INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
February 18, 2007
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #258 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
Time to Get Wiki-ed
The latest issue of Law Practice Today is up, and as always it's a great collection of articles on practice management, finance, marketing and technology. Dennis Kennedy and I have another edition of the Strongest Links up as well; this month we're covering Wikis For the Legal Profession. We include a number of links that help lawyers understand what wikis are and how they can be used in a law practice, along with a whole bunch of wiki sites to try out.Print Smarter and Save the Planet at the Same Time
Now here's an application that's smart in a number of different ways. GreenPrint is a downloadable utility that addresses the annoying problem of printing unwanted Web pages. How many times have you tried to print out an online article or blog post, only to find 2 or 3 (or more) pages print out at the end, showing only ads? GreenPrint solves that, by providing you with a Print Overview to help you decide what stays, and what goes. Only print out what you need, and save paper in the process.Schedule Your Meeting, the Web 2.0 Way
One thing I *hate* to do is try to schedule a meeting with a bunch of people by e-mail; I get back so many conflicting schedules, it's impossible to properly schedule the meeting, much less get any real work done. That's why sites like TimeToMeet are so cool -- just add the e-mail addresses of the people you're inviting to meet, click on the calendar to select a few times you're available, and click to Submit. Your meeting request heads out to your invitees, where they can view the calendar and show when they are likewise available. Soon, an ideal meeting time begins to take shape, and you haven't lost your productive work time while it was getting done.Tune in to your favorite legal podcast
Tim Stanley over at Justia has created a great tool for finding legal podcasts. It's Blawgs.fm, and it allows you to search for law-related podcasts, or browse a listing of the most recent recordings. You can also search for podcasts by category -- there are currently a good number of podcasts indexed. Check it out.The end of snail mail?
Well, probably not. But the folks at Remote Control Mail probably wouldn't mind if that happened if you stopped getting paper mail. They'll take your postal mail, scan it to PDF, and upload it to a secure site for you to review. There are business applications available, but I see this as more of a product for individuals -- as Remote Control Mail states, it's the "ultimate solution for P.O. Box holders, frequent travelers, RVers, frequent movers, multiple home owners, expatriates, and university students."Blawgs of the Week
Here are some of the great law-related blogs featured on Inter Alia the past two weeks:
- Tom Boone and Joshua Brauer are part of the IT and EIS departments at the Boyd School of Law at UNLV. They are co-writing Library Laws, which includes information on reference, technology, and the law, among other things.
- Susan Carter Liebel is a national consultant who is teaching lawyers how to create a build a solo law practice. Her blog, the appropriately-named Build a Solo Practice, LLC, is dedicated to helping you create and grow your legal practice, whether you're newly-minted or well-seasoned.
- The BC Law IPTF Blog is presented by the Intellectual Property & Technology Forum at Boston College Law School. The Forum is a legal publication dedicated to providing "rigorous, innovative scholarship, timely reporting, and ongoing discussion from the legal community concerning technology law and intellectual property."
- Marler Clark has another blog on food-borne illnesses -- this one is the generically-titled Food Poison Blog, featuring information and news on food poisoning.
- I'm a big fan of the Office, so I was tickled to find a law-related blog devoted to the show. The blog is called "that's what she said," and each post analyzes the past week's episode from a Human Resources, employment law, and risk management standpoint -- and assess a probable jury verdict had a lawsuit been brought because of the conduct depicted in that episode. It's written by Julie Elgar, a labor and employment attorney at Ford & Harrison on Atlanta. (thanks to ZiefBrief for the pointer!)
- Here's another blog from the prolific Law Professor Blogs Network -- it's the Mass Tort Litigation Blog, wherein its authors will endeavor to serve as a far-reaching reference for mass tort litigation resources from the web as well as provide timely updates on developments in mass tort litigation. It's brought to you by Byron Stier (Southwestern Law School) and Howard Erichson (Seton Hall Law School).
- Professor Michael Scott teaches at Southwestern School of Law in Los Angeles. At his weblog Singularity, his goal is to share his thoughts on the development of technology law — both in the legal practice as well as within the law school teaching community.
Help Desk
Another feature of Word that's both a help and a hindrance is AutoCorrect. One of its capabilities is to automatically capitalize the first letter of a sentence, which is usually nice. But sometimes you need a lower-case letter, and it's really a pain making it stick. Here's how to make Word behave.
Go to Tools and Select AutoCorrect Options. On the AutoCorrect tab, deselect Capitalize First Letter of Sentences, then click OK. That's it!
What if you have a word you usually abbreviate with a period, like ltd. or p.c.? AutoCorrect will capitalize the first word after an abbreviation with a period, unless you make that abbreviation an "exception." To prevent this from happening, go to AutoCorrect Options, click the Exceptions button, and enter the abbreviation in the Don't Capitalize After box. Click Add, then click OK twice.
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
HuriSearch
HuriSearch is a human rights search engine, and part of the HuriDocs human rights portal. It has indexed over 3,000 web sites and 2.3 million pages concentrating in the human rights area, and it's available in 6 languages. You can also take your search results and narrow them according to additional terms, or organizations providing the information. This is one of those great new search tools designed to focus on a specific vertical arena, and we should be taking advantage of these sites more often.Google Patents
Speaking of vertical search tools, Google Patents is a terrific example, a search engine specifically designed to locate patent information. Over 7 million patents are available. Just type in a few words (say, "toilet seat deodorizer"), and you'll get a list of possible matches. Once you click on a particular patent, you get a dedicated page from Google on the patent. It includes a summary and abstract of the patent, the specific patent claims, citations to other patents, and drawings. You can also search within the patent, or just head over to the US Patent/Trademark office to get it straight from the source.National Archives
Continuing my tour of federal government sites, the U.S. Archive is up next. You probably know what the National Archives does, but did you know that only 1%-3% of federal documents are so important for legal or historical reasons that they need to be kept forever? I didn't realize it was that small. To really get the most out of the Archives you'll have to visit one of the centers in person; although some records are online, it makes up a very small percentage of the documents available. However, there are number of great research guides, including materials on how to properly research the Archives.PatentLawPractice
Here's a law-related wiki Dennis and I didn't mention in the article above. Described as "a comprehensive, dynamically updated list of intellectual property resources," this wiki provides lists of IP links in a number of categories -- laws, cases, patent practice tools, IP weblogs, trademark overviews, Internet/E-Commerce law, journals, reference materials, and more.Society of Interventional Radiology
Interventional radiology is the practice of using x-rays, ultrasound, and other medical imaging to guide small instruments through blood vessels to treat disease through the skin. Although this site is primarily for the radiologists who are members of the Society, researchers can still find some useful information on the practice of IR, clinical practice guidelines, research, the JVIR Journal, among other things.
Okay, only fun stuff this week -- nothing helpful to see here:
Did you play video games in the 1980s? Does the mention of Donkey Kong, Mario Brothers, Galaxian, and Ms. Pacman bring a nostalgic tear to your eye? Check out this page of 1980 games, where you can relive those memories and actually play the games.
The Funny Farm puzzle is not easy -- you have to guess words related to work on a farm, and how they're related. Reserve a few hours before tackling this game.
Well, that’s it for Issue #258 – 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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