I’m a huge fan of the iPad. I keep finding new ways to use it in the practice of law. One of the best iPad apps I’ve come across is iAnnotate PDF by Aji, LLC. At $9.99 it is a bargain.

I recently finished a three week trial and ordered all 1200 plus pages of the trial transcript in order to prepare my closing brief. When I received the trial transcript, it took up three large binders.

I’m flying out of state in the next couple of days and I want to take the trial transcript with me to review while on the plane. Normally this would require me to fit all three binders into my carryon luggage so I could access them during the flight. Additionally, it would require me to encroach upon someone’s seat space to open up the binder to review, mark, and make notes on the transcript.

But that will not be a problem with my iPad and iAnnotate. I had my paralegal save the trial transcripts as PDF documents. I then uploaded all 1200 plus pages of the trial transcript to iAnnotate using iAnnotate’s Aji PDF service (which is free and works with both PCs and Macs). I now have all 1200 pages on my iPad, and I get to use all the great features in iAnnotate to mark them up and make notes. I can spend my entire flight with my iPad navigating the transcript and preparing my notes for the closing brief. Once completed, I can e-mail the marked up PDF to myself and open them in Acrobat Reader, etc.   

Not only am I happy that I have the complete trial transcript on my iPad, I’m sure the passenger who sits next to me will enjoy their extra space.

P.S. I am not affiliated in any way with Apple or iAnnotate, other than being a consumer of their products.