INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
February 1, 2009
Tom Mighell

Welcome to Issue #327 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!

And away we go.....

News Update -- from the Inter Alia Weblog

Blawgs of the Week
Here are some of the great law-related blogs featured on Inter Alia over the past two weeks:

Now here's a blog that's right up my alley -- the iPhone J.D. It's published by Jeff Richardson, an attorney with Adams & Reese in New Orleans. He's a huge Mac user, and at his blog he's providing some great information not only on how lawyers can use an iPhone in their practice, but also on Macs in general. Great blog!

An interesting niche blog: Notes on Electrical Injury is brought to you by the Law Offices of Alan Hillard Legum, in Annapolis, Maryland. As you might imagine, he's providing information on electrical injuries, including lawsuits, verdicts, and helpful advice on how to protect yourself from electric shock.

David Mills is a federal appellate lawyer practicing in Cleveland. But he's also a cartoonist, and at Courtoons he offers a daily cartoon making fun of the law, lawyers, and the legal process.

The blog Wrongful Conviction Lawsuit Defense is published by Andrew M. Hale & Associates, a Chicago law firm. The site focuses on giving a voice to "hardworking police officers of this country that are being routinely blamed for every wrongful conviction that takes place."

Help Desk

We're continuing this week with Word 2007 tips (some of these tips work in Word 2003, too!):

-- When you reopen your Word document, press Shift+F5, and you'll jump directly to the last spot you were working on in the document.

-- The default font in Word 2007 is Calibri -- if you don't like that font, you can change the default. Just hit CTRL+D, select the font you want (along with the size and color, if you like), and click the Default button. That will change the font in your Normal template (which is the template you use on most of your documents).

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!

This Week at Fios

This week, Fios will be at LegalTech! If you happen to be in New York City, check out LegalTech, one of my three favorite legal technology conferences. Fios will be presenting a two sessions on February 4: "Managing e-Discovery in an Alternative Fee Environment" and "Let's Make a Deal," which features a mock e-Discovery conference with the judge.

Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet

Nebraska.gov
Every now and then I like to mention state government web pages, to remind you of the great online services many of the states are providing. The Nebraska state home page gets you where you want to go quickly, by providing separate pages if you're a Nebraska citizen, if you're moving there, if you're visiting, or if you're a business. There are separate links to the right that will take you to the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of Nebraska government. Nebraska's also providing a number of RSS feeds, as well as a mobile version for people who want to access state services on their phones.

Disciplined Attorneys
This page is provided by PIBuzz.com, the official blog of PI Magazine. It's really just a Google Custom Search engine that has been configured to search the attorney discipline records of state bar and supreme court sites. Just enter the name of the person you're searching for and you'll find if there are any disciplinary records on him or her. A caution: because this search engine is also searching the bar association and supreme court sites of various states, your search results may also return references to caselaw or bar-related information. So make sure you use quotes (i.e., "Tom Mighell") when entering your query -- those results will move to the top of the list.

Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases ($$)
This site provides "expert analysis of the issues, arguments, background, and significance of every case slated for argument" before the U.S. Supreme Court. This is actually a subscription service, which publishes 8 issues each year ($115 for non-members of the ABA). But there's a lot of free information you can find here. Merits and amicus briefs are available for the past few months as well as the months to come, and the authors also provide commentary on two cases from each issue. The site also offers an archive of Supreme Court briefs dating back to the 2003-2004 term.

Alopecia Areata
This is not a pretty page. But don't pay attention to that, because it still provides some useful information. Alopecia Areata is a hair loss disease, and this site is maintained by a victim of the disorder. He's providing links to websites with medical information, as well as help for people with the disease. There's also a mailing list and information about ongoing test groups.

American Society of Criminology
The ASC "an international organization whose members pursue scholarly, scientific, and professional knowledge concerning the measurement, etiology, consequences, prevention, control, and treatment of crime and delinquency." Like most member association sites, the bulk of the information here useful only for members. But the Member Directory connects you with experts in the field around the world, and there are some good publications available. There's also a link to Affiliated Links and Sites, but curiously, it's only available at the bottom of the home page -- check it out, too.

Finally, some fun and useful sites to help start off your week:

Photoshop is a great tool for creating and manipulating images, but let's face it -- it's complicated! It's so full-featured, it's overwhelming. But if you're interested in learning more about using the program, check out these 10 Seriously Useful Photoshop Tutorials.

Incubus is a *hard* game -- for me, anyway. Keep Lord Dregg's dream monsters from coming through the energy portal into the real world -- it's up to you!

Well, that’s it for Issue #327– 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

Now available: The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell

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