Ernie the Attorney- loves the Tablet PC but can’t use one in court
Ernie the Attorney has one of the greatest blogs around, his coverage of Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans was first-rate journalism. Ernie really is an attorney and he’s blogged that recently his girlfriend loaned him a Tablet PC to use in his work. His observations won’t surprise anyone who has used a Tablet PC:
(1) a Tablet has a completely different social dynamic than atraditional laptop because people don’t perceive it as a computer;unless you stand behind someone using a Tablet you easily assume thatthey are just writing on a pad of paper; (2) the Tablet is morecomfortable to use; but if you type reasonably well you will stillprefer to use a keyboard; (3) the Tablet is more natural to use at alectern or in a conference, as long as principle #2 isn’t a factor; (4)even though it’s a niche product I would absolutely use a Tablet incertain situations, except for one thing: (5) Tablet PCs run Windowswhich means they don’t wake up quickly, or reliably.
Ernie’s observations of the Tablet used in social settings are right on the money but unfortunately #5 is the deal breaker.
Just as I was starting to use the Tablet a lot I found that it wouldsometimes get slow or become unresponsive; this happened once or twiceat semi-critical times. I dutifully rebooted, and didn’t suffer toomuch. But the thought lingered: I could never rely on the Tablet duringa hearing or trial, or any situation where I was in front of a judge.It’s one thing to reboot during a deposition, but it would becompletely unacceptable to tell a judge to "hang on, your honor, whileI reboot my computer."
So, I’ve stopped using the Tablet completely. I have several lawyerfriends who have tried the Tablet, and one or two are still using it.Perhaps they haven’t had the problems that I have had, so I know it’spossible the Tablet could be a useful tool for a litigator. But not forme.
This is sad but I understand Ernie’s position. It’s true that not every Tablet PC suffers from these problems a lot but like Ernie experienced in certain situations it only has to happen once at a critical time and it’s a huge problem. It’s too bad that we still see these problems at all but as one who uses a Tablet PC heavily (every day) I understand his position. To Ernie’s credit he sees the advantages that a Tablet PC bring to an attorney and still loves to use it in depositions or other settings when a stoppage wouldn’t risk a contempt of court charge.
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Well, yes, but always have the pen and notepad ‘backup’ to hand for critical notes. Oh, and we all know to jam as much memory as we can into those tablets to make them snappy!
I’ve used my tablet in court. It did impress the judge and intimidate opposing counsel :-) However, because of slowness and freezes, I used my HTC Advantage instead. With Transcriber or Calligrapher, you can write notes a la a Tablet. Of course, remembering to turn the phone off is important :-)
I’m a second-year law student and just used my tablet in a moot (for non-law types, a moot is a fake case that you argue in front of an imaginary panel of often very real judges).
The author’s pejorative comments about Windows are typical but not universally accepted. If you know what you’re doing, you can use Vista and OneNote in such a way as to make the crash rate extremely low… such that the likelihood of forgetting or misplacing a key piece of paper is far higher.
Very interesting to see this story raised. I’m a barrister in England and last year I used my tablet with Onenote successfully for 3 months every day in various courts around the country.
Never had any issues with it crashing or running out of battery. I have yet to see any lawyer with one at court!
I was once asked to stay behind by a judge and I thought I must be in big trouble – in fact the judge was a fellow tableter and wanted to swap stories!
I am attorney who enjoys technology and reading the JKontherun blog. I have never used a tablet PC. I have used my laptop in some depositions but never have taken it to a hearing or trial. For what I do, it is more of a distraction and the possibility crash/reboot is indeed unnerving.
Is a tablet PC more likely to crash than a standard laptop?
this is a Windows problem not a Tablet problem, the fact certain people cant draw a distinction between the 2 makes me heavily doubt their computer literacy.
Laptops are used in court rooms all the time, so Tablets should be able to as well (but most people dont write & wont spend the extra money)
this is a Windows problem not a Tablet problem, the fact certain people cant draw a distinction between the 2 makes me heavily doubt their computer literacy.
Laptops are used in court rooms all the time, so Tablets should be able to as well (but most people dont write & wont spend the extra money)
I’ve been thinking about grabbing a tablet to use in my legal practice as well – as a way in which I could (hopefully) stop keeping a mish mash of legal pads to keep track of various cases. I’ve been a tablet owner in the past (TC1000, x61t, the original Toshiba), but never tried to run part of my practice on a tablet. One thing is for sure, I wouldn’t dream of installing Vista on my tablet (or any mobile device)since it is simply unreliable and I would be petrified of exactly what Ernie’s fear is – the device crashing. Instead, I am going to stick to XP tablet until I am convinced that Vista is reliable – or the next version of Windows becomes available to replace Me, I mean Vista.
And James, since I know you have strong feelings about this due to some inexplicable fondness for Vista, just ask yourself why almost every tablet manufacturer has either XP Tablet as standard or at worst, an option. It’s because experience has shown just how unreliable Vista is on mobile devices, improved tablet functions be damned. The tablet improvements simply don’t warrant the tradeoff. I don’t want to have cross my fingers everytime I wake my computer from sleep in the hope that it turns back on properly.
1. Freezing is a Windows problem not a Tablet problem. And Windows Mobile devices can freeze also. Ditto for BlackBerries. Or for any electronic device for that matter. As Gavin Miller says, a paper and pen backup is always prudent.
2. Lee, I must respectfully disagree re Vista when it comes to the Tablet PC. Vista has its issues, but its support of Tablet functionality is superior to XP. What tablet manufacturers do may be more a function of consumer perception, which has been shaped by a lot of Vista-bashing (some deserved to be sure). Vista does require more RAM, etc. than XP, so with an underpowered machine, bad things are more likely to happen with Vista. Just my opinion.
Genghis, I don’t disagree that Vista has better Tablet functionality then XP Tablet. I know that it does. My issue is not with the Tablet functionality of Vista, but Vista’s behavior on mobile devices. I returned a fully loaded x61t, fast hard drive, 2gb RAM, 1 gb Ready Boost – because the computer crashed more in 2 weeks then my last 4 computers had crashed in 6 years. I had so many BSOD’s that I considered just making one my wallpaper.
I even went out and bought (and returned) one of those crappy hp tx1000 which I thought I would use as a play machine. Besides weighing more then a school bus (at least it seemed that way), it also suffered from Vista crashes. And I don’t want to be told that I need to spend hours “tweaking” Vista by disabling features that I don’t really need in order to make the OS run with more stability. If the feature is not needed it shouldn’t be in my OS to begin with since it is only clogging up the works – is it too much to ask that my OS should work out of the box?
I would be more then willing to pay for an “upgrade” to XP Tablet which would give me some or most of the functionality that Vista Tablet has built in. I find it almost impossible to believe that the increased functionality of Vista Tablet over XP Tablet is strictly OS related. Not that MS is about to offer to improve my XP TIP experience – but I think that offering better functionality in a more stable mobile OS platform would only help people who are on the fence about tablets, not hurt sales.