How do attorneys use their tablets productively?

[aaimbrogno]

Hi Everyone

I am going to be getting a new tablet very soon (either the Galaxy Pro or the Galaxy Tab S). I currently have an iPad 2, but have never really used it for business purposes, just for fun at home.

I have seen all kinds of articles from the ABA and other bar associations and law libraries about how to get the most use out of a tablet, but I'd like to hear from some real people how having a tablet has increased productivity at the office and in court.

I will be working in an office of only two people with a fairly antiquated system (my boss started practicing in the early 80s and has made some technical improvements, but it's nothing like working in a large firm). I will also be in suppression hearings and very occasional jury trials, and a lot of pre-trial meetings. What apps have helped you take notes in court or be more efficient?

 

[NoNexus]

I have a Galaxy Note 12.2 and while I am not in your industry, I use it all the time for taking meeting notes, presentations, writing pseudo-code (programmer thing) and more.

A tablet can be a great tool, you can get whatever you want out of it.

 

[Raymond Hubbard]

Even though I am not an attorney but I think a Samsung with an SPen would be good for use for quick notes.

 

[aaimbrogno]

That's what I am thinking. I'm torn because I really want one of the note tablets, but I also want one of the smaller versions, and the only small note is on Jelly Bean and I want some of the capabilities of Kit Kat. So I have to decide if I want to get the Galaxy S tab 8.4 and just have less note-taking capabilities, or if I want to get the Galaxy Note 10.1 from 2014 and have everything I want (minus the AMOLED screen) but it will be way too big

 

[Davidran]

Hi not an attorney (but deal with a lot of them) and I echo the comment above - try one of Samsung's Galaxy Note tablets. It will not feel as smooth and polished as an iPad but the stylus and hand writing functionality is far, far beyond anything else on the market (I'm going to assume that you take a lot of hand written notes, as all the lawyers I know do so - apologies if I'm wrong).

The stylus in a Galaxy Note tablet is a proper Wacom stylus with pressure sensitivity but more importantly because the stylus talks to the tablet, the tablet can then ignore any other touches whilst the stylus is in use. This means palm rejection. When you write using a pad of paper you rest your hand on the pad to write. With every other tablet (bar a few) you do not get palm rejection so to write anything you have to hold your hand continually in the air - virtually impossible to do for any length of time. Further you can get 3rd party compatible styluses - I use the Wacom Bamboo which is shaped like an actual pen and feels far more comfortable and natural than the included Samsung stylus (which is still pretty good).

The other point I would make is be careful about any cloud services or syncing. The problem is where the data is synced to - which jurisdiction / country and whether that transfer of data breaches the rules for client information storage and legal privilege. For example the built in S Note app is very good and you can choose not to sync it to anything but you might by accident (very easy to do in the set up) choose the Samsung account to sync and back up to and Lord knows where the Samsung data servers are hosted.

As for actual apps - for meeting notes I use an app called Papyrus which is brilliant. It doesn't sync with anything (unless you buy the add on functionality) so stays local on the tablet. I can export my meeting notes as PDF's if need be and import and mark up PDF's as well. Further the user interface is one of the simplest and most fluid to use - you use two fingers to 'move' the 'paper' down as you write and one finger to rub out text if you make a mistake - brilliant and easy (PS I'm not related to Papyrus / Samsung in any way).

Other apps - I like Polaris for Microsoft Office documents though I hear Microsoft will soon be releasing a tablet version for Android. Also Adobe reader for Android. A good secure cloud storage service which is encrypted and if you are in the US, is SpiderOak which also has an Android app as well as PC access.

One final point - Samsung tablets have an encryption function where you can encrypt the whole device and micro SD card storage. It's very simple to set up from Settings. I would highly recommend you do this should you get a Samsung.

 

[GANote3]

Not an attorney, but in lots of meetings. +1 for the galaxy note. I have tried papyrus and it is a very good app, but I prefer lecturenotes with lecturerecord. It allows you to take notes while recording the meeting and can play back the recording with synced to the notes you took. It also very elegant for importing pdf files with a layering system. I have the big one, the smaller note was just too small and I gave it to my son.

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[Raymond Hubbard]

If you can find a Note 8.0 it can be upgraded to 4.4.2 it might work for you.