(You can find the Black’s Law Dictionary app here.)

Laura made fun of me on the podcast this week because I own a leather bound edition of Black’s Law Dictionary. It was a gift from my parents, but as I understand it, it costs something on the order of $140.  This app isn’t inexpensive either, but it’s on par with the paperback pocket edition.

As you can see, the interface isn’t too fancy. It seems to use something akin to the standard Apple “contacts” API. I could stand to see the interface prettied up a bit — I’m envisioning something along the lines of iBooks. Still, the interface is straight-forward and navigable.

The dictionary is viewable in landscape or vertical mode.  The problem is that (as can be seen to the left) in vertical mode, the app is just awkwardly scaled.  As a result, the text is smaller, and there’s strange black space on the top and bottom.  I would be much more pleased if vertical mode displayed the right page only, but maybe I’m nitpicking again.

Perhaps the coolest feature of the program, and the one that swayed @lbergus during the podcast, is that for a large number of words, an audio clip of the pronunciation is available.  That could have made 1L a whole lot less awkward.

The app also sports the ability to resize the text between three difference sizes.  I generally found all of the sizes to be comfortable when viewing in landscape mode.  In vertical mode, you might prefer one of the larger text sizes depending on your eyesight.

Like the physical Black’s Law Dictionary, some entries come with citations.  The nice feature of the app is that these citations link to Westlaw pages (note: you have to log into your Westlaw account to view them).  Clicking on a link will prompt you to open Safari.  Thankfully, Westlaw looks pretty decent on the iPad.

So in the end, is it worth $49.99?  I think so.  It’s portable and an all-around well-built app.  If you find yourself using Black’s often enough, it’s probably worth picking up the Black’s Law app even if you have a physical copy.  Additionally, if you’re a PreL worried about being the first person cold-called in torts and having to pronounce res ipsa loquitur, what’s a measly $50?

I probably won’t be cracking open my oldschool Black’s Law Dictionary anytime soon, but it still makes a pretty nice book for the bookshelf, right?

(Disclosure – I was given this software to review at my request)

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