Tuesday, January 24, 2012

iPad Apps for Lawyers: iJury for Voir Dire

Reprinted with permission from the Jan. 19, 2012 issue of Law Technology News. ©2012 ALM Media Properties, LLC.


iJury


After alengthy trial and engaging voir dire without computer assistance, Orlando,Fla.-based attorney Lawrence Williamson teamed up with computer technician SeanHam (who assisted Williamson with trial logistics and document management) tocome up with iJury, an affordable iPadapp that would enable attorneys to "concentrate on the art of voir direand move away from the excessive note taking and paper shuffling."


Digitalconvergence is an admirable charge for any app and fits well with the iPadvision. I've reviewed several apps designed for jury selection (voir dire) andmonitoring and, although they all appear to be helpful, the fiercest competitorto iPad apps remains the venerable Post-it® Notes.


Some thingsjust seem to work better the old-fashioned way. Perhaps one reason is thatentering data on the iPad, although it can be comprehensive, takes most of uslonger than scribbling on sticky notes. While it is likely just a simple matterof adjusting your work flow to input data on the iPad, I still see more peopleusing the familiar little yellow squares than apps such as iJuror, JuryTracker, JuryDuty,or even full-feature software applications such as JuryBox.


One thingsticky notes can't do is perform data analysis, but that is true of most iPadapps for voir dire. Most apps do a decent job of storing and retrieving jurorinformation, but don't do much in the way of looking at the big picture. iJuryis different. Once you've entered personal information on each juror, you'reable to view the bigger picture, literally, in a series of dynamic charts.These bar charts indicate trends in your jury pool, including overallindications of positive, negative or neutral scores for your case, as well as adesktop view of a jury's gender and racial balance and socioeconomic status.


Figure 1

Figure 1shows a high-altitude view of iJury that can help flag potential issues withyour currently seated panel of jurors. Additionally, a sample set of commonvoir dire questions is included, which may be scored positively or negativelyfor each juror according to their responses -- and you have the option to addyour own questions.


Figure 2


LaunchingiJury the first time brings up a nice tutorial video, which you may also viewonline. I thought this was a nice touch, allowing you to get a quick feel ofwhat the app is all about and how to handle each task. The video can also beaccessed again later by tapping the "Info" icon in the Case browser.


Figure 3


Incomparison to other apps for jury selection, iJury requires a similar amount ofinput for each potential juror, and focuses only on the currently seated panelvis-a-vis the entire jury pool. When using the iPad in this manner you wouldcertainly want to enter all of your juror information ahead of time from theirresponses to your questionnaire.


Figure 4


Overall,iJury appears to be a nice alternative for iPad-wielding attorneys and trialconsultants looking to clean up the counsel table and keep it free from stickynotes during voir dire. And at only $14.99, it won't break the bank.


::::PRODUCT INFORMATION ::::

Manufacturer: Dynamis Law
Product: iJury for iPad
Price: $14.99


No comments:

Post a Comment