INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
May 21, 2006
Tom Mighell

Welcome to Issue #233 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!

News Update -- from the Inter Alia Weblog

Get the most out of Google Calendar
Have you tried out the new Google Calendar yet? If so, you might enjoy these Google Calendar Tips to help you get the most out of it. I'm still not using it because it's still lacking one major thing -- the inability to sync with other calendars. Still, it's one of the better calendar offerings out there, and knowing Google it's sure to improve.

Google Notebook goes live
As I mentioned last week, Google Notebook went live this week, and the response so far has been underwhelming. To take advantage of it, you have to download a small extension, so that you can add items to your notebook just by highlighting your selected text/images, right-clicking, and selecting Note This (Google Notebook). You can make your notebooks public, and you can also print your notebooks to use in other places. Google Notebook is very easy to use, but it doesn't have all the features I'd want from a web clipping application, like NetSnippets. I don't suppose it was designed to compete with a full-featured product like that, however -- it is free, after all. But it's still a pretty cool tool -- give it a try.

Blawgs of the Week
Here are some of the best law-related weblogs I featured on Inter Alia:

  • The D.C. firm of Regan, Halperin & Long are trial lawyers who represent injured victims in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. Their D.C. Metro Area Medical Malpractice Blog discusses such topics as cancer misdiagnosis, cerebral palsy, obstetrics, product liability and tort reform.
  • Michael White is the Patent Librarian -- he's blogging from Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and he's discussing facts, opinions, and myths about patent information.
  • The admissions office at Harvard Law School is blogging at the JD Admissions Blog. It's intended to "make the admissions process at Harvard Law School more transparent while providing a venue for those tips, nuggets and ideas that get lost in the wave of information greeting law school applicants."
  • For you Rhode Island lawyers out there, the Rhode Island Law Journal is brought to you by Eric Nicastro (Providence) and Jon Pincince (Wakefield), two Rhode Island lawyers.
  • The Moritz Law Library at Ohio State University is blogging away at the Moritz Legal Information Blog, providing legal information and research resources for law students and lawyers alike.
  • Christine Mingie is an attorney in the Vancouver office of Lang Michener. She practices sports and entertainment law, among other things, and her blog Gaming Law International discusses gaming law news from around the world, with a focus on Canadian law.
  • Womble Carlyle has another blog -- the Trade Secrets Blog is following trade secrets and trade secrets litigation, particularly in the southeast.

Help Desk

Here's a tip for those of you who like to put sounds or music into Powerpoint presentations. The trouble is, Powerpoint doesn't "embed" music in the file the same way it embeds an image -- so if you take your presentation and play it on another computer, the sound file likely didn't make the journey with the file. Here's how to change that:

  • Powerpoint *will* embed a sound file, if it's below a certain size. You can change this size limit by clicking Tools, then Options, then on the General tab increase the limit to a size that will accommodate your sound file.
  • Unfortunately, Powerpoint will only embed .wav files -- so if you want to play an MP3 or other sound file in your presentation, you'll still have to create a link to it.
  • If you are going to play your presentation on another computer, use the "Package for CD" option on the File menu. You can copy all of the files for your presentation to a CD, or to another folder. This will make sure that all of the files you are using are appropriately transferred to the new computer.

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

Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System
This is the main portal for Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas and Appellate Court information. There's a login for subscribers (for more in-depth information, I suppose), but the public can access Web docket sheets, local rules, and the county court calendar for free. The dockets sheets give basic information about cases -- you'll have to know a little about the case in order to search for it. And the County Court Calendars seem only to have 2 counties available at present, but they have PDF files of court activity.

MerckSource
Merck is a great resource for medical information, and most of the information is free. You can choose from Condition Guides, Health Centers, the Resource Library, Health Tools, and a section on You and Your Doctor. When you select a particular condition, you can be taken to a HealthMap, with helpful links on every stage of the condition -- from symptoms to diagnosis to treatment options.

West Virginia Vital Research Records
Here's a good site to keep in your bookmarks, just in case you need some West Virginia Records. Here you can search for birth, death, and marriage records, but only for certain years. Mostly you'll find older records here, but they are working to eventually place all the records online. Each record provides a JPG image to the relevant record.

EPA -- Mold
This is an interior page from the Environmental Protection Agency, covering an issue you don't hear about so much anymore -- mold. Here you'll have access to the Mold Course, a Web course on mole prevention and remediation. There's also a terrific page of Mold Resources, with an introduction to mold, basic cleanup tips, and information on floods, health, large buildings, and other topics.

ABA General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division
If you're a solo or small firm lawyer, you should already know all about this place. And if you don't, then get there in a hurry, because it's chock full of great information. To get to many of the resources you'll need to be a member of the section, but you can become a member of the great SoloSez e-mail list or view the most recent issue of GPSolo Magazine for free.

Finally, a few fun and useful sites to begin your week:

The LockerGnome community features a number of very knowledgeable people on issues of technology, computers, the Internet, and more -- and you can get their help at HelpShare, but you have to pay a little something for it. The good news is, you get to set the price yourself.

When you start playing Linez, be prepared to set aside some time -- you're going to need it.

Well, that’s it for Issue #233 – 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.

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Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net.

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