Over the years, legal users have seen their fair share of badly designed websites, pages whose very design obstructs access. The wayback machine can draw cringes when we look back at sites that looked wonderful at the time.

However, a piece in today’s Korea Times led me to a site that reaches a new level in this dubious competition.

At the outset, we must commend the South Korean government for recognizing the need for having legal information accessible in a language other than Korean – Korean users could always click here.

But this site is extraordinary when it . . . [more]

Today is the deadline for public comment submissions to the CRTC with regard to their net neutrality hearings in July. This is from Michael Geist:

The CRTC has set out a series of questions in its public notice, some of which may be too technical or legal for many Canadians. However, there are some key questions that anyone with an interest in net neutrality can address including questions about how network management could result in unjust discrimination or undue preferences as well as how network management could result in controlling content or influencing telecommunications. Moreover, the CRTC asks

Well, yes… if you say so… but it seems a little harsh.

[Globe and Mail — ad in the print edition, where there’s a photo.] . . . [more]

This evening I returned from the 18th Annual Black Law Students Association National Conference in Halifax, N.S.

Although the conference was filled with interesting panels on various issues, including legal topics related to the long-standing black community in that province, a session on oral advocacy was of particular interest to me as a law student.

Oral advocacy is not something that can be purely taught in the classroom. It has to be practiced and refined, over and over again, which is why the previous day I had participated in the 2nd Annual Koskie Minsky LLP Diversity Moot. I’m pleased to . . . [more]

Brian Bowman (Pittblado, LLP) has a new blog — Brian Bowman – On the Cutting Edge — that’s been active since the beginning of the month. The blog:

provides practical assistance to Canadian businesses so they can better deal with issues related to privacy, access to information, online reputation management, intellectual property and technology legal matters.

Bowman is a Past Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s National Privacy and Access Law Section. Welcome to the blogosphere, Brian.

[via Information Roundup] . . . [more]

A new journal, Policy and Internet, has issued calls for papers for its first volume. The Policy Studies Organization and the Oxford Internet Institute and Berkeley Electronic Press, the publishers, are aiming to release the journal in the summer of this year. They claim that “[i]t will be the first major peer-reviewed journal to investigate the policy effects of the Internet and related technologies.” Those interested in submitting articles will want to take a look at the Aims and Scope page.

(Two irrelevancies: 1. Why “Internet” and not “the Internet”? That word doesn’t sit easily as an abstract . . . [more]

Three recent surveys have forecast a positive outlook for the legal process outsourcing (LPO) sector. Surprised? Given the current economic crisis, you shouldn’t be.

Before I elaborate on these surveys, let’s take stock of where we are at present. We all know what shape the global economy is in. So how is the legal industry shaping up? These are some of the recent headlines.

“Closings, layoffs come to U.S law firms”
“Wilson Sonsini cuts 113 jobs, freezes associate pay”
“White & Case lays off 70 associates”
“Orrick lays off 40 attorneys, 35 staff”
“Cooley Godward fired 50 lawyers and 60 . . . [more]

Yesterday I had the privilege of presenting in the ABA teleconference Online Social Networking Gets Professional. It was an interesting discussion to be a part of, but equally fascinating was the discussion taking place simultaneously online. A feature that is fast becoming the norm, we had a full twitter support session going on behind the scenes – 380 tweets to be exact.

This was the second webinar I’ve done where we aligned twitter response with the programming (the first was with Lexblog on law firm seo). Some of the decisions were made in advance, such as finding an . . . [more]

The deadline is approaching for nominations for the Walter Owen book prize, awarded by the Foundation for Legal Research. This $10,000 prize rewards outstanding new contributions to Canadian legal literature. This year, the selection committee will consider books written in English and published in 2007 or 2008. For additional information, see the notice on the Canadian Bar Association website. . . . [more]

…isn’t as light-hearted today as it usually is. But it’s interesting, important and not unrelated to law, because it’s about languages.

(One of the essays in my book-yet-to-be, 13 Ways of Looking at the Law, says that law is a language game — a skilled activity engaged in by more than one person according to a set of protocols etc. etc. — best played by those who have been immersed in the language and who are sensitive to as many contexts for its use as possible. We touch on this from time to time on Slaw when we raise the . . . [more]

Interface design matters. More and more, usability and user-focus are central themes in website design manuals such as Krug’s Dont Make Me Think, King’s Designing the Digital Experience, and Goto and Cotler’s Web Redesign 2.0: Workflow that Works. These successful popular works rely on a lot of serious user testing of the Jakob Nielsen variety, which tracks eye movement and identifies typical scanning patterns and optimal designs based on them.

If you have wondered why, then, the interfaces at WestlaweCarswell and Lexis-Nexis QL are so difficult to use, Julie Jones of Cornell has the answer for . . . [more]

As you may know, in the U.S. federal government documents are not protected by copyright. (Canadian federal government documents are protected by copyright in Canada.) Take this in context when reading the summary of the February 5th, 2009 decision by the California Court of Appeals for the Sixth Appellate District released its decision in California first Amendment Coalition v. County of Santa Clara.

In this case, the County of Santa Clara tried to enforce copyright in public records and to impose licensing restrictions (resulting in license fees) on commercial vendors. California first Amendment Coalition (CFAC) sued the county to release . . . [more]