Posted by Wayne Schiess: “Techniques that fail with judges are—
• throwing in the kitchen sink instead of picking winning arguments and developing them;
• attacking opposing counsel and other judges (even when they deserve it);
• offering up a historical treatise instead of arguing an issue;
• writing facts in a conclusory way;
• using adverbs and adjectives instead of nouns and verbs;
• using intensifiers and qualifiers;
• shouting at readers with false emphatics like italics, underlining, bold, and capitals;
• not applying fact to law;
• overstating anything, because understatement is a key to persuasion;
• using long quotations or, worse, misquoting and misciting;
• not opening with an orientation, or roadmap, to tell readers where they're headed; and
• dwelling on givens.
Gerald Lebovits, Legal-Writing Myths-Part I, N.Y. State B.J. 55, 56 (Feb. 2006).
Source: Legalwriting.net, 27 November 2006
Posted by Diane Murley: “Some researchers assume that official and unannotated codes are the same thing. They are not the same, and they are used for different purposes. To eliminate any confusion, I will first explain the difference between official and unannotated codes, and then discuss when each should be used.
An official code is one that is published by the government or at its direction. Unofficial codes are sometimes called commercial codes, and they are published by commercial publishers without government direction.
Annotated codes are simply codes that have annotations—references to related judicial decisions, administrative materials, and secondary authorities—in addition to the text of the statutes. Unannotated codes have just the text of the statutes, usually with brief notes indicating when each section was added or amended.
All versions of the same jurisdiction's statutory code, whether official or unofficial, annotated or unannotated, use the same numbering scheme. You can use the same citation to look up a statute in any current code, even though the code abbreviation and date parenthetical are different. That is why you don't need parallel citations for statutes.
Although most official codes are unannotated and most unofficial codes are annotated, that is not always the case. Some of you have already used an unofficial unannotated code on Westlaw. For Illinois, the database IL-ST-ANN is the annotated code and IL-ST is the unannotated code. They are both unofficial.
The advantage of using an unannotated code is that it is much smaller. When you search an unannotated code online, you are only searching the statute, so you don't get false search results where your terms appear only in the annotations and not in the text of the statute.
The importance of official codes is that many publishers, including most law school journals and law reviews, require you to cite to the official code if the statute has been around long enough to have been incorporated into the official code. Since all the codes for a jurisdiction are numbered the same, you can do all your research in an unofficial code and use the official code for your final citation check—to be sure that your cited statutes are included in the unannotated code and to get the date for the parenthetical.
See also Printing Just the Statute and Searching Just the Text of Statutes.
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: Law Dawg Blawg, 29 November 2006
Posted by PEOPLESLAWYER: “Worth a look: Science Evidence.
According to the site:
Science Evidence is devoted to the latest news in scientific evidence in United States courts and news relevant to litigation, including case reports and scientific research articles that bear on legal issues.
Cliff Hutchinson is an engineer, registered patent attorney, and trial lawyer, with over 26 years experience in litigation in state and federal courts and before arbitral tribunals. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation involving technical issues, such as intellectual property disputes, toxic torts, oil and gas, and contract disputes in other technology industries. He has litigated in trial courts in numerous states and has appeared before state appellate courts and before federal circuit courts in the First and Fifth Circuits and the United States Supreme Court."
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: A Georgia Lawyer, 28 November 2006
Posted by Ed Poll: “More lawyers than ever, within law firms, are performing ethics and risk management reviews both for their own law firms as well as for corporate clients. This has become a major practice area for lawyers.
Initially, law firms looked to "second career" lawyers, that is lawyers who wanted to continue to practice within their law firm but also wanted to focus more on family matters with reduced work hours, which took them off of the partner track. Their initial focus was on the ethics and risk management issues within the law firm. But, now, law firms are staffing this function with not only partners and associates but also increased staff to support the growing demand in this field by both the law firm and the corporate clients of the law firm.
The Business Law Section of the ABA has recognized this and created a special project to address the needs of this segment of the Bar.”
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: LawBiz Blog, 28 November 2006
Posted by Sue Altmeyer: “The Ohio Supreme Court held that the juvenile court could not require a juvenile sex offender to take "full disclosure" polygraph test as part of his probation. The specific issue addressed was "whether requiring a juvenile to undergo unlimited polygraph testing on demand, compelling answers to every question and requiring the offender to pass every test is an unreasonable probation term and a violation of the child's constitutional right against self-incrimination." The court held that before such a polygraph test can be used, there must be evidence that the test is needed in particular case for treatment and monitoring of the juvenile. Additionally, the juvenile can not be compelled to make self-incriminating statements. In re D.S., 2006-Ohio-5851. See Top Ohio Court Rules in Warren Case by Jon Craig, Cincinnati Enquirer, Nov. 29, 2006; Ohio Supreme Court Summaries: "Court Limits Polygraph Orders in Juvenile Cases, Bars Compulsion of Self-Incriminating Statements".
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Cleveland Law Library Weblog, 29 November 2006
Posted by Sue Altmeyer: “The Ohio Legislature passed Sub. H.B. 347, which would invalidate municipal ordinances dealing with possession and sales of firearms and carrying of concealed weapons. The purpose is to create uniform gun laws throughout the state. Sub. H.B. 347 also allows licensed gun owners to holster and conceal weapons while driving, and no longer requires the weapon to be in plain view. The penalties for failure to inform a police officer that a weapon is in the vehicle and failure to comply with an officer's command are increased.
Governor Taft will veto the bill, but according to Senate President Bill Harris, there are enough votes to override the veto.
Legislature Alters Rules on Gun Control by Reginald Fields, The Plain Dealer, Nov. 30, 2006.
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Cleveland Law Library Weblog, 30 November 2006
Posted by Matt Steinke: “The Ohio Supreme Court recently announced a new option for tracking in pending Supreme Court cases:
To access the Court's Case Activity Notification Service, simply subscribe to the case tracking system through the Court's Web site (www.supremecourtofohio.gov/rss/subscription) using an e-mail address and creating a password. Searching is simple – by case name, case number or more generally by the year the case was filed.
Once subscribers have identified the case they want to track, they choose whether to be notified of any case activity, such as a new filing, through e-mail or RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary), or both. For more information about RSS feeds, visit www.supremecourtofohio.gov/RSS.
In addition to the new case notification service, digital images of case documents soon will be available on the Court's Web site through case dockets. An icon next to a docket entry will denote that the corresponding digital document is available to view as a PDF file. The clerk's office will scan case documents when they are filed to make them available to the public no later than the end of the next business day. The Court intends ultimately to provide users with the capability to do text searches of all scanned case documents for research purposes.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Moritz Legal Information Blog, 29 November 2006
Posted by Justin Patten: “Debbie Weil in her book "The Corporate Blogging Book" writes about internal blogs acting as an email killer: "In addition to a dramatic reduction in email volume, Ziff Davis figured costs savings to be more than $1 million(computed on an annual basis). What was projected to be a four-month project was finished in three."
"We used to have over 100 group e-mails per day. Now it's rarely one per week, we've saved a month in a four month software project, and everyone is on the same page." - Tom Jessiman, Ziff Davis General Manager.
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Human Law, 29 November 2006
Posted by Sue Altmeyer: “A new blog, The Brief Case by attorney Russ Bensing, provides commentary on Ohio case law, with a slight emphasis on Eighth District cases. For example, see the post entitled Crackheads 'r Us discussing a recent Eighth District case finding that a conviction for stolen license plates was based on insufficient evidence. A police officer's recollection of a computer record showing that license plates were stolen was inadmissable hearsay. The blog also includes a weekly case round up.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Cleveland Law Library Weblog, 28 November 2006
Posted by Jim Calloway: “It is the season of giving thanks in the U.S. While I have many things to be thankful for, including great friends and my family, none of those make for a good Law Practice Tips blog post.
So let me pick an unlikely candidate for my thanks and choose an application you may have already cursed at least once this week. Yes, let's give thanks for e-mail. (I can hear the rumblings now from those dealing with overflowing inboxes, balky spam filters and clients who are calling saying "Why didn't you return my e-mail from half an hour ago?")
Let's give thanks for universal e-mail. You youngsters may not remember the days when AOL e-mail meant only to other AOL users and you could not e-mail those on CompuServ. Just remain quiet while we old-timers raise a toast to FidoNet.
I am thankful that e-mail lets me easily stay in contact with good friends in places like Toronto, Canada or Washington, D.C. or Montgomery, AL at essentially no cost. It may be difficult to build a relationship just with e-mail, but you can nourish one with it.
I am thankful I no longer have to deal with envelopes, postage and, sometimes, Federal Express to send a paper or presentation materials across the country.
I am thankful that people who are inclined to share their wisdom with me can easily do so, by clicking "attach file" and send, instead of having to decide if it is worth the trouble to mail me a copy.
I am thankful for electronic mailing lists that allow me to tap the collective wisdom of many others. (And I'm really thankful for my GMail account to manage my electronic mailing lists.)
So, even though we hate spam, mysterious attachments we can't or shouldn't open, e-mail from people who obviously have too much time on their hands and getting a joke for the 5th time via e-mail, we can even be thankful for this simple business tool.”
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Blog, 22 November 2006
Posted by Sabrina Pacifici: "The Federal Technology Source includes contact information for more than 3,000 of the most influential people in the federal information technology arena, including chief information officers, knowledge managers, and security and privacy officers. The directory also includes information on key political officials and their IT staffs, as well as trade associations, research firms and vendors. Listings include names, addresses, phone numbers and Web and e-mail addresses...the database...can be searched by a variety of criteria (including name, title, organization and location)."
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 28 November 2006. Copyright ©2002-2006 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.
In the news: “A recent shareholder proposal promises to substantially affect the director-nomination process in boardrooms. The 2nd Circuit upheld the right of shareholders to include in a company's proxy statement proposals that relate to procedures for elections of directors. Now the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance is reeling as it scrambles to amend the proxy rules affected by the decision in time for the 2007 proxy season. Torys attorneys Joris Hogan and Alicia Gimenez explain the case and its implications.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 29 November 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Sabrina Pacifici: "The N.Y.U. Journal of International Law and Politics is very pleased to announce the publication of the 1st edition of its Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citation (GFILC - 296 pages, PDF)."
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 28 November 2006. Copyright ©2002-2006 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.
In the news: “As the Supreme Court takes up what some call the most important patent case in 40 years, one of the attorneys on the case, Kenneth Bass III, recalls the words of the late Justice Hugo Black, for whom he clerked in 1969: "He told me that in his lifetime, he had seen only one real invention -- the airplane -- and he wasn't even certain about that one." Bass hopes the current justices don't share that view, but recognizes that the Court's historic love-hate relationship with patents may come into play.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 28 November 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Jim Calloway: “I think almost every lawyer should carry a smart phone. There is a huge benefit in synchronizing this device with your office calendar and contacts and having them with you at all times. The smart phone you wish to use is up to you, as is to what extent you want to send and receive e-mail and surf the Web from your phone. But I've been quite happy to be able to check my calendar and schedule appointments and to-do tasks on weekends and evenings. I've not used Blackberries, but many lawyers swear by them. I have a Treo 650, as do quite a few of my fellow OBA staff and OBA officers.
A recent post about the benefits of a Treo 650 was published on The Practice blog by guest Grant Griffiths. Virginia attorney Ben Glass replied with a comment that his firm had experienced a lot of performance issues and rebooting. Some others on Solosez have made the same observations. I have to reboot my Treo about once a month and have never lost any data.
My first Treo flunked an unintentional stress test, but the failure didn't really offend or surprise me. I thought about trying to tell the story that it saved my life.
Grant has started the PDA Lawyer blog and I direct your attention to his post about the utility programs he uses on his Treo 650. I'd guess I am an average Treo user. I just never seem to find the time to learn the more advanced Treo features. But even at that level, it is a great tool for me and I do learn new things to do with it all the time. If you are a novice level Treo user, I'd say a great "beginner" customization is to add several Favorites on the phone interface view. I find that having many of those is a real time saver.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Blog, 24 November 2006
From the blog: “AOL AwayView is a dynamic, interactive screen saver that provides customized, real time content delivery in a screen saver format. AwayView will present local weather information, unread AOL email and instant message alerts, and featured content from the AOL Media Center categories including News, Sports, TV, Movies, Music, and more.
AwayView (Beta) requires a download (Windows only).
We haven’t had a chance to try it yet but the description sounds similar to the new product that was released by Real Networks named RealTime a few weeks ago.
As we said a few week’s ago, was Pointcast a few years to early?”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: ResourceShelf, 29 November 2006
Posted by Tom Collins: “Rees Morrison wrote a must-read article for the Legal Times that is also available on Law.com. When it comes to practices within your law firm, Rees believes your bills read like an open book. Bills tell clients the whole story—the good, the bad, and the ugly. In his article Do the Math on Outside Law Firms, he points out that he is writing about more than “the kinds of billing abuses that third-party bill auditors should ferret out -- block billing, differences in amounts billed for the same event, days of more than 10 hours billed, and long, suspicious patterns of hours.” He notes that, “Bill review should not be just a drudgery to be gotten through. In fact, bills can tell you much more about the performance of your law firms and your own staff than most law departments realize. “
While law firms look at their bills as just a record of the billable work and pass through expenses for the period covered, savvy corporate clients are reading between the lines. Here is an executive overview of some of the things a savvy corporate client is likely to read into your bills:
• Those 0.2 billable hours added each month read “Partner Sprinkling” and don’t expect me to pay for drive-by billers!
• An associate with more than 1000 to 1500 hours on my matter, all in one year, doesn’t have enough to do and is padding their billable time at my expense.
• More than 30 percent partner time means I’m paying partner rates for associate and paralegal level work.
• If expenses are more than 10 percent of the bill, my guess is that no one in the law firm is looking out for me. They aren’t getting the best price for expenses passed through to clients.
• I can tell it’s not a well-run (managed) law firm because their bills included work and expenses more than 30 days old. Sloppy is as sloppy does!
While there can be a good and legitimate reason for all of the red flags listed above, the client-centered law firm will review its bills from the client’s point-of-view to manage the client’s business efficiently and to proactively communicate with the client when billed items, left unexplained, might indicate otherwise.
Rees W. Morrison, co-head of law-department management consulting for Hildebrandt International, hosts the blog Law Department Management.
The active links are available at the source site listed below,
Source: morepartnerincome.com, 27 November 2006
Posted by Sue Altmeyer: “Professor David Forte points out that the smoking ban places restrictions on smoking on outdoor patios, in private clubs and tobacco stores, making the ban more restrictive than most voters probably realized. See Professor Forte Speaks Out on Smoke-Free Legislation Election Results by Jan Novak, Cleveland Marshall Law Library Blog, Nov. 17, 2006.
Bricker and Eckler offers this informative article: Ohio SmokeFree Workplace Act: What Businesses Need to Know, Nov. 2006. The article points out that smoking must be banned in company owned vehicles and employee smoking lounges are no longer allowed.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below,
Source: Cleveland Law Library Weblog, 22 November 2006
Posted by Grant Griffiths: “Kevin O'Keefe at lexBlog has two great posts today about ROI and the Blog.
ROI on Blogs : Resources to measure
ROI of Blogging : Framework to measure
Two great sources to show just how important blogging can be to a law firm and how much ROI you can actually accomplish with a blog. My practice blog the Kansas Family Law Blog has provided me with great ROI. In fact my ROI is so great with my blog, I have not done any other marketing other than my blog for almost two years now.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below,
Source: Home Office Lawyer, 19 November 2006
Posted by John Jantsch: “Snap.com, a fairly new and interesting looking search engine, is offering web site and blog owners a handy little device. (Thanks to John Battelle at Searchblog for pointing this out.)
The tool is called Snap Preview Anywhere and allows a surfer to hover over any link that has been enabled by this service and see a very nice visual window of what the page they might choose to surf to looks like.
Here's a page I am building to promote my book that is due out in about 6 weeks. Duct Tape Marketing - The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide. (Hover over the link and you can get a quick view of the page.)
Adding this feature to your web site is simple and free - just add a line of javascript code provided by snap when you complete the sign-up process. Tools like this won't make or break your blog, but I think they add to the overall experience.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below,
Source: Duct Tape Marketing, 25 November 2006
Posted by Genie Tyburski: “The Center for Democracy and Technology and the ACLU joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation in "urging a federal appeals court to extend to e-mail the same constitutional protection accorded to telephone calls and regular mail."
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: TVC Alert Research News, 28 November 2006, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, http://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/transfer.asp?xmlFile=nov06/28nov06.xml
Posted by Genie Tyburski: “Howard Bashman, appellate lawyer and owner of How Appealing, discusses two amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. The amendments, which take effect on 1 December 2006, deal with citation and electronic filing issues.
RELATED: Electronic Filing on Appeal: What Does the Future Hold?
Law.com, 20 November 2006
RELATED: How Appealing”
For active links, visit
Source: TVC Alert Research News, 28 November 2006, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, http://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/transfer.asp?xmlFile=nov06/28nov06.xml
Posted by Sabrina Pacifici: Press release: "GalleryWatch and Pennyhill Press are pleased to announce that the GW CRS reports have now been posted for 1994, meaning we now the most complete set of reports available online for the years 1994 - 2006. We have posted 957 documents for 1994, bringing our database of CRS documents to a total of 14,053 'latest versions' of documents and 24,676 total documents, including archives. No other service on the market today has this depth of archived CRS reports for this time period. In addition, we are already working on adding 1993..." [note - this is a subscription service]
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 27 November 2006. Copyright ©2002-2006 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.
From the blog: “W.A.T.C.H.’s annual ‘10 Worst Toys’ list nominates representative toys with the potential to cause childhood injuries, or even death. W.A.T.C.H.’s annual ‘Toy Conference’ has generated extensive national press and media coverage. Because of these efforts, and the positive response from both the media and the public, there have been many toy and product design changes. Founder Edward M. Swartz and W.A.T.C.H. have fearlessly exposed potentially dangerous toys to the general public. As a result, children’s lives have been saved.”
[Their] Source: World Against Toys Causing Harm, Inc.
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: The ResourceShelf, 27 November 2006
In the news: “Summer associates come off as a tough crew in The American Lawyer's survey of almost 6,800 interns at about 200 firms, welcoming brutal honesty about their own performances and leaving none of the firms immune from suggestions for improvement. But overall, law students gave their summer employers lots of praise. [Interesting reading] While the survey's upper tiers included many familiar names, plenty of newcomers hit high notes -- and two of the top 10 slots were captured by firms that vaulted more than 100 spots.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 1 November 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
From the e-newsletter: “Thirty years ago, after Vietnam and Watergate, young idealists entered the legal profession in unprecedented numbers, choosing law as their way to “be the change,” as Mahatma Gandhi urged. Some became Nader’s Raiders, some went into government and a few managed to find jobs in places like Appalachia or the inner cities. Many, however—discouraged by low pay or scarce opportunities—took other paths. But today, as the 1970s generation reaches its 50s and 60s, growing ranks of lawyers are pursuing “second acts” in public service and pro bono, after years of doing entirely different work. The trend is one of several which, taken together, hint at the coming areas of growth in public interest law.”
Read full text
Source: FindLaw’s Practice Paper. 22 November 2006. Copyright © 2006 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.
From the e-newsletter: “Annotated links to websites related to competitive intelligence, research performed by businesses to learn about their competitors. Includes search engines, people trackers, monitoring tools, business news, and related websites. From Law Library Resource Xchange (LLRX.com).
URL: http://www.llrx.com/features/ciguide.htm
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/22776”
Source: LII Librarians' Index to the Internet. NEW THIS WEEK for 23 November 2006. Copyright 2006 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, LII. Subscribe <http://lii.org/search/file/mailinglist>.
Posted by Sabrina Pacifici: "Few corporations are prepared for the new federal rules slated to take effect Dec. 1 for electronic discovery of documents in civil cases, according to a survey conducted by Computerworld. About 42% of the 170 IT managers and staffers surveyed said they did not know the status of their company's preparation for the new rules, while 32% said their company was not at all prepared."
• See the E-Discovery Update column, by Conrad J. Jacoby, on LLRX.com for further background and expert commentary on this issue.
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 23 November 2006. Copyright ©2002-2006 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.
From the e-newsletter: “The "Resource Center is a compilation of documents, tools, abstracts and references to help you explore specific fire and fire investigation topics. Every month, we add a new addition that covers a wealth of fire investigation information ranging from preliminary fire scene assessments to fire insurance fraud." Click on "Term of the Week" to access a glossary. From a company that provides training for fire and arson investigations. [Includes a section on trial preparation]
URL: http://www.interfire.org/resourcecenter.asp
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/22924”
Source: LII Librarians' Index to the Internet. NEW THIS WEEK for 23 November 2006. Copyright 2006 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, LII. Subscribe <http://lii.org/search/file/mailinglist>.
From the e-newsletter: “This 2003 article explores the psychological profile of arsonists. Topics include intelligence and arson and motivations such as anger, revenge, excitement, and arousal. Also includes a list of "red flags that could identify a possible arsonist-in-the-works," such as "children who start playing with matches or fire as early as age 3." From WebMD.
URL: http://www.webmd.com/content/article/76/90030.htm
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/22925”
Source: LII Librarians' Index to the Internet. NEW THIS WEEK for 23 November 2006. Copyright 2006 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, LII. Subscribe <http://lii.org/search/file/mailinglist>.
Posted by Tara Calishain: “There's a new search engine that searches for legal blogs only (or as legal blogs are sometimes called, "blawgs"). If you didn't think there were many out there, check this out: Blawgsearch.com is currently indexing around 600 blogs with plans to add "many more".
The front page of the site provides several tools for a quick overview: a tag cloud (both of post tags and recent search terms), a list of the most popular blogs, and a directory of blogs indexed sorted by category, from "Admiralty Law" to "Trials and Litigation". (The most populated categories seemed to be Intellectual Property Law, Business Law, and Criminal Law.) A list at the bottom of the page shows the most recent posts.
Searching is by simple keyword. A search for litigation at this moment provides 988 results.
Though the results are defaulted by relevance instead of date (grr) they have plenty of information, including summary, title, date of post, and name and URL of the blog. There's also a keyword-based RSS feed available.
If you're more interested in finding law blogs, you can browse the directory at http://blawgsearch.justia.com/category.aspx , which breaks out the blogs by category as well as by state and country, with a pointer to a few other legal blog directories. Legal bloggers interested in participating in the search engine are invited to suggest a blawg. For those interested in legal blogging in general, there's a brief and general resource list available.
Nicely done.”
Source: ResearchBuzz #391. 23 November 2006. Copyright 2006. Tara Calishain. Subscribe <http://www.researchbuzz.com/wp/>
Posted by Sabrina Pacifici: "E-government websites offer useful holiday shopping advice to consumers via the following:
• FTC Consumer Alert - Holiday Shopping? How To Be On Guard When You’re Online
• and Consumer Action Buying tips: "Before you head out to the mall or shop online for that perfect present, take a few moments to read these tips to help you have a less stressful holiday season.
-- Decide in advance exactly what you want and what you can
afford.
-- Read sale ads carefully. Some may say "quantities
limited," "no rain checks," or "not available at all
stores."
-- Don't buy on impulse or under pressure. This includes
donating to charity. Do your research.
-- Get a written copy of guarantees and warranties.
-- Get the seller's refund, return and cancellation
policies."
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 23 November 2006. Copyright ©2002-2006 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.
From the blog: “Thanksgiving Stats and Facts
1) Thanksgiving in American Memory
A special collection of Thanksgiving related resources from LC’s American Memory Collection. Includes a Thanksgiving History timeline.
2) Fast Facts: Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 23, 2006
A new Facts for Features compilation from the U.S. Census. Stats include:
265 million - The preliminary estimate of turkeys raised in the United States in 2006. That’s up 3 percent from 2005. The turkeys produced in 2005 together weighed 7.2 billion pounds and were valued at $3.2 billion.
1.6 billion pounds - The total weight of sweet potatoes — another popular Thanksgiving side dish — produced in the United States in 2005. North Carolina (595 million pounds) produced more sweet potatoes than any other state. It was followed by California (351 million pounds). Mississippi and Louisiana also produced large amounts: at least 200 million pounds each.
3 - Number of places in the United States named after the holiday’s traditional main course. Turkey, Texas, was the most populous in 2005, with 492 residents; followed by Turkey Creek, La. (357); and Turkey, N.C. (269). There also are nine townships around the country named “Turkey,” three in Kansas.
+ Slightly Higher Thanksgiving Dinner Cost This Year (via American Farm Bureau)
+ Ask.com Thanksgiving Holiday Smart Answer
With recipes, history, Macy’s Parade links, and more.
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: ResourceShelf, 22 November 2006
Posted by Cindy Chick: “Sometimes I blog items to make sure I can find them again in the future. In that respect, LawLibTech is my own personal knowledgebase. This item is in that category, and who knows, maybe you'll be interested, too!
If you have a presentation to give in the near future, no matter how mundane or technical, read Where to Start, from Creating Passionate Users.
I especially like #3, "For the love of god, DO NOT start with history!" And let me just say, if you're a vendor, conducting a product demo, don't spend the first 15 minutes of a 30 minute demo talking about your company and how wonderful it is. Spend your allotted time making me care about the product!”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: LawLibTech, 21 November 2006
Posted by Sue Altmeyer: “Both the Ohio House and Senate have passed Sub. HB 83:
"To enact section 2109.361 of the Revised Code to require the probate court, upon application by an affected beneficiary, to determine the fairness of an agreement requiring a fiduciary or beneficiary to pay a percentage of an inheritance or a dollar amount to any person other than the beneficiary and to allow the probate court to approve, modify, or disapprove the agreement."
The purpose is to regulate professional "heir hunters", who track down beneficiaries in exchange for a percentage of the inheritance. See Bill Analysis as Reported by S. Judiciary”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Cleveland Law Library Weblog, 21 November 2006
In the news: “Can your firm send a trial team on short notice to rescue a client's case? Houston's Beirne, Maynard & Parsons has a system for remote trials called "trial-in-a-box." In addition to custom-made containers that house hardware, such as desktop and laptop computers, Internet access and a wireless phone system, the system employs user-friendly litigation support software -- indispensable in today's courtroom. Firm partners Martin Beirne and Scott Marrs unpack their rescue kit.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 22 November 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
From the e-newsletter: “For some, Internet research begins and ends with fee-based services like Westlaw and LexisNexis. And while these sites are as valuable as ever, so much data is stored online you can't access it all from a single source -- not even the ever-popular Google.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Law Librarian Update. 20 November 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Tom Collins: “Last week I was in Milwaukee attending the Milwaukee Bar's annual Conference. Technology and law firm management are an important part of their conference. It traditionally attracts faculty members of national (make that international) stature. One of the faculty members was Dave Bilinsky, the Practice Management Advisor for the Law Society of British Columbia. Among his other insightful tips was this high value four-pointer worth framing:
1. Teach someone
2. Delegate, delegate, delegate….
3. Concentrate on results
4. Push work down
When partners hoard work, they limit the firm’s prospects for future profitable growth. “Doing it yourself” means that you are short-changing associate professional development, limiting your ability to plan, bring in new business, or get more done by leveraging off of others. Taking the time to teach someone rather than doing it yourself increases the firm’s capacity in the long term.
Number two speaks for itself. Try to never do something someone else can do.
Too often we think first of the process required rather than the end result to be achieved. Short-cutting a process (or finding a new way) saves time, if it achieves the same or a better end result. Take the time to think creatively. Give delegates the opportunity to be creative.
For a partner, “push work down” means pushing it down to an associate. When you do, you get double the bang for your buck. The associate gets the work done, and you get a more experienced associate.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: morepartnerincome.com, 22 November 2006
In the news: “For companies that can't afford an in-house lawyer, let alone house one on loan from the outside counsel they can barely afford, one New York lawyer has created a law firm based on a unique marketing of the much talked-about concept of alternative fee arrangements. J. Paul Caulfield calls himself the "spot GC" and markets his nearly year-old practice, Caulfield LLC, to emerging and middle-market companies as a cheaper way to handle sporadic or monthly legal needs.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 22 November 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Wayne Schiess:
“loquendum ut vulgus, sentiendum ut docti
Speak like an average person, but understand like a learned one.
Come to think of it, Rudolf Flesch said this even better, in plain English:
[I]t's a good rule to know as many rare words as possible for your reading, but to use as few of them as possible in your writing.
Rudolf Flesch, How to Write Better 35 (Science Res. Assocs., Inc. 1951).”
Source: Legalwriting.net, 10 November 2006
By Wendy Werner: “Why do some law firms excel at bringing in new business and keeping clients while others struggle? They understand that every contact every time shapes the client’s opinion. In this article you will learn the essential practices for providing exceptional customer service.
Her points include:
• Getting into your client's shoes
• First Contact
• Setting the Course
• Managing Client Expectations
• Client Frustrations
• Client or Customer?
For full text of the article see
Source: Law Practice Today, November 2006
Posted by Ed Poll: “GP/Solo Technology eReport this issue features an article I wrote on developing a plan of communications to be able to survive in time of disaster. Communications are essential not only with clients and your colleagues, but others as well.”
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: LawBiz Blog, 18 November 2006
Posted by Grant Griffiths: “Kevin O'Keefe at lexBlog has two great posts today about ROI and the Blog.
ROI on Blogs : Resources to measure
ROI of Blogging : Framework to measure
Two great sources to show just how important blogging can be to a law firm and how much ROI you can actually accomplish with a blog. My practice blog the Kansas Family Law Blog has provided me with great ROI. In fact my ROI is so great with my blog, I have not done any other marketing other than my blog for almost two years now.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Home Office Lawyer, 19 November 2006
Posted by Tom Collins: “Here are some tips I picked up from a panel discussion during the Wisconsin Technology Conference. The panel included Dustin Cole, Lori Kannenberg, and Dave Bilinsky.
Lost time:
Measurement improves productivity:
Know your EHR:
Client satisfaction:
Raise your hourly rates:
Speed up billing and collections:
Say “No” to deep discounts:
Collection phone calls:
About the panelist: Dustin Cole is the founder and President of Attorneys Master Class, providing personal support for increasing attorney revenues and protecting quality of life. Lori Kannenberg, is the administrator for Lawton & Cates, S.C., Madison and the past President of the Wisconsin Association of Legal Administrators (WALA). Dave Bilinsky is the Practice Management Advisor for the Law Society of British Columbia. Bilnsky’s articles on practice management appear in numerous publications, including ABA's Law Practice Magazine, the Canadian Bar Association's The National Magazine, and others.”
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: morepartnerincome.com, 21 November 2006
In the news: “Given the sea of information that must be trawled for relevant data during e-discovery, small islands of digitized audio sometimes get overlooked. But amendments to the Federal Rules should change that, fitting digitized audio within the designation of "electronically stored information." Commentator C.C. Holland looks at the new partnership between EDD specialist Fios and audio miner Nexidia. She suggests audio islands could be the tip of the iceberg, looming as large in EDD as e-mail has in recent years.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 21 November 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Tom Mighell: “Here's a fun one -- LawComix presents new law cartoons from Charles Pugsley Fincher, J.D. Don't expect conventional lawyer jokes here -- instead, you'll find topical legal humor and satire.”
For the active link, go to
Source: Inter Alia, 19 November 2006
Posted by Sabrina Pacifici: “Understanding The Federal Courts: "This publication was developed by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to provide an introduction to the federal judicial system, its organization and administration, and its relationship to the legislative and executive branches of the government."
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 21 November 2006. Copyright ©2002-2006 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.
Posted by: Tom Methvin: “As far back as the early 1900's, corporations knew of the dangers associated with exposure to asbestos containing products. Yet every year, including this year, as many as 3,000 people are diagnosed with asbestos-related cancer.
The reason is that corporations, with full knowledge of the dangers made a deliberate decision to expose employees to asbestos containing products and those workers today are paying the ultimate price with their life. If you worked as a pipe fitter, steam fitter, changed brake pads, broiler maker, in construction or demolition trade chances are pretty good that you were exposed to asbestos.
One of the most serious forms of asbestos related cancer is known as Mesothelioma; which quite literally means "cancer of the mesothelium". Now the mesothelium is the lining of most of our internal organs and Mesothelioma can take several different forms.
The most common of these is known as "pleural" which is cancer of the lungs. It can also take the form of "peritoneal" which is a cancer affecting the internal lining of our abdomen or "pericardial" cancer which is cancer of the heart.
Regardless of the form, of Mesothelioma, if you have this disease, you are more likely than not exposed to asbestos.
There is a period of time, which is referred to latency period, that quite simply refers to the time you were exposed to asbestos and when you were diagnosed with Mesothelioma. That period of time can be between 20-40 years, because that is such a long time frame that presents special problems for us in determining when you were exposed and what products you were to. Even though the latency period is long the period of time between diagnoses to death is generally very, very short, which means we have to work fast with the time that we have.
Posted by: Tom Methvin, Esquire of www.beasleyallen.com Tom was the lead lawyer in a landmark predatory lending case involving a door-to-door sales and finance scam. The verdict of $581 million was the largest in the history of the state of Alabama at the time. As a result of this litigation, the defendant finance company quit these types of activities in the State of Alabama.
Tom was also co-counsel in other consumer fraud cases resulting in verdicts of 50 million, 45 million, 34.5 million, 25.4 million and 15 million. Tom has tried a total of thirteen cases that have resulted in verdicts in excess of one million dollars.
Since 1998, Tom has been the managing shareholder of the firm. He helped organize the firm into sections based on types of cases. This has allowed our lawyers to concentrate in certain areas and to be on the cutting edge in their field. He has helped Beasley, Allen become a national powerhouse in representing victims of wrongdoing.”
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: Trial Lawyer Resource Center, 20 November 2006
From the e-newsletter:
“**Leveraging Blogs, RSS, News Alerts and Different Search Engines to Expand Your Research http://www.llrx.com/features/expandresearch.pdf
Sabrina I. Pacifici outlines the techniques of a successful strategy and identifies a range of reliable resources that will contribute to the task of customizing your research objectives and maximizing results and services.
**Gadgets, Gadgets, Gadgets! http://www.llrx.com/features/gadgets06.ppt
Barbara Fullerton, Sabrina I. Pacifici and Aaron Schmidt's gadgets' presentation from Internet Librarian 2006 runs the gamet from the whimsical to cutting edge applications that facilitate accessibility, assist military personnel in Iraq, enhance training and presentations, and offer excellent holiday gift giving ideas as well.
**The Directorate of Legal Research at the Library of Congress: A Treasure Hidden Under a Bushel Basket http://www.llrx.com/features/lclegalresearch.htm
Michael Ravnitzky pulls back the curtain on a little known but extensive (his findings date back to 1915) and continuously updated source of topical comparative and international law reports, on subjects of public interest, produced each year by experts within the Library of Congress.
**E-Discovery Update - by Fios Inc.: Keeping Current with E-Discovery Law http://www.llrx.com/columns/fios11.htm
Conrad J. Jacoby discusses several items that should be at the top of every practitioner's list of e-discovery orientation activities, including carefully chosing educational activities that can increase an attorney's ability to successfully work through the e-discovery aspects of their clients' matters.
**The Government Domain: A Cornucopia of Government Search Engines http://www.llrx.com/columns/govdomain21.htm
Peggy Garvin's column compares and contrasts the features of FirstGov Search, Google Government Search and GovMine.
**Commentary: Mountaintop Removal Sites - "Strip Mining on Steroids"
http://www.llrx.com/extras/mountaintopremoval.htm
Beth Wellington's commentary delves into the complex history of this controversial mining operation, with background that highlights corporate and public interest positions, as well as relevant legislative history.
**Burney's Gadgets for Legal Pros - Reviews: Dragon Speaking Naturally 9 and Adobe Acrobat 8 http://www.llrx.com/columns/legaltech45.htm
Brett Burney reviews the improvements in voice-recognition software and recommends that attorneys consider the software as a complementary application to their current choices. In addition, he offers an overview of the new features in the latest version of Acrobat.
**LLRX Court Rules, Forms, and Dockets: the unique, free searchable database, maintained and continually updated by Margaret Berkland.
http://www.llrx.com/courtrules/
**LLRX.com Bookstore has new recommendations http://www.llrx.com/bookstore
Source: Pacifici, Sabrina. “New on LLRX.com for November 2006.” Copyright © LLRX TM, Law Library Resource Xchange, LLC. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://www.llrx.com/subscribe.htm>.
Blogs, Civil Liberties, Congress, E-Government, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, RSS
Posted by Sue Altmeyer: “The Ohio State Bar Association's program for appellate law certification has been accredited by the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on Certification of Attorneys as Specialists. Anyone interested in appellate law certification must apply by June 29, 2007. Applications will be available in January 2007. An exam will take place on Nov. 9, 2007. Source: Law & Fact Lite, Cuyahoga County Bar Association, Nov. 16, 2006.
For more details on the OSBA's certification programs see Specialization Program, an article available to OSBA members via the OSBA website. Besides a written exam, the attorney must aver that they spend a substantial amount of time in that practice area; must submit favorable references from other attorneys and judges; must have taken a required amount of CLE credits in that practice area; must continue to take CLE credits in that practice area and must show proof of liability insurance. For more information on the accreditation of specialist certification programs, go to the Commission on Certificatin of Attorneys as Specialists website.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Cleveland Law Library Weblog, 17 November 2006