps because you can tap a button below the search field to search either the content, the number or the title. Search results appear quickly, as you are typing, with a list of excerpts showing the search term in all caps. When you view a rule that you found through a search, the search terms are highlighted in the rule.
You can only search for one term at a time (either a word or a phrase) so the app doesn't let you find rules that contain two different words. The app doesn't include an option to jump to an other specific rule, but you can use search and tap the number restriction to search for a specific rule by its number, which is almost the same thing.
The app also contains a store from which you can purchase additional legal texts from right within the app. Right now, the app only offers the Arizona Landlord Tenant Act for $0.99, but Zeltzer plans to add more.
There is currently no way to bookmark a frequently used rule, but Zeltzer says that he plans to add this in the future. He also hopes to add notes and rule comments.
If that was all the LawBox did, it would be an impressive app. But additionally, the app lets you browse legal news. Tap the news button at the bottom of the screen and you will see news items from the RSS feeds of numerous legal blogs and other sources of news. You have to first select those sources by tapping the Index button at the bottom right of the screen. News items are displayed as a title and a few lines of text. Tap on the item to read the full story. Read items are collapsed so that you only see the title in grey.
You can only select from the legal news sources listed in the app, but many dozens of sources are listed. In the future, Zeltzer plans to allow you to add your own feeds in the app and also plans to have a website where users can contribute worthy feeds to a common pool.
Although LawBox is still in its infancy, it is already a great app, and will only get better as Zeltzer continues to improve the app and add more content that can be purchased. I like the idea of having a single app containing all of the law that I need, although of course Zeltzer will need to add many other sources of law to the app's built-in store to satisfy everyone. But even now, with the app being free, there is no cheaper way to get the text of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or the Federal Rules of Evidence on your iPhone, let alone both.
Before last week, the app actually cost $0.99 because that was the least that an iPhone developer could charge for an app that included in-app purchases. But as I wrote this past Friday, Apple just changed that policy so that now free apps can include in-app purchases. Ziltzer tells me that he changed the price of LawBox to free within minutes of Apple changing its policy. As Zeltzer wrote in a comment on iPhone J.D. this past Friday:
Apple's new policy was a cause for celebration over here at TheLawBox. When we developed our software, we assumed we'd be able to give it away. But because our app included downloadable content, we were forced to list it at 0.99. I can't tell you how excited we were to be able to cut the price tag off our software entirely.
Zelter hopes that people will download the app for free and then, as people get used to using the app, they will want to pay to download additional collections of statutes and rules. It is an intriguing business model and I hope it works well. Even if this was a paid app I would recommend it, but now that it is free, you really have no reason not to get LawBox to check it out.
Click here to get LawBox (free): 
