There is an article available through SSRN that discusses link rot in court decisions by Tina Ching (Reference Librarian, Seattle Univ. Law Library) in The Next Generation of Legal Citations: A Survey of Internet Citations in the Opinions of the Washington Supreme Court and Washington Appellate Courts, 1999-2005 [SSRN], 9 J. App. Prac. & Process 387 (2007).

As more legal research is conducted online, it is reasonable to conclude that there will be a corresponding increase in citations to the Internet by judges in their opinions. With the widespread public use of the Internet to access information along with the

Fans of adverbs — and of statutory interpretation — might be interested in the case of Flores-Figueroa v. United States, a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court released this Monday. The court had to decide the correct interpretation of a statutory provision, 18 U.S.C. sec. 1028A(a)(1), which states that:

Whoever … knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person shall … be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 2 years.

Particularly, the issue was whether the defendant had to know that the means of identification belonged to another person. Earlier this . . . [more]

Lately I have been imagining what it was like to work in those halcyon PMS (Pre Microsoft) days before we were subject to the tyranny of the Outlook chirp – the modern day equivalent of the Mash “incoming” call. What was it like when news arrived in the paper and work came in via in-person meetings, fax, letters and telephone calls?

The Harvard Business Blog in April featured an email-related post from David Silverman “How to Revise an Email So That People Will Read It” that attracted a global outpouring of kudos and an exchange of best email . . . [more]

In February of this year the U.K. firm of Allen & Overy laid off of 450 people, including 47 partners and its whole private client practice. Two months later twenty-three of the lawyers and support staff from their private practice have formed their own firm, Maurice Turnor Gardner, specializing in “private wealth, philanthropy, and partnerships and LLPs.” Another law firm for the rich wouldn’t be particularly interesting but for the fact that five of the six partners and all but four of the employees are women, as reported in the Times.

It’s likely the size of the firm . . . [more]

I would really love to have a Kindle. really. And this story from the Silicon Alley Insider isn’t making things any better. See Dan Frommer’s live note that “Kindle sales are now 35% of book sales when Kindle editions are available.”

You would think this kind of statement would jump start some action! For publishers, for consumers, and especially for Amazon to expand their offering… to say… north of the border? I’m also not fussy about the screen size. I’d take a hand-me-down for that matter.

What I am losing my patience with, is waiting years . . . [more]

Nominations are open for the 10th annual Justicia Awards for Excellence in Journalism.

The Awards, which are sponsored by the Canadian Bar Association and the Department of Justice Canada, celebrate outstanding journalism that fosters public awareness and understanding of the Canadian justice system.

Awards are given for French or English stories in two categories: print and broadcast media. They will be presented at a special ceremony in Ottawa in November 2009.

Winners receive a bronze statuette that is based on the Justicia statue that stands outside the Supreme Court building in Ottawa.

The deadline for nominations is June 12, . . . [more]

Now that Twitter is reliably producing a large volume of verbiage on just about all topics imaginable, the task becomes one of extracting the desired fish from the flood — just as it was, and still is, with the larger web itself. The find and filter tools for Twitter are still in the making, and I thought it might be interesting for our Twitter users to take a look at one unusual tool, Twitter Venn.

We all remember our teachers or profs introducing us to Venn diagrams, those intersecting circular universes — well, Twitter Venn takes two or three . . . [more]

♫ Be not selfish in your doings:
Pass it on. (Pass it on, children)
Help your brothers (help them) in their needs:
Pass it on…♫

Lyrics and Music by Bunny Livingston (aka Bunny Wailer), recorded by The Wailers.

As a lawyer, I enjoy the study of law. As we all know, laws come in many forms. When studying laws, we are accustomed to dealing with a set of formal laws – being those duly considered and passed by a parliament, legislature, congress or other legislative body. In addition to these formal laws and associated regulations, at least in . . . [more]

I thought Slaw readers might like to see my spin on the privacy issues that arise from continuous view street level cameras. See my Free Press article entitled Privacy issues not always practical.

It can be found on my blog, on the Canoe tech page, or on the Free Press site. . . . [more]

One of the most disturbing news reports over the past week or so (and of course there are many contenders) is that of the Keswick school and York School Board’s response to the altercation between “the school bully” and the bully’s victim (not so much a victim) who struck back. After punishing the victim and letting the bully go free, the School Board has reversed its decision.

What were the principal of the school and the School Board thinking? We read constantly about the harm that bullies do in schools. And we shouldn’t forget that this bully punched or . . . [more]

Yesterday the judge in the Mayor Larry O’Brien trial, Associate Chief Justice Douglas Cunningham, ruled that reporters may report live from the courtroom via their electronic devices. This is, I believe, the first time that such live blogging has been permitted in a Canadian trial. The ruling was made on a motion by the Ottawa Citizen. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the same journal is live tweeting the procedings.

Glen McGregor, a reporter for the Citizen, is tweeting the trial at http://www.twitter.com/obrientrial and already has a number of tweets up from a brief first day. If you could use some . . . [more]

The NYT blog is reporting an odd intervention by the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries expressing concern about the long-term impact of the Google settlement on research libraries and asking United States District Court Judge Denny Chin to exercise “vigorous oversight” over a class action settlement between Google, authors and publishers.

The groups did not oppose the settlement, but asked for continuing oversight, to ensure that the prices Google charges for subscriptions to its digital library aren’t artificially high because of a lack of competition. . . . [more]