Legal Research News and Information with an Emphasis on Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Law Journal reports that furloughs for more than 570 non-judicial staff of the Wisconsin court system are on the horizon, but how they will be implemented is yet to be determined. From the article: On June 23, Gov. Jim Doyle signed an executive order which calls for employees of state agencies and the …
FreeCourtDockets is a new, free service which allows anyone to retrieve federal civil, criminal, and bankruptcy court dockets, as well as dockets from the US Supreme Court, Court of Claims, and Court of International Trade. The site is the product of Courtport LLC. No PACER account is required to view the dockets, but if you …
The State Bar of Wisconsin has recently redesigned their website. According to the Bar, the “new home page layout now is cleaner, more visually interesting, and easier to read. The new design offers expanded news content, an improved news archive, simplified navigation, and faster access to newly released products and upcoming events, among other changes …
From the Wisconsin Law Journal: July 1 will be a landmark day in Wisconsin legal history. Starting that day, attorneys will be allowed to cite some unpublished Court of Appeals’ opinions. Unpublished but authored opinions issued on July 1 or after can be cited for persuasive, but not precedential, authority. Per curiam opinions and summary …
Jane Pribek of the Wisconsin Law Journal has written a useful article on the lawyer directories, Justia and Avvo. From the article: Justia is led by former FindLaw CEO and co-founder Tim Stanley. It’s more than just attorney profiles; the company provides free case law, codes, regulations, legal articles and legal blog databases, as well …
I found myself laughing out loud this morning watching John Hodgman’s speech at the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner. Maybe it’s a nerd thing. Here’s a description from the Mental Floss Blog: Sitting on the dais with him was President Obama. Hodgman suggested that Obama is American’s first nerd president in the modern era, …
Jason Eiseman has compiled a great list of tips for networking at conferences. Although his list specifically mentions the CALI and AALL conferences, his suggestions certainly apply much more broadly. Here’s the basic list – see Jason’s full post for annotations. 1. Be yourself 2. You have something very important to say 3. Have an …
Erika Wayne of Stanford Law School has spearheaded a petition to improve PACER and make it more widely available. The PACER service provides on-line access to U.S. Appellate, District, and Bankruptcy court records and documents nationwide. The petition reads: We ask the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to improve PACER by enhancing the authenticity, …
As I posted earlier this month, the American Association of Law Libraries Computing Services Special Interest Section is sponsoring the Web 2.0 Challenge again this summer. The Challenge is five-week online course that will introduce law librarians to social software and how to use it in their libraries. It will begin just after the AALL …
The University of Wisconsin Law Library is very pleased to announce the release of the J. Willard Hurst Collection which details the career of the man commonly identified as the father of modern American legal history. The collection primarily spans the years 1932 through Hurst’s death in 1997. The bulk of material dates between 1946 …