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While many lawyers are still figuring out how to use mobile applications, popularly referred to as apps, a number of family law practitioners have taken the initiative to develop them. This month we feature enterprising family lawyers from across the country who have developed apps for the practice of family law.

Dallas family law specialist Michelle May O’Neil has developed a series of do-it-yourself divorce apps for the iPhone. “Divorce Cost & Prep” is the first in a planned line of divorce-related apps for the iPhone by her newly formed company DivorceApps.com.

Divorce Cost & Prep ($9.99, iTunes) serves two purposes: (1) Help assess the hidden and direct costs of divorce, such as the cost of two wardrobes for the children or the transportation costs for exchanging the children between homes, and (2) creates a list of information and documents to gather for their lawyer to assist preparation of their divorce.

The second offering, Estate Divider ($9.99, iTunes) allows parties to create an inventory of assets and liabilities and then calculate how best to divide them.

O’Neil and Fort Worth forensic CPA Bryan Rice developed the idea for the apps as a way to help clients save money in their divorces. “There are many people that want or need a divorce that cannot afford the high costs of litigation,” says O’Neil. “Our apps provide those people with the ability to help themselves and save on the money it might otherwise cost to pay a lawyer to do these things for them.”

image from Macleans / Getty Images

Jun 28, 2010 | by Kate Lunau of Macleans Magazine, Canada

Most people going through a divorce could probably do without the stress and expense of endless consultations with a lawyer. Now, some—in the U.S., anyway—can consult with their iPhones instead.

A new company out of Dallas, called DivorceApps.com, is selling iPhone applications aimed at helping people who “can’t afford the services of a lawyer and need to help themselves,” says family lawyer Michelle May O’Neil, its co-creator. O’Neil’s company, which launched in March, sells two apps through the iTunes store (both cost US$9.99). The Cost & Prep app helps people “calculate the hidden costs of divorce,” she says, from the “double cost of housing,” to extra kids’ clothes, down to “how much it costs to park at a lawyer’s office.” It also helps create a list of necessary documents, saving money on “the back-and-forth with a lawyer,” O’Neil says.

Another, called Estate Divider, helps couples keep track of who gets what, including alimony. More apps, like a calendar to help exes set the dates and times they take care of the kids, are on the way. Lorne MacLean, managing partner of MacLean Family Law Group in Vancouver, doesn’t know of any divorce apps tailored to Canadian law—yet. “We’re looking at creating an iPhone and an iPad app,” he says, to help people understand the process of divorce, get articles and updates on developments in the law, and provide tips for better results.

Maybe because they’re so new, divorce apps don’t seem to have sparked a backlash in the legal community. People in Canada can, in some cases, get divorced without a lawyer, but the apps’ designers insist their creations aren’t meant to eliminate lawyers from the process, only to make it simpler. In fact, some lawyers are using them, too. Jimmy Verner, a Texas lawyer who created a child -support calculator app, says he’s heard of lawyers using his app in court, “walking up to the bench and saying, ‘Here’s how much [my client] should owe.’—”

When O’Neil got an iPhone, “it seemed there were so few apps [with] real-world applications,” she says. With the iPad and iPhone 4G, the divorce app category is expected to grow. For many people, after all, divorce is as real as it gets.

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June 23, 2010 by Sylvia Hsieh | LawyersUSAonline.com

With an estimated 30 million iPhone users and another 600,000 in line for the newest version, set to be released this week, some lawyers are launching their own iPhone apps to market their firms.

When international law firm Morrison and Foerster released an iPhone app that provides content from its website and blog, it got good reviews for its look and feel.

“It’s nice. It’s designed to catch your attention. It even includes a game on there,” said Jeff Richardson, a New Orleans attorney who blogs at iPhoneJD.

But it also generated a debate over whether every law firm should come out with its own app.

“I don’t see why not. If you’re a small firm you want to think about the most [marketing] bang for your buck. If you’re already creating content for your web page and your blog, you’re really re-purposing content in another package [by creating an app],” said Martha Sperry, an attorney in Boston who launched an iPhone app that aggregates content and provides links and a feed to promote her legal consulting business Advantage Advocates.

But critics say that it’s important to take care of first things first – before spending time and money creating an app, a firm should make its website viewable on an iPhone or BlackBerry.

“I’m not sure why you would go to the trouble of making an iPhone app if your website doesn’t fit well on the device,” said Doug Cornelius, a Boston attorney and author of the Compliance Building blog.

Sperry said that cost doesn’t have to be an issue, because small firms on a tight budget can do what she did and use near-free web tools like Appmakr or Mobile Roadie to create an app by filling in the blanks on a template.

But the problem with that method, said Richardson, is that your app is unlikely to stand out among the estimated 250,000 iPhone apps already out there.

“I know there are services that are free or as low as a few hundred dollars, but by definition they are not going to offer any pizzazz to give anyone a compelling reason to download your app,” he said.

Reason for launching an app
Before creating an iPhone app, lawyers should ask themselves whether they have something to say or are just doing it for a gimmick.

“Is it sexy to say you have your own app? Sure. It’s says ‘We’re cool.’ But does every blog need its own app? Of course not,” said Kevin O’Keefe, founder of LexBlog in Seattle, which provides blogging services for law firms.

If all your app does is promote what’s already on your website and blog, this is “the wrong direction to go,” said Daniel Friedlander, an attorney in Westlake Village, Calif. who blogs at lawonmyphone.

“The challenge is, how do you get someone to download an app in the first place? Then once it’s on their iPhone, how do you keep them coming back to use it it? If it’s just advertisement, it doesn’t make sense. It has to offer a service,” Friedlander said.

Friedlander has created two iPhone apps, one called Tally Pad, a counter that people use to keep score or count calories, and another for lawyers called Court Days, a tickler system that counts days that courts in various jurisdictions are open for purposes of keeping track of filing deadlines.

If you have a peculiar passion or an original idea that could help other attorneys or clients, an app can be a great way to put your own stamp on it.

“As long as you’re providing something of value and getting known as someone who cares about a subject in which you practice, that’s great,” said O’Keefe.

Examples of useful apps might include collecting content in a specialized area or facilitating communications between people to make it easier for clients to do business, he said.

Some lawyers are taking the practical approach by creating apps that help clients solve legal problems.

“The whole purpose of an app is to serve a function,” said Michelle May O’Neil, a Dallas family law attorney who has created two iPhone apps for people contemplating divorce.

The first, Cost and Prep, helps people calculate the hidden costs of divorce and gives clients a list of documents to bring to their lawyer.

The second, Estate Divider, lets spouses divvy up their assets on a spreadsheet that keeps a running total of the percentage going to each.

O’Neil said she began thinking about creating apps after buying her iPhone last spring and noticing a lack of “practical apps for grown-ups.”

After a chance meeting with a techie tooling around with his iPhone at a Starbucks she hired him to develop the apps, which cost about $3,000 each.

While O’Neil said that as a small firm owner she always has marketing in mind, she cannot say the apps have directly produced clients – yet.

“We’ve definitely gotten a lot of publicity and it’s brought attention to our law practice,” she said.

She noted that because her iPhone apps were featured on CNN and the Dallas Morning News, even opposing clients have mentioned using them.

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Dallas family law specialist Michelle May O’Neil and Dallas-based app developer Brainwash Inc. (which I’ve written about before ) have teamed up for a series of do-it-yourself divorce apps for the iPhone.

In the May, the Divorceapps.com crew released the Divorce Cost & Prep app to help would-be divorcees calculate how much a divorce actually costs, from the expense of maintaining two homes to transportation costs for shuttling kids back and forth to each home.

The new app, Estate Divider, released yesterday, is designed for those disgruntled couples who have decided to forge ahead, regardless, and are ready to start divvying their assets.

And more divorce apps are coming!

From Divorceapps.com:

Estate Divider Template – In development A full version of the Estate Divider App, downloadable from this site which will be a spreadsheet-driven template to schedule out and divide your estate.

Child Possession Calendar – In development
A calendar to illustrate the dates and times you will have your children under a possession order and to communicate with your ex about switching days and times.

Child Support Calculator – In development
Calculate the amount of money you will pay or your ex will pay you for the support of your children.

No word on Android versions. I guess Google fans who want to get unhitched will just have to shell out for a new iPhone and add that purchase to their divorce costs.

Source: Dallas News | 10:24 AM Wed, Jun 09, 2010 | by Victor Godinez/Reporter | View Article

DIY Divorce – New App Available for iPhone
People thinking about getting a divorce have another option to help keep the costs of hiring lawyers down. A new app for the iPhone was released today called Estate Divider that helps spouses develop a spreadsheet to divide their assets and debts in a fair manner and offers an alimony calculation to equalize the division where desired. Estate Divider is the second app from Divorceapps.com and retails for $9.99 on iTunes.

Dallas, Texas (PRWEB) 8 June, 2010 – One of the most important parts of getting a divorce is dividing up the assets and debts between the spouses. Estate Divider is the latest iPhone app from Divorceapps.com that gives spouses a DIY tool to help themselves and reduce the costs of lawyers, mediators, and litigation. The app allows a spouse to:

Input the values for the various assets and liabilities of the marital estate;
Assign specific assets and liabilities to “Spouse A” or “Spouse B” (such as a house or car) or allocate asset value between “Spouse A” and “Spouse B” (such as a bank account);
Input an overall desired division of the estate between “Spouse A” and “Spouse B”;
Calculate the amount of money needed to accomplish the desired split, express the amount of money needed to accomplish the split in terms of either a cash payment from the spouse with the higher initial allocation, or alimony, or a mix of both;
If any of the equalizing payment is allocated to alimony, determine the post tax equivalent of the alimony to be received by payee and the post tax cost of the alimony to be paid by the paying spouse;
Calculate any overall tax advantage to either spouse by structuring the part or all of the equalizing payment as alimony;
Email the desired settlement and outcome of the property division.

Estate Divider app is available on iTunes for $9.99.

Estate Divider is the latest creation of Dallas family law specialist Michelle May O’Neil and Fort Worth forensic CPA Bryan Rice. The two formed their company Divorceapps.com in 2010 to provide DIY solutions that save divorcing spouses money on the costs of getting a divorce. Their first app, Divorce Cost & Prep, released in May on iTunes illustrates the hidden costs of divorce such as the cost of maintaining two homes, added transportation costs for the children, and cost of parking at a lawyers office. Divorce Cost & Prep also helps a spouse put together all of the documents that a lawyer might need to process the divorce, again saving the client money.

O’Neil and Rice developed the idea for the apps as a way to help clients save money in their divorces. “There are many people that want or need a divorce that cannot afford the high costs of litigation,” says O’Neil. “Our apps provide those people with the ability to help themselves and save on the money it might otherwise cost to pay a lawyer to do these things for them.”

Divorceapps.com uses Brainwash Inc. to develop their iPhone apps, the foremost developer of iPhone apps in the DFW Metroplex.

Michelle May O’Neil specializes in family law in Dallas, Texas with the firm O’Neil Anderson. She is the co-author of All About Texas Law and Kids, published in 2010 by Texas Lawyer Press. As a step-mother to her husband’s 10-year old son, she relates to many of her clients with blended families. Bryan C. Rice is a forensic CPA in Fort Worth who focuses his practice on assisting attorneys and divorcing spouses with the financial aspects of litigation.

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For more information, contact Michelle May O’Neil at 972-852-8000 or 214-676-9051 or michelle@oneilanderson.com

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“When I got my iPhone, I couldn’t believe how many games were available, but so few apps for divorces,” said Rice. “Michelle and I teamed up to develop some apps that would be beneficial for our clients to use.”

Divorce Cost & Prep serves two purposes. First, a person contemplating divorce can assess the hidden and direct costs of divorce, such as the cost of providing two houses, two wardrobes for the children, or transportation costs for exchanging the children between houses. Second, the app gives divorce clients a list of information and documents to gather for their lawyer to assist preparation of their divorce.

O’Neil wanted to provide an app that would make a client’s life easier and her own as well. “Many times clients want to know what documents they can gather for their lawyer, so this will give an easy way for clients to gather everything I will need for their case,” says O’Neil.

Divorce Cost & Prep is available on iTunes for $0.99.

The pair have more apps in the works. Next up will be a calculator to assist attorneys as well as divorcing spouses figure out how to divide up their property and debts. Bear Cahill of BrainwashInc.com assisted with the development of the divorce apps for the iPhone.

Promo copies of the app are available for media inquiries. For additional information, call Michelle O’Neil at 972-852-8000 or 214-676-9051.

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Michelle May O’Neil
Board Certified Family Law Specialist (TBLS)
O’Neil Anderson Family Law
Two Lincoln Centre, Suite 500
5420 LBJ Freeway
Dallas, Texas 75240
Tel: (972) 852-8000
Fax: (972) 852-8001

Website: www.oneilanderson.com
Blog: www.dallastxdivorce.com
Email: michelle@oneilanderson.com