INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
October 20, 2002
Tom MighellWelcome to Issue #86 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!
If you didn’t visit Inter Alia this week, you missed out on eleven stories (that’s 11, folks!) you aren’t reading in this issue. That’s 11 potentially very helpful computer or research tips (or fun stuff) for you to use! What are you waiting for?
And away we go…..
News Update
Political Candidates' Websites Go Stale
The Washington Post (free registration required) reports that Senate rules prohibit Senators up for re-election from updating their websites 60 days prior to the election, supposedly to prevent campaigning on government websites. The House of Representatives does not have this rule.Tricks you might not know about your search engine
Gary Price of The Virtual Acquisition Shelf and News Desk (among other things) has an excellent article on specialized features of search engines AllTheWeb, Alta Vista, and Google.What's next -- arrest by instant message?
The Justice Department is asking an appellate court to allow the use of faxed search warrants in criminal investigations.E-voting probably still a long way off
A computer science professor at Bryn Mawr University criticizes the current state of e-voting in this Guardian article, stating that the current systems that exist are recipes "for fraud and error." The article reports that unlike banking and airline sites, e-voting programs do not meet basic standards for security and verifiability -- there is no way voters can be sure that their votes are recorded, transmitted, and counted by the machine.A Primer on CD Briefing
Two lawyers from Bracewell & Patterson offer this article on CD-ROM: Briefing of the Future, presented at the State Bar of Texas' Advanced Civil Appellate Practice Course.Update: The Write Stuff
For most lawyers, writing is a big part of the job, and effective legal writing can often make the difference between a good and a great result for our clients. As important as writing is to our profession, it's amazing how poorly some lawyers write, not to mention how legalese weighs down many a legal brief. Last year I wrote an article in this space on Internet resources on legal writing, and thought it was a good time for a refresher. Whether you're a legal Shakespeare or your style is closer to Bulwer-Lytton, these sites provide great advice on improving your legal writing.
We'll begin as we did last time, with the nuts and bolts of writing --grammar and style. The long-time classic reference book for style is The Elements of Style, by William Strunk. Fortunately, you can find the whole text of this manual on the Bartleby website. The Bartleby site is also great for other style and usage reference materials, including items are the American Heritage Book of English Usage, Columbia Guide to Standard American English, as well as several older resources.
Another grammar site I mentioned last time is offered by Capitol Community College in Hartford, Connecticut. The Guide to Grammar and Writing offers help with Words and Sentences, Paragraphs, Essays and Research Papers, with quizzes and games to improve your writing style. Jack Lynch, an English professor at Rutgers University, offers a Guide to Grammar and Style. It hasn't been updated in a while, but it appears to offer some good grammar materials. If you don't mind the messiness of the page, check out "Common Errors in English" -- this page lists hundreds of commonly confused and misspelled words in the English language. Finally, Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) has a complete set of resources on grammar, punctuation, and spelling, but stick around this site for other great information. If you want to find more sites on the art of writing, check out the "Writing-Related Websites," "Web Writing Reference Sites," and "Writing Library" located on the Indispensable Writing Resources page.
Let's switch the focus and concentrate on our main topic, legal writing. Probably the best-known speaker/writer on legal writing in the country is Bryan Garner, who works right here in Dallas. Unfortunately, most of his great publications are only available in print, or through the seminars he gives on a regular basis. You can get a complete list of his books on his website, or You can practice on some of the writing exercises he presents in Legal Writing in Plain English.
Most of the other sites dealing with legal writing are maintained at law schools and universities. One such site is the Legal Writing Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving legal writing by providing a forum for discussion and scholarship about legal writing, analysis, and research. LWI seems directed more towards legal writing instructors; there are some impressive resources here for law school professors and other writing teachers.
Interestingly, if you click on "Web Sites for Legal Writing" on the LWI website, only one link shows up: Barger on Legal Writing. Coleen Barger is usually a professor at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock William H. Bowen School of law, although she's currently taking a sabbatical on the Calypso Poet. Although she's not available right now, her website on legal writing is always there for you to browse. She has links to appellate resources, courses in legal writing, legal research links, and writing resources. One of the best links provides a listing of other legal writing instructor pages on the Internet. Another great site is maintained by Wayne Schiess, a legal writing instruction at my alma mater, UT- Austin's School of Law. You'll want to visit his page of legal writing links and the "My Writing" page, which has articles on how to write to judges, to opposing counsel, and clients, among others.
Have you used a general or legal writing resource lately that you want to recommend? Drop me a line at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net and I'll post it in an upcoming issue!
Help Desk
An Internet Explorer tip you might not know about: while surfing the web, have you ever wanted to go back to a site you saw earlier, but hate clicking the Back button a thousand times? You don't have to. Just click the small Down arrow on IE's Back button, which opens a drop-down list of sites you visited most recently. It only lists the last ten or so sites you have seen, but if you click on the site at the bottom of the list, the next time you click on the Down arrow the NEXT 10 sites will be available.
Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me an tom(at)inter-alia(dot)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
Government Alerts and Current Awareness Services
Genie Tyburski, host of the amazing Virtual Chase, provides this listing of government services and listervs designed to either alert you when new information is available, or communicate with you on a regular basis. Included on this page are links to CDC mailing lists, the Federal Communication Commission's Daily Digest, Energy.gov e-mail alerts, HIPAA-Regs mailing list, subscription services for tax professionals, and more. If you want government information on a regular basis, this is a good place to start.Texas Local Rules
A site for my Texas readers -- and what a great site! The only thing you'll find on this page are links to local rules in the courts of Texas -- district, appellate, and federal. The list of 52 sets of local rules comprises those rules that are currently on the Internet. So simple, and yet so totally useful.Background Notes
Maintained by the Department of State, this pages contains lengthy briefings of the major countries of the world, which are updated on a regular basis as those reports are received from regional bureaus. Clicking on Estonia, which was updated in August 2002, took me to information on the country's geography, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, defense, foreign and U.S. relations, and travel/business. While the information may not be exhaustive in its scale, the data provided certainly rivals that contained in most encyclopedias.CMD First Source Building Codes
If you work in the municipal or construction law fields, this site may be a great help in searching for building codes. After you register for free, you can search for building codes or other information by city, county, or state. Unfortunately, most of the codes are not online -- the publishers of these codes have seen to that. However, there's still a lot of information to be found. I selected Garden Grove, California, and found information on the codes on which Garden Grove's building, structural, plumbing, mechanical, electrical, fire/safety, accessibility, energy, and elevator codes are based -- the energy and elevator codes are online. You'll also get the contact information for individuals in Garden Grove responsible for those particular areas. With other cities you'll get information and links on utility companies. This is a terrific place to start your building code research.eLexPortal
eLexPortal.com provides current information about variations across the EU in legislative and regulatory eCommerce matters as well as related areas such as privacy, VAT, on-line payments, consumer protection and intellectual property. You can obtain information on regulatory issues applied to businesses and processes for the entrepreneur, as well as frequently updated information on legislative and regulatory e-commerce matters. Registered users also have access to the eLexPortal online community as well as tutorials on various trade issues.
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Now for some fun and useful sites:Got your pumpkin yet? If so, you might want to visit Pumpkin Carving 101 for some tips on how to best carve your gourd. Learn the history of pumpkin carving, how to choose the right pumpkin, and how to extend the life of your pumpkin, among other things.
Halloween Online bills itself as "the Official Magazine for the Halloween Community." There's a Halloween Community? I had no idea.. Anyway, this site'spretty cool, offering articles on celebrating Halloween in different cities, tips on pet safety, and costume and makeup ideas.
Curious about the faith that most closely matches your belief? Try Belief-o-Matic at Belief.net, and learn more about yourself. My results were dead-on with my beliefs, although Belief.net also thought
I might be a Liberal Quaker.My favorite plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit are back, with Soccamatic, one of ten short "Cracking Contraption" films available for you to download.
Well, that’s it for Issue #86 – 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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Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net.