As the chairman of a top state law firm’s technology committee, Thomas Lambert knows a thing or two about how attorneys need to stay informed about every detail of cases they are working on and how that information reaches them.
He also knows what can slow down the information sharing process that is so necessary to the practice of law.
Now, the attorney at Pullman & Comley has found an app that he says “really closes the gap of knowledge on a more instantaneous basis.”
It’s called the SGT Docket Rocket and it’s spreading in use across the Connecticut legal field. The app, launched by the firm of Stamford-based Silver Golub & Teitell, LLP, works to give those who use it immediate information about civil cases pending in Connecticut Superior Court.
While state courts do offer notifications for people who sign up for them, the information is only shared once a day, often after business hours at night. The new app scrapes the court information every 15 minutes and notifies users right away when new things are added, such a motions and court decisions and schedule changes. It also tells the user what the new information is.
Attorneys are “aided by having the information in real time,” Lambert said. “What I think this app is trying to do is to close that [information] gap.”
Peter Dryer, managing partner at Silver Golub & Teitell, LLP, and president of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association, said that is the goal they had when they launched the app: information. The app has been used in-house for about a year, and now is being shared widely, he said.
“We viewed this as a way to bridge the public and court system,” Dryer said, also noting it is a way to “fill that gap.”
Peter Dryer, managing partner at Silver Golub & Teitell, LLP, and president of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association. (Courtesy)
Unlike the limited information the existing state system provides, which also makes the person have to go into the court site and figure out what is new, the app lets the user know right away exactly what the new item is.
“Our work has always been in service to the public,” Dryer said of the firm, noting its work on fraud cases, medical care and civil rights cases, with unions, and first amendment cases. “We want to be a good citizen.”
Silver Golub & Teitell, LLP location at 1 Landmark Square 15th Floor, Stamford, CT 06901 (RED_SKIES_PHOTOGRAPHY)
Dryer said said the firm worked with Majestyk, which builds digital products, to create the app. It was repeatedly tested and improved while in beta, he said. Dryer also praised the work of law firm partners Ian Sloss and Sean McElligott in the development of the app.
“We were able to debug this in a pretty efficient way,” Dryer said.
“It was expensive. We felt very strongly that we knew this was a product we would use and get benefits from, but we also saw it as a public service,” he said.
“Public information is only helping people if they receive it in a timely notification and understand what it is,” he said. “We worked together with a developer to get real-time information about cases.”
Both Lambert and Dryer noted that many in the legal, and other professions, already use the federal court system, called Pacer, for gathering information in the realm of those courts. There was no similar system for state courts, they noted. Further, Pacer use comes with a charge; use of the new state court app is free.
Also, with the very limited state notifications and their timing, a lawyer could go a whole 24 hours without knowing about a motion or action, meaning a constant need to check the judicial website.
“It is not timely. It’s a publicly available docket not being transmitted to people who really need it or wanted it.” Dryer said.
“We think this is a big help to the legal community,” Dryer said. “Court rulings can come down any time. Any member of the public can get a notification.”
Lambert said another benefit of the app sending things directly in “a real-time basis” is that it provides a “safeguard to stay on top of matters. We have ethical responsibility to keep on top of our cases and to make sure the other side is aware [of actions].”
“We can apprise ourselves of filings that require an immediate response,” he said. ”This way you are not entirely reliant on” other counsel letting you know … “things can get filed, people can forget to send it.”
It also could benefit self-represented parties, he said.
Lambert said technology in the legal field is constantly evolving and lawyers are expected to stay “on top of things on a very diligent basis” and “doing everything we need to.”
A diligent attorney is making sure anything they get back from any technology is double checked and verified, he said. As technological change evolves quickly, it is all the more reason for attorneys to mitigate any risk with any new technology and “all the more reason to be cautious,” Lambert said.
“This is an app that should help us do that,” he said.
Dryer said the app currently works to share civil cases, but they would consider expanding it in future if there were demand for it.
The SGT Docket Rocket app is available to the public in the app store.
