Trial de Novo - Dec/Jan '98

Trial de Novo

Trial De Novo and Gavel & Gown's Amicus are the only case management programs reviewed here that are available for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. The good news for Macintosh users is that both are good case management packages.

I developed a love/hate relationship with Trial De Novo's calendaring functions. I hated the display. It is set up in various panes, each showing a minimal amount of information. In theory, I suppose, these are intended to be thumbnail views, and you are expected to expand one of the thumbnails to view more information. But when you do that, the expanded thumbnail covers the other views. I would rather be able to view my appointments and to-do items at the same time.

On the other hand, I was very impressed with the way Trial De Novo's calendars dates. Say, for example, you are opening a new file on a personal injury matter that just came in. You might manually enter the filing deadline and the deadline for making the government claim. Better yet, you might have a case management program that would calendar those dates from rules, based on the date of injury. In either of the scenarios, however, you must think to trigger the entry of those dates. With Trial De Novo, the entry screens will elicit all relevant dates, calculate the deadlines that flow from those dates, and enter them all on the program's master calendar.

Entering case information into Trial De Novo was easier than with any other program. The program uses so many pick lists that, aside from the client information, it is possible to open a new matter without ever touching your keyboard.

One feature I really liked was the "facts of case" screen. After you select a type of case such as "motor vehicle," the screen instantly changes to show fields for all of the information you are likely to want to record for that type of case. For a motor vehicle case there would be fields for accident location, weather conditions, property damage, client's vehicle and the current location of client's vehicle.

The copious use of input screens makes Trial De Novo very intuitive. For example, the depositions screen organizes all of the firm's information concerning depositions, including pending dates, court reporter, attending parties, etc. The notes section of this screen can contain a deposition summary or the entire transcript, although there is no search function. The "lawsuit" screen includes places for all pending hearing dates and for notes on your legal research.

Once you have gathered together all of the case-related information, Trial De Novo will merge data from your entries into documents and forms created in either Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect. Trial De Novo also offers a number of standard reports so that with a few clicks, you can prepare a client phone list, a summary of client expenses, a matter/ case list, etc.

Assuming you can get past the calendar view, Trial de Novo is worth a look, especially for personal injury practitioners and Mac users.

De Novo Systems
(800-755-9744

By Aaron P. Morris

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