Miscellaneous

A New Research Service for Cases, Statutes

Posted on July 08, 2010
Promising a comprehensive legal research tool at an affordable price, a new legal research site, eLaw, launched yesterday.  Although the service provides access to case law and statutes for all 50 states, it is available only to attorneys in New York and New Jersey...

Are You a ?Lawyer? or an ?Attorney??

Posted on July 08, 2010
Somewhere along the line, I picked up the idea that a lawyer is always a “lawyer,” but should only be called an “attorney” in connection with representing a client. (“John went to law school and became a lawyer. He is now the attorney for an accused bank robber...

How to Find if an Attorney Has Been Disciplined

Posted on July 07, 2010
Had an e-mail this morning from someone trying to find out whether an attorney had ever been disbarred or disciplined. I knew that most states, including mine, now publish this information on the Web. But finding it isn’t always easy. Thus, I was happy to come across this FindLaw page, Researching Attorney Discipline...

Preview of Fastcase?s App for the iPad

Posted on July 06, 2010
As I said here last week, Fastcase is preparing to launch an iPad version of its popular iPhone app. The iPhone app, which I first previewed in January, last week was named 2010 New Product of the Year by the American Association of Law Libraries. Meanwhile, the iPad version of the app is ready to [...

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The Right of Free Access to Court Decisions

Posted on July 02, 2010
In 1886, the Supreme Judicial of Massachusetts ruled that, because every citizen is presumed to know the law, then every citizen should have free access to court opinions. See Massachusetts Law Updates for more.

Russian Courts to Begin Posting Rulings Online

Posted on July 02, 2010
When I traveled to Russia in 2007 and met with court officials there, some courts were experimenting with posting their decisions on the Web. Beginning this week, what was formerly the exception will become the rule, as most Russian court rulings will be published online in their entirety, The Moscow Times reports...

The Legal Issues of Blogs, Fair Use and Attribution

Posted on July 02, 2010
Bloggers rely heavily on maintstream news sources for topics. What obligation does a blogger have to give attribution to an original source? To what extent can a blogger use the content of a news story? We explore these and related issues with New York Times sports reporter Alan Schwarz this week on the legal-affairs podcast [...

Legal App Honored as Product of the Year

Posted on July 01, 2010
At least I can claim you read about it here first. The Fastcase iPhone app has been selected by the American Association of Law Libraries as 2010 New Product of the Year.  This is the app that lets you do full case law and statute research for free on your phone...

Welcome Phoenix Readers (Even if to the Wrong Blog)

Posted on July 01, 2010
The Phoenix is out today with media critic Dan Kennedy’s 13th Annual Muzzle Awards, honoring New England’s enemies of free speech and personal liberty. I’m honored that Dan credited me as a source. I want to point out, however, that he mistakenly says that my Media Law blog merged into this LawSites blog...

How Social Media Powers Legal Research

Posted on June 30, 2010
Here is a presentation I gave in April to the Law Librarians of New England, How Social Media Powers Legal Research. Clicking on the link will open an SWF file in a new window. Click the arrows or your mouse to move through the slides.

Folos: More on the MoFo App and Solo Practice U.

Posted on June 28, 2010
Follow-ups on a couple of items I previously blogged about: MoFo2Go. In March, I wrote about law firm Morrison & Foerster’s launch of its own iPhone app, called MoFo2Go. “This app will be most useful to lawyers, clients and others who regularly do business with MoFo,” I wrote at the time...

Mass. Court to be Test Pad for Blogs, Tweets

Posted on June 16, 2010
A courtroom in Quincy, Mass., will become a test kitchen for using new media to cover legal proceedings, thanks to a $250,000 Knight News Challenge grant announced today. The grant will go to Order in the Court 2.0, a project spearheaded by John Davidow, executive editor of new media at WBUR in Boston...

WIPO Launches Site to Simplify Access to IP Information

Posted on June 13, 2010
The Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization has launched a website designed to provide quick and easy access to international IP resources. Called WIPO Gold, the free resource provides a gateway to WIPO’s broad collection of searchable IP data and tools...

Getting Divorced? Now There are Apps Even for That

Posted on June 11, 2010
If you’re married to your iPhone but not so sure about your spouse, then DivorceApps.com may have just what you need. It is developing a series of iPhone apps designed for people who are considering or in the process of divorce. Two apps have been released so far...

Law.gov: Putting Primary Law in the Public Domain

Posted on June 11, 2010
Over the past six months, a series of workshops and symposia have explored the so-called Law.gov campaign, an effort to put all U.S. primary legal materials in the public domain. Next week, the series wraps up with a June 15 workshop sponsored by the Center for American Progress (which will be streamed live online) and [...

A Special Thanks to Justia for Rescuing my Blog

Posted on June 10, 2010
Many, many moons ago, from 1995 to 1999, I published the first-ever newsletter to cover the Internet for lawyers, legal.online. Every year, we doled out awards we called “Best of the Web for Lawyers.” The recipients of these awards were selected by panels of judges that included trailblazers in leading the legal profession online, including [...

How Long Does it Take to Write a Blog Post?

Posted on June 08, 2010
Scott Greenfield has deservedly earned a reputation as a straight-shooter. He calls ‘em as he sees ‘em and is never compelled to add varnish. When he sees lies or exaggerations by other bloggers, he is quick to call them on the carpet. But even Greenfield challenged credulity when he wrote in a recent post about blogging [...

An Encyclopedia of Judges and Courts

Posted on June 07, 2010
You might say that Judgepedia is the Wikipedia of the judiciary. It strives to be a comprehensive encyclopedic reference about America’s courts and judges. Like Wikipedia, its users are also its editors — anyone can register and then edit any article...

With My Blog?s Move, My Alexa Ranking is Confused

Posted on June 07, 2010
Scott Greenfield’s recent post about blogging,in which he notes that he had reached 4th on Avvo’s list of top legal blogs, got me wondering where I stood. It’s been over a year since I last checked, at which time this blog ranked #30...

Another iPhone App for Bar Exam Prep

Posted on June 02, 2010
In January, I wrote a post about BarMax CA, a full-fledged preparation course for the California bar exam, delivered entirely on the iPhone. Today, an Ohio company, Supreme Bar Review, announced a series of iPhone apps designed to help law school graduates prepare for the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE)...

Is ?American Needle? the Most Important Case in Sports?

Posted on June 01, 2010
This week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we discuss the Supreme Court’s May 24 opinion in American Needle v. NFL, which some are calling the most important legal ruling in sports. Joining us to flesh out the significance of this unanimous ruling are Marc Edelman, a sports lawyer and professor of sports and antitrust [...

My Review is Up of ?Solo Practice University?

Posted on June 01, 2010
Law.com today published my Law Technology News review of Solo Practice University, a website that offers a mix of practical legal-education courses and professional networking targeted at solo and small-firm lawyers. Here’s the summary of my opinion: Overall, I was impressed...

Former Blawger Named to Top 100 Business List

Posted on May 28, 2010
Fast Company has published its list of the 100 most creative people in business. One of those 100 people is Lisa Stone, who gave up writing a legal blog to found and run BlogHer, thereby earning her place on this list. BlogHer is a publishing and events network for women in social media...

The Lawyer Who Took Down West?s Copyright in Court Opinions Has Died

Posted on May 27, 2010
It now seems almost ludicrous. But until fairly recently, legal publishing giant West claimed that it owned the copyright to federal court decisions. I’m not talking about the headnotes West writes or the key numbering it adds, I’m talking about basic information such as the name of the case, the date of the case, the [...

Law Students Start Web Site for Law Students

Posted on May 27, 2010
I am a bit behind the curve in writing about The Law Street Journal, a Web site and blog created for law students by law students. Launched in January, the site aims to be a comprehensive resource for current and prospective law students. This website is geared towards the questions that can only get answered through [...

Lawyer Shutters Blog After Threat From Lexis

Posted on May 27, 2010
Until yesterday, the URL www.electronicdiscoveryblog.com led to a blog on e-discovery law written by lawyer W. Lawrence Wescott II. Today, that blog is gone. Wescott took it down after a lawyer from LexisNexis threatened legal action over a claimed unauthorized use of LexisNexis cases...

An iPhone App for IP Lawyers

Posted on May 26, 2010
Now intellectual property lawyers can search and file patents and trademarks, research IP law, and follow IP blogs, all from their iPhone. The new app, Apptorney: IP, released this week, is designed to provide easy access to a range of Internet resources commonly used by IP lawyers...

Carry the Supreme Court on Your iPhone

Posted on May 25, 2010
Here is the perfect app for the mobile Supreme Court scholar or for any student of constitutional law: PocketJustice. The app turns your iPhone into a portable repository of Supreme Court jurisprudence, with details about its decisions and its justices and even the audio of oral arguments...

?Meet the Bloggers? Event at INTA

Posted on May 25, 2010
I attended last night’s blogger meet-up at Lucky’s Lounge in Boston, held in conjunction with the INTA annual meeting currently underway here in Bean Town. John Welch posted a couple pictures of the event at The TTABlog. In the top photo, over on the left, I’m the guy with the silver hair...

Just in Time for INTA: A New Trademark Blog

Posted on May 23, 2010
With the International Trademark Association convening its annual meeting this week in Boston, what better time than now to launch a trademarks blog? The new blog is called Trademarks + Brands and it is being launched by the trademark research company CT Corsearch...

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