As a copyright lawyer, I sometimes wish there were a copyright version of Snopes.com—a Web site where non-experts could check to see whether the things they read online about copyright are true or just urban legends.
Read the full article by Brandon Butler, Director of Public Policy Initiatives, Association of Research Libraries, here.
OMAHA, Neb. —
Legal Aid of Nebraska serves thousands every year. Funds aren’t keeping up with the caseload, said the organization’s executive director. But a new self-help center could be a big part of the solution, he said.
Read the full article and watch the KETV video here.
Thanks to Cynthia Pittson, Pace Law Library, 5/20/2010, who compiled the changes. They can be found here.
This article explores the corner of the Internet landscape that concentrates on legal research. For the most part, these databases and search tools are free, although some might require a library card. Essentially, this is a short list of “go to” sites that most researchers will find useful. Before delving in, it might be worthwhile to examine a few time tested research concepts for the Internet age.
Principally, there are two goals of a search, either to find something that exists (based on a full or partial citation) or to construct something that needs to exist from related materials (subject search). The route and analysis may differ, but both approaches require the researcher to envision the end result, e.g., a court decision on point, a controlling statute or any combination of legal publications that support the remedy or relief being sought. So the assignment can be completed intellectually before the first mouse click. Internet searching, like all legal research, is simply an exercise in the mechanics of unearthing the hidden treasures of our imagination.
Read the full article here.
Baker, Daniel, Citations to Wikipedia in Law Reviews (December 18, 2009). U of Houston Law Center No. 2009-A-42. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1525619
Download the article here.
Every year, millions of people who can’t afford a lawyer find themselves in court, facing the potential loss of property, money, or even their children. LawHelp Interactive is a web-based document assembly program that helps pro se litigants — or volunteer attorneys — prepare needed legal documents.
Managed by New York-based Pro Bono Net, the software helps litigants, — as well as pro bono and legal aid attorneys seeking to help more people in less time — create complete, properly formatted legal documents.
Read the full article here.
Sept. 29, 2009 – A petition filed on Sept. 25 with the Wisconsin Supreme Court aims to extend the “diploma privilege” to graduates of all ABA-approved law schools or abolish it entirely.
Petitioner Steven Levine, a past State Bar of Wisconsin president, and 70 other State Bar members seek to amend SCR 40.03, which exempts from a bar examination requirement those graduates of an ABA-accredited law school whose curriculum includes the specific study of Wisconsin law. Among those State Bar members is Christopher Wiesmueller, the plaintiffs’ counsel in a federal class action lawsuit, Wiesmueller v. Kosobucki, 07-C-0211, challenging the constitutionality of the diploma privilege.
James A. Morrison, the chair of the Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners, criticized Levine’s petition for overlooking the bar exam’s public protection purpose. Whereas the Wisconsin Supreme Court ensures the competency of UW and Marquette graduates to practice law through its involvement with those schools’ curriculums, the bar exam screens graduates of less familiar schools, he said.
Read the rest of the article here.
The European e-Justice Portal is available here.
Cato senior fellow Walter Olsen says about Lohan: “She needs to be more careful in her legal research — too much time in bars and not enough in law libraries”
This was in response to Lohan’s assertions that her 90 days in jail were a violation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and she also made mention of the unfair nature of federal sentencing guidelines. Both legal concepts she mentioned had no relevance to her case.
Full article in the Washington Post
The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) has awarded its 2010 New Product of the Year Award to legal publisher Fastcase, Inc. for the company’s free legal research application for the iPhone. The Association will award the prize in Denver during the organization’s 103rd Annual Meeting this month.