NORTH COUNTY -- Legal pads and poster boards are giving way to laptops and PowerPoint slides with the proliferation of technology in the county's courtrooms.

And it may just be the beginning, some experts said.

The development of new computer software and presentation devices for the legal system has provided attorneys, judges and jurors new tools to do their jobs more efficiently. Improvements to existing products and new products are also on the way.

"You can't be a top-notch judge or a lawyer in today's world without technological skills," said Superior Court Judge Joan Weber, the supervising judge of the Superior Court's North County branch in Vista.

Weber said the use of technology in the courtroom has been "probably the most dramatic change" in her 14 years on the bench.

"I think it's totally changed the practice of law," Weber said.

Technology in the courtroom has taken different forms.

Judges have laptop computers on the bench with software that puts all of California case law at their fingertips and a "real time" transcript of court proceedings on their screens as hearings are taking place.

Many attorneys are using Microsoft's PowerPoint program for presentations and other software developed specifically for litigators to give jurors more organized, visual presentations of their arguments, documents and other evidence.

David Thompson, a Carlsbad attorney with more than 30 years of experience, said he had hoped to finish his career without having to learn to use new equipment and software, but that technology "has so overwhelmed the courtroom" that it became difficult for him to do so.

As a result, Thompson said he has used PowerPoint and a projection device known as an Elmo in some cases.

"It makes jurors more comfortable," Thompson said. "But what I was surprised by was how much material I could go through more quickly."

Deputy District Attorney Frank Jackson, a prosecutor for four years who currently is assigned to the district attorney's Vista office, said that when he started, new prosecutors were encouraged to use PowerPoint in their trials to get used to it.

PowerPoint essentially allows attorneys to create slides showing jurors key points in the case, important jury instructions and photos of witnesses and exhibits, Jackson said.

"It keeps the jury involved visually instead of just having to listen," Jackson said.

Monica Bay, a lawyer and editor of Law Technology News, a New York-based magazine, said jurors today expect to see a "visual road map" in court

"They're raised on technology," Bay said. "They're going to expect to see technology in the courtroom."

Bay said two prominent software packages in use that help attorneys with their visual presentations are TrialDirector Suite from inData Corporation and Sanction from Verdict Systems LLC.

Officials at the two Arizona-based companies said their businesses have grown rapidly in recent years.

Verdict Systems began in 1999 with the release of its first version Sanction, which can provide attorneys quick access to hundreds of documents, photos and videos and display them on a screen in court as exhibits for the jury, said Mike Hahn, the company's chief information officer.

Today, the company's software is in use on more than 20,000 computers nationwide, Verdict Systems employs 15 people, and business has grown 40 percent every year, said Hahn, who declined to discuss the company's revenues because Verdict Systems is privately owned.

Derek Miller, president of inData Corporation, said his company has seen growth of 20 percent to 40 percent per year since it began in 1988 as a company that transformed paper copies of court transcripts into searchable, electronic copies. In 1996, the company introduced its TrialDirector software, which offers many features, including allowing attorneys to show simultaneously a video and a rolling transcript of what is being said on tape beneath it for a jury to hear and read what is being said.

Miller said inData's sales revenues have gone from $1 million to $1.5 million in its first year to $6.5 million to $8.5 million last year. InData also has spawned two other companies, including one that outfits courtrooms with the equipment for attorneys to present evidence, Miller said.

Miller estimated that nearly a quarter of all new courtrooms being built in the country today will have electronic equipment in them, including, in some places, voice-activated cameras that will record court proceedings as they occur.

In San Diego County Superior Court, only one courtroom has been set up with court-owned technological devices for attorneys to use. Judge Richard Strauss' courtroom in the Hall of Justice in San Diego includes monitors at tables for attorneys on both sides of a case, at the witness stand and on the bench for the judge. Monitors at the witness stand and a lectern used by attorneys have a telestrator capability similar to what professional football fans may associate with announcer John Madden.

The courtroom also provides attorneys access to a VCR, DVD player, and the Elmo projector. Attorneys also can plug in their laptop computers to the court's equipment to display materials directly from their computers onto a screen for the jury.

Strauss said Friday, though, that the equipment in his courtroom is not state-of-the-art and does not represent what courtrooms of the future will have.

"The real courtroom of the future will be more sophisticated than this," Strauss said. "We won't be trying to show documents on a screen. … We won't be using paper in courts."

The state's administrative office of the courts is working on a project aimed at making the courts statewide paperless, Strauss said.

Technological advances, however, will not change the core function of the judicial system, Strauss said.

"We're here to make decisions, provide justice, provide fair hearings," Strauss said. "All we're talking about is changing the medium."

Contact staff writer Scott Marshall at (760) 631-6623 or smarshall@nctimes.com.