INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
November 20, 2005
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #214 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 visit Inter Alia and fill out the subscription form -- it's free!
A new feature beginning this week: if you're interested in reading my posts on Inter Alia, but don't quite get this whole RSS thing, I've just made it easier for you -- you can subscribe to my posts via e-mail! Just head to the site and enter your e-mail address in the box on the left that says "Get Inter Alia by E-Mail!" Each day you'll receive an e-mail with my latest posts. Best of all, it's free! Give it a try.
Yahoo! Maps Catches Up
Well, it's about time -- Yahoo! Maps has finally caught up, sorta, to Google Maps. The interface is now a lot more interactive, and it integrates local search results, just like Google. Read more about the new services at Yahoo Enhances Maps, Integrates Local Search.Building Your Practice
This month, Law Practice Today focuses on providing better service to your clients. There are a lot of great articles in this issue, and of course Dennis Kennedy and I have another Strongest Links column, this one on Law Practice Management Blogs. Check it out.The best in legal blogs?
I noticed this last week, but haven't had a chance to comment on it -- PubSub has introduced a set of Community Lists that are designed to tell you "which sites to keep an eye on and which sites are leading the conversation from one day to the next." There are four lists available right now, and the Law List is one of them. It's updated every day, and it's based on the number of inbound and outbound links to your blog on any given day. I imagine it might be pretty easy to game the system by loading up on links on your blog, and getting all your friends to link to you -- but that's not as much fun as rising up the list without any help, right? There's also a PR List, Fashion List, and a Librarian List, as well.Blawgs of the Week(s)
Gee, after a week off, we've got a lot of law-related weblogs to cover. First up, Clay Conrad is a partner with the Houston firm of Looney & Conrad, and he's got a bit of a different background than most lawyers. He's "an old theatrical lighting engineer who went to law school, wrote a book about jury nullification, a few dozen articles, and have been studying the jury since 1993." He continues his interest in the jury at jurygeek. Here's another blawg from the Dallas-Fort Worth area -- it's the Fort Worth Bankruptcy Blog, coming to you from the Law Offices of John Saitis. The Brentwood, Tennessee firm of Branham & Day have another blog, this one covering issues of medical malpractice. As you might expect, it's titled the Tennessee Medical Malpractice Law Blog. The Subway Fold is "folding unfolding news in a limited space." As explained by Alan Rothman, its author, "it is an attempt to analogously gather, post and comment upon smaller samplings of news, trends, resources and connections therein across a range of topics in technology, science, law, business and media. However, no folding, crowding or ink smudges are involved here." Rothman is a non-practicing attorney and an MBA in New York who specializes in implementing and teaching law office technology. Professor Adam Kolber is blogging about high-minded things at the Neuroethics and Law Blog, which he describes as "an interdisciplinary forum for legal and ethical issues related to the brain and cognition." New York attorney Andrew Lavoott Bluestone handles quite a bit of legal malpractice cases, and he's blogging about those issues at his New York Attorney Malpractice Blog. And Michael Stevens is writing the Kentucky Law Blog, and as you might expect he's providing "eLegal Commentary on Kentucky Law -- Statutes, Laws, Regulations, Appeals, Trials, and more."The second week of blogs: Paducah, Kentucky lawyer Michael Odell Walker is publishing Kentucky Young Lawyers' News and Resources as a comprehensive, one-stop site resource for and about young lawyers in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. What? Another Branham and Day blog? It's true -- it's the Tennessee Business Litigation Law Blog. AZAPP has been around a long time -- since July of 2003, quietly blogging about civil cases in Arizona's appellate courts. It's published by the Phoenix firm of Osborn Maledon. The Shout: Opinions on Everything is the blog of Jennifer Granick, who is the Executive Director of the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society. Kevin A. Thompson is a Chicago lawyer practicing in the areas of Internet and computer law as well as trademarks, copyright, and commercial litigation. His blog Cyberlaw Central discusses the digital world, its impact and legal framework. Legal Redux is a group blog that "exists to discuss current legal issues and decisions, to form opinions about said issues and become more knowledgeable about these important events." Last but not least, here's a nifty niche blog -- The Patent Arcade deals with intellectual property protection of video games. It's edited by attorney Ross Dannenberg.
Caught in the 'Net
The Base is Open
Google continues its march toward complete Internet domination with the debut of Google Base. It's hard to describe this new site -- check out the official Google Blog post and Danny Sullivan's Google Base Live, Accepting Content for more. But basically it's designed so you can post certain types of content on the Web, for free.
Have an item to sell? Post it here. Job listings? You can post it (or them) here. Want to share your collection of cobbler recipes, or your movie reviews? Here and here. And of course, in time these items will all be searchable in Google's main index. Google Base won't be another eBay or Monster.com -- not for now, anyway. But it's definitely something to check out, and watch for greater things.
If you're using an inkjet printer, you may occasionally have problems with paper jams. It can be annoying, but a few simple steps can keep the paper flowing free:
Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet
First Amendment Center
Located at Vanderbilt University, the First Amendment Center is an educational organization designed to serve as a non-partisan source of information on First Amendment Issues. There are separate areas devoted to freedom of speech, the press, religious liberty, and assembly; each area contains answers to frequently asked questions, essays, news items, and other helpful information. There's a special online symposium going on right now dealing with Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito and First Amendment Issues.German Law Journal
This is one law journal that's not really associated with a law school. It's co-edited by Russell Miller (of the University of Idaho College of Law) and Peer Zumbansen (of Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto), and it seeks to provide a review of developments in German, European, and International jurisprudence. All articles back to 2000 are available free of charge online; there's even an e-mail notification when new issues are available. Recent articles include "Thoughts on a Methodology of European Constitutional Law" and "The Democratic Concept of the European Union."HBS Entrepreneurs
This video archive is hosted by the Harvard Business School, and it features the insights of members of the School's entrepreneurial community. You can view each interview in its entirety or just excerpts, and you can view the text of the interview as well. These speakers discuss their development as entrepreneurs, strategies for identifying opportunity, and leadership.List of Rare Diseases
Part of the Health on the Net Foundation site, this page lists rare diseases like Brown-Sequard Syndrome and Panniculitis. For each disease, you'll find a definition, web resources, images, news, scientific articles from MEDLINE, clinical trials, medical conferences, and the opportunity to refine your search further. Each disease displays information in five different languages -- English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese.Index of State Discovery Rules
This is just a page from the Atkinson-Baker Court Reporting web site, but it's very useful. You have access here to the discovery rules of all fifty states (to the extent they're online). A useful all-in-one page for your bookmarks.
Finally, some fun and useful sites to start off the week:
As holiday shopping season starts gearing up, it's not too early to be thinking to yourself: what new iPod accessory can I use, and who will get it for me? Fortunately, the folks at iLounge are thinking the same thing, and their 2005-2006 Holiday Buyers' Guide is a wonder to behold. It contains listings and reviews for just about every iPod accessory worth considering.
Just in time for the holidays: Amazon's Gift Organizer. Just plug in the names of the people to whom you give presents, and you can keep track of that person's gift history, view recommendations for new gifts, get birthday reminders, and more.
Well, that’s it for Issue #214 – 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 at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net, or visit Inter Alia and sign up there! If you no longer want to receive the newsletter, just click on the link at the bottom of this newsletter.
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 at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net.