TechnoLawyer: TL NewsWire

Below you'll find the TL NewsWire Top 10 and Top 25 Products of 2015 Awards — chosen by TL NewsWire subscribers.

When TL NewsWire subscribers read about a product of interest this year and clicked for more details, they passively casted a vote. Passive voting is the most meaningful type of voting for awards. The winners below genuinely attracted the most interest.

As you read about the winning products, you'll notice many that help lawyers create, annotate, and manage documents. Other hot product areas include email, law firm finances, litigation, and PDF. Finally, most of the products offer one or more key integrations, which enables law firms to combine previously siloed products into a cohesive system.

TL NewsWire is free — sign up now so you can choose next year's winners.

Congratulations to all the winners! Without further ado …

WINNERS OF THE TL NEWSWIRE TOP 10 PRODUCTS OF 2015 AWARD

Congratulations to the 10 hottest products of 2015 ranked in order by most clicks!

1. Matter Center for Office 365

Microsoft first previewed Matter Center at the ILTA Conference in August 2014. When Matter Center launched in September 2015 and we reported on it, TL NewsWire subscribers went bananas, vaulting it to a first place finish. Matter Center underscores the enduring popularity of both Microsoft Office and document management in the legal industry.

2. American Legal Style for PerfectIt 3

Fittingly in the year that gave us Ex Machina, American Legal Style for PerfectIt 3 proofreads your Word documents for incorrect citations and other style problems. It's like having Bryan Garner in your computer. Indeed, Garner's "The Red Book" is among the references American Legal Style for PerfectIt 3 can check your documents against.

3. Synergy Tools 1.0

Perhaps no legal software entrepreneur understands the pain of small law firms like Legal Matters Software founder John Ryan. Pretty much a gift to small firms given its $59.95 price, Synergy Tools 1.0 addresses nine pain points encountered daily by legal professionals who live in Windows Explorer.

4. Spark

It takes courage to build an iPhone email app given Apple's not-too-shabby Mail app. However, Readdle's Spark addresses Mail's biggest shortcoming — attachment handling. Spark enables you to attach documents from Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, and other cloud services the way your brain works — while writing your message.

5. LiquidText

LiquidText challenges you to use an iPad to annotate documents with interactions that don't exist on a PC but which hail from the world of pen and paper. Unlike Microsoft Word, Acrobat, etc., LiquidText gives your comments just as much of the spotlight as the document on which you're commenting. Apple named LiquidText the Most Innovative iPad App of 2015.

6. Capture.it Time Capture

Passive time capture apps like Capture.it capture the imagination of lawyers because let's face it — tracking your time stinks. Capture.it takes automatic time-tracking to new heights by periodically prompting you to assign captured time to matters, eliminating the need to open Capture.it for a dedicated billing session at the last minute each month.

7. Smokeball

Smokeball burst on the scene this year with a document-centric approach to practice management. Integrations with Word and Outlook and a document assembly engine keep all communications with clients and work product centrally organized. Smokeball also handles the yeoman's chores of practice management such as contacts and calendars.

8. LegalWorks

Uptime Legal merits a tip of our hat as the only company in 2015 that won two TL NewsWire Top Products awards. First up, LegalWorks is a cloud document management system. At many firms, Outlook is the hub through which documents usually arrive and leave. LegalWorks' Outlook integration enables you to save and retrieve documents from within Outlook.

9. iPad Pro

The long rumored iPad Pro arrived along with a first-party keyboard case and digital pencil. Like virtually all Apple products, the iPad Pro resulted in fierce online debates and vitriole among geeks. Meanwhile, lawyers and others who have long craved an iPad with a display the size of a sheet of paper are buying them like hotcakes.

10. LegalNature Pro

Launched in 2011 to offer complex legal documents to people whom LegalZoom doesn't serve, LegalNature found that it had many lawyers among its customers. Enter LegalNature Pro, which enables lawyers to automate their own documents while continuing to use LegalNature's forms.

WINNERS OF THE TL NEWSWIRE TOP 25 PRODUCTS OF 2015 AWARD

Congratulations to the next 15 hottest products of 2015 ranked in order by most clicks!

11. Dragon Professional Individual 14

After fits and starts over the past few years, Nuance has integrated its iconic Dragon Professional desktop software with your iPhone via Dragon Anywhere. Start dictating in your office and continue in your car. Dragon Professional also offers a new help system driven by — what else? — voice commands.

12. Pathagoras On Cloud

Research and development is a way of life at ISPV, which ships a new version of its Microsoft Word add-in Pathagoras every year. In 2015, the company launched Pathagoras On Cloud, which brings the Pathagoras' document assembly tools to a web word processor. This enables you to create documents on any device as there's no need for Microsoft Word.

13. TrustBooks

Trust accounting can seem like more trouble than it's worth — until a client fails to pay a large bill. Unlike other products, TrustBooks focuses exclusively on trust accounts. It offers three-way reconciliation, warns you about low balances, and generates statements for your clients.

14. Lexis for Microsoft Office 5.2

The only product to win two consecutive years, Lexis for Microsoft Office added proofreading tools in 2015. You can find undefined terms and inconsistent phrases. Also new, integration with Lexis Advance brings your research into Microsoft Word for instant access while you're writing.

15. Summation 6

Many litigators don't always have matters in the discovery phase. Summation 6 enables you to use the software as needed rather than commit to a traditional license. It also offers one-stop-shopping as it handles case analysis and transcript management in addition to document review and production.

16. EstateExec

No one likes to plan for their death. EstateExec makes estate planning an easier sell for lawyers as it enables your clients to manage and designate all their assets using their web browser. If you don't like serving as an executor or trustee, EstateExec may help persuade someone else to take on that role.

17. FactBox

Small law firms in particular have embraced web apps for billing, practice management, and more. It stands to reason that these law firms will continue this migration. FactBox brings case analysis to your web browser with all data stored in U.S.-based datacenters.

18. Xero

Hoping to capture QuickBooks users who want a cloud accounting system, Xero rolled out QuickBooks migration this year. The process takes about three hours after which you and others can manage your firm's accounting from anywhere.

19. Worldox GX4

This release of the popular document management system focuses on saving you time through automation. For example, Follow Me Favorites shortens the process of creating a document profile to just naming the document — the same amount of effort as Windows Explorer.

20. SWING Porter for Outlook

Many lawyers view Outlook as a silo as it keeps a matter's email apart from all the other documents. SWING Porter for Outlook exports email in PDF format using your firm's naming convention. You can manually export email or use a timed schedule to automate the process.

21. Uptime Practice

The second winner from Uptime Legal, Uptime Practice enables law firms to move to the cloud without giving up their robust desktop apps such as Amicus Attorney, Needles, PCLaw, PracticeMaster, ProLaw, Tabs3, Time Matters, and WorldDox.

22. Inbox by Gmail

Google reinvented email with Gmail so who better to reinvent it again? Inbox by Gmail surfaces information from email messages so you don't need to open them. A built-in task manager and integrations with Google Keep and Google Now seek to provide missing links for email productivity.

23. Adobe Acrobat DC

After years of not getting the Internet, Adobe leapt ahead with Acrobat DC. The PDF documents you open on your desktop become available on your smartphone and tablet (and vice versa) instantly without the need to move the documents anywhere. The recent integration with Dropbox added more icing to this tempting cake.

24. Soda PDF 7

Soda PDF poses a greater threat to Nitro Pro than to Acrobat as both products compete for price-sensitive law firms that find Acrobat too expensive (especially with Adobe now pushing subscriptions). On this front, Soda PDF costs less than Nitro Pro while providing the features lawyers need such as Bates stamping, PDF-to-Word conversion, integration with scanners, built-in OCR, and more.

25. Amicus Premium 2015

You can set your clock by the annual releases of popular practice management system Amicus Premium. This year brought the Amicus Client Portal for secure communications and file sharing with clients. Unlike standalone portals, the Amicus Client Portal prompts you to bill the time you spend communicating with your clients.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers software for all phases of the post-collection discovery process that you can use on demand only when needed (see article below), a Mac practice management app with cloud syncing, an app for using two web pages side by side on an iPad, and a cloud practice management app that offers analytics your business. Don't miss the next issue.

SERVING THE NEEDS OF 97% OF LITIGATION MATTERS

The faster lawyers can start reviewing their clients' potential evidence the better. Nowadays, this means streamlining the collection and processing of electronically stored information (ESI), and seamlessly moving it into a document review platform. This workflow should be accessible to cases of all sizes, not just mega cases. The new version of a popular product addresses this need.

AccessData Summation 6.0 … in One Sentence

Launched recently, AccessData Summation 6.0 is a browser-based document review platform powered by the same technology as the company's highly regarded Forensic Toolkit (FTK).

The Killer Feature

Summation's new "multi-tenant" technology means your team can access Summation on demand from a service provider as needed. The enhanced administrative tools enables users to manage their own accounts in a secure environment, including setup, usage details, data uploading, processing, and production.

Speaking of getting a new case started, Summation's new LawDrop works like Dropbox, enabling you to upload data by dragging and dropping it. Once loaded, anyone on your team with the appropriate privileges can access it from anywhere.

"Enabling 24/7 on-demand access to Summation addresses a critical need for our customers," VP of Product Management Nadine Weiskopf tells us. "Today's solutions tend to focus on the largest 3 percent of cases. Summation meets the needs of the remaining 97 percent. Law firms need a more affordable way to do this discovery, and hosting providers need a reliable platform to provide it on, that is affordable yet still provides the functionality their clients demand."

Other Notable Features

Often cited by courts, FTK is a leading tool for collecting and processing ESI in a forensically sound manner. The new version of Summation shares the same database as FTK. This eliminates the need to move data when the investigatory phase ends and document review begins. Fewer "data hops" reduce the risk of error during review and spoliation in the chain of custody. The shared audit log enables Summation users to monitor activity in FTK and vice versa. (FTK is sold separately and not required to use Summation.)

AccessData bills Summation as the only web-based platform that combines all post-collection phases of the ediscovery process — including import of native and image files, early case assessment, case analysis, and transcript management and annotations — into a single, integrated solution.

The document review portion has a number of new capabilities. The Browser Briefcase enables you to view multiple documents simultaneously rather than one at a time like many competing products. You can also split and merge documents. New column options provide additional information about each document such as encryption, modifications, OCR, embedded notes, hidden content, track changes, last printed date, and time spent on revisions.

What Else Should You Know?

Other new features include additional language capabilities for the built-in OCR software, faster generation of reports, and improved notes within the Case Organizer. Learn more about AccessData Summation 6.0.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a cloud document assembly app with a large library of forms across many practice areas (see article below), a cloud app for scheduling meetings, an iOS web browser, and a Mac PDF program. Don't miss the next issue.

CUSTOMIZABLE DOCUMENT ASSEMBLY IN YOUR WEB BROWSER

Many lawyers use model forms as the basis for the documents they draft. This old method may have shifted to CDs and website downloads, but it's too time-consuming in today's buyer's market for legal services. Instead, lawyers need a more automated way to complete legal documents accurately so they can increase efficiency and get paid faster.

LegalNature Pro … in One Sentence

Launched last month, LegalNature Pro is a web-based document assembly platform that guides lawyers through the process of gathering client information and creating documents.

The Killer Feature

LegalNature started as a consumer service in 2011, but it quickly attracted a sizable number of lawyers as customers. "Our lawyer customers found our platform easy to use and our documents highly accurate," Founder and CEO Corey Bray tells us. "Their requests for increased access and customization capabilities led us to develop LegalNature Pro."

LegalNature Pro has a document assembly "engine" at its core. It's not just a forms library. The software walks you through the steps involved in creating the form you choose. As you answer these questions, you preview the document you're creating in real-time on the same screen. The interview process contains contextual help should you need it.

You can save time if you use Clio thanks to its integration with LegalNature Pro. Any data in a client's record in Clio becomes available to use in LegalNature Pro. All data remains encrypted in both apps.

Other Notable Features

LegalNature Pro offers jurisdiction-specific documents for all 50 states and the District of Columbia in the areas of business, employment, estate planning, family, and real estate. The company regularly adds new documents. Some of the above categories include subcategories given the number of documents available.

The human resources collection is particularly deep with documents such as Consulting Services Agreement, Employee Confidentiality Agreement, Employee Handbook, Employee Non-Disclosure Agreement, Employment Contract, and Employment Offer Letter among others.

The Business library includes Bill of Sale, General Partnership Agreement, LLC Operating Agreement, Promissory Note, Purchase Agreement, Sale of Goods Agreement, and Invoice.

In addition to the major categories, LegalNature Pro also includes affidavits and documents for personal affairs such as Advanced Healthcare Directive, Cease and Desist, and Medical Power of Attorney.

What Else Should You Know?

When you finish a document, you can export it to Word or PDF format. LegalNature Pro is multiuser so your colleagues can collaborate on documents. Pricing starts at $58.95 per user per month for an unlimited number of documents. Learn more about LegalNature Pro.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire offers a special hands-on report of the iPad Pro (see article below), and also covers a third-party iPad Pro keyboard case, a CLE provider with a sense of humor, and trial presentation software. Don't miss the next issue.

Earlier today, I took an iPad Pro for a test drive at the Apple store in Manhattan's meatpacking district. With most of the 280 units on hand already sold, the staff was instructed to unbox only one for the floor rather than the 10 planned. Fortunately, only five of us were on hand, including a Google employee sporting a new BlackBerry Priv that drew almost as much attention.

In 2012, a brief article of mine about using the iPad mini for handwritten notes in law practice went viral, and even received some ribbing from the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web column. Sadly, the iPad mini never worked out for handwriting because of the sad state of iPad styluses (I continue to use an iPad mini for many other tasks).

With the release of the Apple Pencil for the iPad Pro, I had to see if lawyers have finally reached the promised land. I spent a few minutes in Apple's much-improved Notes app. When I started writing, an onlooker let out a long "wooooow."

The table was not an ideal height, but I could tell immediately that the Pencil is more responsive than any other iPad stylus I've trued, including my current flawed Bamboo Fineline. It's still very much a stylus. It's not like writing on paper. It feels and sounds different. I didn't have enough time to judge speed. The Pencil's true magic lies in drawing. As you increase the angle, you get a broader stroke. See the above photo for my scribblings.

Finally, a few thoughts about other aspects of the iPad Pro.

I have an obsession with weight — not mine but tablets and to a lesser extent smartphones. The 37 grams Apple shaved off the iPad mini 4 versus the 2 and 3 have made the former a dream machine. The iPad Pro on the other hand is a beast. You feel every one of its 713 grams no matter how you hold it. It's the LeBron of iPads. The display can display a document at its true size. Websites look terrific. Two apps side by side in split view remain usable for input. I suspect many iPad Pros will spend a lot of time in split view.

You don't hold this iPad. You place it on your desk or kitchen bar, and maybe on your lap or stomach. I held but didn't use Apple's Smart Keyboard so I don't have an opinion yet. The store had Logitech's Create keyboard case in stock but not on display. I'm sure a number of stands are in development for those who don't need keyboards.

Is the iPad a Pro a serious productivity machine and laptop replacement? No one knows yet. It takes time to find out. Given Apple's generous holiday return policy of January 8 for purchases made this time of year, you can buy an iPad Pro for a six-week evaluation. Learn more about iPad Pro.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire The feature article of today's issue of TL NewsWire covers an email app for iOS and Android that also manages your calendars. The Roundup section covers a Word add-in for creating tables of authorities, syncing software for ScanSnap scanners, and a USB microphone with style. Also, if you missed last week's TL NewsWire feature article, you'll find an excerpt and link below.

BRING FOCUS TO YOUR EMAIL

Microsoft's CEO has the entire company focused on mobile and cloud. While Outlook 2016 remains true to its desktop roots for better or worse, the iOS and Android versions of Outlook seem like they came from a different company — and actually they did.

Outlook for iOS and Android 2.0 … in One Sentence

Launched last week, Microsoft's Outlook for iOS 2.0 and Outlook for Android 2.0 (Outlook Mobile) are email apps.

The Killer Feature

Outlook Mobile got off the ground when Microsoft acquired the email app Acompli, and launched a rebranded version. Microsoft also acquired a calendar app called Sunrise. The new version of Outlook Mobile has begun the process of incorporating Sunrise, initially with a refresh of the design and user experience.

For example, Outlook Mobile's message list now visually identifies event invitations with an icon, date, and time. Also more prominent are the attachment and flag icons. When composing a message, you can begin to attach a document or photo with one tap. Smart shortcuts exist such as attaching the last photo you took.

To keep each "political" camp happy, the iOS app uses Apple's design language while the Android app uses Google's material design.

Other Notable Features

Outlook Mobile works with all the major email services such as Gmail, iCloud, Exchange, IMAP, Office 365, Outlook.com, and Yahoo. It also connects to cloud storage services Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive for attachment purposes.

Gestures enable you to archive and delete messages with one swipe. You can schedule message to reappear at a later time. The Focused Inbox enables you to create a task list of sorts with only those email messages that you want front and center. By contrast, the Unified Inbox lists email from all your accounts.

When you receive a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document, you can open it in its respective app, edit it, and then attach it to your reply.

What Else Should You Know?

The new iOS version includes an Apple Watch app. You can add a complication to your watch face showing your next appointment or the status of your inbox. Outlook Mobile is free. Learn more about Outlook for iOS and Android.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a legal proofreading add-in for Microsoft Word with special capabilities for briefs and other documents with citations (see article below), an inkjet printer with color laser muscle, and two task managers with their own unique approach to helping you get things done. Don't miss the next issue.

ADD LEGAL PROOFREADING CAPABILITIES TO MICROSOFT WORD

Your clients demand both efficiency and perfection when you draft briefs and other legal documents. More importantly, you demand a certain standard of yourself to maintain your reputation and prevent malpractice claims. But you cannot proofread documents endlessly — and even if you could, you'd still overlook something. A new Microsoft Word add-in addresses this dilemma.

American Legal Style for PerfectIt 3 … in One Sentence

Launched this week, Intelligent Editing's American Legal Style for PerfectIt 3 is a legal proofreading tool for Microsoft Word that enforces correct legal style usage across your firm.

The Killer Feature

Intelligent Editing worked with lawyer and law review editor Ivy Grey to create American Legal Style for PerfectIt. American Legal Style helps to enforce your style preferences and needs from popular references such as The Bluebook, Bryan Garner's The Red Book, Strunk & White's Elements of Style, Black's Law Dictionary, etc. As a result, PerfectIt can catch errors like a rogue space in "F.3d," "statue" when you mean "statute," "ex parte" when you forget to italicize it, and much more.

"I was drawn into this project because I know how it feels to draft documents under intense time pressure and worry about whether I've made style or consistency errors," Grey told us. "With PerfectIt, I feel confident that my work is clean and error-free, and I cut down on proofreading rounds that are often the cause of late nights and early mornings in the office."

Other Notable Features

You select American Legal Style from the PerfectIt icon on the Microsoft Word ribbon or toolbar. PerfectIt works like a spell checker, offering one or more suggestions for each error it finds. If it finds the error in multiple locations, you can correct every instance with one click. Among its capabilities, PerfectIt flags erroneous citations, misspelled legal words and terms of art, words that require italicization, and common dictation and speech recognition errors.

Multiple authors can wreak even more havoc on a document than dictation. Accordingly, American Legal Style for PerfectIt catches inconsistencies ranging from cultural variations (e.g., "color" versus "colour") to conflicting capitalization of defined terms.

PerfectIt can also improve the clarity of your writing by finding mistakes that elude spell checkers, suggesting plain English terms instead of legalese, and pointing out commonly confused or misused words. You can also further customize American Legal Style for PerfectIt to enforce your firm's house style.

What Else Should You Know?

PerfectIt works with Word 2003 and later (including Word 2016) and Windows XP and later (including Windows 10). PerfectIt costs $99 for one user with discounts available for volume purchases. Learn more about American Legal Style for PerfectIt 3.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers practice management software designed specifically for law firms that specialize in personal injury and class action tort litigation (see article below), a law firm website design service, cloud document assembly software, and a cross-platform text editor. Don't miss the next issue.

A PRACTICE MANAGEMENT PAIN RELIEVER FOR PI FIRMS

There's litigation and then there's personal injury litigation. A subspeciality, personal injury litigation has unique case characteristics such as medical records. On the business side, the contingency fee model encourages a volume practice (though some firms place few big bets instead). Many practice management systems focus on commercial litigators who bill in six minute increments. But not all of them.

SmartAdvocate … in One Sentence

SmartAdvocate is a cloud practice management system for law firms that handle personal injury and/or class action tort cases.

The Killer Feature

With the smartphone practically a birthright, text messaging may better serve your client messaging needs than telephone calls. The new version of SmartAdvocate integrates with CallFire for individual and mass text messaging. CallFire normally charges 5 cents per message, but SmartAdvocate customers pay just 2 cents.

The CallFire integration obviates revealing your smartphone number. Instead, SmartAdvocate emails incoming text messages to those working on that client's matter. SmartAdvocate automatically stores all incoming and outgoing text messages on the Case Notes page of the corresponding matter.

Other Notable Features

Designed for a high-volume practice, SmartAdvocate automates the intake process. It includes Intake Screens that you can customize for common case types such as auto accidents. Case Wizards walk your staff through other aspects of the intake process such as obtaining retainer agreements.

SmartAdvocate can automatically generate a rejection letter based on the reason selected, mark a case as active when you scan a retainer agreement, and assign lawyers and others to new cases. The Intake Review Screen enables you to review intake decisions made by your team.

The automation continues once a case commences. You can create Task Templates for all aspects of your cases. Workflows enable you to break down large tasks such as obtaining, reviewing, and approving medical records. Speaking of which, SmartAdvocate has a suite of tools for handling medical records and related information such as doctor visits and injury classification.

SmartAdvocate contains traditional practice management features such as calendars, contacts, and document management. Add-ons for Outlook and Word enable you to save email and documents in SmartAdvocate. Dashboards and reports keep you apprised of deadlines, key performance indicators, and more.

"SmartAdvocate is creating quite a splash within the industry," SmartAdvocate CEO & President Jerrold S. Parker tells us. "At its core, SmartAdvocate's DNA is made up of the collective insight of practicing attorneys and paralegals in a high volume, high quality personal injury and mass tort practice."

What Else Should You Know?

Other specialized tools encompass statutes of limitations, lien tracking, and settlement calculations and disbursements. SmartAdvocate works in all desktop and mobile web browsers. You can also use the free iPhone app. Learn more about SmartAdvocate.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a multiuser cloud app for creating custom databases (see article below), a service that connects you with low income people and provides you with technology to profitably represent them, a device for creating your own private cloud, and a research tool for patents. Don't miss the next issue.

THE DATABASE MEETS THE CLOUD

Most apps from accounting to document management to ediscovery to practice management have a database at their core. Sometimes no app exists for a specific information storage need of yours. In these situations, you need to create your own database. Excel may seem like an obvious choice, but it fails at the slightest hint of complexity.

Airtable … in One Sentence

Airtable is a cloud database that runs in desktop and mobile web browsers and also in an iOS app on iPhones and iPads.

The Killer Feature

Airtable is multiuser. You can share a "table" (database) with others. Changes instantly become available to everyone with access. An audit log lists every change, including author, date, and time. You can restrict users to read-only status if they only need to access the information.

Other Notable Features

While a table can mimic a spreadsheet for simple lists, Airtable has a relational database under the hood. This enables you to link records. Linking prevents a record from becoming bloated.

For example, you could create a contacts database with Company records and People records. Within a Company record, you can link to the People who work there. The Company record then lists all the people you add. When you tap a person you go to their record with all their information.

Airtable offers full-text searching and filters. You can hide and sort columns to create a custom view. Saving these views enables you to toggle among them.

Airtable offers a number of integrations with cloud services such as Box, Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Evernote. Thanks to the API, you can create your own custom integrations and even build your own app on top of Airtable. You can export a table into CSV and other common formats.

What Else Should You Know?

The company provides several templates to get you started in areas such as project management and sales. The Free plan of Airtable includes unlimited databases but limits you to 1,200 records per database and 2 GB of attachments. The Plus plan ($12 per user per month) raises these limits to 5,000 records and 5 GB, while the Pro ($24 per user per month) and Enterprise plans are unlimited. The paid versions also provide granular access controls and other business-friendly features. Learn more about Airtable.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a cloud application for trust accounting designed to prevent career-ending ethics mistakes (see article below), Microsoft's spiffy new hybrid laptops, and an iOS time-tracking and billing app. Don't miss the next issue.

TRUST ACCOUNTING YOU CAN BANK ON

Trust accounting is a misnomer because many lawyers don't necessarily trust their trust accounting and hope they don't get audited. Commonly used tools such as Excel and QuickBooks don't have lawyers top of mind. Some practice management systems offer trust accounting, but what if you want a standalone app?

TrustBooks … in One Sentence

Launched recently, TrustBooks is a cloud application that exclusively focuses on managing trust accounts.

The Killer Feature

TrustBooks contains various controls to save you from making a career-ending mistake. For example, many law firms create one bank account for all their trust accounts. For this reason, many states require three-way reconciliation of trust accounts. This involves reconciling each bank statement against each matter's trust ledger while ensuring that nothing leaks into ledgers for other matters. TrustBooks makes this process feel like traditional two-way reconciliation.

When plenty of cash resides in the bank but not in a trust account your bank can't warn you about an overdraft. However, TrustBooks prevents you from paying yourself or a vendor from a matter's trust account with insufficient funds even if the associated bank account has enough funds. When a trust account is sufficiently solvent to cover a bill, TrustBooks includes information on checks that some states require.

"We created TrustBooks as easy-to-use software focused on helping attorneys manage their trust accounts and stay in compliance with their state bar," TrustBooks CEO Tom Boyle tells us. "Our goal has been to take the complexity out of the trust accounting process. We want small law firms and solo practitioners to gain greater confidence around managing their trust accounts by using TrustBooks."

Other Notable Features

TrustBooks presents you with a dashboard when you login. This page lists the balance of all trust accounts, recent deposits and payments, and one-click access to key tools. From this page, you can create a trust account for a new matter, add payees, enter deposits and payments, print checks, start a reconciliation, and generate reports.

From the dashboard, you can drill down to a Matter Info page for an overview of each trust account and then further drill down to the View Trust Account page for a granular look at that trust account's ledger. TrustBooks offers several reports, including statements for clients that you can export in PDF format.

Printing a check to yourself seems silly nowadays. TrustBooks enables you to record an ACH or other permitted electronic funds transfer from a trust account to your firm's account.

What Else Should You Know?

TrustBooks works in all major desktop and mobile web browsers. It costs $25 per user per month or $199 per user per year. Learn more about TrustBooks.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Read our latest coverage of CaseMap here.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a popular case analysis application that now also handles discovery document review and production (see article below), a smartpen that can recording your handwriting and any accompanying audio, a cloud practice management system with desktop-like windowing, and an Android smartphone without any junkware. Don't miss the next issue.

Case Analysis Meets Ediscovery

Many litigation matters involve fewer than 50,000 discovery documents. Using a dedicated document review platform for such cases may prove too costly or cumbersome. Meanwhile, PDF software typically contains only rudimentary tools. It's a classic betwixt and between problem ripe for a solution.

CaseMap 12 … in One Sentence

Launching this week, CaseMap 12 is a popular case analysis program that now has light document review and production capabilities for ediscovery.

The Killer Feature

CaseMap 12 offers three core features for discovery document review — redaction, coding, and production. The Redact tool enables you to choose a reason for the redaction (e.g., privileged) from a customizable list. Unlike PDF software, you can change or remove redactions anytime prior to production.

The Document Detail button on the CaseMap toolbar enables you to code each document in your collection by adding and modifying metadata — author, recipients, issues, deposition exhibit number, etc. The Basic option lists the most common coding fields while the Extended option lists all of them. You can also create a custom set of the fields you need.

The Document Production Wizard walks you through the process of producing documents. Options include creating a filter to exclude certain documents from the production, applying Bates stamps, creating a file naming convention, inserting placeholders for omitted documents, choosing from color or black and white, and making images searchable via the built-in OCR software. Bates stamping options include prefix, starting number, length, typeface, location, and shrink-to-fit.

"The new capabilities built into CaseMap 12 allow litigation teams to conduct light document review, coding, and production," LexisNexis vice president of litigation solutions Steve Ashbacher tells us. "They can do more within a single tool and therefore save hours of valuable time."

Other Notable Features

The case chronology spreadsheet remains the core of CaseMap. It contains facts, issues, people, documents, and objects (legal research, questions, etc.). CaseMap automatically enters the redactions and coding from your document review into the case chronology, and links the relevant documents. This eliminates double entry, gives you an even more comprehensive overview of the case, and enables you to incorporate your document review work into reports.

Speaking of reports, CaseMap comes equipped with reports such as Privilege Log and Summary Judgment. You can create your own custom reports, and export them in a Report Book in PDF format. Other features include the new interface and user experience unveiled in CaseMap 11 earlier this year, team collaboration, global search, and document annotations.

What Else Should You Know?

CaseMap 12 integrates with Lexis.com and Lexis Advance, enabling you to add research materials to your cases with one click, and then access these materials later from within CaseMap. Learn more about CaseMap 12.

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So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.