Wearable tech is gaining more popularity on the market during recent years. There are many reasons why some people are attracted by these devices, some for their added value in improving productivity, others for having funny and trendy gadgets. It seems that lawyers belong to the first category and we notice that most progressive of them use wearables for the reason what they really are designed, to be used in business goals and for making their lives easier by increasing the efficiency with fewer efforts.

Are Wearables useful for Lawyers?

Wearable technology is a quite useful thing for the entire world of business and not necessary for only one category of professionals. That is why many will wonder about how can the wearables be useful specifically for legal practice and how new devices can increase the efficiency of lawyers? And here we are going to talk about the list of advantages:

a. Saving time – Wearables devices are the new wave of tech which provides quick and convenient access to information lawyers need to have it immediately on the go, or to stay connected to their colleagues in the office. For example, smart glasses have many options which allow the user to use either voice commands or small hand gestures for operating this device. Smartwatches can be set up to send notifications from your phone like messages, calls, and even emails to partners and clients.

b. Efficiency & Mobility – The most important benefit is that wearable tech has the potential to enhance lawyers’ performance by increasing their efficiency and mobility. For example, smartphones could replace for some modern lawyers’ secretaries, saving time and money. On the other hand, quick operation with messages, emails and pictures transforms the device in pretty useful thing in legal practice, and this doesn’t bother you with additional actions to pick up the phone, or check it anytime you are waiting an important message.

c. Prioritizing Messages – Lawyers can set up smartwatches to use filters in order to receive only most important messages and calls from their smartphones. This feature is quite convenient when lawyers attend a meeting or are in court. So, they receive a notification about missed call or message and can deal with the issue later.

Which Wearables are most useful?

There are many types of wearables tech released by some of big players on the market such as Google, Apple, Samsung or some smaller companies rising their products. Currently, the main types of wearable tech which have popularity among lawyers are smartwatches, glasses and some lawyers use rings as a consequence of fast developing sector of wearables.

a. Smart watches – The smartwatch is most likely the most popular wearable tech among lawyers today. It can show the time, and of course many other impressive things such as enabling you to search the internet with your voice, tracking your location with GPS, receive and send messages from your phone and even emails. For example, you can use a smartwatch to look up future calendar events, listen to music, send messages as well as track your business activities. You can even make and receive calls through it if you connect it to smartphone using wi-fi, or to use social media for personal and business purposes.

b. Smart Rings – Smart rings are technologically advanced wearable electronic devices that are being used for information storage and sharing. The rings are used for receiving pictures, videos, calls, storing contact information, and any other digital information that can be transferred securely from smart phones. There are many options of using the smart rings but most useful for lawyers are time saving option to unlock smart phone or tablet by sliding your hand on the back and the ring can unlock it. Very easy and convenient thing. Another useful feature is the option to share and transfer information. You can use your smart ring to share wi-fi information, links to websites, links to pictures, contact information or whatever you think is suitable to be passed securely to other persons’ smartphones and tablets.

One more useful feature is an easy way of managing passwords. You can save multiple passwords which can be easily accessed when necessary.

c. Google Glass – is a head-mounted device which displays notifications from your smartphone on a small screen positioned in front of the user’s right eye. The screen can be used for sending and displaying emails, texts and navigation directions. The device has a camera which can be used for making video calls, taking pictures, and recording video.

This device can be useful for some lawyers due to the convenience it offers, like option to send messages without using the hands or watch text messages and emails you receive, as well as option to reply to them via voice commands.

How are Lawyers using Wearables in their Legal Practice?

Many lawyers are well-known for their slow embracing of new technology, however another part of them are more enthusiastic in using new tech and jump from computer to the smartphone and now the smartwatch. While computers and cellphones are widely used by lawyers, smartphones are increasing their popularity but still remain relatively in demand among them. So why do lawyers need wearables, how wearable increase the efficiency of legal practice?

a. Better planning – Extend your calendar to your wearable, so all of your appointments and alerts can be forwarded to your smartwatch, ensuring that you never late or miss an important meeting or.

b. Tracking working hours – Most likely there is no other more essential task for lawyers than recording and tracking working time. Since legal apps were designed for smartphones this task became pretty simple to handle. Now smart watches make this process even more simple by using At Work app, specially designed for wearable tech. Track hours that may be paid separately, for different clients or at different hourly rates.

c. Evidence in litigation – There were cases when lawyers have used data from smart watches in courts in order to improve their arguments in litigation. In this sense the specific data collected from wearables offer many opportunities for creative lawyers who understand how the smart tech works and so they are able to offer their clients the best possible representation. For example, smartwatches collect health-related data, location data, social media interactions, and other information which provides invaluable information for use in litigation.

d. Make your travel easier – Smartwatches can provide live traffic information, report public transport schedules and flight schedules. This will help you find better route to the court or not miss an important meeting.