This makes it imperative to focus on the right and most efficient methods to collect, preserve and maintain evidence so that it is admissible in court and may be used to reach the right verdict. In most cases, the sheer volume of cases and hence the large number of items of evidence make it hard for law enforcement personnel to ensure that valuable evidence does not go missing or is not tampered with. This is where RFID comes into play, making it easier for the cops to keep track of evidence using a simple passive tag.

For those in the dark, RFID or Radio Frequency Identification is a methodology which uses radio waves and an object known as a tag for identification and tracking purposes. Active tags have a battery within and can continuously transmit a signal and passive tags come without the battery and need a reader to read the signal and make positive identification.

RFID is now being harnessed in the fight against crime by being used to tag evidence. The new crime lab that is coming up in the county of Santa Clara is all set to have state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities, most important of which is the EPC Gen 2 RFID system that uses Squiggle RFID tags from Alien Technology to tag, monitor and track the nearly 40,000 pieces of evidence that move through the facility every year. There are different kinds of tags for items that are stored at room temperature and those that must be refrigerated.

This system removes the chance for errors that were earlier prevalent with the use of bar codes and where employees sometimes forgot to scan items that were being removed from or brought into the facility. With the new RFID system, there are interrogators (or readers) placed within the property room, on each of the four floors, and near the elevator doors on each room. This ensures that it is possible to track the movement of the evidence as it goes through the building and when it comes into or goes out of it.

Since the legal system is very dependent on how evidence is handled in criminal cases, the verdict often hinges on proper documentation and monitoring. This makes this new technology very useful in helping to solve crime and expediting the process of justice.

Two Smartphones that are worth buying today are the iPhone and the Blackberry, and when it comes to the personal preference of lawyers, a survey found that the Blackberry was chosen by at least 64 percent. However, the iPhone is no slouch and sales figures (to lawyers) have improved from 5 percent in 2008 to 14 percent in 2009. The iPhone has more apps of course, but the Blackberry offers instant email and other conveniences. So with both options in mind, I’ve created a list of five must-have apps for lawyers with Smartphones, a few of them for the iPhone lovers and the rest for the Blackberry enthusiasts.

• Black’s Law Dictionary: Probably one of the best apps for the iPhone, the Black’s Law dictionary is a digital version of the hardbound book, the one that looks good on the shelves of your law library. With over 43,000 legal terms and their definitions, putting this app on your iPhone is the easiest way to reference information on the go and when in your office. It allows you to search for terms and displays results as you type, making it much more easy to use than the ink and paper version.

• Air Sharing: With this iPhone app, you can transfer all your documents from your computer to your iPhone, and the best part is that you don’t have to connect both gadgets physically to effect the transfer. The inbuilt software allows you to do it through the “air”, and that’s why the name for this application.

• Thomson Reuters NewsPro: This application is available for both the iPhone and the Blackberry; it provides access to business news, information on corporations, breaking news and financial market data from Thomson Reuters.

• Superpages Mobile: This application for the Blackberry Storm allows you to get directions on the go, find movies and restaurants near you, get access to weather forecasts, search for WiFi hotspots that you can use to connect your laptop, and look up people and business on directory listings.

• Google Mobile App: Available for both the iPhone and the Blackberry, this application brings almost all of Google’s offerings to your phone. You can access your documents and spreadsheets, use your domain to connect to others on it, run searches, browse your search history, and if you’re using this on your Blackberry, you can also tap the power of Latitude to see where your friends are in real time. This application allows you to share your location with friends and also see where they are so you can coordinate meetings and visits.