Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a transcript review app for the iPad (see article below), a scanning service, a new mobile scanner, and two new electronic discovery applications. Don't miss the next issue.
Transcript Review Meets the iPad
As a young litigator, I used a Mac program called Ready for Trial to review deposition transcripts and generate reports of key testimony. Once when I presented a report to a senior associate to append to our brief, he rejected it because it looked "too slick." Now long forgotten, Ready for Trial was ahead of its time and on the wrong platform. Enter Apple's revenge, otherwise known as the iPad, which already outsells Macs and will likely outsell all PCs before the end of this decade. While most legal vendors have only dipped a toe in the iPad waters, one legal vendor focuses solely on the iPad, including its newest app for transcripts.
TranscriptPad … in One Sentence
Released earlier this month, Lit Software's TranscriptPad is an iPad app for managing and reviewing transcripts.
The Killer Feature
Transcript review seems straightforward, but somewhere along the way transcript software became increasingly complex and expensive. TranscriptPad seeks to reverse this trend, and disrupt the marketplace in the process.
TranscriptPad costs $49.99. That's it. This one-time price includes new versions and support. The company already has a track record in this regard. Last year, Lit Software released TrialPad for exhibiting documents. Version 2.0 added more sophisticated trial presentation features at no charge to those who bought version 1.0.
"Lawyers want to mark up multiple depositions on a train, plane, or their favorite easy chair without juggling highlighters, tape flags, and post-it notes," Lit Software CEO Ian O'Flaherty told us. "They don't want to create accounts, register their documents, host them on someone else's server, or pay for upgrades or per-seat subscriptions every month or year. We designed TranscriptPad to meet their needs."
Other Notable Features
You can import transcripts in TXT format into TranscriptPad via Dropbox, email attachment, or iTunes sync. TranscriptPad also supports exhibits in PDF format.
Once you load transcripts, you can organize them by client/matter, and of course review them. You can choose between manually flipping through transcript pages or having TranscriptPad automatically scroll (you can adjust the speed). A scroll bar along the side works like a scrubber, enabling you to navigate to a specific page and line of testimony.
You can also search through a single deposition, all depositions for a witness, or all depositions for a case. TranscriptPad's tools include the ability to flag and designate key testimony, and create and assign color-coded issues.
What Else Should You Know?
After reviewing transcripts, you can generate reports (e.g., designated testimony pertaining to an issue) in PDF or TXT format, and print or email them to yourself and colleagues. TranscriptPad works on the original iPad and iPad 2. Learn more about TranscriptPad.
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