Black’s Law Dictionary 10th Ed 4+

So what you have here is simple enough- a digital version of the already indispensable Black's Law Dictionary. Functions with ease- searches are a snap, and often feature links to related or alternative terms. The pronunciation guide is exceptionally useful.

All said and done, you've got a near five star app that's missing a few features- unfortunately most of them are rather severe oversights for a professional, especially considering this app comes with a $55 price tag.

• The app possesses absolutely no ability to adjust brightness in app. In darker settings, this app is blindingly white. Most reading oriented apps (Kindle, Nook, iBooks) have long since included such a feature.

• Physical page numbers for definitions, while not necessary, would be extremely useful for citation.

• One piece of extremely crucial information that is omitted from the Black's Law Dictionary product line as a whole, but which could have easily been implemented here is which volume of Black's a given definition originates from.

• The app doesn't synch bookmarks and history across devices. Not the most pressing issue, but it would have been helpful.

• On a side note, the app icon is atrocious.

I found the Black’s Law Dictionary application as a 1L student. The app was an incredibly useful reference for new words, Latin phrases, abbreviations, and important documents.

As a practicing attorney, I use it as a reference when writing briefs, when providing additional specificity to certain terms for clients, or to simply understand when other lawyers are trying to be sneaky when using outdated language.(i.e., what is a cognovit judgment?).

As some other reviewers have pointed out, there is room for minor improvements to the app interface and functionality, but overall, it works and it is a reliable.

Despite these other minor issues, I would give this app a 5 star review, but there has always been one issue that bothers me when using this app: if I have audio playing in a different application and switch to Black’s, the app causes the volume to lower slightly. I’m not sure if this was intended, as though perhaps we need slightly more focus when looking up a legal term and therefore the volume should be lowered? Nevertheless, this little feature, whether intended or not, has always bothered me.

Other than that, it’s a wonderful app and I highly recommend it.

The content is great and I feel the app is well designed. But much of the screen on the top and bottom is just black and therefore is not used for content. Were this fixed, the reading experience would be far superior.