Imagine a courtroom where the barristers representing the parties in a case are sitting next to a table that is void of books and other legal paraphernalia.

Instead of the traditional pile of heavy law books and scores of precedents and documents scattered over the table, the barristers, or perhaps one of them, is armed with a sophisticated hand held device that contains all of the laws and precedents required or relevant to the case in question.

Remember the situation! Your barrister opponent presents an argument that seems irrefutable or would require an infinite amount of time to search through hundreds of pages of legislation or precedent for counter evidence. You simply reach into your robe and activate an innovative search and navigation engine on a hand held device, indeed a hand held computer or Palm Pad as they are known. Before your rival can shout "Objection! Your honour!” the desired piece of legal argument rests in the palm of your hand. Argument that the Court may well sustain, to the disadvantage of yourself, is now capable of being overruled without the need for lengthy adjournment or subsequent appeal on a point of law.

No, this is not a scenario out of an Arthur C. Clarke novel. With all due apologies to the master of virtual reality and science fiction, nevermore need the mobile solicitor/barrister be away from essential reference texts or office applications, thanks to the state of the art technologies developed by C.D.I. Systems. This Jerusalem based software systems development house has developed an innovative technology that gives legal professionals a competitive edge in their practice. They have succeeded in the transmutation of the cumbersome load of legal materials that barrister’s carry into courtrooms into a small electronic file embedded into a handheld device. Barristers will hold the laws of England in the palm of their hands, but also will be able to instantaneously search, navigate, annotate and view embedded footnotes on any piece of legislation wherever and whenever they desire.

If you think handhelds were just about calendar, contacts and games, think again.

The place for handheld connected legal professionals to start is HandLaw, which allows you to get acquainted with the unique capabilities, user-friendly interfaces, and innovative features of C.D.I. System's PalmNetIS™ technology.

PalmNetIS™ is an innovative commercial e-publishing platform for multilingual premium content applications that empowers users to synchronise information from any hierarchically structured database to Palm OS® platform-based hand helds. Handlaw uses the PalmNetIS™ technology to empower legal professionals in the comfort of their own office to select specific items from a constantly updated hierarchical tree of categories on their PC, and synchronise them directly to their hand held device. PalmNetIS™ unique technology ensures that legal professionals will have immediate access to the most current legislation, and that vast amounts of legal information can be easily stored on the hand held device, whilst leaving room for other applications.

C.D.I. Systems are in advanced negotiations with United Kingdom based companies to introduce their technology into the UK.

The Supreme Court of Israel, along with hundreds of legal professionals, has adopted PalmNetIS™ based applications as part of their practice. They have recognised PalmNetIS's ability to not only synchronise and store current law-related documents and texts, but to also make that information searchable, navigable and annotable! One can go to a repository of Law-related documents, download, adapt and synchronise the information onto the hand held device, and instantaneously access that information when the need arises!

The future is now. During the past decade, the visionaries at C.D.I. Systems introduced one of the first searchable/navigable legal databases for both CD-ROM and Internet use; solutions that few solicitors thought would ever replace the time tested volumes of legislation that decorated their chambers. It did not take long for solicitors to realise the practical benefits of having all of their stacks of books compressed into a searchable disc. Just as C.D.I. Systems pioneering legal CD ROMS became essential for solicitors/barristers to practice in an efficient and effective manner, the PalmNetIS™ platform provides today's legal professionals with the tools to be nulli secundus in meeting the discerning needs of today's sophisticated clientele.

The Platform with all of it's advanced features and state of the art components can be licensed or provided as a service to organisations, barrister’s chambers, legal professionals, legal offices or departments or premium content owners who want a commercially viable solution for marketing legal content on hand held devices.

C.D.I. Systems technologies are incorporated in numerous premium information projects and solutions that are distributed by industry leaders like Dun and Bradstreet, Makrolog, Boehringer Ingelheim, Compaq, Boorberg, EIBA, Verlag Recht und Praxis, and Macmillan Publishers.

John Dobie is the founder and CEO of Griersons Ltd., one of the UK's leading System Houses for Legal Software.