Joshua Kaleel, Kaleel Law
I really love ‘Pocket Justice’ when it works, which rarely does. You can download old Supreme Court oral arguments and opinions. I think I heard about ‘Pocket Justice’ from the SCOTUS blog. The app was only $1 and you can listen to oral arguments and the reading of opinions for many (but not all) Supreme Court cases from the late 1950s to the present. To hear the actual voices of Earl Warren, William Brennan, Byron White, Antonin Scalia, and others is absolutely fascinating. I listened to them quite a bit in my car before my oral argument at the First DCA back in October to get a feel for what I was in for. I was quite shocked, however, at the apparent lack of formality in the court back in the 1950s and 1960s. The arguments seemed to be far more fact-driven or even based on hypotheticals rather than the actual (and current) state of the law at the time. Anyway, the app is not very reliable (crashes quite often), but you can still grab a case here and there and nerd it up to your heart’s content.
John Weedon, Hinshaw & Culbertson
Since this is a legal newsletter, I’ll talk about my favorite ‘work app.’ Goodreader for the iPad has changed the way I perform document review in my practice for the better. It enables you to view PDF documents, including deposition transcripts, as well as make highlights and annotations of many different varieties. Make sure you password protect your device and you can carry your entire case file with you wherever you go. It really comes in handy while traveling.