Top 5 iPad Apps for the Legal Professional

By Mary Lide

Your iPad can be used for much more than FaceTime and Netflix.

Planet Depos has put together a list of the top five iPad apps for the legal professional. These apps will help make your life easier, and make your iPad as versatile and useful as any laptop.

1. DocketLaw

This free app is handy for figuring out dates and deadlines based on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  When you enter the date of a triggering event (like a trial date), the app will calculate events based on which jurisdiction you’re in. For an additional fee, you can subscribe to specific, rules-based calendars for state and federal courts.

2. PacerMonitor

This is a great app for staying on top of Federal Court case dockets and filings. A companion to PacerMonitor.com, this app makes it easy to view, download, and email case filings. You can even save the cases that you’re tracking so that they are easy to access.

3. Depending on which service you use, we’ve split #3 up into a two-fer:

a. Lexis Advance | b. Westlaw

These apps are companions to the best legal research services. You can set up alerts, access and share your research, and view documents easily. They’re great for staying organized across devices, from your laptop to your tablet and back again.

4. Rulebook

This app is good for staying up-to-date on federal and state court rules. It’s easy to navigate through the different rule sets, which do need to be purchased—and it’s great for accessing the Bluebook. It also has a handy multi-task function for going back and forth between authorities.

5. Adobe Acrobat Reader

With all of the documents you need to read daily, a good PDF app is essential. Adobe does it best—you can easily open any PDF, search, zoom, annotate, sign, share, and save documents. We especially recommend it for reading your Planet Depos transcripts, which are always provided in full and condensed PDFs!

In this digital world we live in, it’s important to be able to rely on our devices to help us out. These apps are must-haves for any 21^st-century legal professional—the tools you need are right at your fingertips!