Yesterday, I got the good news that I passed the Florida Bar Exam. No, I'm not moving to Florida; I just have a client who asked me to help with some litigation there. Florida pro hac rules are very restrictive (only three cases a year) and bar reciprocity is very restrictive, even if you have been practicing law elsewhere for a long time (16 years, in my case). Thus, to handle any real volume of litigation in Florida, you need to take the bar exam. With Florida law on my mind this Summer, I've been thinking about what apps I might want to get on my iPhone to assist with practicing law in Florida. Coincidentally, I received an e-mail a few weeks ago from Nick Manzoli. His company, LegalMesh, developed an iPhone app called Pocket Legal Florida which contains all 48 titles of the Florida Statutes. Manzoli sent me a free copy of the app to review. There are things in the app that I would like to see revised in a future version, but the app is not very expensive ($6.99) and worth a look if you practice law in Florida.
There are three buttons at the bottom of the app. The "Go To" button lists the titles. Tap a title to see the chapters, tap a chapter to see the sections, and tap a section to see the law.
Unfortunately, the app can be slow. I often found myself watching a "Loading" alert for a long time. A few times it stayed on the screen so long that I am pretty sure that the app had hung, so I forced the app to quit. Moreover, when you are looking at a long list, such as a list of titles, a long list of sections, etc., the app only loads the first 10 items in the list. You then have to scroll down and tap "More Results" to load the next set of 10. If the items you are looking for as far down on the list, you'll have to tap that "More Results" button many times. This really slows down browsing.
When you are viewing a section that you plan to view again in the future, you can add it to a "Saved" list to make it easier to come back to later. Tap the Saved button at the bottom right of the app to see your list of saved sections. Unfortunately, the Saved list does not automatically update itself so it is sometimes necessary to tap a Refresh button to see the latest sections that you added to the list.
The third button at the bottom of the app is the Search button. The search feature will give you a list of all sections containing the search terms. Unfortunately, the app does not highlight your search terms, so you'll just have to skim through the statute to find your search term.
I like having legal reference apps on my iPhone for two reasons. First, it is handy to have the law with you so that you can quickly look something up. Second, it is often handy to copy a part of a statute or rule and paste it into an e-mail. A major drawback of the current version of this app is that you cannot copy the text. Tapping on text doesn't do anything. There is an e-mail button at the top of each statute, but unfortunately that button only creates an e-mail with the cite of the statute, not the text of the statute. I asked Manzoli about this, and he told me that a new version is coming out in a few weeks that allows you to e-mail the text of a statute. He also told me that they are coming out with versions of this app for other states in the near future. [UPDATE 12/11/10: Version 2.0 of this app was just released, which adds the ability to e-mail the full text of a statute.]
Pocket Legal Florida is not the only source of Florida law on the iPhone. For example, Tekk Innovations (who created the LawStack app that I reviewed earlier this year) also sells a $19.99 app called "Florida Statutes (48 Titles)". If you use the LawBox app that I reviewed earlier this year, you can purchase Florida Statutes within the LawBox app for $0.99 for each Title — a bargain if you just want a few titles, more expensive if you want all 48. And if you just want Title VI, Florida Civil Practice and Procedure, PDA Wizard has a $5.99 app called "Florida Civil Practice & Procedure - FL Laws Title VI."
[UPDATE: And remember, if you have Internet access over 3G or Wi-Fi you have even more options, such as the Fastcase app which shows you Florida statutes for free. But sometimes in a courthouse or elsewhere, you don't have that, which is why it is helpful to have an app with self-contained law.]
Pocket Legal Florida is definitely the cheapest way to get all 48 Titles of the Florida Statutes on your iPhone. The current version of this app can sometimes be frustrating because of the problems that I described above, but I was glad to hear Manzoli say that he and his team are working to improve the app in the near future.
Click here to get Pocket Legal Florida ($6.99): 
