Earlier this month, Iowa's Department of Transportation announced it was developing a digital drivers license. Hoping to render the plastic card version of a drivers license obsolete, state officials touted a 2016 implementation for the app.

Licensed drivers in Iowa would have a choice: a traditional card license, or the mobile app. The virtual license would contain the same personal information, including the mysterious bar code, as the plastic card version. During a traffic stop, a police officer would scan the bar code to verify the driver's information with the Department of Transportation.

This could be a problem given the amount of information contained on a typical cell phone. Privacy concerns arise for those Iowa motorists opting to use the digital license. For example, an officer might be privy to incoming text or email messages; an officer might glimpse a photo or the driver's call log, or other information to which the officer would not ordinarily have access.

Aside from the information stored on the driver's mobile device -a fully functional computer these days- questions also arise concerning what information the app retrieves, how such information is being secured or stored, and what information is being exchanged during the interface transaction.

Anticipating these basic privacy concerns, the Iowa DOT described a two-step authentication process, possibly including biometric user verification, and a security feature that would block a police officer from accessing any other part of the mobile device while the app was in use. For their part, law enforcement leaders in Iowa have reacted cautiously to the announcement, implying the digital license may cause more problems for police departments than it solves.

All of this brings to mind the recent SCOTUS decision in Riley v California, where the High Court ruled that in order for police to access the information on a motorists' cell phone, a warrant is required. The utility of this app depends on how it will be used by law enforcement and whether motorists are better served with one less plastic card to carry on one's person.

www.clarkstonlegal.com
info@clarkstonlegal.com

Attorneys, perhaps more than any other professionals, are awash with information; information about their cases, information about changing laws, a constantly shifting schedule.  The pace with which the information now flows can only be described as instantaneous.

The manner in which a lawyer collects, stores and utilizes this information is a good indicator of that lawyer's professional skill.  In this era of a 24/7 stream of digitized information, mobile devices are beginning to offer specialized apps for lawyers.

Here are some examples:

SCOTUS App.  The Oyez Project has just launched an app that will download U.S. Supreme Court activity to your mobile device.  This will include digitally recorded oral arguments, text of the High Court's decisions, as  well as media coverage and analysis.  Pretty cool, to be sure; but is this information-overkill?  Why not just wait until you get back to your computer?

Mobile Transcript.  This app allows you to download, manipulate, summarize, and transmit deposition transcripts right from your mobile phone.  Great for when litigation data must be processed fast.  Try using this while on vacation, however, and you will likely need to hire a divorce attorney.

Family Law Apps.  Speaking of divorce, there are plenty of divorce-related apps in both the Droid and iPhone markets.  For those residents of Gotham, there is an app to calculate your child support, there are apps to save your marriage; apps to stop your divorce; apps to help you win custody and, or course, apps for various forward-leaning divorce attorneys and law firms.  Exhausting, to be sure.


State Bar App.  Useless here in Michigan, but perhaps a harbinger, the Maryland State Bar Association has produced an  app that downloads their rules of evidence, rules of professional conduct, and bits of professional philosophy right to your handheld device.  Can the SBM be far behind?


Law Blog Apps.  In a case of life imitating art, or perhaps this is best described as lawyers taking themselves too seriously, the blawg "FutureLawyer" announced on Tuesday that there is an app available to download their tech-related posts directly to your mobile device.  As if you just could not live without their updates; now you can digest their posts about the latest tech developments while you wait for your case to be called; could have used this App today.

In 18-months, most of these current apps will be considered obsolete.  The thing about high-tech is that products are constantly being improved.

Soon, you will be able to go to your doctor and just get a "chip" implanted into your skull; that way you'll have all the world's latest data right under your hood.  

www.clarkstonlegal.com

info@clarkstonlegal.com