Needles - Dec/Jan '98

Needles

Needles began as a DOS-based personal injury program called PINS (that's right--PINS and Needles). While the personal injury roots of this program are still apparent, it is flexible enough that litigators in other areas should not be put off.

Needles opens to display six large buttons labeled "names," "cases," "directories," "calendar," "messages" and "reports." As with Amicus, you are then asked if you want to review your checklist for the day. However with Needles, you are then presented with a "checklist summary criteria" screen that lets you set the parameters. You could, for example, check just your own personal items within a given time frame, or limit the checklist to a specific case.

Opening the calendar view reveals a very basic calendar screen. As a matter of personal preference, I prefer an actual calendar view showing the entire day, not just a list of scheduled appointments, as is the case with Needles. When all times are shown, both filled and unfilled, it is far easier to see that I have a block of time available for another appointment in the afternoon as opposed to seeing only that I have appointments at noon and 3:00. Mitigating this is a monthly view that uses colored dots to indicate whether appointments are already scheduled for the morning and afternoon. Needles makes good use of the network environment, allowing all users to view each other's calendars, and to send messages that pop up on the recipient's screen. Needles does not offer drag-and-drop rescheduling of appointments.

The contact manager appears well-implemented and offers a number of unique features. Reflecting the personal injury roots of the product, entering a party's (presumably the plaintiff's) date of birth automatically calculates both their current age and age on the date of injury. There are fields for up to ten phone numbers for each person, but only one address. There is a place to indicate whether the person should be added to the firm's mailing list.

One minor annoyance was caused by the fact that the buttons for certain drop-down lists do not appear until you have selected the field--you must click on the field and then click on the button.

Turning to the case file view, Needles makes good use of a tabs arrangement to organize all of the case information in an easy-to-retrieve manner. Selecting the notes tab provides a list of one-line entries, showing all notes entered, when and by whom. There is also a topics field that makes it easy to scan for the desired information.

Personal injury practitioners should definitely give Needles a look, and since the few negligence-specific features can be deselected, other litigators should consider it as well. However, since the publisher does not offer a trial period, be sure you have researched the program throughly before committing to it.

Needles Software Co.
(410-363-1976

By Aaron P. Morris

From the Shopper's Guide to Case Management Software - Dec/Jan '98