It is at about this time of the year that we often see a sudden increase in enthusiasm for technology among lawyers.

Admittedly, it is usually male lawyers and the objects of their affection are not the case and practice management systems, on which their firms depend, but gadgets, such as handheld computers and PDAs (personal digital assistants) received at Christmas.

But, do these devices actually have a useful role to play, or are they just toys for the boys, that the partners will have stopped using and forgotten about by mid-January?

As with all technology, the key questions are: do you really need this stuff and is it actually going to deliver a benefit you cannot achieve in some other way? As an inveterate buyer of gadgets, my own experience is that the majority fall into the category of solutions in search of a problem to solve, and that there is nothing they can offer that you cannot already achieve far simpler and cheaper with pen and paper.

The one exception is e-mail and, over the last year, there has been a growing number of devices - from smart phones to PDAs - coming on to the market offering instant access to e-mail, via GPRS (general packet radio service) or similar wireless telecoms links.

In the US, where these devices have been in use longer than in the UK, the experience of law firms is that more than 20% of lawyers stop using laptop computers altogether once wireless PDAs are introduced because they had only been using their laptops to access e-mail remotely.

It is also suggested that being able to deal with e-mails on the move can recover as much as 53 minutes of otherwise wasted time each day.

Which device to buy? For the last couple of years the PDA market has been dominated by the HP iPAQ and the rival Palm family of handhelds, but since the summer, the RIM Blackberry has started to take off in the UK.

If e-mail access is your prime concern - and you can live without the broader computing facilities offered by iPAQs and Palms - then this is the device to go for.

Unlike most PDAs, the Blackberry has an integral keyboard.

It can double as a conventional phone for voice calls and is currently available on some attractive deals from the main mobile phone suppliers.

Interestingly, US firms that have offered users a choice of a traditional PDA or a Blackberry report an almost 100% take up of the Blackberry - and I know I wouldn't part with mine for all the IT in China.

Charles Christian is an independent adviser to the Law Society's Software Solutions guide