I’m chuffed (is that a peculiarly British expression?) to have been invited onboard Slaw as a contributor and will aim to provide a UK slant to some of the the core issues Slaw addresses surrounding legal information in the digital age.

I have been fortunate to have been involved at first hand in the entire modern publishing revolution. When I first started out in law publishing, authors produced copy on manual typewriters, editors used pens and literal cut and paste to hack it into shape, typesetters set the copy in movable lead type or “slugs” and made it up . . . [more]

A piece in yesterday’s New York Times talks about the results of a soon-to-be-published study which finds that in most cases (61%) where plaintiffs refuse to settle and go to trial they wind up with less than the proposed settlement would have given them. That settlement is good is hardly news: according to the authors of the study somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of cases in fact settle; but the study hopes to raise questions about the reasons for going to trial in the 2054 disputes studied. The study, “Let’s Not Make a Deal: An Empirical Analysis of Decision . . . [more]

Although EISIL (Electronic Information System for International Law) has received a glancing mention here on Slaw, we haven’t pointed at it directly until now. From the “About” page:

EISIL offers the international law expert the depth of resources for sophisticated legal research. At the same time, EISIL can provide the novice researcher with the information needed to undertake a successful search. The comprehensive scope of EISIL enhances its potential as a research and teaching tool.

The search page is organized into the following main topic heads, each of which offers links to “basis sources” in the area and appropriate sub-topics . . . [more]

First, many thanks to Simon F. and the rest of the Slaw team for asking me to join. I’ve been an enthusiastic reader and occasional commenter on Slaw for the last couple of years, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to contribute more regularly to our exchanges of ideas.

As a topic for discussion, I’d like to propose the following hypothetical scenario. Let’s suppose that tomorrow you are presented with a legal problem requiring a bit of digging. You go to the library, and find, much to your surprise, that every fourth book is filled with empty pages. . . . [more]

This is an important (though admittedly recherché) area of corporate practice, which has a great resource of background materials maintained by the ABA Business Law Section Committee on Legal Opinions.

The Canadian equivalents are (hélas) maintained behind firewalls. . . . [more]

CasemakerX announced today the development of a social networking site which will be available to American law students, law school faculty and law librarians who register as users ((CasemakerX is a free service supported by the Casemaker Bar Consortium and its 475,000 attorney membership consisting of State Bar Associations across the USA. The purpose of CasemakerX is to provide a conduit to network law students and legal professionals, creating an information portal for self-promotion, education, mentoring and future opportunities in the legal profession. Our mission is to help law students connect and use the power of group knowledge and professional/social . . . [more]

A tip of the SLAW hat to Richard (Rick) Sage (of the Ontario Legislative Library) who made me aware today of “Our Ontario” (http://www.ourontario.ca) (SLAW’s Neil Campbell mentioned a related initiative relating to Alouette Canada in his 17 April 2007 post here).

The Government Documents collection on the “Our Ontario” site at http://govdocs.ourontario.ca can be used to find old Ontario Legislative Assembly Journals (turn-of-the-century old, e.g., from 1867).

If you type in the following terms – ontario legislative assembly journals – using the “AND” connector radio button, the first link is to the “repository directory” being http://www.ontla.on.ca/library/repository/ser/23347/ . . . [more]

Si on pourrait quitter les folies francophones à Montréal ce week-end, on pourrait avoir assisté à le premier congrès de l’Association internationale francophone des bibliothécaires documentalistes ((L’organisation se réjouit de la participation active de professionnels du
domaine de la bibliothéconomie originaires de différents pays francophones d’Europe,
d’Afrique et du Québec.)). Le président du congrès Réjean Savard, professeur de bibliothéconomie à l’Université de Montréal a fourni une allocution sur les défis que l’Internet lance pour des bibliothèques et ces employés ((Voir aussi son écrit (en anglais) Canadian Libraries on the Agenda: their accomplishments and directions en IFLA Journal, Vol. . . . [more]

Hats off to David Whelan and his colleagues at the Great Library for an intelligently designed practice portal clustering together resources for real estate lawyers in Ontario. Somewhat similar to the Pathfinders developed in many firms, it’s a great resource for solos and small firms. . . . [more]

OA News points to an interview with the head of Harvard Library’s Office of Scholarly Communication on the prospects for OA and related issues at Harvard. . . . [more]

Make your dreams come true….

♫ When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
When you wish upon a star
Your dream comes true .. ♫

Music by Leigh Harline, lyrics by Ned Washington.

Despite all the assistance from technology and the labour-saving devices available today, I don’t believe that most of us are really any closer to achieving our in-our-heart-of-heart’s dreams…you know what I mean…the ones that you think about at quiet moments..such as at dawn or gazing into a sunset.

I have talked to many lawyers …many many lawyers – who in the words . . . [more]

Here is a link to an interesting segment in Fox Business’s digital innovations scheme. This time it’s about FastCase’s challenge to the empires of West/Thomson in Eagan, MN and Reed Elsevier in Dayton OH. The interview talks about possible patents on the search algorithm, but nothing is on the USPTO yet. . . . [more]