Lawyers at Adler Vermillion & Skocilich, LLP have made this remarkable copyright resource publicly available – and free. (Thank you!)
Copyright Codex (Beta): A Free Treatise for Lawyers and Artists
Many thanks for the tip from Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites blog, where you will find information about the Copyright Codex and much more, including a link to a Trial of Whitey Bulger website.
Library (and law firm) database (and eBook) licensing can be tricky, to put it mildly.
There are hundreds, thousands even, of fee-based subscription databases used by lawyers, legal researchers, librarians, historians, etc. If you need to negotiate and manage a database contract, here is a useful primer, and much more:
The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) has posted the following Code of Best Practices for Licensing Electronic Resources guidelines on its website, with easy access for everyone, not just AALL members:
Contents include: CODE OF BEST PRACTICES FOR LICENSING ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
Code Section I – Licensing Preparedness
Code Section II – License Components
Code Section III – Authorized Use and Authorized Users
Code Section IV – Copyright and Intellectual Property
Code Section V – Archiving
Code Section VI – Usage Tracking and User Privacy
Code Section VII –Termination/Renewal
Code Section VIII –Dispute Resolution
Code Section IX – Warranties/Quality of Service
Appendix A: CHECKLIST FOR LICENSING ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
Appendix B: RESOURCES FOR LICENSING TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Appendix C: RESOURCES FOR SAMPLE CLAUSES AND MODEL LICENSE AGREEMENTS
Appendix D: BIBLIOGRAPHY – LICENSING AND PROCUREMENT OF ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
Appendix E: Procurement Process Checklist for Law Libraries
Politwoops: “Deleted Doesn’t Mean Inaccessible: Search and Access Deleted Tweets By Politicians,” from the 4/29/13 LJ InfoDocket post by Gary Price.
(Priceless Meanderings: Diamonds are Forever (Fleming & Bond) and Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend (Loos and Monroe) and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Lennon and McCarthy) and Tweety Bird (of course!).)
For an easy, low-stress Oregon, 9th Circuit, and U.S. Supreme Court decision-tracker, sign up for Willamette Law Online, from the students and faculty at Willamette Law School.
It’s easy to subscribe and unsubscribe.
Tracy White, Oregon Attorney, and Washington County Law Library patron, writes a monthly legal affairs column for the (OregonLive) Hillsboro Argus:
April 9, 2013, OregonLive column in the Argus: “Why the Oregon Constitution matters (guest column)”
Previous legal affairs columns by Tracy White include:
March 6, 2013, OregonLive column in the Hillsboro Argus, “Many free legal resources exist for nonlawyers (guest column)”
February 6th, 2013, OregonLive column in the Hillsboro Argus, “Oregon consumers gain big weapon against creditors (guest column),”
Disclaimers:
The Argus column is not legal advice, but only general information about the law. It may not apply to your individual situation. If you need legal advice, please consult an attorney.
The information provided on this blog is for research purposes only. We do not provide legal advice, nor do we endorse any person, product, or company.
Are you an “English as a Second (or 3rd or 4th) Language” law student or lawyer?
Are you thinking about going abroad to teach U.S. law or legal research to foreign students or lawyers?
There are books for non-English speakers learning the Language of American and (UK) English Law. Some might even be e-books.
And there is lots of other information online. I used this as a starter search, limiting my search to recent results: teaching “legal english”
You can add to that the phrase “second language” for different but related results.
Check libraries and bookstores for these and others teaching and learning resources:
1) “American Legal English, 2nd Edition: Using Language in Legal Contexts,” by Debra Suzette Lee, Charles Hall, and Susan Barone, 2007.
2) “International Legal English Teacher’s Book,” by Jeremy Day, 2011.
3) “International Legal English: a practical course book for speakers of English as a second language,” by Angela Williams, 2012.
4) “Introduction to International Legal English: A Course for Classroom or Self-Study Use,” by Amy Krois-Lindner and Matt Firth, 2009
5) “Professional English in Use – Law,” by Gillian D. Brown and Sally Rice, 2007
6) The TOLES (test of legal English skills) bookstore lists additional books for teachers of legal English.
7) This Carl Dowse blog post has additional references and lots of useful information.
You can also research TESL, CESL, ESOL, ILEC, and other certifications. See also Wikipedia article on English Language Learning and Teaching.
Disclaimer: The information provided on this blog is for research purposes only. We do not provide legal advice, nor do we endorse any person, product, or company.
Visit the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) Justice Case Files website to read this hilarious coloring-book story:
Justice Case File 4: The Case of the Broken Controller is a (PDF) narrative coloring book available to download for free. (Note: the PDF at the NCSC site is almost 8 MB. It can be optimized to under 4 MB if you have Adobe.)
“The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) launched a public awareness campaign several years ago to educate the public about how the courts work. The central effort of this campaign was to develop a series of graphic novels, called Justice Case Files, which engage the reader while giving insight into how judges make decisions, how the courts protect the public, and why courts are so important to a democratic society….”
There are more Graphic Stories (aka comic books) at the site for free downloading. (Note: these are swf files so you most likely will not be able to read them on an iPad without a conversion app.)
Justice Case File 1: The Case of Internet Piracy tells the story of Megan, a college freshman charged with downloading music, and her grandmother who has received notice that the city plans to take her house through eminent domain.
Justice Case File 2: The Case of Identity Theft tells the story of the Garcia family, whose identity is stolen through an email phishing scam.
Justice Case File 3: The Case of Jury Duty tells the story of Matthew Foley, an 18-year-old who has been summoned for jury duty on a case that involves underage drinking and driving. Through Matt’s story, readers learn how meaningful jury service is, how the jury system is a source of accountability for courts, and how our society benefits from the right of a jury of your peers.
If you research the law online, you need to have authenticated, official laws – yes, you do!
There is no point relying on statutes, cases, regulations, and other government legal documents that aren’t correct, aren’t from the year(s) you need, and are missing the source’s official imprimatur.
Most online laws have Disclaimers that advise and warn you to verify what you read online with official, legal text.
But aren’t we told to “get with the plan? It’s all online?” Yes, we are!
So, how do we Get with The Plan? The most important way is to make sure that federal, state, and local governments post authenticated, official laws online. This is where UELMA comes in.
Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA) is a uniform law that would require a state government to:
1) Authenticate official electronic legal materials, by providing a method to determine that it is unaltered
2) Preserve official electronic legal materials, either in electronic or print form; and
3) Make the legal materials easily accessible, for use by the public on a permanent basis.
In Oregon, 2013 HB 2944 is the first, and maybe the last, UELMA bill to be introduced this session. You can read it at the Oregon Legislature’s website - or try this direct link first: HB 2944 (PDF). You can also follow the bill in the Legislature’s OLIS system, from which you can link to hearings, reports, and other proceedings that take place as the bill works its way through the Legislature.
UELMA has been approved by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and the American Bar Association House of Delegates, and it is under consideration in ten states. It has already become law in Colorado and California.
If you want lots more information about UELMA, visit the American Association of Law Libraries website, where you will find links to the full text of the ULA’s UELMA, to UELMA bill tracking in other states, etc. You can also link directly to the NCCUSL UELMA webpage.
Casemaker now has subscriptions for individual, unaffiliated (with a bar association or law school) legal researchers. Visit the Casemaker website for instructions and prices.
In the world of low-cost legal research databases, Casemaker and Fastcase are the primary vendors providing group-rate services to bar associations. This is good for lawyers, clients, and for non-lawyer bar association members.
Other low-cost research databases exist, including LoisLaw, VersusLaw, and others. (See the list on this blog’s sidebar or link directly to the Georgetown Law School Library’s Free and Low Cost Legal Research Guide.
“Post-Conviction Representation, Pro Se Practice and Access to the Courts,” by Ken Strutin, published at LLRX dot com on February 19, 2013
Excerpt: “After the first criminal appeal, there is no constitutional right to counsel. Thus, the convicted and imprisoned pursuing discretionary appeals and habeas corpus relief must research, investigate and litigate as their own attorney. A body of law has developed that defines the spectrum between full-blown post-conviction representation and the impact of the conditions of confinement on pro se litigants….” [Link to full 2/19/13 LLRX article.]
