Category Archives: References

Research Candy! Sabrina Pacifici’s Latest Updated Resource Guide.

13 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Legal Directories, References, Research

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Competitive Intelligence – A Selective Resource Guide – Completely Updated – August 2014, by Sabrina I. Pacifici, LLRX.com

http://www.llrx.com/features/ciguide.htm

If you are not familiar with Sabrina Pacifici, it’s time for introductions. This exhaustive research guide is a special treat. She is the founder, editor and publisher of LLRX.com. In 2002, she started her BeSpacific Blog (http://www.bespacific.com/). This is only a taste of what you will find at LLRX.com and BeSpacific Blog. This  is the good stuff. -CCE

Internet’s Largest, Comprehensive Directory, and Search Engine for Acronyms, Abbreviations. and Initialisms.

05 Saturday Jul 2014

Posted by in Abbreviations, Acronyms, Initialisms, Legal Writing, References

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Abbreviations.com, a Member of the Stands4 Network

http://www.abbreviations.com/

What the heck is an initialism? Happily, Mark Nichol at DailyWritingTips Blog has a complete explanation here: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/initialisms-and-acronyms/. -CCE

We are the world’s largest and most comprehensive directory and search engine for acronyms, abbreviations and initialisms on the Internet. Abbreviations.com holds hundreds of thousands of entries organized by a large variety of categories from computing and the Web to governmental, medicine and business and it is maintained and expanded by a large community of passionate editors. Read more about our awards and press coverage.

Cool Developments at Congress.gov, including THOMAS. Check It Out.

22 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Government, Legislation, Legislative History, References, Research, Statistics, THOMAS

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Nominations, Accounts, Saved Searches – Congress.gov Continues to Grow, by Andrew Weber, In Custodia Lexis: Law Librarians of Congress

http://tinyurl.com/o3zc7lt

There’s a lot of information here. Take your time, and give it a good look. I think you’ll find it worth it. -CCE

I have been looking forward to this Congress.gov release for several months.  There is now nomination information, accounts, the ability to save searches, an expanded About section, an FAQ section, easy access to Member remarks in the Congressional Record, and more.

With the new updates, you can locate nominations dating back to 1981.  The nominations section allows you to retrieve information via faceted navigation, just as you do throughout the rest of the site.

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On THOMAS, individual accounts were a feature that the system could not support.  Now you will have the option to save your search so you can quickly run it again later.  This is especially useful for those highly complex customized queries.  Adding accounts will enable us to do new things with the system in the future.

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The About section has been expanded with the aim of making Congress.gov more user friendly.  Also with this release, you can now access a Frequently Asked Questions section, which covers:

•Congress.gov Overview

•Learn Congress.gov and the Legislative Process

•Features, Updates and Technology (which includes a link to a page on how to embed the Congress.gov search box on your website)

•Congressional Record

•Committees

•Legislation

•THOMAS Retirement

I highlighted some of these Congress.gov enhancements during my presentation at the 2014 Legislative Data Transparency Conference.  Grant Vergottini, in his write up of the conference, stated that although it was ‘still in beta, this site has now essentially replaced the older Thomas site.’  I would have to agree.

These improvements build upon those added in February: Advanced Search, Browse, and the Appropriations Table. . . .

“Must Have” Plain Language Tips and Tools.

04 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by in Legal Writing, Plain Language, References

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Tips and Tools, PlainLanguage.gov

http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/index.cfm

Take a good look. Links to Quick Reference Tips, Word Suggestions, Dictionaries, Thesauruses, Style Guides, and Grammar Sites. -CCE

Supreme Court Judges Really Use Dictionaries To Determine Legislative Intent?

26 Monday May 2014

Posted by in Appellate Judges, Appellate Law, Judges, Legal Analysis, Legal Dictionaries, Legal Writing, Legislative History, References, United States Supreme Court

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Look It Up! Or Not…, by Tiffany Johnson, Good Legal Writing

http://goodlegalwriting.com/2014/04/14/look-it-up-or-not/

I always encourage my students to look up any words that confuse them as they read opinions.  But this 2011 New York Times article  cites a few scholars who don’t think it’s the most judicious practice to undertake from the bench.  Check out this excerpt:

In May alone, the justices cited dictionaries in eight cases to determine what legislators had meant when they used words like ‘prevent,’ ‘delay’ and ‘report.’ Over the years, justices have looked up both perfectly ordinary words (‘now,’ ‘also,’ ‘any,’ ‘if’) and ones you might think they would know better than the next guy (‘attorney,’ ‘common law’).

All of this is, lexicographers say, sort of strange. . . .

Five Excellent Search Engines That Do Not Track Or Collect Your Data.

25 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Legal Technology, References, Research, Search Engines

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5 Alternative Search Engines That Respect Your Privacy, by Chris Hoffman, How-To-Geek Blog

http://tinyurl.com/c3trrdn

Recently I posted about DuckDuckGo, a search engine that did not collect data about you like most major search engines. This post also mentions DuckDuckGo but four others as well that will not track you:  Start Page™, ixquick™, Blekko, and Ask.com.

I admit that DuckDuckGo is my favorite, but the others are well worth your time and attention. -CCE

Google, Bing, Yahoo – all the major search engines track your search history and build profiles on you, serving different results based on your search history. Try one of these alternative search engines if you’re tired of being tracked.

Google now encrypts your search traffic when you’re logged in, but this only prevents third-parties from snooping on your search traffic – it doesn’t prevent Google from tracking you. . . .

Law Guru – Free Internet Legal Research.

25 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Case Law, Federal Law, Internet, Law Libraries, Legal Dictionaries, Legal Directories, Legal Directory, Mandatory Law, Primary Law, References, Research, State Law, Statutes

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Law Guru

http://www.lawguru.com/research.html

Another free Internet legal research tool. Law Guru have over 535 search engines. You can search state and federal case law, statutes and codes, and more.

It has some other nice features, too. It has a database of over 500,000 legal questions and answers. I know that sounds tempting and it may point you in the right direction. But if you are not an experienced legal researcher, please do not rely on these answers as you sole source of legal information. These questions and answers are generic – the facts of your situation may mean that the answer you get here is not the right one for your problem.

Law Guru also has a legal dictionary, links to legal articles, the Internet Law Library, and legal forms (there is a charge for these forms). -CCE

The Public Library of Law.

25 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Case Law, Constitutions, Court Rules, FastCase, Internet, Law Libraries, Mandatory Law, Primary Law, References, Regulations, Research, State Law, Statutes

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The Public Library of Law

http://www.plol.org/Pages/Search.aspx

The Public Library of Law is free. Actually, it’s one of the largest free law libraries on the Internet. It gives you access to case law from the U.S. Supreme Court, all U.S. Circuit Courts, case law for all states (from 1997 to date), the United States Federal Code (federal statutes), states for all 50 states, regulations, court rules, state and federal constitution, and more.

One of the more interesting things about PLoL is that it provides free links to paid content on Fastcase®. If you are not familiar with Fastcase®, check it out at http://www.fastcase.com. If you need help learning how to use it, you will find free tutorials at http://www.fastcase.com/support/. -CCE

European Journal of International Law.

17 Saturday May 2014

Posted by in International Law, Law Journals, References, Research

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European Journal of International Law

http://www.ejil.org/

I was going to try to give you a quick summary of what you’ll find here, but I think this excerpt from “About the EJIL” says it better than I ever could. -CCE

“About the EJIL

Welcome to the website of one of the world’s leading international law journals. The EJIL was established in 1990 by a small group of distinguished scholars based at the European University Institute in Florence. The Journal has grown since then in size, strength and reputation, but the Editors’ original vision remains unchanged and is distinguished by:

  • its European orientation,
  • its emphasis on critical and theoretical approaches,
  • its commitment to publishing contributions from a diverse range of contributors, especially those among the younger generation
  • its continuing interest in the historical origins of the ‘European tradition’ (in the best and broadest sense) in international law.

This website forms an integral part of the European Journal of International Law and full-text articles of all but the most recent issues are available here in the archive. For the current year, one full-text article and abstracts of all the other articles are posted.

Our commitment to linguistic diversity

Originally bilingual, the Journal is now published only in English. While we retain a strong belief in the central importance of linguistic diversity to the continued flourishing of international law, the decision to publish exclusively in English is based on the fact that it enables us to reach the widest possible readership, in view of the ever-growing number of Europeans and others for whom English is the principal second language. At the same time, however, we warmly welcome submissions in French, Spanish, Italian and German. Where resources permit, we will endeavour to translate into English those articles written in other languages that are accepted for publication. . . . [Emphasis added.]

Legal Analysis & Writing Links.

05 Monday May 2014

Posted by in Acronyms, ALWD, Bad Legal Writing, Citations, Internet, Legal Analysis, Legal Directory, Legal Writing, Legalese, Quotations, References, Research, The Bluebook

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Legal Analysis and Writing, Grammar & Writing Resources, Lewis & Clark Law School

http://bit.ly/1kFtlHk

A nice assortment of writing resources.  -CCE

The Library of Congress’ Virtual Reference Shelf.

13 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by in References, Research

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Virtual Reference Shelf, Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/virtualref.html#abbreviations

Do you for some kind of inexplicable reason want to look up The Guide to Government Abbreviations? It’s here. In fact, the Virtual Reference Shelf has in-depth information on Abbreviations, Art, Business, Calculators, Children & Parents (e.g., The U.S. Government Guide for Kids), Dictionaries & Thesauri, Directories, Education, Encyclopedias, English Language and Literature, Full-Text Books & Periodicals, Genealogy, General Reference Resources, Grant Resources, Health/Medical, U.S. History – and more. Check it out. It is more than you probably expect. -CCE

International Resource Center at LLRX.com.

03 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by in International Law, International Law, International Law, Legal Directory, References, Research

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Comparative and Foreign Law, International Law Resource Center, LLRX.com

http://www.llrx.com/comparative_and_foreign_law.html

My apologies. I should have thought of going directly to LLRX.com as one of the first places to look for a strong compilation of foreign law materials. If you are not already familiar with LLRX.com, then I strongly recommend that you make this a bookmark and visit it frequently.

Sabrina I. Pacifici is the genius behind this website. She is its founder, editor, and publisher. She also is the author of beSpacific Blog. < http://www.bespacific.com/> This is another blot add to your bookmarks. Ms. Pacifici is a well-recognized expert on legal research, and her work is consistently top notch. Again, both web sites are worth poking around. One never knows what other useful information may pop up. -CCE

Another Excellent Resource for Researching Foreign Law.

03 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by in International Law, International Law, International Law, References, Research

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Foreign Collections By Jurisdiction, by Mirela Roznovschi, Webmaster and Editor, New York University Library (last updated March 3, 2014)

http://tinyurl.com/mc2sl7w

This Library provides more foreign jurisdictions (countries) than previously posted at this blog. Please do not think of this resource as merely a place to find foreign jurisdiction. Poke around. “Quick Links” at the top of the page might be a good place to start. Sometimes I stumble over the most interesting things while I am looking for something else.

When researching foreign law, of course you can always use search engines such as Google and Bing. Instead, I recommend looking at law schools’ libraries and legal databases such as HG.org. For Heaven’s sake, please do not include Wikipedia in your search! -CCE

Updated Foreign Law Research Primer.

02 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Australia, Brazil, Case Law, China, Citations, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Hong Kong, India, International Law, International Law, Israel, Law Journals, Law Libraries, Lebanon, Legal Directories, Legal Encyclopedia, Mandatory Law, Primary Law, References, Regulations, Research, Russia, Sweden, United Kingdom

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Foreign and International Legal Research Guides – Pic of the Week, by Donna Sokol, In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress

http://tinyurl.com/opqzrpr

Don’t let the title “Pic of the Week” fool you. This is an updated legal research guide for fourteen foreign jurisdictions:  Australia; Brazil; United Kingdom; China; Egypt; Eritrea; France; Hong Kong; India; Israel; Japan; Lebanon; Russia; and Sweden.  It links to these countries’ reference sources, compilations, citations guides, periodicals (indexes and databases), dictionaries, web resources, free public web sites, subscription-based services, subject-specific web sites, and country overviews. -CCE

Lexis Launches “Evidence Challenge” For Law Students.

24 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by in eBooks, Evidence, LexisNexis

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It’s Game On for Lexis with Launch of ‘Evidence Challenge,’ posted by Robert Ambrogi, Robert Ambroi’s Law Sites

http://tinyurl.com/ngsud5p

Over the last two years, LexisNexis has been ramping up its library of ebooks, with a growing list of titles for both practitioners and law students. Law students, in particular, are key consumers of ebooks, Lexis says, citing statistics that say six in 10 college students prefer digital books over print. One of the advantages of an ebook over print is the ability to link interactive features that augment and enhance the core text.

That is what Lexis is aiming to do with Evidence Challenge, its new interactive role-playing game designed to help second- and third-year law students test their knowledge of evidence law. . . .

There’s More To Government Research Than FirstGov.gov.

22 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by in Government, Library of Congress, References, Regulations, Research, U.S. Government

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Finding Government Documents on the Internet, Internet for Lawyers

 http://tinyurl.com/mklz4tq

 

Compilation of Resources on Adoption Law.

21 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by in Adoption Law, Family Law, Indian Child Welfare Act, Legal Directory, Parental Rights, References

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Adoption Law, HG.org

http://www.hg.org/adoption.html

A compilation of information about adoption, starting with a brief explanation of this area of law, termination of parental rights, open vs. closed adoptions, adoption by a step-parent, and working with an adoption law. This is interesting but the meat comes next, in my opinion, in the sections on knowing your rights, articles on adoption law, and so on. You might also take note at the top of the web page of a hyperlink to “Family Law,” which provides a good overview of that area of law as well.

HG.org (formerly Hieros Gamos.org) is a free legal directory with an abundance of information about American law. It provides a search engine to look for attorneys, topics of law, and more. If you have not already spent time looking at each section of this legal directory, I encourage you to do so.

HG.org is not the only legal directory, but I think it is one of the best. I have already provided a list of similar resources on the Internet at https://researchingparalegal.com/2013/10/23/some-of-the-best-free-legal-research-guides-on-the-internet-no-wikipedia-does-not-count/. If you have not already had an opportunity to visit that link, I think you will find the resources there worth bookmarking. -CCE

PeopleFinder for U.S. Military.

17 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by in Locator, Military Records, References, Vital Records

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Find People in the U.S. Military, by Tamara Thompson, PI Buzz.com

http://pibuzz.com/find-people-in-the-us-military/

Tamara Thompson is an extremely experienced researcher. Her blog, PI Buzz.com, is definitely worth bookmarking. -CCE

Forget About Basic Google Searches! Use These Simple Tips to Enhance Your Search Results.

08 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by in References, Research

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10 Tips for Better Google Search Results, by Tim Baran, Legal Productivity Blog

http://tinyurl.com/nevdrua

There is more to Google than simple key word searches. Familiarize yourself with these simple tips and increase successful search results. -CCE

Thanksgiving Travel Tips and More

23 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by in References, Research

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Travel Tips, USA.gov

http://tinyurl.com/q23pyte

If you plan on flying over the holidays, use the App for MyTSA. 

Also includes Heritage and History (Thanksgiving is not all about pilgrims), Recipes and Food Safety (dinner without food poisoning), Give Thanks and Volunteer (write your own message to US troops). CCE

The Sedona Conference® Glossary

17 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by in E-Discovery, Evidence, Glossaries, Legal Technology, Research, Trial Tips and Techniques

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The Sedona Conference® Glossary, The Sedona Conference®  (Reproduced with permission by Richard Braman.)

http://perma.cc/0ehp3VwLK8u

The Sedona Conference® is a non-profit organization created in 1997 by Richard Braman. Although it is better known for its work and publications on e-discovery, it addresses many other areas of law. You can find a list of its publications here: https://thesedonaconference.org/publications.

The Sedona Conference® will present its Commentary on Information Governance in a webinar on December 5, 2013. Information about all upcoming events can be found at https://thesedonaconference.org/conferences.

 

 

Law Commons – Free Open Access Legal Research

15 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Law Journals, Law Libraries, Law Reviews, References, Research

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Law Commons, Digital Commons Network™ Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.™

http://network.bepress.com/law/

This is an unique legal research tool. It has a wealth of legal resources. There are 167,603 full-text articles by 76,916 authors — in all, 37,817,207 downloads of legal research. But there is more — architecture, arts and humanities, business, education, engineering, life sciences, medical and health sciences, physical sciences and mathematics, and social and behavioral sciences.

In total, this website gives you free access to over 800,000 full-text articles contributed from over 300 universities and colleges all over the world.

The Digital Commons Network brings together free, full-text scholarly articles from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide. Curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, the Network includes a growing collection of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work.

Resources from the Offices of the United States Attorney . . . and more.

02 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by in Criminal Law, Discovery, Federal Law, Fraud, References, Research, Trial Tips and Techniques

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Resources, Offices of the United States Attorney
http://perma.cc/0pU5ocUruhw

FOIA/Privacy Act Requests – “How to” submit FOIA requests
http://perma.cc/0xyPEK7KcCN

FOIA Library – Available to public about office’s operations
http://perma.cc/07JeT6GjPPp

Annual Statistical Reports – Accomplishments for each fiscal year
http://perma.cc/09vkJheop6X

Victim’s Rights Ombudsman – Complaints filed against DOJ employees
http://perma.cc/07fbNaXZcka

United States Attorney’s Bulletin – Legal or technical topics
http://perma.cc/0QdV5c8XtUK

United States Attorney’s Manual – The official handbook
http://perma.cc/0djGLTsgpwy

This is a sample of the great information at this website. See more at Priority Areas (http://perma.cc/0ssbcTres9kl) and Justice 101 (http://perma.cc/0B27rPGVtMV). CCE

“How To” For Attorneys and Staff: New Medicare Secondary Payer Recovery Portal

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in References, Research

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Medicare Jumps into the 21st Century: Medicare Secondary Payer Recovery Portal (MSPRP), by Rex Travis, Practice Tips – Travis Law Firm Blog
http://perma.cc/0oEuYumpBSj

Another reason never to cite to Wikipedia as “fact” (if you still need one).

26 Saturday Oct 2013

Posted by in Bad Legal Writing, Citations, References, Research

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The Decline of Wikipedia, by Tom Simonite, MIT Technology Review
http://bit.ly/19q9Qj7