Legal Research News and Information with an Emphasis on Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau has created a handy Summary of the 2005-2006 Wisconsin Legislative Session. From the introduction: This bulletin provides an overview of the acts and joint resolutions of the 2005-2006 Wisconsin Legislature. Legislation is organized by topic with acts described under the appropriate subject heading or headings. Significant acts and joint resolutions …
ALSO!, or American Law Sources Online, has long been one of my favorite Web sites. If you are looking for free sources of primary law in any federal or state jurisdiction, ALSO! is the place to go. But I recently learned that ALSO! has a full list of Uniform Laws & Model Acts too, along …
If you have used any of the Wisconsin Legislature infobases lately, you’ve probably seen the following screen. In essence, it explains that the legislature is moving to a new infobase software platform called “Nxt.” Currently, when you link into one of the infobases, you get the intermediary screen above which gives you the option to …
There is a fascinating bit in Odd Wisconsin today. It seems “that for the first few years of Wisconsin’s existence, not even legislators could get their hands on a copy of the laws.” “They certainly tried. When Wisconsin was created as a territory on July 4, 1836, the laws of Michigan Territory as printed in …
The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau has created an outstanding guide to Researching Legislative History In Wisconsin. Complete with illustrations, it offers step-by-step guidance on researching Wisconsin legislation. The steps include: Determine what session law created the language being researched; Examine the bill, its analysis, its amendments, and other associated documents; Review the drafting record for …
If you’ve ever compiled a state legislative history, you know that determining legislative intent can be difficult. It looks like researchers may have another source from which to draw, a blog – at least in Utah. From Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites: With the launch of this “semi-official” blog, The Senate Site, Utah’s state Senate became the …
Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin member, Carol Schmitt has written an excellent article on Looking for Info on Wisconsin Legislation. It appears in the May 2006 issue of the Wisconsin Lawyer. The piece looks at some of the major changes and updates to the Wisconsin Legislature Web site and introduces researchers to additional sites such …
From the press release dated Thursday, April 13, 2006: Today, Governor Doyle opened the Office of Privacy Protection (OPP), which will serve as a centralized hub to educate consumers and businesses on how to protect themselves against identity theft and provide comprehensive assistance to those who have been victimized. Victims are able to contact the …
Lewis & Clark Law Professor Jack Bogdanski (of Jack Bog’s Blog! fame) has taken on a new challenge: Podcasting the Internal Revenue Code – one new section every day. From his blog: I’m all about public service, and I could not think of a more worthy internet project than to record a reading of the …
From the Philadelphia Inquirer: IRS Plans to Allow Preparers to Sell Data The IRS is quietly moving to loosen the once-inviolable privacy of federal income-tax returns. If it succeeds, accountants and other tax-return preparers will be able to sell information from individual returns – or even entire returns – to marketers and data brokers. The …