A few years back, I was sitting in my office with two other attorneys from my firm. The attorneys had recently used a Smart Board and Trial Director during a large environmental case and were unhappy with the clumsiness, ineffectiveness and high cost of the these trial tools. For their next trial, we discussed the possibility of using an iPad. As their trial had in excess of a million documents, it would be used for limited purposes.
The three of us sat down and went through the iPad’s capabilities. I was impressed by its ability to show videos as well as to manipulate and highlight documents and other materials such as radiology studies, all in the palm of your hand and with the touch of a finger. After some further testing and research, I realized this could be the perfect technology for the medical malpractice trial I had coming up, which had far fewer documents and fewer experts than their trial.
