As a litigator, I read a lot of depositions, and I love the ability to review them on my iPad. In the past, I have typically created a searchable PDF version of the deposition transcript and then read the transcripts in the GoodReader app, using the standard PDF highlight feature to mark significant text. I'd store all of the depositions in a folder in GoodReader so I could pull them up in the future. However, Lit Software LLC has just introduced a new $50 iPad app called TranscriptPad, an app dedicated to the task of reviewing depositions. This is the same company that created TrialPad, a powerful trial presentation app for the iPad. The developer, Ian O'Flaherty, sent me a free copy of the app to review, and so far I am very impressed. The app offers many powerful features, and I think that this will be the tool I will use going forward for reviewing depositions.
There are always missing features in the 1.0 version of any software, and the developer promises free updates. And this 1.0 version does include tons of features that I love, especially the following:
- Reading a transcript works great, and it is easy to flip pages and jump to other pages.
- Selecting text is easy and fast. In other apps you can highlight text by holding down at the start of a selection then dragging to the end of the selection. It is much faster to select text in TranscriptPad because you just need two taps, one at the start and one at the end.
- Creating and applying issue codes is easy and fast.
- Searching across multiple depositions is easy and fast. In the past, the only way I could do this on an iPad was to create a large text or PDF file containing multiple transcripts merged together into a single file. And then when I received a new transcript I'd have to manually add that transcript to the single large file.
- You can select text and then, instead of designating the text, choose to e-mail just that snippet of text. This creates an e-mail listing the starting page and line, the end page and line, and then the full text on those pages and lines. Very clean, very useful.
I suppose it is worth mentioning that this app costs $50 whereas most iPad apps cost $10 or less, but that is still a lot cheaper than similar software for your computer, and I'd much rather use an iPad than a computer to review a deposition. I prefer sitting back in a chair and reviewing the transcript on my iPad, plus I love having all of my deposition transcripts with me at all times on my iPad. And considering that this software has appeal only to a niche audience — litigators — versus general PDF and text reading apps that are useful to millions of iPad owners, it is only natural that the app will be more expensive. I think it is worth $50.
With TranscriptPad on my iPad, I'm actually looking forward to the next time I have to review a bunch of depositions, and I don't believe I've ever said that before. This 1.0 version is full of great features, and I love that the developer already has useful additions, such as collaboration, in the pipeline for future updates. If you are a litigator with an iPad who works with deposition transcripts, I think you will really like TranscriptPad.
For more information, visit http://www.litsoftware.com.
By Guest Blogger: Lit Software - Developer of TrialPad and TranscriptPad
