The Trial Practice Tips Weblog

Case Law on Google Scholar

The news that Google Scholar now includes caselaw is getting wide play on legal blogs. Here's Google's post explaining the news: "Finding the law that governs us."

Meanwhile, at iPhone J.D., Jeff Richardson provides an iPhone twist--

Lots of blawgs are discussing Google Scholar right now, but I don't see anyone talking about how nice it is that this service lets you view or search for virtually any case at any time on your iPhone (or other smartphone). Now, even if you are out of your office, you can quickly search for cases or pull up a specific case on your iPhone for free.

Finally, Ernie the Attorney gives more background: "Google now helps with legal research."

A Worthwhile Podcast About Intellectual Property

Doug Lichtman is a tenured law professor at UCLA who started a podcast six months ago called Intellectual Property Colloquium. Each month, Lichtman posts an hour-long conversation about a patent, copyright, or technology topic. The line-up of guests is fantastic. Here, for example, is a summary of the January show--

The Honorable Paul Michel currently serves as Chief Circuit Judge for the Federal District and, in that role, has overseen a period of enormous growth and change in the patent system. In this audio presentation, Chief Judge Michel joins moderator Doug Lichtman to talk patent reform, thinking not only about what has been accomplished in recent Supreme Court and Federal Circuit decisions, but also about what work is left ahead for Congress, the Supreme Court, the Patent Office, and the Federal Circuit itself.

Some of the other topics since the show began: "Privacy in a Networked World," "Everyone Hates DRM," and "In Re Bilski."

There's also CLE credit. As Lichtman wrote in an email, "One charm of the site is that we offer completely free CLE credit to lawyers who listen. All of our previous shows qualify in New York, California, Texas, Illinois, and Washington, and we plan to add more states later this year."

Each show also contains suggested reading material. It's a pretty slick operation--and all for free.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Online Resources

For future reference, here's a list of some online resources concerning the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure:

• The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, from Cornell University Law School, html and hyperlinked;
• The Federal Rules from the US Courts website; links to all federal rules in pdf format;
• Appellate, Bankruptcy, and Civil Forms from the US Courts website;
• An explanation of the federal rulemaking process from the US Courts website;
• Links to all the local federal court rules throughout the country;
• The Manual for Complex Litigation, Fourth, from the Federal Judicial Center;
• "Managing Discovery of Electronic Information: A Pocket Guide for Judges," by Rothstein, Hedges, and Wiggins (pdf);
• Materials on Electronic Discovery from the Federal Judicial Center.

Related posts:

    1. "Learn about Federal Multidistrict Litigation"
    2. "Still More about Multidistrict Litigation"

Read The Jury Expert, Free Online

The Jury Expert is a free online publication that's published by the American Society of Trial Consultants. The September issue contains the following articles, among others--

• The Preparation of Narcissistic Witnesses, by Douglas Keene, Charlotte Morris, Lisa DeCaro;

• The 3 Cs in Using Visual Communication to Tell Legal Stories: Communication, Credibility, and the Central Image, by Amy Pardieck; and

• Using the Science of Persuasion in the Courtroom by Edward Burkley, Darshon Anderson.

Back issues are available here.

Discovery Tip: Using Model Interrogatories to Fend Off Objections to Discovery

In many jurisdictions, you can find court-approved interrogatories, such as model interrogatories for motor vehicle, medical malpractice, and divorce cases approved by the Illinois Supreme Court.

Even if your case doesn't fall under one of the standard categories, you can still use the model interrogatories for drafting your own discovery. Not only does the use of a form make drafting discovery easier, but it will also help you later in fending off objections. The closer your discovery is to a court-approved form, the easier it will be to argue that your opponent's objection is not well-taken.

So powerful is the argument that "the interrogatory my opposing counsel is objecting to is identical to one approved by the courts," that it often makes sense to look at court-approved interrogatories when preparing to argue objections, even if you didn't use the model interrogatories in the first place.

Related posts:

1. "A Tip for Drafting Interrogatories: Less Can Be More."

2. "Sample Interrogatory: Persons with Knowledge."

Law Review Articles on the Web

In an article in the July issue of the Illinois Bar Journal, "Finding Free Legal Articles on the Web" (ISBA membership required), Tom Gaylord suggests these sources for finding free online law-review articles--

• Google Scholar;
• SSRN -- Legal Scholarship Network;
• Washington & Lee's Current Law Journal Content;
• Individual titles, found on sites like Law Review Home Pages at the University of Chicago Law Library.

You'll find tips and caveats about these sources in Gaylord's article, which is recommended for reading.

Improve Your Google Searches

Since there's no getting around Google, you should make sure you're using it effectively. A recent article from the National Law Journal by Tracey Rich -- "How Lawyers Can Improve Search Results" -- might give you the answer.

The article deals with advance search techniques and "ways to determine the reliability of a Web site." It has some good ideas. Meanwhile, you can also check out the following related posts on this weblog:

• "Searching for the Law"
• "Search 7 Million U.S. Patents Using Google"
• "Googling for Demonstratives"
• "Deposition Tip: In Preparing for a Witness, Always Check the Web"

Online Database of Articles for Litigators

A new website called Litilaw offers "published articles for litigators" with this introduction--

Welcome to our free collection of hundreds of recently published articles of interest to litigators and related legal professionals.  All articles are full-text, written by lawyers and have been published as part of continuing legal education (CLE) seminars, in legal journals, or are of similar quality.  Litilaw links to copies of articles available on the internet . . .

Litilaw also invites lawyers to add their own articles to the database. Link from Robert Ambrogi's LawSites.

Free Research Tool for Illinois Bar Members

Members of the Illinois State Bar Association now get free access to Fastcase, an online provider of legal research. The online FAQ has some of the details:

Through a link from the Illinois State Bar Association Web site, you have unlimited free access to the Fastcase federal and national library and "framed" Illinois statutes and codes.

Here's just some of what Fastcase includes:

• an easy-to-use search engine that allows both Boolean and natural-language searching;
• cases from the courts of review from Illinois and every other state, as well as U.S. Supreme and federal appellate cases (users can search all jurisdictions at once);
• star pagination and double-column printing.

To log on, all that's needed is your ISBA member number, which is printed in the upper left-hand corner of your Illinois Bar Journal mailing label.

Bringing the Federal Courts to You via RSS

Need to know when your client is sued in federal court? Justia Federal Court Filings allows you to see new filings by state, court, or subject matter. You can even set up RSS feeds to track the information you need to know. Link from Learning to Practice.

UPDATE: There's more from Justia about the new service here.