Planning For Trial

A trial is a project.  It involves multiple steps, at prescribed times.  There are checklists, and deadlines, and collateral choices.  As lawyers we tend to pigeon hole what we do, and look at it as unique.  When it comes to trial, we get a bit paranoid, and refuse to think out of the box.  Sometimes that is appropriate.  Other times it is not. 

Why shouldn't there be an easier way to plan for a trial?  Guess what, there is.  It is called project planning.  It has been part of the business world vernacular forever.  There are business school classes on the subject.  Countless books have been written about it.  Lecturers and consultants make their living off of it.  There are valuable tools and techniques out there that we can use, if we just get a bit more flexible with our thinking.  We lawyers do not always have to operate with proprietary focus?  We don't always have to reinvent the wheel.  How about we take some of the established business world project planning wisdom and let it help us make our trial planning easier?  Don't call it a trial.  Call it a project.  Then benefit from all the project planning help that is out there.

I have just come across an iPad app that impresses. OmniPlan is designed to help you visualize, maintain, and simplify your projects. Break down tasks, optimize the required resources, and monitor your entire plan—all at a glance. Collaborate with your colleagues and share every detail, update a calendar with your days off, or mix and match. Accept and reject changes one-by-one or all in one go. OmniPlan provides features like Gantt charts, schedules, summaries, and milestones to let you manage all of your activities. OmniPlan helps you manage projects that are as simple or complex as you need them to be—without the complexity.

For an app this app ain't cheap:  $49.95.  Even if you don't buy it, check it out to see how project planning can be applied to trial planning.  It does a lot of great stuff!   If you are intrigued, but don't want to spend that kind of money there are plenty of other apps out there; and other project planning software; and books; and articles.  Just substitute the word "project" with the word "trial," and you have a whole arsenal of tools at your disposal.

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