Laptop Computers for the Practicing Lawyer
By John J. Nagle III
(Originally published in The Advocate, official publication of the Baltimore County Bar Association, 1996.) For the lawyer who spends a lot of time out of his or her office, laptop technology is the only way to go. Improvements in laptop technology have progressed to the point where they now rival their desktop counterparts. The cost of laptops has steadily dropped in the past year and a half so that the modern practitioner now is faced with a serious choice between buying a desktop or laptop computer. Just a few years ago an average laptop might have a hard drive of 20 MB, no extended memory and a dim, hard to read LCD screen display no larger than the size of a business envelope. Such laptops were fine for basic DOS-based word processing and spread sheet programs, however, there was not even a question as to whether it could run an operating system such as Windows. Such machines also cost thousands of dollars. Today, however, a typical laptop has these "basic" specs: Pentium-based controller chips with up to 120 MHz clock speeds, 8 MB RAM, large color screen, removable drives such as hard drives up to 1.2 GB and CD-ROM drives and long-life batteries.
I have been using a laptop for several years. Since I often find myself in protracted trials, I have made it a practice to take my laptop computer to court. In the trial that I am currently in, the court reporter has provided counsel who use laptops with a software program called Livenote. Livenote is a Windows-based communications program which allows counsel to review the trial proceedings as they are being transcribed by the court reporter. In other words, we now have the benefit of real time court reporting. Livenote basically works like this: the court reporter's stenography machine has a phone jack which is linked by a telephone cable to a connector box equipped with eight ports. A lawyer who has a laptop and Livenote connects to one of these ports by way of a serial port on the back of his or her computer. Since Livenote is a Windows-based program, you can run it in the background while running other Windows applications such as Word Perfect.
Under Livenote, you actually read the trial testimony as it is transcribed. The program also comes with a search feature which allows you to look for certain words so that you can return to specific places in the transcript for later review. You can also annotate the text and make "notes" to the transcript for later review. By way of example, if I hear trial testimony which I think will be of benefit to me in closing argument, I will make an electronic note that I wish to review this testimony later as it scrolls across my laptop screen. The transcript for the entire day's proceedings is downloaded into a directory on my laptop's hard drive. This is not the official transcript that is provided in the normal course by the court reporter. However, for convenience, I typically leave the entire trial (now in its sixth week) in my laptop. If the trial judge were to ask a question concerning a hearing which was held for example on February 15, 1996, I would be able to go to the transcript for that day and leam what happened without having to carry around the daily transcripts.
When I'm in my office, I have my laptop set up like a standard desktop computer. I do this because the laptop's relatively smaller screen, keyboard and trackball (mouse) feel restrictive. Instead I use a separate SVGA monitor, keyboard and mouse which plug into the back of the laptop. In other words, I "dock" my laptop which serves as a standard CPU while on my desk.
Laptops also use PCMCIA technology in which each "device" is the size of a credit card and is interchangeable with cards having other uses. I use two such cards. One is a network adapter which allows me to access my firm's network. I also have a modem card which is used like any other type of computer modem. Recently, my firm installed software which allows me to call into the firm's network if I am away from my office. I can transmit or receive files, check E-mail messages, and do any other task that I would be able to do as if I was sitting at my own desk.
In short, laptops have become invaluable for lawyers who are on the go. I would envision a time in the not too distant future when desk top and laptop computer features and cost will be so close that lawyers will most likely prefer the tremendous versatility and flexibility of laptops.