29 Wednesday Jun 2016
Posted in Legal Technology, Microsoft Office, Word
≈ Comments Off on Word Domination.
Dear Lawyers: It’s Not Word, It’s You, by Barron Henley, Lawyerist.com Blog
Here are two important facts about Microsoft Word:
Fact 1: 100% of the formatting problems you’ve experienced when drafting new documents can be completely avoided before they occur.
Fact 2: When editing a document someone else drafted, any formatting glitches can be resolved in just a few clicks, no matter how bad of a mess it is.
Unfortunately, the foregoing facts are true only if you have mastered Word.
25 Saturday Jun 2016
Posted in Appellate Law, Constitutional Law, United States Supreme Court
≈ Comments Off on “The Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History”
The Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History, by Ken Gormley
If you are interested in constitutional law, I highly recommend this book. It was published in May, 2016, and can be found in your public library or ordered from any book store. It is an interesting discussion of presidential decisions or actions and the constitutional implications.
Here is just one example. If you grew up during the time of Watergate, you may find this particularly interesting. Like most people, I had always assumed that President Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon gave Nixon a “get out of jail free” card. My guess is that this decision caused Ford the election to his first full term as President.
When the author interviewed Gerald Ford for the book, of course Nixon’s pardon came up. Ford said that he had asked a young lawyer, Denton Decker, to research all the nuances and possible issues that might occur if Ford were to pardon Nixon. The idea of pardoning Nixon was very unpopular. Ford wanted to know what possible precedent and repercussions a pardon might mean.
Decker finds Burdick v. United States, 236 U.S. 79 (1915). Burdick holds that, if one accepts a pardon, it is an admission of guilt.
Ford sent Decker to San Clemente to Nixon’s home to present the offer of a pardon to Nixon and Nixon’s lawyer. Decker gave Nixon a Miranda warning and told him that, if Nixon accepted a pardon, it would be an admission of guilt. Nixon at first didn’t want to accept the pardon because he understood what it meant. Another issue on the table at the same time was the creation of a presidential library for Nixon’s papers, which the author says Nixon badly wanted. After first resisting, Nixon decided to take the pardon.
When Ford pardoned Nixon, he thought he had given the public exactly what it wanted. Instead, it was seen as letting Nixon off, even though Nixon was obviously guilty. When interviewed by Mr. Gormley for this book, Ford was still frustrated that the public had never seemed to understand that, by accepting a pardon, Nixon admitted his guilt.
An interesting piece of history and a good read. -CCE
19 Sunday Jun 2016
Posted in Contract Law, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, Persuasive Writing
≈ Comments Off on Tell Your Client’s Story With A Good Narrative.
Tags
Karen Sneddon, Legal Skills Prof Blog, Legal Writing, Louis J. Sirico Jr., Narrative Techniques, Oklahoma Law Review, Susan Chesler
Using Narrative in Transactional Documents, by Louis J. Sirico, Jr., Legal Skills Prof Blog
Susan Chesler and Karen Sneddon have written a very interesting article on including narrative in transactional documents. Once Upon a Transaction: Narrative Techniques and Drafting, 68 Oklahoma Law Review No. 2 (2016).
Here is the introduction: A granddaughter joins the family business as a partner. An entrepreneur licenses his newest product. Two parties decide to settle a dispute. A charitable idea materializes as a private foundation. A parent’s belief in the power of education is perpetuated by a trust agreement. Each of these events forms a narrative. A transaction is more than the scratch of pens across signature pages or the click of keys to email an executed document. A transaction is itself a story.
19 Sunday Jun 2016
Posted in Abbreviations, Contract Law, Legal Writing
≈ Comments Off on Using Abbreviations and Definitions in Legal Writing.
Don’t Use Definition-First Autonomous Definitions, by Ken Adams, Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
http://www.adamsdrafting.com/dont-use-definition-first-autonomous-definitions/
Ken Adams provides excellent examples of how to use an abbreviations and definitions. Use this for contracts, but keep in mind that it also works in pleadings, motions, discovery, etc.
When you use abbreviations and definitions for a person, a law, an event, or contract, it makes your writing tighter and more concise. It makes sense to abbreviate lengthy names, but take which definition you pick. While striving for a way to make your writing less wordy, don’t let the abbreviation or definition de-humanize your client or overly sanitize your client’s case. -CCE
12 Sunday Jun 2016
Posted in Dictionary, Glossaries, Grammar, Punctuation, Quotations, References, Research, Style Manuals, Thesaurus
≈ Comments Off on Reference, Facts, News, Search Engines, Email, and More. Easy Peasy.
Refdesk.com – Fact Checker for the Internet
Refdesk.com has been around a long time. If you have never seen it or used it, please give me the honor of making the introductions.
Go the home page: http://www.refdesk.com. There is a lot to absorb. Take your time. Scroll down the page, and check it out.
Bothered by the ads popping up on the page? There is an easy fix. Support Refdesk. Contribute $25, and Refdesk is add free for a year. No, you don’t have to contribute $25. You don’t have to contribute at all. But, if you want to use Refdesk frequently, I encourage you to contribute something.
If you are like me, you do not want to keep scrolling to find what you want to see – you simply want to get there. Go to the top of the website, and look to the right. You will see three search tools: (1) Check Email; (2) Quick Links; and (3) Reference Desk. Right away, you can see that this has potential as home page.
I want to look up grammar and punctuation rules. Go to Reference Desk, click the down arrow, and choose “Grammar/Style.” That’s a nice assortment of writing guides, but not exactly what I want. I’m looking for The Elements of Style. Click on More at the bottom of the page. There it is.
You have seen one small example of the information this site can give you. I leave it to you to seek out the rest. -CCE
09 Thursday Jun 2016
Posted in Appellate Judges, Appellate Law, Citations, Federal Judges, Judges, Legal Analysis, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, The Bluebook
≈ Comments Off on Posner Asks What is Obviously Wrong with the Federal Judiciary. Is This A Trick Question?
What Is Obviously Wrong With The Federal Judiciary, Yet Eminently Curable, Part I, by Richard Posner, 188 19 GREEN BAG 2D 187 (with hat tip to William P. Statsky) (The Green Bag is Quarterly Legal Journal dedicating to good legal writing, supported in part by the George Mason University School of Law)
http://www.greenbag.org/v19n2/v19n2_articles_posner.pdf
If you’re looking for a good Bluebook bashing, here it is. -CCE
At the level of form, the first thing to do is burn all copies of the Bluebook, in its latest edition 560 pages of rubbish, a terrible time waster for law clerks employed by judges who insist as many do that the citations in their opinions conform to the Bluebook; also for students at the Yale Law School who aspire to be selected for the staff of the Yale Law Journal – they must pass a five-hour exam on the Bluebook. Yet no serious reader pays attention to citation format; all the reader cares about is that the citation enable him or her to find the cited material. Just by reading judicial opinions law students learn how to cite cases, statutes, books, and articles; they don’t need a citation treatise. In the office manual that I give my law clerks only two pages are devoted to citation format. [Footnotes omitted; emphasis added.]
03 Friday Jun 2016
Posted in Brief Writing, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, Legalese, Persuasive Writing, Readability
≈ Comments Off on What’s It Like In Your Judge’s Shoes?
Tags
Legal Skills Prof Blog, Legal Writing, Louis J. Sirico Jr., Persuasive Writing, Sherri Lee Keene
Advice on Writing to Persuade the Court, by Louis J. Sirico, Jr., Legal Skills Prof Blog (with hat tip to William P. Statsky)
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_skills/2016/06/advice-on-writing-to-persuade-the-court.html
In her article, Standing in the Judge’s Shoes: Exploring Techniques to Help Legal Writers More Fully Address the Needs of Their Audience, Sherri Lee Keene argues that lawyers writing as advocates need to place themselves in the shoes of the judges whom they seek to persuade. Of course, this is not new advice. What is helpful here is her advice on how to do it.
30 Monday May 2016
Posted in Administrative Law, Federal Law, Law Libraries, Library of Congress, Research
≈ Comments Off on “How To” Research Administrative Law.
Tags
Administrative Law, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register, Legal Reseearch, U.S. Government Manual
How many people like to research the Code of Federal Regulations? Hands? I thought so. You are not alone. Actually, it’s not as hard as it looks.
Here is a tutorial and some great posts by law librarians that de-mystify researching this area of law. -CCE
Administrative Law Research Tutorial, Georgetown Law Library
https://www.law.georgetown.edu/library/research/tutorials/admin/
Administrative Law Research Guide, Georgetown Law Library
http://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/adminlaw
Administrative and Regulatory Law Research Guide, Harvard Law School Library (last updated by Claire DeMarco)
http://guides.library.harvard.edu/administrative
Administrative Law, Library School of Law, Loyola University of Chicago
http://lawlibguides.luc.edu/content.php?pid=128348&sid=1101470
Administrative Law Guide: Introduction, C|M|LAW Library
http://guides.law.csuohio.edu/adminlaw
Federal Administrative Law, Duke Law, Goodson Law Library
26 Thursday May 2016
Posted in Contract Law, Corporate Law, Grammar, Legal Analysis, Legal Writing
≈ Comments Off on The Proper Use and Interpretation of “Shall” and “Will.”
Tags
Contract Writing, Elizabeth Ruiz Frost, Grammar, Legal Writing, Oregon State Bar Bulletin (February/March), Use of "Shall" and "Will"
The Legal Writer – The Problem with Shall, by Elizabeth Ruiz Frost, Oregon State Bar Bulletin (February/March)
https://www.osbar.org/publications/bulletin/12febmar/legalwriter.html
When we draft legal documents for our clients, we aim to articulate who can do what and when. Those rights and obligations are established through words of authority. But in legal writing, inconsistent use and interpretation of some words of authority can create ambiguity in our documents.
The word shall can be particularly troublesome. Drafters often use shall in place of other words like does, will, should, might or may. If we use shall sometimes to connote a mandatory term, at other times to connote a discretionary term, and once in a while to connote a future event, how can a reader accurately determine our intent? When a word of authority is used inconsistently, courts are left to determine the word’s meaning. To avoid squabbles over ambiguous terms, think through each word of authority that you write and use these words consistently.
24 Tuesday May 2016
Posted in Evidence, Intellectual Property, Research, Rule 901, Wayback Machine
≈ Comments Off on Using the Wayback Machine To Authenticate Evidence.
Tags
CMLaw Library Blog, Evidence, Internet Archive, Research, Rule 901, Wayback Machine, William P. Statsky
Wayback Machine Builds Reputation with Judiciary, by CMLaw Library Blog (with hat tip to William P. Statsky)
http://cmlawlibraryblog.classcaster.net/2016/05/12/wayback-machine-builds-reputation-with-judiciary/
What is the Wayback Machine? It’s been around since 2001. It is a mega-archive of websites. If you are a serious researcher, it is worth your time to learn how to use it. It is more than just a trip down nostalgia lane. You can easily find blog posts, articles, and videos that will give you an in-depth explanation on the Wayback Machine’s creation and what it does.
I like this post because it is the first illustration I’ve seen in which someone used the Wayback Machine as persuasive evidence in court. Thanks, Bill! -CCE
An April 2016 decision from the District of Kansas has given judicial notice to information contained in screenshots from the Wayback Machine. The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine preserves images of websites as they appeared at particular points in time. In the case at hand, Marten Transport, Ltd. v. PlattForm Advertising Inc., (D. Kan., Case No. 14-2464-JWL, 4/29/16), Marten sued PlattForm for infringement, alleging that PlattForm had continued to display Marten’s logo on PlattForm’s website after the two had stopped doing business together.
The court determined that testimony from an employee of the Internet Archive concerning the screenshots showing PlattForm’s website at the time in question was enough to meet the standards in Federal Rules of Evidence, Rule 901.
22 Sunday May 2016
Posted in Contract Law, Corporate Law, Grammar, Legal Writing, Punctuation, Readability
≈ Comments Off on How To Use “That” and “Which,” And Why You Should Care.
Tags
Better Writing Skills, Contract Writing, Grammar, Legal Writing, That, Which, Writing Resources From Scribe Consulting
Using That and Which Correctly, Better Writing Skills, Writing Resources From Scribe Consulting
http://www.betterwritingskills.com/tip-w022.html
An easy-to-understand example of the difference between “that” and “which” and why, in legal and business writing, it is important to use each correctly. It also provides an excellent example of how grammar and punctuation mistakes can dramatically change the meaning of your document. -CCE
For more writing tips on common grammar errors, go to http://www.betterwritingskills.com/writing-tips.html.
22 Sunday May 2016
Posted in Bad Legal Writing, Editing, Legal Writing, Legalese, Plain Language
≈ Comments Off on Russ Guberman’s Six Editing Tips.
No Thanks: Six More Words and Phrases to Avoid, by Russ Guberman
http://legalwritingpro.com/blog/no-thanks-six-more-words-and-phrases-to-avoid/#comment-91
Small wording changes can liven up your style by speeding up and punching up your prose.
Let’s match wits with some of the world’s best judicial writers below. Or is that ‘with certain of the world’s most illustrious judicial draftspersons infra’?
The Rules of Engagement: If a word or phrase is bolded in the first part of each set, the big guns didn’t write it. For each of those bolded terms, think of a lighter or shorter replacement before you peek below.
21 Saturday May 2016
Posted in Bad Legal Writing, Editing, Grammar, Legal Writing, Legalese, Persuasive Writing, Punctuation, Readability
≈ Comments Off on Just Really Good Legal Writing.
How To Write Good Legal Stuff, by Eugene Volokh and J. Alexander Tanford, Maurer School of Law© 2001, 2009
http://law.indiana.edu/instruction/tanford/web/reference/how2writegood.pdf
This is a guide to good legal writing. Good writing consists of avoiding common clunkers and using simpler replacements. The replacements aren’t always perfect synonyms but 90% of the time they’re better than the original. Warning: Some changes also require grammatical twiddling of other parts of the sentence. This is not a guide to proper high English usage. We don’t give two hoots whether you dangle participles, split infinitives or end sentences with prepositions. We care that you can write clearly.
15 Sunday May 2016
Posted in Congress.gov, Government, Research, THOMAS
≈ Comments Off on Say Goodbye to THOMAS.
Tags
Andrew Weber, Congress.gov, Government, In Custodia Legis, Law Librarians of Congress, Research, THOMAS
Time to Turn off THOMAS: July 5, 2016, by Andrew Weber, In Custodia Legis, Law Librarians of Congress
http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2016/04/time-to-turn-off-thomas-july-5-2016/?loclr=ealln
THOMAS appeared online on January 5, 1995: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/1995/95-002.html?loclr=bloglaw.
THOMAS will be retired on July 5, 2016, and replaced by Congress.gov, which was always the intent when Congress.gov came online in September, 2012. Congress.gov was designed to replace THOMAS, and it has features that THOMAS did not, and never could, have.
You can find all posts at www.researchingparalegal.com about the additions and improvements made to Congress.gov since its inception here:
https://researchingparalegal.com//?s=congress.gov&search=Go.
Please take a NEW long look at Congress.gov here: https://www.congress.gov/. There is much, much more to see. -CCE
14 Saturday May 2016
Posted in Litigation, Personal Injury, Probate and Trusts, Product Liability, Special Needs Trust, Trusts
≈ Comments Off on Another Use For A Special Needs Trust.
Using a Special Needs Trust in the Settlement of a Product Liability Lawsuit, by Thomas M. DeMicco (NY Metro) and Phil Quaranta (NY Metro), Product Liability Advocate Blog
Product liability cases frequently involve severe and even catastrophic injuries. As a result, product liability defense counsel and insurance adjusters must be familiar with the prospects for use of a special needs trust as a potential tool in the settlement of severe injury cases. Special needs trusts are frequently proposed as a component of the settlement of severe injury cases.
The purposes of the special needs trust are to allow a severely injured plaintiff to continue to receive social security benefits and to be protected from lien holders.
12 Thursday May 2016
Posted in Appellate Law, Appellate Writing, Legal Writing
≈ Comments Off on Judges Quote Yoda.
Galactic Disputes: Judges Channel the Wisdom of Star Wars, by Anna Massoglia, Lawyerist.com©
Making legal jargon understandable to the general masses is a big job. Some more creative judges think outside of the box to get their point across through pop culture references. With all of the hype surrounding Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it should come as no surprise that Star Wars references are seeping into judicial opinions.
10 Tuesday May 2016
Posted in Law Office Management, Management, Paralegals/Legal Assistants
≈ Comments Off on Yep – Just A Paralegal.
“Just” a Paralegal? by Christopher Beck, California Bar Journal (May 2016)(with hat tip to William P. Statsky)
http://calbarjournal.com/May2016/Opinion/ChristopherBeckCYLA.aspx
[I] remember something very intelligent and profound that my professor said during this first day: ‘One day you’ll be out in the world working at a law office, big or small, government or private. And on that first day you will have absolutely no idea what you are doing. To make it worse, no other associate will help you. The best advice I can give you is this: Be nice to the paralegals. They know more than you think, often as much as the lawyers, and they have been at the firm longer. If you want to survive, befriend them.’
08 Sunday May 2016
Posted in Appellate Writing, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, Legalese, Persuasive Writing, Plain Language
≈ Comments Off on Another Legal Writing Honey Pot
Tags
Bryan A. Garner, Legal Writing, The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, U.S. Supreme Court Justices
Transcripts of Bryan Garner’s Transcripts With Supreme Court Justices On Legal Writing And Advocacy, THE SCRIBES JOURNAL OF LEGAL WRITING©
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/files/garner-transcripts-1.pdf
If you had to pick just one edition of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, which would be an incredibly hard thing to do, this is certainly one I would strongly recommend. Bryan Garner’s interviews with Supreme Court Justices on legal writing! Does it get any better than this? If you are a legal writing aficionado, or even if you’re not, you’ll appreciate the wisdom here. -CCE
01 Sunday May 2016
Posted in ALWD, Citations, Legal Writing, Public Domain Citations, Research, The Bluebook, Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act, Westlaw
≈ Comments Off on Westlaw Poses Another Challenge To The Bluebook.
Tags
George Mason Law & Economics, Journal of Law: Periodical Laboratory of Legal Scholarship, Legal Citations, Ross Davies, The Bluebook, Westlaw
Journal of Law: Periodical Laboratory of Legal Scholarship, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 483-486, 2012 , by Ross Davies, George Mason University School of Law; The Green Bag (with hat tip from William P. Statsky)
Lately The Bluebook has been under siege. It has survived the long ago challenge of the ALWD Citator. It has a new challenger, Malamud’s public source Indigo Book. Now it faces another quandary. Will it adjust or is it on its way to becoming obsolete? -CCE
Excerpt from Abstract:
[W]estlaw and its competitors cannot afford to conform to the Bluebook’s system when it conflicts with the requirements of their databases for, among other things, unique and recognizable abbreviations of the names of publications. And given a choice between following Bluebook form and following Westlaw form, readers and publishers are likely to follow Westlaw because that is where readers are doing more of their reading and publishers’ products are getting read.
30 Saturday Apr 2016
Posted in Attorney Discipline, Legal Ethics, Social Media, Supervising Support Staff
≈ Comments Off on New Jersey Lawyers Use Paralegal to Spy on Facebook and Cross the Ethical Line.
NJ Lawyers Get Sanctioned for Facebook Spying, by Jonathan R. Tung, Esq., Strategist, The FindLaw Law Firm Business Blog (with hat tip to William P. Statsky)
When news came out that two New Jersey defense attorneys had spied on a plaintiff through Facebook, there was obvious buzz within the legal community over bright-line rules and attorney ethics. Just what qualifies as an ‘unauthorized’ communication? Lawyers should always take steps to tread carefully in these ‘novel ethical issues.’ First impression or not, you don’t want to end up being the poster child.
23 Saturday Apr 2016
Posted in Citations, Legal Writing, The Bluebook
≈ Comments Off on Will The Indigo Book Become The Accepted Legal Citator And Replace The Bluebook?
Update on the Baby Bluebook, by Barco 2.0 : Law Library Reference, University of Pittsburg School of Law (with hat tip to William P. Statsky!)
Carl Malamud has introduced the Harvard Law Review Association to The Indigo Book, An Open and Compatible Implementation of A Uniform System of Citation.
For years, I have used The Bluebook as my bible for legal citation. During the years I taught Bluebook citations, I saw The Bluebook come out with new editions many, many times. It was frustrating when the new edition changed the rule about whether you used a comma after a signal or some other arbitrary change. Not only frustrating, but hard to explain the reason for the revision to students.
There have been several major events that gave The Bluebook a genuine reasons to come out with a new edition. States, like Oklahoma, adopted a “public domain” citations. The Internet became a legal research tool. Still, there were times it seemed that The Bluebook’s interpretation was unnecessarily complicated.
The ALWD Citation Manual was created to improve legal citation standards. It was also updated periodically when needed. Until now, The Bluebook and the ALWD Citation Manual were the mainstream acceptable go to” sources for legal citation.
The Bluebook began receiving more criticism for its new editions. Were the changes necessary or a way to create more revenue for the publishers? Hard to say for many but not for Carl Malamud. It will be interesting to see how The Indigo Book is received by legal educators and legal professionals. -CCE
23 Saturday Apr 2016
Posted in Apple, Cell Phones, iPhones, Legal Technology
≈ Comments Off on Who Needs Apple’s Help To Unlock Their iPhone?
Feds (Once Again) Gain Access to iPhone Without Apple’s Help, by David Murphy, PC Mag.com
http://www.pcmag.com/news/343970/feds-once-again-gain-access-to-iphone-without-apples-help
Stop us if you’ve heard this one. Federal prosecutors no longer need Apple’s assistance in unlocking an iPhone in a Brooklyn drug case, as investigators have found a way to do so themselves. It’s the second major case recently where the government has attempted to demand Apple’s help but, before a judge granted the government’s request, the Justice Department managed to unlock the iPhone in question. . . .
20 Wednesday Apr 2016
Posted in Discovery, Requests for Production, Subpoena Duces Tecum
≈ Comments Off on Using Discovery to Search for Hidden Assets.
Tags
Asset Search Blog, Discovery, Fred L. Abrams, Hidden Assets, Request for Production of Documents
Using A Production Request In Your Asset Search, by Fred L. Abrams, Asset Search Blog (Fred L. Abrams©2016)
If you are a divorcing spouse, judgment creditor or other litigant, how do you conclusively establish whether or not assets have been hidden from you? You can sometimes reasonably determine this by using legal tools to search for assets. In a pending litigation, these tools might include: depositions; subpoenas; interrogatories; production requests; etc.
Below is part of a production request in the hypothetical case of ‘JOHN DOE.’ The production request seeks access to JOHN DOE’s passport; credit cards; phone records; etc. By analyzing this kind of material one might possibly detect secret offshore bank accounts or other hidden assets. . . .
16 Saturday Apr 2016
Thomson Reuters Says Glitch Left Out Text from 600 Cases Since 2014, by Robert Ambrogi, Law Sites
http://www.lawsitesblog.com/2016/04/thomson-reuters-says-left-text-600-cases-since-2014.html
Subscribers to Thomson Reuters Westlaw and hard-copy reporter volumes got a surprise last night: An email informing them that TR had erroneously omitted small portions of text from some 600 cases published since November 2014. . . .
The email said that none of the omissions ‘resulted in any change to the meaning of the law.’
14 Thursday Apr 2016
Posted in EEOC, Employment Law, Gender Discrimination, Religious Discrimination
≈ Comments Off on Employer’s Religious Beliefs vs. Employee Discriminatory Termination. Who Wins?
Tags
EEOC, Employment Law, Gender Discrimination, Jason Shinn, Michigan Employment Law Advisor, Religious Beliefs
Can an Employer’s Religious Belief Defeat a Discriminatory Firing? By Jason Shinn, Michigan Employment Law Advisor
Can an employer’s religious beliefs defeat an otherwise discriminatory termination? Employers in Michigan may soon have much-needed guidance on this issue based on an employment discrimination case filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in Federal District Court in Michigan.
Specifically, the EEOC filed a lawsuit against RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. In 2013 over its decision to fire a transgender funeral director (EEOC v RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes Complaint).
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