Legal Research News and Information with an Emphasis on Wisconsin
WKOW reports that Dane County is installing software to redact the social security numbers from county records. They are the only county in the state to do so. Register of Deeds, Kristi Chlebowski indicated that all social security numbers should be redacted by the fall. For now, however, it seems that anyone can access mortgage …
On Monday, the Federal Nominating Commission announced its recommendations for the pending vacancy for the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. The opening results from the retirement of Judge John Shabaz. The four individuals recommended for consideration for the pending vacancy are (in alphabetical order): Louis B. Butler, Jr. William M. …
Despite the downturn in the economy, or perhaps because of it, applications at Wisconsin’s law schools are high for 2009. According to WisBar, “applications for the entering class of 2009 are up 5
In a reader’s poll, the Wisconsin Law Journal has announced the winners of its first “Best of” Wisconsin’s Legal Community. The full list of winners appears on their website.
The Wisconsin State Journal reports on a new bill (Assembly Bill 143) which would remove the open meetings law exemption for partisan caucus activities. From the bill analysis: Currently, under the open meetings law, with certain exceptions, meetings of state and local governmental bodies must be preceded by public notice, must be held in places …
State Representative Louis J. Molepske, Jr. re-introduced the Open Government Act, legislation which attempts to clarify when bill drafts should be made available to the public. From a media release from Rep. Molepske: This bill sets up a process whereby the official’s desire to keep bill drafts confidential is balanced against the public’s expectation to …
Accounts of jurors doing Web research and using Twitter and other social networking tools has been much in the news recently. Deliberations’ Anne Reed has a nice summary of the buzz. No one seems to know just what to do when jurors take to the Internet. Anne offers One Simple Rule When Jurors Go Online …
State representative Scott Suder is sponsoring a bi-partisan bill that will allow courts to make repeat domestic abusers wear a satellite tracking device. Read more from the Marshfield News Herald. In a time of major budget reform and a looming deficit, Suder said it’s key that the perpetrators pay for the device and any other …
I’m pleased to share that an article I co-wrote, Inspiring Innovation: Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating the Web 2.0 Challenge, appears in the latest Legal Information & Technology eJournal on SSRN (available by subscription). In the article, my co-authors and I discuss the Web 2.0 Challenge, a five week, online course designed to introduce popular Web …
TED has produced this very interesting talk on why people cheat. Fascinating viewing, especially for legal professionals whose work involves studying and predicting human behavior. Here’s a synopsis from the Mental Floss Blog: Today I bring you a truly fascinating talk about irrationality and cheating. Dan Ariely was a burn patient, with burns over 70% …