Technology

Internet Legal Research On A Budget

This book is a great resource for law firms seeking to trim the fat from their budgets.

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Like most lawyers, you’ve probably been sheltering in place for months now. The good news is that for some of your firms, reopening may soon be a possibility. Even so, things won’t be “back to normal” for some time now. As a result, this new world order we find ourselves in requires lawyers and law firms to rapidly shift priorities as the fluid situation evolves and changes.

Of course, this is nothing new. When social distancing mandates were initially instituted in March, the immediate challenges your law firm faced likely involved choosing the technology tools that would allow your firm’s employees to operate remotely. Once that was accomplished, the next task many firms have begun to focus on is maintaining financial stability in the midst of uncertainty. For many firms, that process involves identifying ways to sustain revenue and reduce unnecessary costs both during and after the pandemic.

Enter the newly published book, “Internet Legal Research on a Budget: Free and Low-Cost Resources for Lawyers.” The  second edition of this book is co-authored by Judy K. Davis and Carole A. Levitt and was just released by ABA Publishing. (Note that I was provided a complimentary copy for review purposes.)

This book is a great resource for law firms seeking to trim the fat from their budgets. It offers a vast amount of information and guidance for lawyers seeking to use the internet to conduct investigative and legal research. No matter what you’re looking for, this book will help you find it. Whether it’s background information on a person or a company, legislative materials, or statutory or case law legal research, this book covers it all. And best of all, most of the resources discussed in this 365-page guide are low-cost or free!

Of course, the problem with trying to locate information online is that there’s so much of it. That’s where this book comes in. As Bob Ambrogi explains in the Introduction, the reason this book is such a invaluable resource is because it helps you sift through the seemingly unlimited volume of information available online today:

(T)he Internet today offers legal professionals seemingly unlimited sources of legal information—much of it free. But that abundance can be daunting. Think of Internet Legal Research on a Budget as a roadmap to the best of what is out there. It will guide you to what you need, and save you a buck along the way.

No matter what type of information you’re seeking, it’s likely available online. You just need to know where to look and how to access it. In this book, the authors help you do just that by covering the ins and outs of a broad array of online resources including:

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  • Legal portals and directories (government, academic, and commercial)
  • Case law databases (government and commercial)
  • Federal Statutory research
  • Federal, legislative, and congressional materials
  • Starting points for state, local, territorial, and tribal law, and
  • Foreign, international, and comparative law resources

For example, the first section of this book focuses on legal research and includes coverage of: 1) websites for general legal research, including court rules, jury instructions, and specific practice area resources; 2) legal portals and directories, including Justia, Findlaw, and Cornell’s Legal Information Institute; and 3) free or low-cost case law research databases, including Google Scholar, Casetext, and in-depth overviews of Casemaker 4 and Fastcase 7.

The authors also provide a ton of useful practice tips and advice on using the various resources discussed in the book. For example, in chapter 15, the authors discuss how dockets and case documents can be used for legal and investigative research. They explain that in addition to using dockets to conduct due diligence information about a person or company’s background, you can also use dockets to locate sample pleadings for matter similar to one you’re handling on behalf of a client:

Some attorneys use dockets for legal research purposes. For example, instead of drafting a complaint or an answer from scratch, some attorneys search dockets to find sample pleadings for cases that are similar to their case. If you are using PACER, there are a few ways to identify a similar case. For instance, you can find sample pleadings if you either know the party name or case number of a similar case. Or, if you don’t, you can search PACER by its Nature of Suit (NOS) codes … An alternative, and better, method to search for similar cases is by full-text key-word searching through case documents at the free CourtListener Recap Archive (and some pay databases) …

So if your firm is seeking to reduce costs as it moves toward reopening, one way to accomplish that might be to review your firm’s high-cost legal research subscriptions and cut back by reducing some of the databases to which your firm subscribes — and then accessing that same information online for free or at a lower cost. But before you do that, make sure to obtain a copy of this book so that you’ll have a how-to legal research guide available for your firm’s employees.

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Sure, it’s a small up-front investment, but it’s one that will undoubtedly pay off in the long run.

Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney and Director of Business and Community Relations at MyCase, web-based law practice management software. She’s been blogging since 2005, has written a weekly column for the Daily Record since 2007, is the author of Cloud Computing for Lawyers, co-authors Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier, and co-authors Criminal Law in New York. She’s easily distracted by the potential of bright and shiny tech gadgets, along with good food and wine. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikiblack and she can be reached at niki.black@mycase.com.

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