Thank you to Lit Software for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month. This company produces three of the very best iPad apps designed for attorneys: TrialPad, TranscriptPad and DocReviewPad. TrialPad was first released in 2010 — the same year that the iPad itself debuted — and has seen numerous major updates over the years. Earlier this year, I reviewed TrialPad version 4.5. The app has since been updated to version 4.6, which adds a new bookmarks feature. This feature was a direct result of lawyer feedback, and lets you have multiple custom-named bookmarks to make it quick and easy to jump around within a document to specific pages of a document. Click here to see a short video of how the feature works. If you want to present evidence to a jury, judge, or other audience, the app gives you powerful tools for displaying and annotating documents, including the Callout tool that most jurors expect to see nowadays.
In my own litigation practice, I spend a lot of time working with deposition transcripts, such as preparing for a motion for summary judgment. Thus, TranscriptPad is the Lit Software app that I use the most. My last major review of the app was in November of 2014, and that review still gives you a solid overview of what the app can do. But the app has had many updates since then and is now even more powerful. Indeed, I hear that another update is planned before the end of the year Whether I am drafting a motion, or I am in a subsequent deposition and I want to quickly see all of the relevant testimony on a subject during prior depositions, TranscriptPad does exactly what I need. On several occasions, other attorneys have watched me use TranscriptPad and then remarked that they need to get an iPad. When an app is so useful that it is a reason for attorneys to buy an iPad, you know it is a good app.
DocReviewApp is the newest app from Lit Software, and I reviewed it in October of 2015. This is an app that you can use to review and annotate documents on your iPad, so this app is especially useful during the request for production of documents process. Just a few days ago, the company released version 1.5 of the app. This update adds the ability to add notes to each page (as opposed to just the whole document). These notes, like tags and issue codes, appear in beautifully formatted reports. Also, you can choose to include the notes when you export. For example, if you have notes on page 4 and 6 of a 10 page document, DocReviewPad will export a 12 page document with all your notes from page 4 on the fifth page, and your notes from page 6 on the seventh page. [UPDATE 12/1/16: In response to a question raised by an iPhone J.D. reader, Ian O'Flaherty, the head of Lit Software, gives more details on the new features in a comment to this post. So be sure to read the comments if you want more info. Thanks, Ian!]
All of Lit Software's apps are already feature-rich, but the frequent updates mean that the apps continue to get even more powerful. Indeed, the company is always looking for good ideas for improving the apps, and encourages attorneys to send emails to [email protected] with any ideas that you have for useful additional features.
Thanks to Lit Software for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month, and more importantly, a big thank you to Lit Software for creating software that allows us to use our iPads to be better attorneys.
[UPDATE: Lit Software is having a Cyber Monday sale today. If you get the Ultimate Litigation Package, which gives you all three apps, you pay $249.99, a savings of $60 compared to buying each app individually.]
Click here to get TrialPad ($129.99): 
Click here to get TranscriptPad ($89.99):
Click here for DocReviewPad ($89.99):
