Of the over four million attorneys in the United States, approximately 30% already use some kind of PDA in their day-to-day business. Of that group, around 83% report using a Palm device. The market for Palm devices among legal professionals is huge, and, according to Mobley, that makes a lot of sense. Not only do the demands of the legal profession fit nicely with the kinds of benefits a Palm computer can provide, but let's face it, attorneys tend to be a rather affluent group. Mobley notes a lot of lawyers ask her what's the most expensive Palm device they can possibly own, because that's the one they want.

In order to reach out to this vast market even further, Palm wants to highlight some of the amazing resources currently available to legal professionals equipped with a Palm computer. Towards these ends, Mobley introduced me to a number of interesting products and services that I'll share with you here.

Westlaw Wireless
West Group's Westlaw Wireless application provides mobile access to Westlaw, an online business and legal research tool at http://www.westlaw.com. We're covering this application extensively elsewhere in this issue of PalmPower's Enterprise Edition, but in brief, Westlaw Wireless allows you to retrieve the synopsis and headnotes of a case on Westlaw, retrieve KeyCite full history (a KeyCite is sort of like the Dewey Decimal System for court cases), negative history, or citations to a case, or retrieve an attorney profile from the West Legal Directory. You can find it at http://www.westlaw.com/wireless. An example of the application's Find a Case feature is pictured in Figure A.

FIGURE A

With the Find a Case option you can obtain a synopsis of a case and/or headnotes.

West Group also offers a number of valuable ebooks you can view on your Palm device, such as Federal Rules of Evidence, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Bankruptcy Code, and Federal Bankruptcy Rules.

LEXIS-NEXIS Wireless service
Not to be outdone, Lexis-Nexis, a West Group competitor, is working on the LEXIS-NEXIS Wireless service (at http://www.lexis-nexis.com/mvp/wireless/). At the moment, the company has launched a pilot program, comprised of 500 participants who will use and evaluate the software. Their feedback will naturally impact future product developments and prioritization.