You and your fellow TL NewsWire subscribers have done it again. You've chosen the winners of the TL NewsWire Top 10 and Top 25 Products of 2014 Awards.
Here's how you did it. We reported on nearly 200 new products in TL NewsWire this year. When you clicked to visit a product's website and learn more you also voted for that product. These clicks are more meaningful than if we subjectively chose the winners. Besides, who better to judge what's hot and what's not than lawyers and law firm administrators like you?
You'll notice several themes as you read through the winning products — document automation, document management, integrations (especially with Microsoft Office), and litigation management.
Without further ado …
WINNERS OF THE TL NEWSWIRE TOP 10 PRODUCTS OF 2014 AWARD
1. pdfDocs 4.1
The PDF format paved the way for the paperless law office,
electronic filing, and the iPad as briefcase. So it's
fitting that DocsCorp's pdfDocs 4.1 finds itself in first
place. Designed specifically for law firms, pdfDocs 4.1
handles all the basics while also providing advanced tools
such as Organizer Project and Binder Project for assembling
closing books, deal books, and ebriefs.
2. MetaJure
It's not every year that new software for document
management hits the scene, which explains the high level of
interest in MetaJure. Unlike traditional document management
systems, MetaJure eschews manually-created document profiles
in favor of automatic indexing and Google-like search
technology.
3. Primafact
In theory, clients pay you to focus on the facts and legal
issues, not to organize their case file. Designed for
litigation, Primafact keeps all case-related documents and
email in a virtual binder. Integration with scanners and
built-in optical character recognition (OCR) enables you to
add everything that arrives on paper and make it
searchable.
4. Lexis
for Microsoft Office 4.2
Microsoft Word remains a fixture for legal writing, but
Outlook has made inroads as clients often prefer an email
message to a formal memo. Lexis for Microsoft Office works
within both, enabling you to download all cited cases and
other materials. It also checks your quotations and
citations.
5. Digital
WarRoom Express
Most lawsuits don't have a big budget. At a cost of just $99
per year, Digital WarRoom Express enables you to cull,
review, and produce up to 50 GB of email and other
electronic data across your cases (it handles up to 500
document formats). The Defensibility Log watches your back
while you work.
6. Drafting
Assistant - Transactional 2.0
Lawyers have long relied on the Deal Proof technology within
Drafting Assistant - Transactional for proofreading their
Word and WordPerfect documents. The new version integrates
with Practical Law's Standard Documents and Clause Library
to help you jump-start your drafting.
7. Timestream
Ntrepid's Timestream builds a timeline for your case as you
add events and associated details (documents, issues,
location, people, etc.). When it's time to discuss
settlement or go to trial, you can use Timestream to give
your presentation.
8. Transporter
Genesis
The cloud is here to stay, but the jury has yet to return a
verdict on private versus public cloud. Last year, Connected
Data ranked first in the TL NewsWire Top Products
Awards with Transporter, its initial private cloud product.
Transporter Genesis is like Transporter on steroids,
providing Dropbox-like functionality for up to 150
people.
9. MyCase
Websites
Every law firm needs a mobile-friendly website so it's no
surprise that MyCase Websites is in the top 10. Now just
$500, marquee features include a content management system,
and responsive design so that your website automatically
adjusts to all screen sizes.
10. NetDocuments
ndOffice
"Integration" has truly come of age this year. NetDocuments
ndOffice essentially places the NetDocuments cloud document
management system within Microsoft Office. This means you
can open documents from and save documents to NetDocuments
without leaving Microsoft Word, Excel, or
PowerPoint.
WINNERS OF THE TL NEWSWIRE TOP 25 PRODUCTS OF 2014
AWARD
Congratulations to the next 15 hottest products of 2014
ranked in order by most clicks!
11. Synergy
Matters
Synergy Matters combines practice management with document
management and automatic time capture. Accordingly, it
automatically tracks the time you spend working on your PC.
Its cost recovery technology tracks copies, faxes, prints,
and scans so you can cover your costs or at least bill for
the time you spend at these devices.
12. Actionstep
14.7
Actionstep helped pioneer automated workflows within
practice management software. The new Activity Log
complements these workflows via a Facebook-style feed that
keeps everyone apprised of what's happening across your
firm. The new Scratch Pad captures your strokes of
brilliance.
13. PhraseExpander
Professional 4.0
Why let programming stand between you and document assembly?
Nagarsoft's PhraseExpander Professional stores text such as
clauses in groups. Using Quick Find, you then insert the
material you need to build a document. PhraseExpander
Professional integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive, and
OneDrive.
14. Pathagoras
2014
Like the contestants on Iron Chef, lawyers can create any
number of documents from the same core ingredients.
Pathagoras keeps your text snippets organized in
Collections. Environments further increase your speed by
hiding irrelevant Collections. Pathagoras works inside
Microsoft Word. It doesn't require any programming.
15. imageFORMULA
DR-M160II
Most desktop scanners top out at 30 pages per minute.
Canon's imageFORMULA DR-M160II doubles that speed without
doubling the footprint (it measures 9.09 x 11.02 x 9.76
inches). The Kofax VRS Elite software included with the
scanner removes hole punches, crops and straightens
documents, notifies you about hardware problems, and even
handles blueprints and other documents with a colored
background.
16. TrialPad
4.0
Thanks to TrialPad 4.0 (and TranscriptPad 2.0), Lit Software
cemented its reputation as the leading pure play developer
of legal iPad apps. The new version of TrialPad has a search
box on every screen for quickly pulling up any exhibit. The
search results contain thumbnail document previews.
17. Surface
Pro 3
The Surface Pro 3 has a higher resolution screen than the
MacBook Air, which Microsoft has targeted in its advertising
campaign. You can add a detachable keyboard and powered
stylus. A touch-friendly version of Office remains MIA, but
it runs any existing software compatible with Windows
8.
18. Legal
Publish
Blogs have gone from curiosity to mainstream to underpowered
relic. Legal Publish offers a suite of tools such as
role-based privileges, customizable workflows, and a media
library for creating more sophisticated online publications.
Legal Publish also contains tools for creating proposals,
and integrates with email services, social media platforms,
customer relationship management apps, and Google
Analytics.
19. Worldox
for Mac Version 1.15
Too many lawyers use Macs nowadays for providers of document
management systems to ignore. Worldox for Mac is a client
for the popular Worldox GX3 document management system.
Worldox for Mac integrates with Apple Mail and Microsoft
Outlook so that you can save client-related email and
attachments to Worldox GX3.
20. WordPerfect
Office X7 Legal Edition
The legal industry remains a stronghold for WordPerfect.
Corel responded this year by including Perfect Authority
with the Legal Edition for the creation of tables of
authorities. Perfect Authority supports Bluebook, California
Style Manual, Florida Rule 9.800, and Louisiana Public
Domain formats.
21. PeopleMap
on WestlawNext
Lawyers often forget their role as gumshoe. PeopleMap on
WestlawNext enables you to unearth gems from blogs, chat
rooms, and social networks, as well as photos and business
data. Unlike other public records services, PeopleMap shows
you non-obvious connections that may lead you to hidden
assets. Google Maps integration literally puts these assets
on the map.
22. Equil
Smartpen 2
Atlantis. El Dorado. Smartpens. When a legend has such
appeal, it's hard to give up on it. Ludia's Equil Smartpen 2
works on paper, stores what you write without the need for
any other device, transfers your notes to your Windows PC,
Mac, iPad, or Android device, and converts your handwriting
to editable text.
23. Varidesk
Pro Plus
You'd like to stand up for telephone calls, but you can't
bear to part with your mahogany desk. Varidesk Pro Plus
transforms any desk into a standup desk by adding up to
17.625 vertical inches. The two levels house your monitor
and/or a laptop, and your mouse and keyboard
respectively.
24. CosmoLex
CosmoLex takes a finance-centric approach to practice
management. Its conflicts checking and trust accounting
tools enable you to efficiently intake new clients. A cloud
application that stores data only in domestic datacenters,
CosmoLex also offers billing, calendars, cost recovery, task
management, and time tracking.
25. Dragon
NaturallySpeaking 13 Legal
The latest version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking tears down
some of the remaining barriers to speech recognition. You no
longer need to train the software or buy a pricy microphone.
In a reversal of roles, Dragon NaturallySpeaking can read
what you write back to you.
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