Category Archives: Research

Legal Aid Federal Practice Manual.

15 Wednesday Feb 2017

Posted by in Federal Law, Research

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Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys, Sergeant Shriver National Center on Poverty Law © 2016

http://federalpracticemanual.org/

Well written by qualified contributors. Please note that each section is updated, but not more recently than 2015. Anytime you use a secondary research source with dated information, research the data and law to determine whether it is current. Always check the law in your case’s jurisdiction as part of your ethical duty of due diligence, as well as all relevant court rules. -CCE

An Easier Way to Research The Code of Federal Regulations.

14 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by in Code of Federal Regulations, GPO, Research

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Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, GPO: U.S. Government Publishing Office

 http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/ECFR?page=browse

How many of you enjoy researching the Code of Federal Regulations? Hands? I thought so. Have you tried the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR)? If you haven’t, I highly recommend that you check it out. Look to the left to find search tips, FAQs, and a link to a parallel Table of Contents and Authorities. This web site is kept up to date, unlike the print version which is updated once a year. This will remain an “unofficial” version while it’s “technical and performance issues are satisfactorily resolved.” Don’t let that put you off. This website will become the official government Code of Federal Regulations. -CCE

Free Online 2017 Edition of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

12 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by in Federal Law, Research

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Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 2017 Edition, The National Court Rules Committee©2014-2017

https://www.federalrulesofcivilprocedure.org/frcp/

Like many firms, we do not keep a hardback or soft back set of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure because we can access them for free online. I usually go to the Cornell Law Library Institute for federal statutes and court rules for statutes and court rules. After finding this website, I’ve changed my mind. It is amended through December 1, 2016. It also includes links to the Federal Rules of Evidence, Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. So far, I haven’t seen anything not to like. -CCE

LexisNexis’ Next-Generation Solution Means End of Lexis.com.

21 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by in FastCase, LexisNexis, Westlaw

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It’s Last Rites for Lexis.com, As LexisNexis Sets Date for Shutdown, by Robert Ambrogi, LawSites Blog

http://www.lawsitesblog.com/2016/12/last-rites-lexis-com-lexisnexis-sets-date-shutdown.html

“Prepare last rites for Lexis.com. The legacy legal research service will be leaving this world at the end of 2017.

This week, LexisNexis began notifying Lexis.com customers that it will be shutting down the service over the next 12 months and moving them to the newer Lexis Advance research platform.”

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Law Library Analytics and the 2016 Election.

07 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by in Law Libraries, Research

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LII and the Election, Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School

http://bit.ly/2egNJqQ

LLI has shared a sense of what has interested us during this election cycle through its analytics at its legal research website. -CCE

Given all this, you might predict that statutes related to immigration, Social Security, and other issues that generate heated discussion during election season might also appear in the list, but they don’t. Perhaps that’s because they generate heated discussion all the time. But it may be that, during the most bitter election campaign in decades, substance matters less than criminalizing the behavior of your opponent.

Reference, Facts, News, Search Engines, Email, and More. Easy Peasy.

12 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by in Dictionary, Glossaries, Grammar, Punctuation, Quotations, References, Research, Style Manuals, Thesaurus

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Refdesk.com – Fact Checker for the Internet

http://www.refdesk.com/

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

“How To” Research Administrative Law.

30 Monday May 2016

Posted by in Administrative Law, Federal Law, Law Libraries, Library of Congress, Research

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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

https://law.duke.edu/lib/researchguides/fedadminlaw/

Using the Wayback Machine To Authenticate Evidence.

24 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by in Evidence, Intellectual Property, Research, Rule 901, Wayback Machine

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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.

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Say Goodbye to THOMAS.

15 Sunday May 2016

Posted by in Congress.gov, Government, Research, THOMAS

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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

Westlaw Poses Another Challenge To The Bluebook.

01 Sunday May 2016

Posted by in ALWD, Citations, Legal Writing, Public Domain Citations, Research, The Bluebook, Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act, Westlaw

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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)

http://bit.ly/24tJ2uh

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.

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Thomson Reuters Says Westlaw Has A “Glitch.” A Glitch?

16 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by in Case Law, Research, Westlaw

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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.’

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Craig Ball Presents “Introduction to Discovery in U.S. Civil Litigation.

03 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in Civil Procedure, Discovery, E-Discovery, Federal Rules of Discovery, Litigation, Research

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Introduction to Discovery in U.S. Civil Litigation, by Craig Ball, Ball In Your Court

https://ballinyourcourt.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/introduction-to-discovery-in-u-s-civil-litigation/

Thank you, Craig Ball, for generously sharing your materials. If you have any interest whatsoever in litigation, this is a “must” read. -CCE

I am fortunate to teach electronic discovery and digital evidence in many venues. . . .

All of these entail accompanying written material, so there is a lot of research and writing for the various courses and presentations.  Some of my students aren’t lawyers or are law students with the barest theoretical understanding of discovery.  I’ve found it’s never safe to assume that students know the mechanisms of last-century civil discovery, let alone those of modern e-discovery.  Accordingly, I penned the following short introduction to discovery in U.S. civil litigation and offer it here in case you need something like it, especially if you’re also teaching this stuff.  [It’s copyrighted, but feel free to use it with attribution]. . . .

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Casemaker and Fastcase – Why Can’t We All Get Along?

29 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by in Casemaker, FastCase, Research

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Casemaker Says It Won’t Fight Fastcase Lawsuit Over Georgia Law, by Robert Ambrogi, Law Sites Blog

http://bit.ly/1SvAAF3

Legal publisher Casemaker will not fight the lawsuit filed against it by Fastcase over copyright in Georgia law, its CEO David Harriman told me today. The company agrees that state law should not be subject to copyright and will not file an answer to Fastcase’s complaint, he said. That means that the court could enter a default judgment in Fastcase’s favor. . . .

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Free Research Guides from PACE Law School Library.

17 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by in Administrative Law, Corporate Law, Criminal Law, Elder Law, Environment Law, Immigration Law, Intellectual Property, International Law, Law Libraries, Legal Ethics, Research, Trial Tips and Techniques

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Research Guides, Pace Law School Library

http://libraryguides.law.pace.edu/index.php

Administrative Law, Bar Exam, Copyright and IP Law, Corporate, Business & Securities Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, Environmental and Energy Law, Health and Elder Law, Immigration Law, International and Foreign Law, Land Use Law, and more. Definitely worth a look. -CCE

Beginner’s Guides on Researching Federal Legislative Intent.

13 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by in Federal Law, Legislative History, Library of Congress, Research, U.S. Government

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Presidential Communications: A Beginner’s Guide, co-authored by Robert Brammer and Barbara Bavis, Research Guide, In Custodia Legis, Law Librarians of Congress

http://blogs.loc.gov/law/category/research-guide-2/

Please keep going after clicking on this link. The following posts are beginner’s guides to locating: (1) congressional documents; (2) a congressional committee print, (3) compiled federal legislative history; and (4) unpublished congressional hearing. Keep going – there is more. If you are interested in honing your research skills, learn how to research legislative intent at the state and federal level. -CCE

New Brain Candy from Sabrina I. Pacifici. Yum!

26 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by in Internet, Legal Directory, References, Research

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Competitive Intelligence – A Selective Resource Guide, by Sabrina I. Pacifici, LLRX.com

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

Ms. Pacifici regularly updates her Selective Resource.  Here is her latest offering, published December 18, 2015. -CCE

Enhancements to Congress.gov and “How To” on Legislative Research From The Law Librarians of Congress.

27 Sunday Dec 2015

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

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New End of Year Congress.gov Enhancements: Quick Search, Congressional Record Index, and More, by Andrew Weber, In Custodia Legis, Law Librarians of Congress

http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2015/12/new-end-of-year-congress-gov-enhancements-quick-search-congressional-record-index-and-more/

You may not have heard that THOMAS will be retired by the Library of Congress.  Congress.gov will take its place, and you won’t be disappointed. This post includes more that has been added to Congress.gov, including links to state legislative research. Scroll down the page to see a list of all enhancements thus far to Congress.gov. It is definitely worth a read.

If you are not familiar with how to do legislative research, this Beginner’s Guide will help you. -CCE

Locating a Congressional Committee Print: A Beginner’s Guide, co-authored by Robert Brammer and Barbara Bavis, In Custodia Legis, Law Librarians of Congress

http://blogs.loc.gov/law/category/research-guide-2/

A Way To Find Free Research Sources On The Internet.

19 Saturday Dec 2015

Posted by in Internet, Research, SSRN

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How to Conduct Legal Academic Research When Relying on Internet Sources? By Gijs Van Dijck, Tilburg University – Faculty of Law, Social Science Research Network (SSRN)(with hat tip to William P. Statsky!)

If you do any kind of research, legal or otherwise, you must read this paper. I admit that I am cheap – I do not like to pay for legal research resources. Although there are many really good legal research sources that are fee-based, there is a wealth of information out there – and it’s all free. -CCE

perma.cc/YBK7-DMHY

Abstract:  Many legal researchers in this world lack access to books and to subscription-based journals. With more and more information disclosed online and with open-access policies becoming increasingly popular and more common, information is becoming more accessible. The potential impact of this development is enormous in areas or jurisdictions where offline information is scarce and where access to subscription-based journals or books is limited or non-existing. This paper discusses how to identify and select relevant publications when relying on Internet sources. The strategies, databases, and selection tools reported in this paper help researchers, particularly novices, who rely on the Internet to find relevant sources in an effective way when producing legal academic information.

Zimmerman’s Research Guide Will Soon Be No More.

13 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by in Research

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RIP Zimmerman’s Research Guide, 1999-2015, by Joe Hodnicki and
Mark Giangrande, Law Librarians Blog
http://llb2.com/2015/12/11/rip-zimmermans-research-guide-1999-2015/

Andy Zimmerman, the author of Zimmerman’s Research Guide, is retiring. His Research Guide will go offline after December 1, 2015. When I first found Mr. Zimmerman’s Research Guide, he was at LLRX.com. For the last sixteen years, this resource has been hosted by Lexis Nexis. I am sad to see it go. -CCE

Chicago’s Police Data Project In Response to FOIA Requests.

26 Thursday Nov 2015

Posted by in Law Enforcement, References, Research

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Chicago Citizens Police Data Project, by Sabrina I. Pacifici, BeSpacific Blog

http://www.bespacific.com/category/e-government/

‘The information contained on this website comes primarily from three datasets provided by the Chicago Police Department (CPD), spanning approximately 2002 to 2008 and 2011 to 2015. The CPD has released these lists in response to litigation and to FOIA Requests. . . .’

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How To Research Opposing Counsel, Judges, and Juries.

21 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by in Internet, Law Journals, Legal Databases, Legal Directories, Legal Directory, LexisNexis, References, Research, TLO for Legal Professionals

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Internet Tools for Researching Opposing Counsel, Judges, and Juries, by Anna Massoglia, Lawyerist Blog

https://lawyerist.com/92442/internet-tools-for-researching-opposing-counsel-judges-and-juries/

Knowing the ins and outs of how other courtroom players think is a key ingredient in successful litigation. Here’s how to do it. . . .

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Search Engine for The Wayback Machine!

02 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by in Legal Directory, References, Research, Wayback Machine

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International School of Information Science

http://www.bibalex.org/isis/frontend/archive/archive_web.aspx

and

The Wayback Machine, Internet Archive

https://archive.org/index.php

These links are two great ways to get to the Wayback Machine. Not familiar with it? Please allow me introduce you. The Wayback Machine has been around for 19 years, and has literally billions of saved URLs. If you ever tried a hyperlink and got that annoying 404 message, did you know it was still alive and well on the Wayback Machine?

As you can imagine, the Wayback Machine is huge. There has been only one way to search on the Wayback Machine – you had to have the URL. If did not have the exact URL, you were out of luck.

The great news is that the Laura and John Arnold Foundation have donated several million dollars to create a search engine for the Wayback Machine. The word is that it will be ready sometime in 2017. Imagine being able to search that much data!

Commonly, if you are researching on the Internet, you use Google, Bing, or another major search engine. How long do those links stay available? It varies, right? You thought Google was huge? It is said that the Wayback Machine has snapshots of every webpage ever posted on the Internet. Every single one.

Think about a researcher’s possibilities when the search engine is up and running. It is going to be interesting. -CCE

 

Is It Wrong To Research Your Judge And Jury? Is It Wrong If You Don’t?

27 Tuesday Oct 2015

Posted by in Ethics Opinions, Judges, Legal Ethics, Legal Technology, Research, Rules of Professional Responsibility

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Researching Judges and Juries Online, by Anna Massoglia, The Lawyerist Blog

http://tinyurl.com/p7f4hlg

It makes sense to research potential jurors, and social media makes it easier than ever. But courts have only recently begun to issue guidance now that researching jurors and other courtroom players online is becoming an increasingly common practice.

Researching judges, too, has its advantages. Some jurisdictions, like California, allow you to strike a judge once per case without establishing bias. Although there are limitations and technicalities on these rules, they can give you a say in who decides cases — making it important to know your judge. . . .

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New And Easy-To-Use Search Tools for SSRN.

04 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by in References, Research, SSRN

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Did You Know? Searching SSRN Just Got Easier, by Gregory Gordon, President and CEO of the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) (with hat tip to Sabrina I. Pacifici, BeSpacific Blog)

http://ssrnblog.com/2015/10/02/did-you-know-searching-ssrn-just-got-easier/

Scholars of all types share their research here. You will often see it at SSRN before you see it in books and other publications. If you have not taken the time to truly investigate what you can find here, please give yourself a treat. -CCE

In What We Don’t Know We Don’t Know, I wrote about the overwhelming amount of data that is available today.  This is especially true of the SSRN eLibrary. With over 600,000 papers, finding the right research may seem daunting. So, we significantly improved our search functionality.

SSRN’s new page centralizes all the tools you need to find stuff in the eLibrary. We combined Quick Search and Advanced Search onto one tab, and made it simple to switch to Browse SSRN Networks or Browse JEL Codes. Did you even know all of those functions existed? . . . .

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How To Investigate Your Jurors’ Presence On Social Media And The Internet.

09 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Jury Selection, Research, Trial Tips and Techniques

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Social Media Searches: Go Beyond the Google, Guest post by Arianne Fuchsberger, M.A., Research Associate, Persuasion Strategies, Persuasion Litigator™

http://tinyurl.com/otdgloz

Almost a year ago, the ABA released Formal Opinion 466 clarifying that it is permissible for ‘a lawyer to [passively] review a juror’s or potential juror’s [public] Internet presence.’ Since then, researching seated or potential jurors online has not only become an option, but a necessity. Any additional information on your panel can aid in jury selection and during the actual trial, and lawyers should be doing everything they can to gather information about the individuals who may become the deciders in their case. With the accessibility and abundance of information on the Internet, it would be senseless not to use it.

67 percent of adults use at least one social media website, with 52 percent of adults using two or more. Ranging from blogs to the all-mighty Facebook, there are hundreds of social media websites where you can gain information about a potential juror. Facebook alone has 1.4 billion active users, 25 percent of whom do not use any privacy settings on their account. LinkedIn comes in at 7th with 347 million active users, and the 10th-ranked social network Twitter had over 288 million active monthly users as of March 2015 (statista.com). Beyond social networks, there are also public Internet articles, company websites, public documents, and many more sources of information that can inform you on a potential juror. But with all that information out there, it can be challenging to filter through it and find useful information. I will provide several tips on how to go about locating the full range of an individual’s online presence, and share some guidelines on identifying useful information once you do find the person. . . .

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