Legal Research

Need cases or to Shepardize Them ? Use your iPhone

Posted on January 11, 2010
The iPhone app craze continues to expand. Now legal Apps are being added. LexisNexis has made it easier to get cases or to shepardize them. This LexisNexis iPhone App allows you to retrieve cases and Shepard?s reports right from your iPhone.  Anyone can download it for free at the App Store...

Reserved Open Carrels

Posted on January 11, 2010
The library has a limited number of reserved open carrels available for students writing their 30 page papers during the Spring semester. Students will also get a key to a study room to house library books being used for the writing project. The cost is $15 ($10 key deposit and $5 processing fee), $10 will [...

SC Supreme Court Adopts Rule 608 Changes

Posted on January 07, 2010
On December 17, 2009, the SC Supreme Court adopted Rule 608 Changes proposed by the SC Access to Justice Commission. The changes are attached to the court?s order. A timeline, the report filed by the Access to Justice Commission, and highlights of the amendments are available on their facebook page...

How to Research A Legal Problem: A Guide for Non-Lawyers

Posted on December 28, 2009
The Legal Information Services to the Public (LISP) Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) just completed its latest version of How to Research a Legal Problem: A Guide for Non-Lawyers. It?s available in PDF and Word formats from the LISP website...

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New Blog in Town

Posted on December 22, 2009
While reading the Small Firm Times newsletter inserted in the envelope containing my bar dues, two new resources for small firms in SC caught my attention. First, the new networking tool sponsored by the SC Bar’s Solo & Small Firm Section—the Solo and Small Firm Practice Area Directory...

Favorite Blawgs (Legal Blogs) of 2009

Posted on December 18, 2009
If you get bored over the holidays, check out the top blawgs of 2009. ABA Journal?s 3rd Annual Blawg 100 is available; and, if you register with ABA Journal.com, you can vote for your 10 favorite blawgs until 5pm CT on December 31st. Avvo, a website that rates lawyers and provides free legal advice, also recently released [...

Today in History: Enter the Simpsons

Posted on December 17, 2009
Happy Birthday, Bart!  And Lisa, and Marge, and Homer, and Maggie, and Santa’s Little Helper. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the premier of cartoon sitcom “The Simpsons.” Law and pop culture intersect frequently, and over the years The Simpsons have appeared in various contexts in the courtrooms of America – from knock-off t-shirts (Twentieth Century [...

?Texting? and common sense

Posted on December 15, 2009
Text messages have become a staple of communication, but there are drawbacks as well as benefits to this form of social media.  Rep. James Smith will prefile a bill today in the SC House of Representatives that would ban texting while driving.   According to the State newspaper, “Smith’s bill, …, is one of three new [...

Bills Pre-filed at the SC Statehouse

Posted on December 11, 2009
The 2010 legislative session of the SC General Assembly begins in January, but legislators in the SC House and Senate have begun pre-filing bills. To get a feel for the issues that will be a-buzz come next year at the statehouse, visit the Current Legislation page of the SC Statehouse website...

Free Full-text Online Law Review/Law Journal Search Engine

Posted on December 07, 2009
The ABA Legal Technology Resource Center has just launched a free full-text online law review/law journal search engine.  you can find it at:  http://www.abanet.org/tech/ltrc/lawreviewsearch.html .  The search engine  searches the free full-text of over 300 online law reviews and law journals, as well as document repositories hosting as well as document repositories hosting academic papers and [...

Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change

Posted on December 07, 2009
The Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change begins today in Denmark. The official web site of the conference is here.  Also known as COP 15, the summit brings together representatives of 192 nations of the world to negotiate a replacement treaty to the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change...

I Love My Librarian

Posted on December 04, 2009
Congratulations to Dwight McInvaill, South Carolina’s ’s first winner of the “I Love My Librarian Award” presented to ten librarians each year by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the New York Times. Visit the ALA’s website to read Mr...

Rats, Rabies, and Courtroom Theatrics: Old Case Makes Good Read

Posted on December 01, 2009
There are any number of things that one would assume people don’t have to be told, and here is an example: Curse words have no place in the courtroom. However, if we were in doubt, we can be cured and entertained by the fascinating case of Pingatore v...

ABA Launches Courts of Appeals Website

Posted on November 24, 2009
The ABA Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements has launched a new website designed to provide reporters, lawyers, educators, and the public with prompt, accurate, unbiased information about newsworthy and legally significant cases pending in and decided by the Federal Courts of Appeals...

Thanksgiving/Exam Hours

Posted on November 23, 2009
Tuesday, Nov.24 7am-9pm Wednesday, Nov.25 8am-5pm Thursday, Nov. 26 CLOSED Friday, Nov.27 1pm-9pm Saturday, Nov.28 9am-10pm Sunday, Nov.29 through Friday, Dec. 11: Sunday 9am-1am Monday – Thursday 7am-1am Friday 7am – Midnight Saturday 9am – [...

Human Rights Documentation Initiative at the University of Texas

Posted on November 22, 2009
The University of Texas Libraries have just launched a digital archive of human rights information from around the world, including primary source material, websites, photographs, video and audio files. Check out this amazing and important resource at http://lib...

EU selects its first President

Posted on November 20, 2009
The Council of the European Union selected its first President, Herman Van Rompuy, currently the Prime Minister of Belgium.  This new post was created by the Treaty of Lisbon which goes into effect on Dec. 1st of this year. Catherine Ashton from Great Britain will be the new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy...

Google Scholar is Expanding into Legal Information.

Posted on November 19, 2009
Google Scholar now has available  legal opinions and journals.  Currently the site  has made available all US Supreme Court opinions, Federal Appeals opinions since 1924, and many Federal District Court opinions.  There are also opinions from state courts included since 1950...

Nobelists ask Congress for Open Access to Federally Funded Research

Posted on November 13, 2009
Forty Nobel Prize-winning scientists in medicine, physics, and chemistry delivered a letter to Congress this week asking them to support the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009 (S.1373). Senate Bill  1373, introduced by Senators Lieberman and Cornyn, would, within six months of publication, provide online public access to peer-reviewed journals funded by eleven U...

Computer-based Testing: February 2010 Bar Exam

Posted on November 13, 2009
The Board of Law Examiners will allow a limited number of applicants to use laptops to complete their answers to the essay sections of the February 2010 Bar examination. One hundred applicants will be randomly selected from those applicants whose completed request to participate forms are received no later than November 23...

Affordable Health Care for America Act

Posted on November 11, 2009
The House passed H.R. 3962 on Saturday, November 7th with a vote of 220-215. Read more on The Hill blog. The text of all bills presented in the House and Senate are available on the Library of Congress’s THOMAS website. A favorite bill tracking website ( See H...

Veterans Day ? History

Posted on November 11, 2009
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009 is Veterans Day.  In 1919 President Woodrow Wilson first issued a proclamation recognizing veterans and marking the signing of the Armistice ending World War I.    For more history on this holiday, see this link at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs:  http://www1...

It?s Banned Books Week

Posted on October 01, 2009
Visit the American Library Association?s website for a list of frequently challenged books and court cases defending the freedom to read. You may also wish to check out the entertaining, yet informative Banned Books Video: Puppet Book Banners, featuring the Crash Pad puppets on ALA?s Office of Intellectual Freedom OIF Blog: Free People Read Freely...

Solomon Tenenbaum Lecture Tonight at 8pm

Posted on September 30, 2009
The 2009 Solomon-Tenenbaum Lecture “Global Vision:  Opening our Eyes to Injustice” will be presented by Ruth Messinger, President of the American Jewish World Service tonight at 8:00 p.m. at the University of South Carolina Law School Auditorium...

The Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign

Posted on September 29, 2009
The Cradle to Prison Pipeline refers to the unfortunate path of many minority children in the U.S. today. To learn more, attend the panel discussion at 7pm tonight at the Richland County Public Library?s Bostick Auditorium. If you miss tonight?s discussion, the SC Commission for Minority Affairs and the University of South Carolina is sponsoring “The [...

The U.S. Supreme Court?s Declining Docket

Posted on September 29, 2009
Scholars and other observers of the U.S. Supreme Court have noticed a decline in the number of cases being heard by the highest court of  the land over the last couple of decades.  A recent study by David R. Stras, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, examines how changes in the make-up of [...

Authenticated documents online from the GPO

Posted on September 28, 2009
For those of us with a particular fondness for authenticated documents, there’s cause to rejoice – courtesy of the Government Printing Office. Check out their official announcement of their new service: The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is pleased to announce that the List of CFR Sections Affected, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, and Daily [...

Brand-New Revision of SC?s Green Book

Posted on September 25, 2009
The second edition of A GUIDE TO SOUTH CAROLINA LEGAL RESEARCH AND CITATION arrived hot off the press on Tuesday, September 22. This beloved text is fondly known as the Green Book. In addition to citation examples to South Carolina materials both current and historical, it provides background information on the history, evolution, [...

The Scrivener: A Primer on Legal Writing, 3rd

Posted on September 25, 2009
Another exciting new release from the SC Bar is the third edition of The Scrivener: A Primer on Legal Writing, by our Professor Tom Haggard and attorney and adjunct instructor Elizabeth Scott Moise. For a complete description of the book, visit the SC Bar CLE Division?s Publication Store...

Cyber Law Website

Posted on September 21, 2009
If you are interested in keeping track of Cyber law and the leading cases in the area. Go to http://cyberlawcases.com/. The site has posts and commentary about the top ten leading cyber law issues and cases involved in litigation. It is a great place to keep current and also get links to the leading cases and [...

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