Volunteer job is as a guardian-ad-litem for a court in central florida.
Some of the information I need to keep track of is generated by me and some is generated during court appearances. A lot of the information is produced by DCF, Department of Children and Families, Law enforcement and psychologists that I just need to be linked to each child's file.

Presently I use OO writer for my reports. A large paper file that the court mails to me for each child's case. Hand written notes to keep track of mileage and time consumed.

What I think would be nice is a locator card on each child with hyperlinks to all the pertinent information.

This info would be on a dedicated laptop. The linux variety is not important I have CDs for deb and rpm based systems.

The judge gives me a letter that says everything pertaining to each child's case will be kept in the strictest confidence. So. if someone gets my laptop they should not easily access any information.

Is there something available or do I have to make my own?

Thank you all for helping me out

You can harden your security with linux. It's more secure than windows I think and you can increase it even more. However physical access to a computer means you can compromise it a lot easier. The thief still has a harder time with linux and some other protection (by BIOS, it's not much and if you know how easy to break but it's better than nothing), but in the end it'll be either a matter of time or experience of the cracker.