Archive for the ‘Legal’ Category
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
Locating the Law, 5th Edition was designed especially for the California non-law librarian dealing with legal reference questions. However, we think some of the content will be of interest and use to those of you outside of California. The document can be downloaded chapter by chapter (PDF) or as a complete document (238 pages; PDF)
Chapters Include:
+ Cover
+ Preface by Ruth Hill
+ Acknowledgments by June Kim
+ Chapter 1: Introduction by Karla Castetter
+ Chapter 2: How to Read a Legal Citation by David McFadden
+ Chapter 3: Basic Legal Research Techniques by Joan Allen-Hart
+ Chapter 4: Legal Reference vs. Legal Advice by Joan Allen-Hart
+ Chapter 5: California Law by Laura A. Cadra
+ Chapter 6: Bibliography of California Resources by Patrick Meyer
+ Chapter 7: Federal Law by Karla Castetter
+ Chapter 8: Bibliography of Federal Law Resources by June Kim
+ Chapter 9: Assisting Self-Represented Litigants by Laura A. Cadra & June Kim
+ Chapter 10: Bibliography of Self-Help Resources by Lisa Schultz
+ Chapter 11: Availability, Accessibility and Maintenance of Legal Collections by Joan Allen-Hart
+ Chapter 12: Major Law Publishers by Jennifer Lentz
Appendices
+ Appendix A: Glossary of Legal Terms by June Kim
+ Appendix B: California County Law Libraries by Esther Eastman
+ Appendix C: California Law Schools by Karla Castetter
Source: Southern California Association of Law Libraries
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Legal, Resources | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
From the Home Page
Government records are fundamental to understanding official policies and the decision-making processes of our leaders. They can be vital resources for a journalist following a breaking news story about government misconduct, a military veteran’s family seeking information about benefits, or a student writing a history paper. Government documents provide first-hand, real-time accounts of events as they unfolded, generally without the editorial filter that characterizes secondary sources like books and news articles.
This guide, Effective FOIA Requesting for Everyone: A National Security Archive Guide, provides a comprehensive overview of how to obtain documents from federal executive branch agencies. It focuses primarily on the Freedom of Information Act process. But it also briefly treats other means of accessing government records, including through publicly available sources and through the Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) process for obtaining previously classified records.
Access the Guide By Chapters (PDF) or Download the Complete Guide at One Time (122 pages; PDF)
Source: National Security Archive
Hat Tip: David D. and Net-Gold
Posted in Access to Information, Legal | No Comments »
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
Social Networking – Legal and Ethical Issues for Lawyers and Investigators
Should an investigator or attorney “friend” a prosecution witness in order to find impeachment evidence? Are there legal or ethical bars to surreptitiously gathering data from social network profiles? Should the intent of the user have any bearing on the formulation of law related to access? These and more questions were stirred up in the mix of case studies presented at the (first, annual?) symposium, Social Networks: Friends or Foes? Confronting Online Legal and Ethical Issues in the Age of Social Networking, sponsored by UC Berkeley School of Law. Yeah, a long title but, hey, these folks are academics. And the case studies constituted just the first panel (”Problems Unique to Social Networking and the Law”) of an extraordinary assemblage of academic, government, activist, policy and practicing lawyers rounding out the 5-panel day.
Much of the discussion concerned access to profile content, – the difference between civil and criminal (where there’s the familiar prosecution/defense imbalance) cases – whether certain information should be private even if it can be viewed by unintended parties. For example, should employers be able to view deleted personal information? No one mentioned the issue of whether schools have a legal right to compel students to turn over their user names/passwords (See: “Area School Wants Access To Students’ Social Networking”). There may be instances when a legal requirement for disclosure would apply. Lauren Gelman, Executive Director, Stanford Law, Center for Internet and Society, raised the question of whether evidence in the online sites could be used, say, in divorce cases, to support evidence gathered by other means. The Deputy General Counsel for Facebook took the position that user’s profile content is private, begging the audience to sue the company to settle issues of access.
See: Social Networks: Friends or Foes
Source: PI Buzz
Posted in Legal, Papers and Presentations, Privacy, Search News, Social Media, Source File, Technology and Internet, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Monday, October 19th, 2009
Consumer Data Broker ChoicePoint Failed to Protect Consumers’ Personal Data, Left Key Electronic Monitoring Tool Turned Off for Four Months
ChoicePoint, Inc., one of the nation’s largest data brokers, has agreed to strengthened data security requirements to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the company failed to implement a comprehensive information security program protecting consumers’ sensitive information, as required by a previous court order. This failure left the door open to a data breach in 2008 that compromised the personal information of 13,750 people and put them at risk of identify theft. ChoicePoint has now agreed to a modified court order that expands its data security assessment and reporting duties and requires the company to pay $275,000.
In April 2008, ChoicePoint (now a subsidiary of Reed Elsevier, Inc.) turned off a key electronic security tool used to monitor access to one of its databases, and for four months failed to detect that the security tool was off, according to the FTC. During that period, an unknown person conducted unauthorized searches of a ChoicePoint database containing sensitive consumer information, including Social Security numbers. The searches continued for 30 days. After discovering the breach, the company brought the matter to the FTC’s attention.
The FTC alleged that if the security software tool had been working, ChoicePoint likely would have detected the intrusions much earlier and minimized the extent of the breach. The FTC also alleged that ChoicePoint’s conduct violated a 2006 court order mandating that the company institute a comprehensive information security program reasonably designed to protect consumers’ sensitive personal information.
+ United States of America (for the Federal Trade Commission) v. ChoicePoint Inc.
Source: Federal Trade Commission
Posted in Government Documents and Political Information, Information Industry, Legal, Privacy, Search News, Source File, Technology and Internet | No Comments »
Friday, October 16th, 2009
Carl Malamud is an information hero to many people. He created EDGAR, FedFlix (digitizing U.S. government film and video), and many other services that can be found on his Public.resource.org page. The Los Angeles Times recently named him a government transparency crusader.
Now, Mr. Malamud is involved a new project, Law.gov.
He explains what it’s all about in a new O’Reilly Radar blog post. He even mentions a role for librarians in the post.
Public.Resource.Org is very pleased to announce that we’re going to be working with a distinguished group of colleagues from across the country to create a solid business plan, technical specs, and enabling legislation for the federal government to create Law.Gov. We envision Law.Gov as a distributed, open source, authenticated registry and repository of all primary legal materials in the United States. More details on the effort are available on our Law.Gov page.
[Snip]
The idea for Law.Gov seems to be getting a good reception in Washington, D.C. Senator Lieberman, writing on behalf of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the committee responsible for the E-Government Act, has already accepted our request to submit our report to the Committee. Additional formal requests to submit the completed report are outstanding.
[Snip]
Law.Gov is a big challenge for the legal world, and some of the best thinkers in that world have joined us as co-conveners…[Our emphasis] There are challenges for librarians as well, such as compiling a full listing of all materials that should be in the repository.
[Snip]
The factor that made this coalesce was the recent Government 2.0 Summit put on by Tim O’Reilly. I gave a talk at that summit about the need to put primary legal materials on-line, and it was gratifying to hear the Deputy CTO of the United States, in his closing keynote, highlight that as one of the issues which he thought the White House should help make real through their “moral authority and convening power.”
Much More in the Complete Article
Source: O’Reilly Radar
Posted in Digital Repositories, Government Documents and Political Information, Information Industry, Information Policy, Legal, Technology and Internet | No Comments »
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Metadata Ethics Opinions Around the U.S.
Metadata is loosely defined as “data about data.” More specifically, the term refers to the embedded stratum of data in electronics file that may include such information as who authored a document, when it was created, what software was used, any comments embedded within the content, and even a record of changes made to the document.
While metadata is often harmless, it can potentially include sensitive, confidential, or privileged information. As such, it presents a serious concern for attorneys charged with maintaining confidentiality — both their own and their clients. Professional responsibility committees at several bar associations around the country have weighed in on attorneys’ ethical responsibilities regarding metadata, but there is no clear consensus on the major metadata issues. To help track current views on metadata and ethics, we’ve assembled the following chart.
Source: American Bar Association Legal Technology Resource Center
Posted in Cataloging and Metadata, Legal, Privacy, Source File | No Comments »
Monday, October 12th, 2009
From the Announcement:
LexisNexis today announced the availability of transparent semantic search technology for its full complement of intellectual property (IP) research products – enabling users to find the most precise and relevant patent search results.
Through a development alliance with Dallas-based Pure Discovery, LexisNexis has become the first provider of legal information services to integrate the power of semantic search technology with familiar Boolean search technology, giving the user greater control over the patent research process via a simple, streamlined user interface that matches their typical daily workflow.
[Snip]
The new semantic search solution from LexisNexis and Pure Discovery, however, overcomes such challenges to accomplish four breakthrough objectives in online search:
Transparency: Each query is enhanced by the machine intelligence and shown to the user for their complete understanding and engagement. Increased control: Not only is the semantic search transparent, but users are in control with the ability to add, delete, increase or decrease the importance of all query words (concepts) in a unique visual query interface called a “querycloud.”
Fully federated: While LexisNexis maintains one of the largest full-text patent and non-patent literature databases in the world, its semantic search platform can associate semantic searches to virtually any index, whether it resides internally or on the web.
Scalability: The LexisNexis index includes semantic intelligence from more than 10 million full-text patent documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s patent index, as well as Elsevier journal articles and other documents.
[Snip]
The new technology is now available through the patent research and retrieval service LexisNexis® TotalPatent™ and the automated patent application and analysis product LexisNexis PatentOptimizer. In addition, the functionality is also available through lexis.com.
Source: LN (via Business Wire)
See Also: Learn More About Pure Discovery
Posted in Information Industry, Intellectual Property, Legal, Resources, Search News, Semantic Search | No Comments »
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
West, part of Thomson Reuters, has announced that 30 of their titles will be available for the Amazon.com Kindle.
As electronic book readers increase in popularity with students and professionals, West is making nearly 30 of its titles available for electronic download for the Amazon Kindle. The addition of electronic versions of selected titles allows West to meet the needs of law students, law school faculty and legal professionals who are increasingly using new electronic media in the classroom, on the job and for personal use.
You can learn more and review the 30 titles via this news release.
Source: West (via PR Newswire)
Posted in Legal, Print Publications | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
From the Article:
When 22-year-old programmer Aaron Swartz decided last fall to help an open-government activist amass a public and free copy of millions of federal court records, he did not expect he’d end up with an FBI agent trying to stake out his house.
But that’s what happened, as Swartz found out this week when he got his FBI file through a Freedom of Information Act request. A partially-redacted FBI report shows the feds mounted a serious investigation of Swartz for helping put public documents onto the public web.
The FBI ran Swartz through a full range of government databases starting in February, and drove by his home, after the U.S. court system told the feds he’d pilfered approximately 18 million pages of documents worth $1.5 million dollars. That’s how much the public records would have cost through the federal judiciary’s pay-walled PACER record system, which charges eight cents a page for most legal filings.
The article continues with details about how Swartz was able to access the PACER documents.
[Snip]
He [Swartz] donated the 19,856,160 pages to public.resource.org, an open government initiative spearheaded by Carl Malamud as part of a broader project to make public as many government databases as Malamud can find. It was Malamud who previously shamed the SEC into putting all its EDGAR filings online in the ’90s, and he used $600,000 in donations to buy 50 years of documents from the nation’s appeals court, which he promptly put on the internet for anyone to download in bulk.
[Snip]
PACER records still cost eight cents a page, but now PACER users running the Firefox browser can donate their downloads to the public domain with a simple plug-in called RECAP.
Use of the plug-in is not likely to start an investigation of you.
But then again, who knows.
Source: Wired (via /.)
See Also: Our First Post about RECAP (8/14/2009)
We also mention OpenJurist (free) and OpenRegs (Federal Regulations). Both of these services are also free.
Posted in Access to Information, Government Documents and Political Information, Legal | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
From the News Release:
Dozens of leading academic, library, consumer advocacy, organized labor and publishing organizations joined the Open Book Alliance today in calling on Google and its litigation partners to create an open and transparent process to negotiate a settlement in the Google Book Search case. The parties published an open letter to Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, demanding that they include key stakeholders to represent the broad range of public interests in the mass digitization of books. Google and its partners abandoned a previous settlement proposed in the case after the U.S. Department of Justice and others criticized the deal and recommended that the court reject it, but Google and the plaintiff publishers continue to negotiate behind closed doors on a revised settlement proposal.
[Snip]
Joining the Open Book Alliance in calling on Google and its partners to open the process in service of the public interest are leading library associations such as the New York Library Association, the Ohio Library Council, the New Jersey Library Association, and the Special Libraries Association…
You can read the full text of the letter here. (2 pages; PDF)
Source: Open Book Alliance (via PR Newswire)
UPDATE: We’ve learned the the Open Book Alliance letter wasn’t the only letter sent today.
From an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Blog Post:
Today EFF along with the ACLU and the privacy authors and publishers they represent, the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries and the Association of College and Research Libraries, CDT, EPIC, SFLC, Professor James Grimmelman sent a joint letter to Google urging it to include privacy protections along with its reconsidered Google Book Search Settlement.
Access the complete letter here (2 pages; PDF)
Posted in Digitization Projects, Information Industry, Intellectual Property, Legal, Privacy | No Comments »
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
From a Blog Post:
The Department of Justice launches Justice.gov today in an effort to increase openness and transparency in government. Utilizing a variety of online tools, we will be able to share news and information, not just on our own web site, but through popular social networks Twitter***, YouTube and MySpace and Facebook. The Justice presence on these social networks will allow Americans to interact with the Department in entirely new ways.
The new Justice.gov has incorporated more multimedia than ever before. You’ll find a photo gallery and video library that will be regularly updated with new content from across the Department of Justice. And of course, The Justice Blog will be a hub of information for the Department.
*** Note the “Verified Account” Check Mark at the Top of the Twitter Page. What’s a Twitter Verified Account?
Access the Redesigned U.S. Department of Justice Web Site
A Spanish language version of the site is also available.
In addition to the links to Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook here are some of the other features you’ll find on the site.
(more…)
Posted in Government Documents and Political Information, Legal, Resources | No Comments »
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
From the Article:
Wisconsin’s online court records database, known as CCAP, was created so the public could easily search for that information. However, state Representative Marlin Schneider (D-Wisconsin Rapids) says people are being punished when cases that are dismissed remain in the system. He says potential employers or landlords can see that information, and may use it against an applicant.
The practice is against the law. However, Schneider says he’s heard from multiple people who have faced such discrimination because charges remain on CCAP for several years, even if they’re dismissed.
Schneider is sponsoring a bill that would restrict free CCAP access to state agencies, as well as legal, law enforcement and media professionals. The public could still view cases where there was a conviction, after they register and pay a fee.
Note: The text report also includes a 3 minute audio report (mp3) about the story. Look for the link at the bottom of the page.
Access the CCAP Database
Source: Wisconsin Radio Network
Posted in Access to Information, Databases, Directories, and Guides, Government Documents and Political Information, Legal | No Comments »
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
The following videos were recorded at the 2009 ALA Annual Conference. They’re hosted on blip.tv.
From the Blog Post:
1) “My, those novels certainly are… graphic!”
One of the most popular intellectual freedom programs in years, this panel discussion was sponsored by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, Association of American Publishers, and Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Speakers: Neil Gaiman, Terry Moore, and Craig Thompson. Moderated by Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
2) “Privacy in an Era of Change”
An engrossing conversation about the status of privacy under the new administration. Cosponsored by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee and the ALA Washington Office. Speakers: Mary Ellen Callahan, Chief Privacy Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; David Sobel, Senior Counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and Craig Wacker, program officer for the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media & Learning initiative.
3) “Libraries, Librarians, and America’s War on Sex”
Sex ed advocate Marty Klein discusses the importance of having sexual information available to all library users. Sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Round Table.
4) “Intellectual Freedom on the Front Lines”
Librarians and library supporters from West Bend, Wisconsin share their perspective on the protracted censorship challenges going on in their community at this issues briefing session, sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Committee and the Freedom to Read Foundation.
Source: OIF Blog
See Also: Banned Books Week Begins this Saturday. ResourceShelf has assembled and continues to update a growing compilation of web-based resources. You can find the compilation here.
Posted in Information Policy, Legal, Libraries and Librarianship, Privacy, Technology and Internet, Webcasts and Podcasts | No Comments »
Monday, September 21st, 2009
Back in July we posted about The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress asking for comments from the public about amending its regulations. Today, the deadline to submit comments was extended to October 16, 2009.
From the Post:
The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is proposing to amend its regulations governing mandatory deposit of electronic works published in the United States and available only online.
The amendments would establish that such works are exempt from mandatory deposit until a demand for deposit of copies or phonorecords of such works is issued by the Copyright Office. They would also set forth the process for issuing and responding to a demand for deposit, amend the definition of a ‘‘complete copy’’ of a work for purposes of mandatory deposit of online–only works, and establish new best edition criteria for electronic serials available only online. The Copyright Office seeks public comment on these proposed revisions.
Reply comments must be received in the Office of the General Counsel of the Copyright Office no later than October 16, 2009.
So far, seven comments have been received. You can read the full text of them here.
You’ll find comments (PDF) from:
+ Association of American Publishers, Inc.
+ American Library Association and Association of Research Libraries
+ Software & Information Industry Association
+ Newspaper Association of America
and others.
Source: Copyright Office, Library of Congress
Posted in Intellectual Property, Legal | No Comments »
Monday, September 21st, 2009
From the Article:
An agreement between the Oregon State Bar Association and a Washington, D.C., legal publisher will allow state-licensed attorneys free online access to a large national law library.
Fastcase Inc. agreed to provide more than 16,000 Oregon attorneys access to its law library. The database collects judicial opinions and statutes from all 50 states, federal district courts, federal bankruptcy courts, nationwide federal court of appeals cases and the U.S. Supreme Court.
More in the Full Article
Source: Portland Business Journal
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Legal, Resources | No Comments »
Friday, September 18th, 2009
From the globalEDGE Description:
Produced by the member law firms of Lexwork International, this Compendium provides trade law summaries for over 30 jurisdictions prepared by law firms located there. Includes most significant US trading partners. An excellent resource for companies intending to do business in foreign countries and some US states. Summaries are listed below with the marking “a Lexwork International exclusive.”
Access Compendium of Trade Laws
Source: (via globalEDGE, Michigan St. University)
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Legal | No Comments »
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
Florida Public Notices
FloridaPublicNotices.com is a database of public and legal notices published in newspapers throughout the state of Florida. You can search through this database to find notices important to you, your family, or your business, and also sign up to have these notices e-mailed directly to you.
This is a combined effort by the newspapers of Florida and the Florida Press Service to make it as convenient and easy as possible to access public notices and legal ads published in various communities throughout the state.
Source: Florida Press Association
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Government Documents and Political Information, Legal, Source File | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
From an Announcement:
In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, the Law Library of Congress presents this guide providing commentary and recommended resources.
Sections Include:
+ Overview
+ Legislative Branch Documents
+ Executive Branch Documents
Direct to Resource Guide
More Resources for Hispanic Heritage Month via the Library of Congress
Sources: Law Library of Congress / LC
See Also: Looking for Stats and Facts About the Hispanic Population in the U.S.?
This “fast fact” guide is loaded down with all sorts of interesting and useful numbers.
Posted in Calendars and Special Events, Government Documents and Political Information, Legal, Resources for Educators, Source File, Statistics | No Comments »
