As a lawyer, paralegal, or court reporter, it is important to stay organized, be efficient, and protect data. At IT Ninjas, we’re all about protecting data from breaches, while at the same time, making your technology work for you. We offer these apps for legal professionals and what to do when apps fail….because we know that while they’re helpful, we also know technology can fail.
Protect Your Passwords
With the recent security breaches with a number of websites and companies, online security is essential. If you’re tired of trying to remember logins for all of your accounts, try LastPass. It’s a password manager and password generator, and rest easy knowing your passwords are secure. Store insurance cards and other important documents, simplify online shopping, generate secure passwords, and more.
Document Sharing and Security
When it comes to storing and sharing documents with teams, we recommend Dropbox and SugarSync which are both available in apps and desktop versions. Save, organize, and share documents with specific members of your legal team or with everyone depending on what you need. SugarSync offers more free storage, at least at the time of this publication. Because it is a third party app, we strongly recommend data backup in addition to the online storage to avoid being without access to information should these sites go down.
Not sure where to begin with Data Backup for your law firm? Give us a call!
Legal Specific
DroidLaw and LawStack provide access to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Evidence, Appellate, Criminal, and Bankruptcy Procedure, and the United States Constitution. State codes and laws are also available. For legal news, try LegalEdge and for general news, set up Google Alerts with keywords and have the news emailed to you.
If you’re looking for an inclusive app that’s also available for desktop, try CaseManager. This app includes calendar, tasks, contacts, time clock for billable hours, and document access.
When Apps Fail
Apps are helpful, creating efficiencies and the ability to work away from home and still be productive but there may be a time when apps fail.
When most of the rest of the country was springing forward, my Arizona-based Google calendar decided to move ahead one hour as well. Thank goodness I had the foresight to contact my clients and colleagues to confirm meeting times! I was an hour off on my calendar for a week or so.
The lesson? You’ve got to know that apps are great but a backup plan needs to be in place for those times when apps fail.
To solve my calendar issue, I updated my phone and the app which seems to have solved the problem and restored my appointments to their proper Arizona time. Moving forward, I review my appointment times on the app and the desktop versions to be sure they match.
Whatever apps for legal professionals you choose to use, there are likely free versions and paid upgrades available. Find the ones are right for you, give them a try, and let us know your favorites!
