INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
November 18, 2001
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #48 of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, a newsletter that delivers relevant and timely legal research information, and other fun stuff, to your inbox every Sunday. If you like what you read, please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to do the same! To subscribe, all you have to do is send an e-mail to ilrw-subscribe@topica.com. It’s free!
I’ll be taking next week off for Thanksgiving – see you December 2!
And away we go…..
News Update
Teoma – I spoke too soon…
I reviewed the Teoma search service last week, only to find out THIS week that it has an old database (so does WISENut, which I’m reviewing in a few weeks). The technology is still good – the results are just not that current.While FAST Blazes On….
FAST, at http://www.alltheweb.com, is about to steal my heart away from Google. Its search results are getting better, but more important, it debuted a news search this week that is pretty close to real time. I did a search for “Kandahar,” and the first story was posted just an hour ago. Pretty cool.Put Your Search On Autopilot
Do you have an Internet search you perform regularly? Tired of doing that search all the time? Some search engines can be configured to send you an e-mail when new sites relevant to your search show up.Maporama
Sure, Mapquest and Mapblast are great for getting you around the United States. But what if you’re driving from Paris to Ankara, Turkey? Check out Maporama, which can get you there in 26 hours and 26 minutes.
Legal Research in the Centennial State
This month we head to the original home of my grandparents, Colorado. The Centennial State’s web presence isn’t incredibly sophisticated, but you can certainly find the legal resources you need from simple and easy to use websites. Let’s start!
As usual, first up is the Colorado state home page. On the left-hand side of the page you can find all the links to Colorado government, including legislature, courts, business, education, government, tourism, and more. There’s a nifty link to Online Services, which allow you to obtain forms, order publications, file your state income taxes, obtain birth/death certificates, and more. Or you can go straight to the birth/death certificate page. The governor’s page provides some personal information about Governor Bill Owens, along with access to executive orders and cabinet biographies. Links to all of Colorado’s Agencies and Departments are also easy to find. There's also a page on Colorado business information, which provides links to Colorado agencies that regulate business, statistics, and external links to Colorado businesses. Colorado also has an all-in-one page for finding registrations for the professions, from accountancy to veterinarians. Finally, if you’re looking for a phone number of a Colorado agency, department, or any Colorado-related government phone number, check out the Colorado Government Phone Directory.
On to the legislative branch. Colorado’s legislature is the General Assembly. It’s just as no-frills as the state government sites, but all the information you need is there; current bills, calendars, journals, committees, and contact information are all easily accessed. Colorado Statutes may be most easily found through the Colorado Statute Manager. You can also have Colorado laws sent to your computer, cell phone or PDA by email through a company called the Colorado Capitol Connection; I wasn’t able to learn much about this apparently fee-based service, because you’re required to call or e-mail for more information. However, if you’re in need of the most recent legislative information, this service may be worth a look. If instead you are looking for Colorado regulations, they can all be accessed from one page.
Colorado’s judicial websites are similar to the other branches of government: just the links, nothing fancy. The Colorado Supreme Court's website provides current case announcement information, as well as copies of all recent opinions. You can also find “e-slip” opinions provided by the Colorado Bar Association. The Colorado Court of Appeals is a mirror image of the Supreme Court site in terms of information available. Appellate opinions can be found on that site or through the Colorado Bar Association. There are 22 judicial districts in the state, and. information on ALL of Colorado’s state courts can be found at the Colorado Judiciary site. If you’re looking for federal courts, Colorado is a part of the Tenth Circuit, with one U.S. District and one U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The state even provides court forms approved by the state courts.
There are several websites available to Colorado lawyers, or other interested in information about Colorado law. The obvious first choice is the Colorado Bar Association. There you will want to review the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct and other Colorado ethics links. One interesting feature offered by the CBA are e-mail lists for lawyers around the state; the listservs are broken down into geographic areas of the state, or practice groups. The CBA also offers a monthly magazine for Colorado Lawyers, appropriately entitled The Colorado Lawyer. If you’re a member, you can access certain articles from the
journal. Another website for Colorado lawyers is Colorado LawyerNet, which provides web hosting and design services for lawyers, and also an online community for lawyers to talk and discuss current issues.From reviewing the sites in Colorado, I got the overwhelming sense that the individuals who designed these sites weren’t that concerned with dynamic presentations, instead preferring to provide just the links to the information we’re looking for. On that basis, Colorado has largely succeeded. If you’re aware of another Colorado site I should have mentioned here, drop me a line at tom@inter-alia.net.
Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet
Places Named
The front page for this site is almost completely bare – it just has an index of numbers and letters. Once you make a selection, however, you can get some pretty neat information. Places Named is just what it says – it’s a directory of place and people names. I looked for my name, Thomas – I found that it’s the 10th most popular male first name, and I also found that there are approximately 29 towns in the United States with that name. If you’re unfamiliar with a town and where it’s located, just search the index, and find out.United States Government Manual
Provided by the National Archives, the U.S. Government Manual is published each year, and provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. The Manual also includes information on quasi-official agencies, international organizations in which the United States participates, and boards, commissions, and committees. Documents are available in both text and PDF formats – I checked out the section for the EEOC, and found a listing of officials, field offices, and other helpful information. A great reference resource.Questia ($$)
Questia boasts the largest online collection of books and journal articles in the humanities and social sciences. This site was designed primarily for college students, but it offers useful resources to any researcher. For $9.95 a month, you have access to over 40,000 books and 25,000 journal articles.AdLaw
Provided by the law firm Hall, Dickler, Kent, & Wood, AdLaw claims to be the premier source of information on advertising and marketing law. Here you can find current news and case articles on advertising law, subscribe to AdLaw by Request, a free newsletter, and locate resource files in the online library. This is a great law firm site – it provides good content apart from selling its legal services.Center for Court Innovation
Located in New York, the Center for Court Innovation is a unique public-private partnership that promotes new thinking about how courts can solve difficult problems like addiction, quality-of-life crime, domestic violence, and child neglect. The Center is involved in the creation of “problem-solving courts,” encouraging courts to be more problem-solving and consumer oriented. Not much content here, but some good links to related websites. If you’re interested in court reform, this appears to be a serious effort.
Finally, some useful sites for you:
Butterball offers “Butterball University,” a weekly course on preparing the perfect Thanksgiving Turkey – it’s still not too late to catch up!
Cook’s Illustrated also provides tips at the aptly-named Turkey Help.
Last but not least, a non-Thanksgiving-related site. Have you been hearing a strange sound under your car’s hood? Head over to AutoSite, find your symptom, and they’ll do their best to diagnose your auto problem. This is a great site!
Well, that’s it for Issue #48– I hope you liked it! If you did, pass this along to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to subscribe. Also, feel free to drop me an e-mail any time if you have questions, or if you have websites or other topics you want included in a future issue.
Tom Mighell
Subscription Information: If you want to keep on receiving issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, send me an e-mail, or visit Inter Alia and sign up there! If you no longer want to receive the newsletter, just send me an e-mail and I'll remove you from the list.
Archives: Miss an issue? You can read previous issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly in the Archives.
Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail.