INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
April 28, 2002
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #68 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 out of town next weekend, so expect your next issue on May 12.
And away we go…..
News Update
Search Google by Date
Need your search to include pages from specific dates? Google can help, if you know how to search by Julian date format. I don’t have time to explain it here, but Tara Calashain explains it well in her ResearchBuzz newsletter.Don’t Know the Answer? Google Might
Another service introduced by Google since we last spoke is Google Answers, a service that allows users to ask Internet research questions to real live people, for a fee. This isn’t exactly the way I would like to see Google stretch its capabilities, but if you’re interested, give it a look.LexisOne Gets a Facelift
If you are ever in need of quick, free research, LexisOne is a good place to start. Designed for solo lawyers and small firms, the site nevertheless offers everyone a good set of basic (and free) Internet research tools. And as of Friday, it has a new look.IJury Means No More Cranky Jurors -- Maybe
Austin, Texas is trying out a new program that allows citizens to respond to a jury summons by going to a website and giving the dates they are available for jury duty.The TechnoLawyer Awards – Part 1
I’m going to step away from legal research for the next two issues to talk about other technology issues important to lawyers. For those of you who aren’t aware, there’s a terrific online community called the TechnoLawyer, for attorneys interested in how technology can enhance their practice. Right now, it’s pretty much an e-mail listserv; just head on over to the site and sign up for one (or more) of several interesting mailing lists. More in-depth subscription-based services are on the way; but for now, you should take advantage of the free technology advice given out by the members of this group.
On April 11, the TechnoLawyer Awards were presented in a cyberspace ceremony. There were 24 categories of awards, and over the next two issues I’d like to explore some of them. Perhaps you’ll find something to help you out in your law practice.
First up is the Favorite Accounting Solution award. Both the winner and the finalist are from the same company – Intuit. Quickbooks and Quicken (at http://www.quicken.com) were chosen as the two favorite accounting programs. For those of you in larger firms, this is probably of no use to you; however, if you’re looking for an accounting solution, I encourage you to look carefully at both of these products. I have been a faithful Quicken user at home for years now, and I think both of these titles are terrific programs for your accounting needs.
The next category is Favorite Case/Practice Management Solution. The product that won this award, Time Matters, was one of the big winners in this year’s awards. In addition to this category, Time Matters also won awards for Favorite Client Relationship Management Solution, Favorite Legal Tech Support, Favorite New Legal Software for 2001, Favorite Time Billing Solution, and Favorite Technorelease (whatever that means). Simply put, Time Matters is considered a great program by the TechnoLawyer community. There’s not a lot that this program doesn’t do – it features a client and contact manager, case and project management, phone call tracking, time billing, integrated legal research options, and a ton of other incredible features.
In the category of Favorite Document Assembly/Automation Solution, the winner was HotDocs.This program integrates with your word processor (Word or WordPerfect), and helps you save time in generating customized documents such as contracts, sales proposals, government and court forms, legal documents, loan applications, and medical forms, just to name a few. HotDocs also won the award for Favorite Legal Forms Solution, in conjunction with LexisNexis Automated Forms.
Although Time Matters might be the better choice for other reasons, Worldox won the award for Favorite Document Management Solution. If you need a new or better document management solution, you might give this one a try.
The next category up for award is Favorite Legal Knowledge Management Solution. Many of you may have cases with so much information, you just don’t know how to get your arms around all of it. One company that does a terrific job of helping solve this problem (and the TechnoLawyer award winner to boot) is Casesoft, at http://www.casesoft.com. Casesoft began its business with a product called CaseMap – this program allowed you to input all of the information about your case, and it would organize this information in a way that made it much easier for you to analyze the case and prepare for trial. Casesoft followed with several tools that enhance CaseMap. The first is TimeMap, which is a great program for creating chronologies as well as visuals of timelines important to your case. NoteMap also integrates with CaseMap, allowing you to create outlines of your case. The newest Casesoft product is TextMap (do you sense a theme here?), which allows you to link deposition and other transcripts to your CaseMap database. I have used CaseMap before, and it’s a great way to analyze and understand your cases.
The last award this week goes to Favorite Legal Research Tool. Not surprisingly, the winner was LexisNexis, and the runner-up was WestLaw.
In the next issue, we’ll discuss the remainder of the TechnoLawyer award winners. If you’d like to comment on one of the sites mentioned today, drop me a line at tmighell@swbell.net and I’ll mention it in an upcoming issue!
Help Desk
Is your computer performance sluggish? Maybe you’re taking advantage of too many special effects. To check out what effects your computer’s using, right click the desk-top, choose Properties, and click the Effects tab. Pick and choose those effects that you need, until you find the right balance of speed and attractiveness for you.
Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me a line at tmighell@swbell.net– I’ll post your question (don’t worry, I won’t use your real name) and try to get an answer for you!
Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet
Thomas Registry of European Manufacturers
If you’ve never used the Thomas Registry before, shame on you. The Thomas Registry of American Manufacturers is one of the great resources for finding just about everything you need to know regarding manufacturing companies in this country. Well, Thomas has expanded their database to Europe, and you can find just as much information here. Just enter the product you’re searching for, or the name of the company if you have it. I did a search for “plastic ball bearing” manufacturers, and came up with 9 European manufacturers of the product. Clicking on each manufacturer will get you contact information, the ability to request a quote from that company, and other useful information.Billed as having “Absolutely All of the World’s Embassies in a Searchable Database,” EmbassyWorld is a fantastic place to find information about embassies and consulates. Here you’ll find links to United States embassies worldwide, as well as information on the embassies of other countries. There are also resources on consulates of other countries in the United States. A great reference site for your Favorites folder.
This simply-designed site claims it’s “The #1 Directory of Canadian Legal Resources on the Internet.” I don’t know about that, but the site does offer some interesting tidbits. You can search by keyword, or browse by area of law or category (much better). These links will take you either to Internet resources on a particular area of law, or to a law firm that can help you in that area. There’s also a separate place to search for a Canadian attorney, if you’re looking for one.
Crossing the Bar is not a site for pole vaulters – rather, it aspires to be the Internet site for information and commentary on the subject of multi-jurisdictional practice. This site is rather elementary, but if you’re looking for MJP information, this is a great place to find it. The home page consists primarily of “What’s New,” including links to recent action by various states on the subject. You can also check out news archives dating back to January 2001, and interviews with multi-jurisdictional practice experts.
Fatal Injuries to Workers in the United States
A service of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, this site pretty much just contains two documents – statistics on data from over 93,000 fatal injuries to civilian workers from 1980-1995, from the National Traumatic Occupational Fatalities surveillance system. They’re designed to help develop prevention strategies so that future accidents don’t occur. A great (if limited) resource.
Now for some fun and useful stuff:It has been awhile since I’ve had any fun links for you to explore, but there are two this week. First up is for dart lovers out there – First to Zero allows you to play against the computer or against someone else. It’s a completely addicting dart game – watch out!
If picturing yourself in plastic is more your style, check out the Mini-Mizer. There you can mix and match Lego-type pieces to create the character of your choosing. Also a pleasurable waste of time.
Finally, a useful site. You may already know that keyboard shortcuts make many tedious computer tasks less painful. But are you aware of the thousands of shortcuts available to you? I thought not. If you’re using Microsoft products, you can learn the shortcuts for many of their programs – Excel, Internet Explorer, Outlook, Windows, and Word. The number of shortcuts at this site are overwhelming.
Well, that’s it for Issue #68 – 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
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