Digital laws

Published on: July 28, 2016

Legal Hackers Summit: Blockchain (aka block chain), the Law, and UELMA

By Laura Orr

I’m sure your state’s legislative, judicial, and executive branch IT managers are wishing they had attended the Legal Hackers Summit. Here’s some commentary on one rather interesting topic. (Legal Geek Love, indeed!)

“Greenwood: Law Itself is the Killer Blockchain App,” posted on July 11, 2016 by legalinformatics, which links to this blog post: Law Itself is the Killer Blockchain App

About Legal Hackers: “Legal Hackers is a global movement of lawyers, policymakers, technologists, and academics who explore and develop creative solutions to some of the most pressing issues at the intersection of law and technology. Through local meetups, hackathons, and workshops across 40 global chapters, Legal Hackers spot issues and opportunities where technology can improve and inform the practice of law and where law, legal practice, and policy can adapt to rapidly changing technology.”

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Published on: October 14, 2014

The Law Decoded: Virginia (beta test)

By Laura Orr

A lot of “law & tech” endeavors often widen the gap between the legal haves and have-nots (think “digital dead end“), but this Law Decoded project (in progress) shows real promise, in addition to having a high cool factor, which never hurts. And even if it stalls, the intention, to make the law truly readable and “accessible” to all, should never be forgotten or lost in that legal-tech forest where you find a plethora of fancier A2J endeavors.

“Discover the Code of Virginia: THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA, FOR NON-LAWYERS.

Virginia Decoded provides the Code of Virginia on one friendly website. Inline definitions, cross-references, bulk downloads, a modern API, and all of the niceties of modern website design. It’s like the expensive software lawyers use, but free and wonderful….” [Link to Virginia Decoded.]

Published on: September 18, 2014

Authenticating Electronic Legal Materials: UELMA & Beyond (Program, San Diego, 1/9/15)

By Laura Orr

Authenticating Electronic Legal Materials: UELMA & Beyond

“Several states, including California, have enacted the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act. Learn about best practices, authentication technologies, and advocacy efforts from state officials, government relations experts, and law librarians:

Friday, January 9, 2015

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Published on: August 6, 2014

Rotten World of Legal Citation: Link Rot and Reference Rot

By Laura Orr

Excerpt: “Rotten World of Legal Citation,” July 31st, 2014 by sadavis:

In the past few years, the issue of link rot has become a growing concern in relation to broken links in legal citations, most notably in U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Two articles that discuss this problem in detail are:

1) Raizel Liebler & June Liebert, Something Rotten in the State of Legal Citation: The Life of a United States Supreme Court Citation Containing an Internet Link (1996-2010), 15 Yale J.L. & Tech. 273 (2013). Available at http://yjolt.org/sites/default/files/Something_Rotten_in_Legal_Citation.pdf (finding that 29% of websites cited in US Supreme Court opinions no longer worked);

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Published on: October 9, 2011

Article: “Abandoning Law Reports for Official Digital Case Law,” Peter W. Martin

By Laura Orr

I blog periodically about how legal information is not yet all online and the sad state of affairs it is for finding free, official, and authenticated legal information online anywhere. (You can find very good, if not official, online legal information for a price.)

But here’s an article on one way to make that transition to digital information:

“Abandoning Law Reports for Official Digital Case Law,” Peter W. Martin.

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