INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
February 8, 2009
Tom Mighell

Welcome to Issue #328 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 I wish was around when I was a practicing lawyer, because it's exactly the type of law I practiced. The Youth Services Litigation Blog provides insight and commentary for day care centers, camping programs, private schools and other youth-serving organizations. It's published by Debbie Ausburn, a Georgia lawyer who has worked with such organizations for over 30 years.
  • Timothy Baikie is a Toronto lawyer and consultant with over 20 years' experience in capital markets policy and regulation. At his self-titled Tim Baikie's Capital Markets Update, he's discussing the financial crisis, securities class actions, and how they affect the capital markets.
  • The DUI Law Blog is brought to you by Dan Jaffe of the Jaffe Law Firm in Scottsdale, Arizona. He's providing commentary in DUI issues from around the United States.
  • Here's a nifty niche blog: the Emerging Enterprise Center Blog provides commentary and analysis for entrepreneurs and startups. It's published by four lawyers at Foley Hoag in Boston, who are talking about topics like angel investors, options, pitches, the VC community, workouts, and startup issues, among others.

Help Desk

This week I'll start some tips on keeping your life organized, digitally:

-- What is the first page you see when you open your browser? If it's MSN or Yahoo, you're missing out on a lot. Consider using a web "portal" page like iGoogle or NetVibes, which allows you to create a custom page with your calendar, email, news sources, and more -- all on one page.

-- Are you using desktop search yet? I know I've mentioned this tool several times in the newsletter, but I'll wager most of you haven't started using one yet. Desktop search tools make it a snap to find any file on your computer, much faster than the Windows search tool ever will. My favorite desktop search products are Google Desktop and Copernic -- both are free!

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's Fios webcast is a *must-listen*: leading e-Discovery analysts George Socha and Tom Gelbmann will discuss a number of electronic discovery topics, including developments in the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM), e-Discovery trends in 2009, and a report on the recently concluded LegalTech in New York. To register for the free webcast, click here.

Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet

West Virginia Supreme Court Decisions
The West Virginia Supreme Court provides this blog-like page, with summaries of cases recently decided by that court. You can click through to full summaries of the opinions, or just read the summaries. There's even a link to Google the key issues in the case, to see what others are saying about it. You can also subscribe to receive case summaries by email, or RSS feed.

Introduction to Basic Legal Citation
Need a quick online resource to check your legal citation? Cornell's Legal Information Institute provides Peter Martin's Introduction to Basic Legal Citation free of charge. This is the 2007 edition -- while it's not the most elegant page, it gets the job done, laying out the text of this manual. A good resource to keep handy.

Brennan Center for Justice
Based at New York University School of Law, the Brennan Center is a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on work ranging from voting rights to redistricting reform, from access to the courts to presidential power in the fight against terrorism. The resources provided here are fantastic -- just take a look under the Democracy or Justice tabs. Each area features recent publications, court cases, and blog entries (you can subscribe to the blog separately). The Resources page also gets you to a ton of great information -- Analysis, Commentary, E-lerts, Features, News, Legislation, Press Releases, and much more.

Chemical Abstracts Service ($$)
CAS is a team of scientists who are "creating and delivering the most complete and effective digital information environment for scientific research and discovery." It claims to provide the world's largest and most current collection of chemical and related scientific information, including the most authoritative collection of disclosed chemical substance information. Prices appear to be a la carte, and range in price from $25 and up, depending on the service or search requested.

USPTO Patent Full-Text and Full-Page Image Databases
This full-text, full-page image database of patents contains a wealth of information, although the site is pretty basically designed. You can search separate databases for Issued Patents and Patent Applications, via a Quick, Advanced, or Patent Number search interface. Full-Text is available since 1976, but you can search all the way back to 1790. It's not pretty, but it definitely gets you to images of patents and applications.

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

Do you use Gmail? If so, you'll definitely want to check out Ten Gmail Labs Features You Should Enable -- these cool features will make your Gmail experience more powerful than ever.

JigSawce is just what you think it is, with a twist. You race other people to put together a jigsaw puzzle -- it's madness!

Well, that’s it for Issue #328 – 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.