Todd Werts is an attorney hailing from Columbia, Missouri. He's in a small firm in the Midwest, but that doesn't mean he doesn't make big waves in the litigation world. Todd's practice consists of mostly class-action wage and hour cases. These are the prototypical David v. Goliath cases, and as an early adopter of LIT SOFTWARE apps, he regularly uses each of our three apps to knock down the Goliaths of the corporate world.
We spoke with Todd about the latest case he's handling. He was careful to avoid specifics as the Goliath he is currently fighting is a household name, and its reach across our country means his practice has had to follow. Currently involved in multi-district litigation, with three million documents and counting, his first stone against this giant is DocReviewPad. Pulling large subsets of documents onto his iPad, Todd can review and respond while in transit. He finds the search tool especially important, using it to pinpoint the exact document he needs when he needs it. As for a DocReviewPad pro-tip from Todd: "One of the most important things in huge cases is collaboration, and this all comes together with the understanding that you're not just marking up documents for your own use."
Trial itself is still a while away, TrialPad will be there, and will be the third stone in Todd's arsenal. He was an early adopter of TrialPad, and by now it's an old friend and ally. Already impressed with TrialPad, Todd bought TranscriptPad as soon as it was available on the App Store, and it rapidly found itself prominently featured in his litigation practice. As Todd puts it, "TrialPad is the app that everybody talks about. TranscriptPad gets the work done."
TranscriptPad is stone two, and the favorite stone in the arsenal against Goliath. When we spoke, Todd's case had 160 defense witness depositions, 250 plaintiff witness depositions, and counting. It wasn't always that many depositions, and TranscriptPad had initially been used just for organization, but as the other lead lawyers started using it they just fell in love with it. Better still, it was indispensable in a federal court hearing in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. All the deposition designations had to be submitted with color coding so that the judge could rule on them. This was too difficult to do in PDF, not just for the limited highlighting capabilities in Acrobat, but also for collaboration purposes. Exporting a report or the full case to another attorney can be done in seconds. Using TranscriptPad, the plaintiffs marked their designations in yellow and the defendants marked theirs in green. The whole transcript was exported and given to the judge, with the green and yellow lines clearly delineating each party's decisions.
Todd uses TranscriptPad as a regular part of his depositions, motion preparation, and in trial. Just like in DocReviewPad, the Search tool is a key to it all. In deposition, searching for an important word can easily reveal which other witnesses used it the most, and with one tap, he can see exactly what they said. Search is also an excellent tool for preparing a motion. Finding a citation among hundreds of depositions, and simply emailing it, or copying and pasting it into the motion you are writing used to take several minutes, whereas TranscriptPad gets it done in seconds. In fact, TranscriptPad is so fast that in trial, where an extra three seconds can be agony in front of a judge and jury, Todd comfortably uses TranscriptPad for on-the-fly impeachment.
In enormous cases, like what Todd Werts regularly handles, all three apps can deliver a powerful punch. Download them today to knock over your own giant - no matter how tall he stands.