TechnoLawyer: TL NewsWire

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers transcript management and review software that can also edit synchronized deposition video (see article below), an iPad app that blurs the line between calculator and spreadsheet, a cloud-based file server, and fonts designed for web sites. Don't miss the next issue.

REAP FROM YOUR DEPOSITIONS WHAT YOU PUT INTO TAKING THEM

There's no better way to impeach a witness than to show a clip from a video deposition of the witness saying something completely at odds with their testimony at trial. For this reason, video depositions have grown in popularity. Showing a transcript lacks the dramatic impact of video. However, working with video has traditionally required the services of a professional editor. A new product aims to make it easy and inexpensive for lawyers and paralegals to edit video depositions.

DepositionPro 1.0 … in One Sentence

Launched this week, ExhibitView Solutions' DepositionPro 1.0 enables you to manage, review, tag, and export key testimony from transcripts, including accompanying video clips if applicable.

The Killer Feature

DepositionPro works with traditional text-only transcripts as well as video depositions. It supports all popular transcript formats. The company can suggest court reporters in your area, and can synchronize your depositions at "half the average cost."

Regarding video depositions, after importing the video and synchronized transcript into DepositionPro, you select relevant testimony in the transcript with your mouse and then press a shortcut key of your choice to save the clip, including the corresponding video. You can rearrange clips in any order, and export them individually or combine them into a single video. You can also print a report containing the portions of the transcript you selected.

You can export video in AVI, MOV, or MP4 formats, all of which play on PCs, Macs, iPads, and Android devices. This means you can use the video in any trial presentation application such as the company's own ExhibitView PC and ExhibitVie iPad, as well as in traditional presentation software such as PowerPoint and Keynote.

"After launching our iPad app for trial presentations, lawyers asked us to build a tool to help them edit synchronized video depositions and create clips for use on PCs and tablets for client memoranda, briefs, deposition outlines, witness preparation, settlement presentations, and of course trial presentations," ExhibitView Solutions Partner Bob Finnell told us. "This was the genesis of DepositionPro."

Other Notable Features

DepositionPro works over your network and with cloud storage providers. You can designate a folder on your file server or on a cloud-based service as the default repository.

The Case Manager screen enables you to organize transcripts by case name, matter number, etc. You can search the full text of one or multiple depositions and save your searches. DepositionPro supports partial word searches and other advanced operators.

DepositionPro enables you to bookmark pages within a deposition, and highlight testimony in your choice of colors. The software lists all your bookmarks so you can jump to any of them with one click. When you copy and paste from transcripts into a document, DepositionPro automatically formats it for you.

What Else Should You Know?

DepositionPro runs on Windows XP and later. It costs $229 per seat plus $49 per seat per year thereafter, which provides updates and technical support. Learn more about DepositionPro.

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 an iPad handwriting app (see article below), a project management system, predictive coding software, and an iPhone calendar app that integrates with Internet services. Don't miss the next issue.

WRITE IN PLACE

Handwriting on the iPad or iPad mini presents a challenge. Not only is your forefinger (not to mention your pinky) much larger than the tip of a pen, but so are styluses because of the nature of capacitive touchscreens. A stylus with a tip (nib) the size of a pen wouldn't work. Styluses have improved (narrowed) over the past few years, but app developers still need to meet them halfway.

Remarks … in One Sentence

Launched last month, Readdle's Remarks 1.5.1 is an iPad app for handwritten notes.

The Killer Feature

Most handwriting apps address the issue of stylus nibs with a zoom box. Basically, you write in large letters in a box at the bottom of your virtual paper. The app converts your writing into much smaller text on the virtual paper above. While zoom boxes work, they're less than ideal because of the disconnect (physical keyboards work in a disconnected manner, but they don't try to mimic paper).

Remarks offers a zoom box for those who like the precision this method offers. However, it also enables you to simply zoom in and out on your virtual paper so that you can write directly where your text appears. To prevent your text from looking like you wrote it with a magic marker, Remarks offers pen tip settings, including a very fine tip that effectively shrinks the size of your stylus' nib. When you write without the zoom box, Remarks ignores unintended touches by your palm if it's resting on the lower portion of the screen.

Other Notable Features

In addition to the pen tip setting, Remarks also provides an eraser, unlimited undo/redo, a selection of shapes you can insert, and settings for different color inks and the opacity of what you write (e.g., you can create a faint watermark). You can also add typed notes to your document and record audio. Both handwritten and typed notes can appear on the same page.

Depending on how many notes (documents) you create, Remarks offers two methods of organization. You can name a note and leave it in the home screen if you need to access it frequently, or you can place notes into notebooks, which also have names and appear in the home screen. Each note can contain an unlimited number of pages. You can move notes from one notebook to another or back to the home screen.

In addition to starting with a blank page, you can import PDF documents and use Remarks' tools to annotate them. Remarks offers underlining and strikethrough as well as all the tools discussed above. You can highlight by choosing a highlighter from the pen tips in your preferred color. You can add comments by inserting a box and then typing notes in the box.

What Else Should You Know?

Remarks stores your notes in PDF format. Thus, you can send a note to any other iPad app that supports PDF. You can sync your notes via iTunes, Dropbox, Google Drive, and SkyDrive, email notes from the app, and print notes to any AirPrint-enabled printer. Remarks costs $4.99. Learn more about Remarks 1.5.1.

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 time- and expense-tracking application for QuickBooks (see article below), a driving app for Android and iOS, an iPad app for QuickBooks Online, and a tool for creating and tracking proposals. Don't miss the next issue.

QUICKBOOKS' MISSING SYNC

If QuickBooks had a grandmother, she would talk your ear off about him ("Have I told you about my grandson, the best-selling accounting software?"). But if you asked her about time tracking, she'd probably look at her watch and suggest that "it's getting late." Notwithstanding this weakness, QuickBooks remains a mainstay at many law firms. These firms should, however, consider using better technology to track their billable hours.

Minute7 … in One Sentence

Minute7 is a cloud application for tracking time that integrates with QuickBooks.

The Killer Feature

It's relatively easy for cloud products to share data with other cloud products since they're all on the web. And with a little elbow grease, Windows applications can share data with other Windows applications.

Minute7 offers a happy medium. It integrates with the Windows version of QuickBooks but is itself a cloud application that works on your PC, Mac, iPad, and smartphone. (It also works with QuickBooks Online.)

Other Notable Features

Minute7 enables everyone at your firm to enter time and expenses. It uses a timesheet metaphor with a number of fields you can customize.

As the administrator, you can accept, reject, or modify time and expense entries, and review everyone's entries in the activity log. You can also designate access privileges for everyone in your firm, and set up automated reminders for your team to enter their time and expenses.

Minute7 offers advanced search functionality (e.g., find all time for a specific client or matter), customizable reports, and batch editing of time and expense entries.

What Else Should You Know?

Minute7 costs $8.33 per user per month ($4 if you just want to track time and expenses and don't need the QuickBooks integration). Learn more about Minute7.

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 issuing defensible legal holds (see article below), a Microsoft Word add-on for creating tables of authorities, an iPad mini keyboard case, and a document management system for Macs. Don't miss the next issue.

LEGAL HOLDS SIMPLIFIED

With each passing day, more opportunities arise for lawyers and clients to find themselves sanctioned thanks to the complexities inherent in ediscovery. While best practices remain a moving target in some areas, one well established best practice has become a rule in many courts — the legal hold (a.k.a. litigation hold), which involves notifying people whose documents might be relevant (custodians) to preserve everything because of a possible lawsuit. The more defensible your legal hold, the less likely you'll encounter any claims of spoliation.

fermata … in One Sentence

Launched last month, Cicayda's fermata is a cloud application for managing the legal hold process in a defensible manner.

The Killer Feature

Because fermata is web-based, anyone can use it — from a small firm lawyer who effectively serves as general counsel for small businesses to the legal department of a Fortune 500 company.

Fermata's pricing reflects its broad applicability. You can either pay per legal hold (which enables outside counsel to bill the cost to their clients), or pay a flat fee for an unlimited number of legal holds (which betters serves a legal department constantly managing lawsuits).

"With fermata, we sought to disrupt the market with regard to both price and performance," Cicayda CEO Roe Frazer told us. "Fermata is priced flexibly and transparently, and features a user-friendly look and feel, as well as intuitive functions."

Other Notable Features

The fermata dashboard walks you through the steps of a legal hold. You begin by entering the names and email addresses of everyone who may have relevant documents (including email, text messages, voicemail, etc.).

You then create a questionnaire to determine if the person is a potential custodian (and witness). You can create three types of questions — freeform, radio buttons (choose one defined answer such as yes or no), and checkboxes (choose one or more defined answers). You then use fermata to send an email message containing your form message about a potential legal hold along with the questionnaire to the people you select. From fermata's dashboard, you can track everyone's progress and follow up with those who don't submit the questionnaire by your deadline.

Once you receive completed questionnaires, you can determine which people require a legal hold and send them instructions (you need not send a questionnaire if you know beforehand that someone requires a legal hold). You can also notify others such as the IT Manager who may need to take appropriate steps to preserve a custodian's data.

Fermata tracks and stores all these actions and communications in the event you're challenged during discovery. You can generate a report listing all the activity.

What Else Should You Know?

Fermata works in all major web browsers on traditional computers, iPads and other tablets, and smartphones. It uses bank-grade encryption to store all your data. Learn more about fermata.

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 an iPhone app that automatically records your billable time (see article below), a task management system with time-based interdependent ticklers, an iPad app for managing and presenting deposition exhibits, and a service that enables you to make court appearances remotely in your boxer shorts. Don't miss the next issue.

NOW THERE'S AN APP FOR AUTOMATIC IPHONE TIME CAPTURE

Here's a shocking statistic. Approximately half of billable time on mobile devices consists of 30 seconds or less. Think about the last client email message you read or phone call you made on your smartphone. Many messages and calls take just a few seconds and are not billed. Half a minute here, half a minute there. Before you know it, these brief spurts of work can add up to lots of billable hours not captured and revenue lost. It's hard enough to record time in six-minute increments let alone 30 second interactions on smartphones. Enter automatic time capture.

TIMBS for iPhone … in One Sentence
Launched last week, TIMBS for iPhone automatically captures the time you spend on client-related email and telephone calls with one touch.

The Killer Feature

TIMBS consists of three components — TIMBS for iPhone, TIMBS Cloud, and TIMBS System. The iPhone app records your billable time automatically, after which it goes to your account on a secure server managed by TIMBS (no one from the company can view your encrypted time entries). From the TIMBS cloud, the data goes to the TIMBS System (an appliance or virtual machine that TIMBS provides at no charge) and aggregates the billable time. TIMBS System communicates with all major billing systems so that it can post your time entries.

TIMBS for iPhone automates time capture by prompting you to accept the recorded time after reading and sending an email message, and after a telephone call. Via the app and TIMBS Server, you can associate contacts with client/matter numbers for faster entry. You can also designate contacts such as your spouse and kids as "personal" so that the app will not prompt you for billing any communications with them.

The app can also learn. For example, it can automatically enter time for the second, third, fourth, etc. message in an ongoing email thread without any further clicks since it already knows the client/matter number.

Other Notable Features

You can also enter docket entries in the app regardless of your location, eliminating the need to use other tools since you always have your iPhone with you. For example, you can enter travel time, time spent at court and in meetings, and time spent working on a document in your office.

To make the billing process easier and bills easier for clients to understand, TIMBS Server can aggregate the many automated small time entries into standard six-minute-increment time entries, the difference being that you can demonstrate to your clients that these time entries were automatically captured in realtime and not guesstimated if asked about them. A full docket report is also available to show your clients each interaction that made up the posted docket entry. In short, you can always prove your time.

"After years of development working with top iOS development talent, we have launched a game-changing cloud-connected app for mobile time capture on iPhone that enables a law firm to capture hundreds of thousands of dollars of lost revenue effortlessly and securely," TIMBS CEO and Founder Michael Bluestein told us. "Thanks to our years of experience with our similar BlackBerry app, we know that on average TIMBS captures an additional 60 hours per year per timekeeper," he added.

What Else Should You Know?

TIMBS for iPhone is free as is TIMBS Server. Instead, you pay a subscription fee. You can try it for free for two months. The company plans to launch TIMBS for iPad and TIMBS for Android apps soon. Learn more about TIMBS for iPhone.

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 management service that uses native software (see article below), a fast monochrome laser printer, a document management app for the iPad, and a task manager that works on the web and in dedicated iOS apps. Don't miss the next issue.

CLOUD DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT WITH A LOCAL TWIST

We've entered a new era in the legal technology world. Few lawyers debate the necessity of a document management system anymore. Instead, the debate has shifted to which combination of features best fits the needs of law firms in the second decade of the 21st century. The debate has thus far focused on cloud versus local, but a new product suggests that a hybrid approach may best suit the needs of many law firms.

Worldox GX3 Cloud … in One Sentence

Launching today, World Software's Worldox GX3 Cloud is a hybrid cloud document management system.

The Killer Feature

As its name suggests, Worldox GX3 Cloud stores your firm's documents and client-related email in the cloud (secure web servers). But here's the twist — you're not relegated to using a web browser to access and work with your data. Instead, you can use the very same Worldox software you would use if you stored your documents on an onsite server.

According to World Software, Worldox GX3 Cloud works so seamlessly that your colleagues may not realize their documents are stored in the cloud and not locally, thus eliminating a common complaint of cloud applications — the slowness of web browsers (a web browser must download text and images in addition to the data you seek).

Worldox GX3 Cloud adds to its speed advantage by enabling you to edit and work with large PDF documents directly on the web-based server instead of having to download a copy.

"We are proud to be the most widely-used document management system in the legal market," World Software President Ray Zwiefelhofer told us. "While largely known for our small to midsize firm presence, our GX3 enterprise release in 2012 meets the needs of larger law firms. And our new GX3 Cloud release furthers our company goal of offering a completely flexible document management system, so law firms of all sizes can choose the solution that benefits them most."

Other Notable Features

Worldox GX3 Cloud provides the same feature set as an on-premises Worldox system. For example, it forces everyone to store new documents in Worldox GX3 Cloud and create a searchable document profile, and provides check in and check out functionality, full-text searching, document access restrictions, etc.

Worldox GX3 Cloud also includes a full-featured PDF editing suite, obviating the need to purchase PDF software. This suite supports saving documents in PDF/A format, Bates stamping, form creation and completion, redaction, and more. Speaking of third-party software, thanks to 25 years in business, Worldox GX3 Cloud integrates with a large number of products to accommodate your workflow — Outlook, billing software, document comparison products, practice management systems, etc.

Security is always a concern when using cloud applications. World Software uses Rackspace OpenStack, which has earned all the major certifications such as SSAE 16 and ISAE 3402. Your firm's data is literally walled off. It's also backed up and stored across multiple data centers for added redundancy.

What Else Should You Know?

Worldox GX3 Cloud doesn't require a capital investment up front — you need not purchase and maintain a server or pay for a software license. Instead, it costs $55 per user per month. Learn more about Worldox GX3 Cloud.

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 document assembly software that is itself automated (see article below), an iPhone app that can trigger actions in other apps with one tap, a mobile scanner that weighs less than a pound, a cloud application for culling, reviewing, and producing discovery documents, and a free marketing service for lawyers. Don't miss the next issue.

THE AUTOMATION OF DOCUMENT AUTOMATION SOFTWARE

Document assembly software enables you to create legal documents faster and without embarrassing errors that can occur when recycling previous documents. Let's call this Document Assembly 1.0, which has existed for about 20 years (maybe longer). In version 2.0, your document assembly software itself needs to become more automated so that you can create new templates just as quickly as you can create documents from those templates.

Pathagoras 2013.1 … in One Sentence

Launched this week, Pathagoras 2013.1 is a document assembly add-on for Microsoft Word.

The Killer Feature

Pathagoras has two claims to fame — the ability to create document templates using simple plain text variables such as "[Client Name]" and "[Client Address]" rather than a scripting language, and the ability to work within the familiar environment of Microsoft Word.

The new version adds a third crowd pleaser — Instant Database. As you complete templates, Pathagoras automatically stores all your variables and related information in its own database. This makes it faster to create new templates and also to enter and reuse case-related information. The company has also improved its Create Variables and Create Options wizards to further expedite the creation of new templates.

The company claims that these new features significantly shorten the time needed to create templates (e.g., a motion and an accompanying affidavit). You simply use the plain text variables from other documents to create the new templates, and reuse the stored client data to fill in the variables.

"While we continue to add more useful features and significantly more value to the product, we have remained true to our plain text underpinnings," President and Chief Programmer of Pathagoras Roy Lasris told us. "Our latest version is easier to set up and use than ever before.

Other Notable Features

Continuing with its focus on speed, the new Quick Picks feature enables you to create a custom menu containing up to 12 of your most frequently-used Pathagoras functions.

Similarly, new tools facilitate the creation of MultiChoice Lists for your documents. For example, you can quickly create a MultiChoice List of all 50 states, counties in which you practice, names of judges, etc. for rapid entry into any document.

Your clients can lend a helping hand with document creation. From Pathagoras you can send them an email message with a fill-in-the-blanks form. After they complete and return it, you automatically import the information into Pathagoras' Instant Database, which makes this data available for use in documents created for their matters.

Other features include improved connectivity with Excel spreadsheets (including for mail merges), tools for optional and conditional clauses, calendar and math variables, a text expander for entering boilerplate text with just a few keystrokes, new search and replace tools that work with variables and across multiple documents, and a new tool that can identify inconsistent variables among your templates.

What Else Should You Know?

Pathagoras 2013.1 works with Microsoft Word 2003 and later versions. Pricing starts at $379 for the first license. Additional licenses cost $250. Volume discounts exist starting at $799 for three licenses. Learn more about Pathagoras 2013.1.

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 duplex scanner with a few wireless smartphone and tablet tricks up its sleeve (see article below), a high-volume production scanner, a cloud application for tracking your time, backup software that you can monitor from your iPad and iPhone, and a suite of products for corporate legal departments. Don't miss the next issue.

SCAN TO YOUR POCKET

No matter how many services give you the option of paperless statements, it seems like you end up with just as many documents to scan anyway. On top of that, you've now got more devices than just your computer on which you might like to have your scanned documents. It's little wonder that scanners remain a perennial hot topic among lawyers. So expect a whole new crop of scanners this year with features we never knew we needed a few years ago, but have since become indispensable.

ScanSnap iX500 … in One Sentence

Launched earlier this week, Fujistu's ScanSnap iX500 is a desktop document scanner.

The Killer Feature

Using the free ScanSnap Connect app, you can scan wirelessly over your WiFi network to your iPad, iPhone, and/or Android device in PDF or JPEG format. WiFi scanning also works with Macs and PCs. Alternatively, you can connect the ScanSnap iX500 to your computer via USB (the scanner supports USB 3.0).

If you choose PDF format, the ScanSnap iX500 can make the PDF files searchable on the fly without any noticeable reduction in scanning speed. The software bundle includes ABBYY FineReader, which you can use to make previously scanned image-only PDF documents searchable.

Other Notable Features

The ScanSnap iX500 scans duplex at up to 25 pages per minute (50 images per minute) — even at 300 dpi (you can scan as high as 600 dpi if needed). The scanner weighs 6.62 pounds, and measures 11.5 x 6.2 x 6.6 inches. Its automatic document feeder holds up to 50 sheets.

Improved paper detection and feeding technologies minimize jams and crooked scans while improved processing technology removes artifacts and improves OCR accuracy.

In addition to PDF and JPEG, you can scan directly to Microsoft Word format. And in addition to your computer, tablet, and smartphone, you can scan to SharePoint as well as to cloud services such as Evernote, Google Drive, and SugarSync.

What Else Should You Know?

In addition to ABBYY FineReader, you'll also receive a copy of Adobe Acrobat X Standard as well as software for business cards, adjusting the scanner's settings, and organizing your documents. A special Deluxe version of the ScanSnap iX500 includes Rack2-Filer Smart, a more sophisticated document management program. The ScanSnap iX500 has an MSRP of $495 ($595 for the Deluxe model). Learn more about ScanSnap iX500.

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.

Originally published in the December 14, 2012 issue of TL NewsWire. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

In 2012, we reported on 205 new products in TL NewsWire. In what has become an annual tradition, today in this year's last issue of TL NewsWire we present to you the TL NewsWire Top 25 Products of 2012. You'll find commentary on the Top 10 products, a list of the next 15 products, and links for all 25 products.

How do we determine the winners? We don't. You do. Each TL NewsWire article about a new product contains a link to that product's web page. We anonymously track everyone's clicks on these links to help us figure out which types of products most interest TL NewsWire subscribers, and also to create the annual TL NewsWire Top 25 Products.

THE 10 HOTTEST TL NEWSWIRE PRODUCTS OF 2012

Congratulations to the 10 hottest products in the TL NewsWire Top 25!

1. Total Attorneys App Store

After raising a significant round of capital, Total Attorneys came out swinging this year with two cleverly framed blockbuster announcements.

Several companies announced "application programming interfaces" or APIs this year, which enable other products to more easily integrate with theirs. To its credit, Total Attorneys chose not to use this term given that most lawyers are not programmers and therefore don't know what it means.

Instead, Total Attorneys announced an app store. Thanks to Apple, everyone knows what that means! Using this colloquial term vaulted Total Attorneys App Store to the top of the TL NewsWire Top 25. So congratulations to Total Attorneys not only for the add-ons it announced, but also for how the company framed this announcement.

2. Total Attorneys

Before launching its app store, Total Attorneys relaunched its cloud practice management system. This alone would have likely earned it a spot on the TL NewsWire Top 25. But Total Attorneys also announced an incredibly low price of just $1 per user per month, which explains its second place ranking.

Total Attorneys isn't crazy. Instead, like Amazon's strategy of selling its Kindle tablets at or below cost and later earning a profit on ebooks and other content, Total Attorneys essentially gives away its practice management system with the hope that you'll purchase apps such as credit card processing.

3. CitePin

When we reported on CitePin, we called it the "Evernote of the Legal Industry" as it's a cloud application designed to keep track of legal information such as legal research in a freeform manner but with legal-specific features.

CitePin clearly excited many of you. Just one caveat. This company reminds me of the Pink Floyd song, Is There Anybody Out There? We could not find an email address. We filled out the contact form requesting a screenshot to no avail (our thanks to LawSites for letting us use one of its screenshots).

4. TheFormTool PRO

According to the CEO of TheFormTool, the TechnoLawyer Network, including TL NewsWire, enabled the company to grow much faster than it originally anticipated.

TheFormTool PRO adds document assembly functionality to Microsoft Word without the need for programming skills. Because of the intense interest in TheFormTool PRO, we reviewed it twice from two perspectives in our BigLaw and SmallLaw newsletters.

5. MobileScan Pro 100

It would shock me if a scanner didn't make the TL NewsWire Top 25. In many law firms, scanners have become as essential a peripheral as printers. In fact, many law firms find that they need several types of scanners — high-volume, network, desktop, and mobile.

Ambir's new scanner garnered so much attention from TL NewsWire subscribers because it's the Batman of scanners — highly mobile with a dual personality. It functions as both a sheet-fed scanner and as a wand scanner. Also, it can scan without any cables to a Micro USB card.

6. Workshare PDF Professional Plus 2.0

Workshare PDF Professional 1.0 ranked second in last year's TL NewsWire Top 20. And here is version 2.0 ranked sixth in this year's TL NewsWire Top 25. Acrobat XI Pro also made the list this year but it's further down. That's because while PDF software is a hot topic, PDF software designed specifically for lawyers is an even hotter topic.

You probably found Workshare PDF Professional's support for PDF/A and its file size shrinking technology of interest given that many courts require this format and have file size limits. Version 2.0 also offers integrations with Autonomy Worksite and Microsoft SharePoint, two popular document management systems used by midsize and large law firms.

7. eBillity

eBillity has interesting origins. One of its co-founders used to work at Bill4Time, a cloud legal billing software pioneer. As a result, the two products share a number of features, chief among them an iPhone app as well as desktop widgets for Mac and Windows. Also, the pricing for Bill4Time and eBillity is identical.

Perhaps because of its late entry into the marketplace, eBillity has teamed up with larger companies. For example, it powers Thomson Reuters' new Time and Billing product. And when Intuit abandoned its cloud billing product, it recommended that its customers switch to eBillity.

8. Harvest

Harvest serves the billing needs of several industries, including legal. It offers both iPhone and Android apps, thus covering the majority of TechnoLawyer members (49% use an iPhone; 28% use an Android smartphone). For law firms with three or more timekeepers, Harvest costs less than rival products.

9. CaseFox

Clearly, TL NewsWire subscribers like cloud billing software as CaseFox also falls into this category. We cited CaseFox's ability to accommodate temporary contract lawyers as its Killer Feature. CaseFox also falls on the less expensive end of the pricing spectrum.

10. PDF Converter 8

We covered three new Nuance products this year. Not surprisingly, its PDF software received the most attention.

PDF Converter 8 is practically a word processor given its editing capabilities. That's why you'll find some of Nuance's Dragon speech recognition technology built into the software. Like Workshare PDF Professional, PDF Converter 8 integrates with a number of products popular among lawyers, including CaseMap and Worldox.

THE NEXT 15 HOTTEST TL NEWSWIRE PRODUCTS OF 2012

Congratulations to the 15 remaining products in the TL NewsWire Top 25 Products of 2012!

11. OmniOutliner for iPad

12. Leap

13. Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2012

14. Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover

15. HoverBar

16. Acrobat XI Pro

17. Apollo

18. Standzfree

19. TranscriptPad

20. Disconnect

21. DocMoto

22. Amicus Cloud

23. Samsung ML-2165W Mono Laser Printer

24. iPad 3

25. SwingHolder

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 billing and practice management system designed to minimize lost billable time (see article below), a Bluetooth gadget for your car stereo, an iPhone and iPad accounting app, and early case assessment software. Don't miss the next issue.

PRACTICE MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION REACHES NEW HEIGHTS

LexisNexis conducted a pair of surveys of lawyers this year about billable hours, the results of which were so startling that they piqued the interest of the Wall Street Journal. For example, lawyers reported billing only 66% of the time they worked. Among the leading culprits — forgotten billable work caused by ineffective methods of tracking time. At least most lawyers are honest, but it's time to get paid for all your billable work.

Time Matters 12 … in One Sentence

Launched this week, LexisNexis' Time Matters 12 is a practice management and billing system.

The Killer Feature

Time Matters' new Time Entry Advisor feature minimizes lost billable hours. It presents all your unbilled activities in a spreadsheet-like view, enabling you to efficiently transform them into time entries. Time Entry Advisor lists calendar events, documents, email, tasks and more — virtually everything Time Matters organizes for you and your colleagues.

Other Notable Features

LexisNexis has also significantly enhanced Time Matters for Microsoft Outlook. For example, when you open a meeting in Outlook you can see you can see key Time Matters contact and matter data associated with each attendee. You can also open a Time Matters billing record from a client's Outlook email message to bill for the time spent to respond. The new capabilities complement the existing integration of Time Matters with Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server, which enable you to directly synchronize your email, events, and tasks in Time Matters with Outlook.

"By expanding the integration of LexisNexis Time Matters with Microsoft Outlook, and through the addition of the new Time Entry Advisor feature, Time Matters 12 helps legal professionals operate more efficiently, while helping law firms increase revenues by capturing billable hours that might otherwise be lost," Mike Lipps, LexisNexis' Vice President and Managing Director of Legal Business Software Solutions, told us.

Other new features include the ability to save matter-related email messages in Time Matters as documents, improvements to TM Save (for saving documents directly to Time Matters from programs such as Adobe Acrobat), and integration with LexisNexis PCLaw 12, LexisNexis' legal billing and accounting software. Those who use LexisNexis Billing Matters software will find 34 new UTBMS codes (e.g., ediscovery), and the ability to copy Bill Profiles, Bill Preferences, and Rate Tables.

What Else Should You Know?

Time Matters runs on Windows PCs. LexisNexis sells Time Matters via an Annual Maintenance Plan, which in addition to all software updates also includes Time Matters Mobility for access to key Time Matters features from smartphones, online Anytime Training courses, and live telephone technical support. Learn more about Time Matters 12.

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.