INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
January 15, 2006
Tom Mighell

Welcome to Issue #220 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!

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A correction: Last week I gave the wrong URL for the Outlook-voicemail site Waxmail. The correct URL is http://www.waxmail.biz.

News Update

We're a little light on the news this week -- I'll make up for it with more sites, below.

Blawgs of the Week
Yup, it's another helping of law-related weblogs for you to peruse. First up: Mark Beese is the marketing guy at Holland & Hart, and he's interested in helping lawyers become better leaders. That's why his blog is titled Leadership for Lawyers. Here's an international blog for you -- Oscar Quispe-Carbajal is located in Lima, Peru, and his Mercolex blog promotes the right of free competition, from a Peruvian perspective. West Virginia Senior Legal Aid is blogging in some vivid colors at Aging and Law in West Virginia, which discusses elder law and other issues. The Federal Crimes Blog is published by lawyers at McNabb Associates, a world-wide firm that exclusively practices federal criminal defense with an emphasis on white-collar and national security crimes. Opening the Door is the blog of a recent law school grad who took the bar exam in July, and has been working as a law clerk ever since. The folks over at JURIST aren't content to be one of the best legal news sites out there, nosiree. Bernard Hibbitts, the longtime Publisher and Editor in Chief, is blogging at the aptly-named Editor's Blog; he's highlighting what's new on the JURIST site and sharing his thoughts and views on legal news and resources. CrimLaw is the blog of Ken Lammers, a Virginia attorney. As you might expect, he's talking about matters of criminal law -- literally, in fact. He has a companion podcast called Lex Audio. Last but not least, the ZiefBrief features announcements, news and legal research tips and tools from the Dorraine Zief Law Library at the University of San Francisco.

Caught in the 'Net

New Stuff from Google!

Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Google announced two new offerings; neither of them spectacular, but they're still worth a look. The first was the release of the new Google Pack (http://pack.google.com/), a "free collection of essential software." The software included is

Gee, all that software, in one download? Pretty cool. There are two nice things about this new offering from Google (in addition to all the software, that is). First, the software installs and updates itself automatically -- so you never have to worry about installing new versions of these software titles again. Second, if you already have one or more of these titles (or you don't want to install one), you can select only those titles that you want to download.

I imagine that some people will be wary that Google is pushing itself further onto our computer with this new offering, but I can also see lots of computer makers rushing to make the Google Pack a pre-installed feature on their new PCs.

Google also announced additions to Google Video; you can now purchase video content for decently reasonable prices. In addition to full-length movies, NBA basketball games, and music videos, you can view episodes of the Brady Bunch, Charlie Rose, CSI, Ed Sullivan, Have Gun Will Travel, I Love Lucy, McGyver, NCIS, NOVA, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Survivor: Guatemala, and the Twilight Zone.

This is all well and good, and a great step forward for the distribution of video content on the Internet. I just wish the site itself were a little more, well, professional-looking. Google's traditional minimalism just doesn't seem to work here.

Help Desk

This week I've got not one, but TWO Word Annoyances for you, and how to fix them (sorry to all you WordPerfect users -- I just have a lot of Word tips, and I need to get rid of 'em):

  • When you type a web site or e-mail address in Word, you might be annoyed that it always turns your typing into an ugly blue hyperlink. Sometimes this is good; you might want others to be able to click on that link. But there's a way (two ways, actually) to turn that feature off, if you want. If you're using Word 2003 or XP, after you've typed the URL hover your mouse over it and a "Smart Tag" will appear; click on the arrow, and select Stop Automatically Creating Hyperlinks. You can also click Tools, then AutoCorrect (or AutoCorrect Options), then AutoFormat As You Type, then uncheck the box next to Internet and network paths with hyperlinks. Done!
  • Word is no WordPerfect when it comes to showing you your formatting, but you *can* see this formatting by clicking on the Paragraph button. Unfortunately, this also inserts loads of tiny, annoying dots wherever character spaces exist. It's a snap to fix Word so you see only the paragraph marks and tab characters. Just select Tools, then Options, then View, and check the boxes next to Paragraph marks and Tab Characters. Tired of seeing them? Just uncheck them.
Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me an e-mail at 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

Coalition for the International Criminal Court
The CICC is a "network of over 2,000 non-governmental organizations advocating for a fair, effective and independent International Criminal Court." Here you'll find information on the status of countries who have ratified various laws of the ICC, toolkits on how to assist in the ratification process, various documents from the ICC, several newsletters, and many more resources.

AgeRights.com
Maintained by the Tennessee firm of Crone and Mason, AgeRights aims to provide information about the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The offerings here are basic, but good -- there are Frequently Asked Questions on age discrimination, articles, case summaries of important employment law cases, and links to other employment law sites.

FindLaw Divorce and Family Law Center
FindLaw has revamped a lot of its pages over the past few months, and have made many of the resources easier to access. The Family Law Center provides helpful articles and resources on adoption, child custody, child support, divorce, marriage, and other family law issues. You can also search for a family lawyer for any zip code.

DuPont Legal Model
Back in 1992, DuPont must not have been happy with the quality of the services provided by its outside counsel; it developed a "comprehensive and integrated process that takes a business-focused and results-oriented approach to the law, and helps law firms and corporate law departments improve the quality, cost and efficiency of legal services." This site describes that process, and offers lots of articles and other resources to help out lawyers/companies interested in a different approach to the delivery of legal services.

Department of Labor Health Benefits Advisor
I have mentioned on more than one occasion how much I like the Department of Labor web site -- and here's another reason. The Health Benefits Advisor is designed to help workers and their families better understand employer-provided group health benefits and the laws that govern them. The information for families and individuals takes you through a series of menus, and ultimately provides you with information on your situation. There's also a page of applicable laws, regulations, publications, and related links.

End of Life/Palliative Education Resource Center
Hosted by the Medical College of Wisconsin, the purpose of EPERC is to share educational resource materials among health professional educators involved in palliative care education. But don't let that scare you away -- there's lots here for the legal researcher, too. The Fast Facts index features information in Clinical Interventions, Communication, Disease Categories, Ethics, Non-Pain Symptoms, Pain, and Terminal Care. There are also links to articles, Internet resources, and a monthly e-newsletter.

Finally, a few fun and useful sites to start off your week.

Some of you may have resolutions to get more things done around the house. Let the Do It Yourself home improvement site help with some of the details.

Try your luck unscrambling the words with Anagramania.

Well, that’s it for Issue #220 – 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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