Legal Docs LibraryKnow Your Rights

Carl Malamud is posting at PublicResource.org/Law.gov, what he calls “America’s Operating System, Open Source.” He hopes to garner support, both legislative and monetary, for authenticating and hosting a centralized registry and repository for all primary legal materials. He makes it clear that he is aiming for judicial, legislative and executive branch materials that constitute primary law. He is aiming for the federal level first, and to provide the “open source software building blocks that will allow states and municipalities to make their materials available as well.” He specifically compares his vision to the new, federally produced data.gov, Read the rest of this entry »

Great Britain now has a 12-member Supreme Court that functions separately from the legislative branch. For hundreds of years, the highest court of appeals in England was the Law Lords, who were part of Parliament. No more; Part 3 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 establishes a Supreme Court as a separate branch of government. It is also separate from the Crown, which for some, is a controversial move. An article from the British online paper, the Media Telegraph, by Tom Whitehead, dated October 7, 2009, “Crown Sidelined from New Supreme Court,” reports Read the rest of this entry »

Conrad J. Jacoby details approaches and exercises that contribute to a successful process for calculating - and staying within - a realistic budget for a litigation or regulatory document review.

Attention bloggers: The Federal Trade Commission approved new Web guidelines pertaining to “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” The FTC wants bloggers to disclose free products or payments they have received from companies for reviewing their products. Co-hosts and attorneys J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi welcome Attorney Eric P. Robinson, Staff Attorney at the Media Law Resource Center and Attorney Barry J. Reingold, partner in the Washington D.C. office of Perkins Coie, to clarify the FTCs new guidelines, look at the ethics of blogging, blogger abuse and how these new guidelines will impact the blogosphere.

Introduction
I won’t be able to post on Blog Action Day itself, so I’m posting a day early. Climate Change is the issue du jour, and a timely one it is! With the United Nations meeting on Climate Change coming up in Copenhagen December 7-18, 2009, you can visit their official COP15 website. The incoming president of COP15, Connie Hedegaard, has some inspiring comments here about why the nations of the world MUST come to agreement to reduce carbon emissions at Copenhagen. “Failure in Copenhagen is not an option,” she says. Read the rest of this entry »

Sabrina I. Pacifici’s completely revised and updated pathfinder focuses on leveraging selected reliable, focused, free and low cost sites and sources to effectively profile and monitor companies, markets, countries, people, and issues. This guide is a “best of list” of web, database and email alert products, services and tools, as well as links to content specific sources produced by government, academic, NGOs, the media and various publishers.

The Boston Globe reports today on an agreement between the Harvard-Yenching library and the National Library of China to work jointly to digitize the Harvard collection of rare books, manuscripts and scrolls. The Chinese government is paying most of the costs, while Harvard staff are performing the work of scanning the rare material, and any preservation and repair work necessary. Read the rest of this entry »

The Chronicle of Higher Education, in its Wired Campus column for Friday, October 9, 2009, wonders “Could Google Wave Replace Course-Management Systems?” (also available in print). Jeff Young writes, in part, that while Google is touting its new Wave to replace e-mail, “…blending instant messaging, wikis, and image and document sharing into one seamless communication interface…,” others are more excited about replacing course-management software with it. It’s difficult to tell so far because Wave is in ultra-beta right now, by invitation only, with only about 100,000 invitations extended. But each invitee can invite 8 friends, each of whom can then invite 8 more friends. So, the Wave pilot is slowly growing. Read the rest of this entry »

In a landmark decision in Connecticut v. American Electric Power Co. Inc., the 2nd U.S Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a group of eight states, the City of New York and various environmental groups, who had filed a public nuisance lawsuit against five of the nations biggest coal-burning utilities. Attorneys and co-hosts, J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi welcome Attorney Matthew F. Pawa from Law Offices of Matthew F. Pawa, P.C. and Attorney Thomas J. Heiden, partner in the Chicago office of Latham & Watkins, to dissect Connecticut v. AEP, get reaction from both sides of this landmark case and how this decision will impact power companies, as well as future environmental litigation.

Depending on where you look, lawyers are likely to read or hear that social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, et al.) are either a tremendous waste of time fraught with ethical dangers or an essential tool for communication and a necessary part of every lawyer’s Internet presence. Are you falling behind or falling off the cliff? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell will take a fresh look at social media for lawyers and try to sort through the various claims, draw a few conclusions and provide some practical pointers. After you listen, be sure to check out Tom & Dennis co-blog and book by the same name, The Lawyers Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies.