Legal Research News and Information with an Emphasis on Wisconsin
According to recently released ABA enrollment figures, law school enrollment increased by three percent nationally in 2018, marking the first measurable increase since 2010. The University of Wisconsin Law School saw the largest jump with an 82%increase in our first-year class size. See the National Law Journal for more on other schools with large enrollment gains. …
Several years ago, tech writer Nicholas Carr sparked a debate with his thought-provoking Atlantic article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” In it, Carr suggested that not only is the Internet shaping our lives – it’s physically changing our the way that our brains function. “[W]hat the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for …
Over the summer, the Law Library created a series of videos that highlights the ways that we foster research and learning at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Just in time to celebrate the UW Law School’s sesquicentennial (that’s 150 years if anyone’s counting), the videos highlight not only our beautiful library space but also …
Law school admissions have been up almost across the board this year, but Wisconsin law schools have seen even more marked figures. Marquette Law School has reported record numbers of female law students as well as out-of-state students. UW Law School boasts its largest group of 1Ls since 2009- 275 students. This is almost twice …
By Eric Taylor, Evening & Weekend Reference Librarian Once the exclusive province of Congress, the CRS Reports are now available to everyone. Thoroughly researched and produced by the Congressional Research Service, the CRS Reports are nonpartisan briefing papers about current and emerging affairs of interest to members of Congress and their staffs. The core mission …
The State Bar has recently made the Wisconsin Ethics Opinions freely available on their website. The ethics opinions can be reached in two ways: Use the direct link to search the opinions by keyword or by type (such as Formal, Informal , Withdrawn or Memorandum Opinions): https://www.wisbar.org/formembers/ethics/pages/opinions.aspx If you are used to navigating the WisBar …
By Eric Taylor, Reference Librarian The Free Law Project recently announced the availability of PACER Docket Alerts on CourtListener.com. CourtListener is a free public access website tracking federal and state courts. The Docket Alert tool will send you an email anytime there is a new court filing in a case you are following in PACER. …
Formatting appellate briefs is tough- there’s no getting around it. Brief-writers, be they attorneys or pro se litigants, have to pay very close attention to specific formatting details like margins, font, citations, headings, etc. If briefs are submitted to the court of appeals clerk’s office and they do not meet the stringent requirements, they are …
When I’m writing a document or article and I need to manage a bunch of citations, my go-to tool is Zotero. It’s an incredibly powerful citation manager that helps you collect, organize, cite, and share research – and it’s open source which means that it’s free! Zotero is perfect for large research projects where you’re …
A recent article from Madison’s local newspaper, The Isthmus, outlines some significant cuts to the staff and services of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, particularly in the LRB research and library services department. For example, the article cites a reduction in the number of “plain language” reviews of laws or court cases from 27 in 2014 …