The Lawyer’s Briefs: Five apps for litigating lawyers (and the general public)

The technology boom is alive and well in India, and it is finding new ways to make life easier for lawyers, or for that matter anyone who has an interest in court proceedings. Some of the services on offer include information on causelists, alerts for cases and even live tracking of RTI queries..For those lawyers willing to embrace technology, all of these features are just a click away..Here are five apps that serve as a boon to lawyers, and the general public too.. Provakil.This app will come in handy for our friends appearing in courts and tribunals in Delhi. It has a Workspace feature that helps you organise your cases and lets you set alerts for upcoming hearing dates. It also gives you notifications of when your case gets listed, and when an order gets appealed against..You can also track cases in various courts and tribunals in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana..[Download/website]. Lawyersclub India.This is a popular app among litigating lawyers, and the general public as well. You can have your legal queries answered by lawyers specialising in that particular area of law. It also serves as a platform where lawyers from different areas can interact with each other..Users also post updates on recent rulings of courts and tribunals. However, since all content is crowd-sourced, it is not very frequently updated..[Download/website]. Ideal Causelist .Perhaps the most useful app in this list, Ideal Causelist allows lawyers to get more organised with their cases. You can add cases you want to follow and set reminders on your phone for the same. You can also organize your cases client-wise and date-wise. Moreover, you get updates on your cases, including the next date of hearing and previous orders..The most interesting feature is that the app has a database of most Indian bare acts, available just a few clicks away. Apart from being useful to lawyers, this feature will serve as respite for poor juniors who have to lug around heavy tomes for their seniors..The app also shows you notice boards and display boards of fifteen different high courts and their benches. Further, it has a cache of Supreme Court judgments since 2000..There is also a forum for asking questions, and a list of members who get more “likes” the more queries they answer..[Download/Website]. InCourt.This is a news aggregator app, collecting court news from different publications in India. A summary of the reported case is presented in a very neat manner, and it contains a link to the original story. You may choose from the latest IPR, Business, Regulatory and Legal news..However, the cons are that news from blogs and unverified sources often pops up, and some of the content is not very detailed. For a more (ahem) comprehensive take on legal news, follow this link..[Download/Website]. Online RTI.As the name suggests, this app allows you to file RTIs and track them through your mobile phone. Now, you can ask queries on Income Tax refunds, FIR status, exam papers, etc..[Download/Website]