Settle It Now with Picture It Settled

Don Philbin alerted me to the brand new Picture It Settled Android app (coincidentally, Don has a vested interest in the app as its developer), that I think many attorneys will love, especially those who deal with plaintiff or defendant-side negotiations. The app has been around for the iPhone, but Don brought it over to Android (lite version for now). Heres the spoiler: this app is pretty cool, and certainly beats my stair approach diagrammed on a yellow notepad.

Picture It Settled provides attorneys with the ability to see their dollar negotiations and try to match them either as a percentage-based calculation, or dollar-for-dollar.

Picture It Settled starts with the home screen where you can enter the names of the parties in the case. You can select your client, plaintiff or defendant, and enter the case style or title.

The Make/Receive Offer screen is where the magic happens. Here you can, obviously, make or receive a settlement offer. For instance, we can input the opening offer with a date and time. The app will then ask whether you want to input a counteroffer (receive an offer):

 If you choose Yes, youll be able to put in what the opposing side has offered. Choosing No takes you to history screen.

You can continue on the send and receive path to settlement, or save the information, or case demographics for use later. The demographics includes information about the case type and forum type.

Honestly, I found the demographics information the least useful, and although I handle plenty of plaintiffs personal injury cases, could rarely see myself worrying about imputing this data in the app. I suspect if there were some sort of report, then that might be helpful.

My favorite part of this app is the graphical display.Here you can see the progress of the negotiations tracked by date and time. As negotiations flow, so does the graph. At the end you can see where you settled. But, the coolest part is that the app actually projects the final settlement.

For instance, in this picture, the app projected our ending date, time, and dollar amounts (thus the separation). This can give you some sort of estimate as to the span of your negotiations and the outcome. I could see this as a very helpful tool in setting some realities for a client during a heated mediation or settlement phase.

 

 

 

 

 

Once you settle, the graph then congratulates you, and further displays the course of your settlement discussions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a well-designed and graphically appealing application. I wished I had this app about 2 weeks ago as I attempted to scratch out settlement negotiations in a couple of cases on my yellow pad.

The app tracks a number of cases (I put in 10 theory cases with no problem), and Im sure is only limited by the space on your phone.

Unfortunately, the app isnt (at least for me) available on tablet. I dont know that it matters too much, but I always like to have the bigger display.

Also, as I mentioned above, I didnt find the demographics too useful. A lot of extra typing to gather a minimal amount of excess information. I suspect though, if I was a mediator and used the information to publish jury verdict reports, that information might be useful.

Click here if you want to see a video.

You can grab the app in the Android Market, its free for now, but certainly well worth the cost (within reason) for the paid version if and when its available.