Testing the Accuracy of Database Information Produced in Civil Discovery

Conrad J. Jacoby identifies the trend that increasingly electronically stored information (“ESI”) requested in litigation discovery originates in databases or other structured data repositories. Previously, this data was stored in discrete e-mail messages, spreadsheets, and word processing files that have long made up the bulk of most ESI document productions. Businesses creating and managing their accumulated information have discovered that they are able to extract far more utility if they store their data in a single repository and in a standardized format.

Subjects: Discovery, E-Discovery, Features, Technology Trends

Law Libraries Transformed

Not long ago, the law library was “a place”. It housed printed materials and staff and provided work space for research. Lawyers went there to use books and consult librarians to locate and complete assignments. Today Eleanor Windsor and Ron Friedmann report that the notion of a modern law library is very different, shaped by the skills of specialized researchers and information managers rather than by bookshelves and bound volumes.

Subjects: Business Research, Features, Law Firm Marketing, Law Librarians, Legal Research, Legal Technology, LEXIS, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Outsourcing

Basic Legal Research on the Internet

This article explores the corner of the Internet landscape that concentrates on legal research. For the most part, these databases and search tools are free, although some might require a library card. Essentially, this is a short list of “go to” sites that most researchers will find useful. Before delving in, author Ken Strutin also examines a few time tested research concepts for the Internet age.

Subjects: Internet Resources - Web Links

Problems with Creating a Course to Help Colleagues

How many times have you wondered how to do a task or work with software? You feel wonderful once you have found a colleague who could share their “know-how” about how to complete that task more efficiently or how to implement an applications that does not have a manual that makes sense to you. Lorette S.J. Weldon focuses on four factors to consider when you want to share your knowledge on your own: cost; timing; equipment and global presentation.

Subjects: Features, Information Architecture, Information Mapping, Law Librarians, Law Library Management, Legal Research Training, Library Software & Technology, Technology Trends, Web Management

FOIA Facts – Ideas for Faster FOIA Processing

Scott A. Hodes notes that in the current Congress there are bills pending that would create a commission to come up with ideas for faster FOIA processing. He contends that by taking those ideas, along with a few days of congressional oversight hearings to solicit other opinions, Congress would have ample information to create an actual bill that would implement faster FOIA processing now rather than wait for a “commission” to come up with these same ideas.

Subjects: FOIA Facts, Freedom of Information, Legal Research

What is Open Source?

In the past few years, the term open source has been bandied about not just in library-land, but in every industry. When a term is talked about this much, some would say to the point of overuse, people start to think it’s a fad. In this and upcoming articles, Nicole C. Engard is here on LLRX to tell you that open source is no fad, and why.

Subjects: Legal Research, Technology Trends

Your Cheat Sheet for Local Rule Motion Practice – Part One: Southern District of New York

You know the Federal Rules backwards and forwards, but its compliance with the local rules that really makes a civil litigator look like a pro to colleagues and clients. In this column, Wendy Schneider provides professionals with the tools to navigate motion practice in these busy federal courts by outlining the key provisions and highlighting the pitfalls.

Subjects: Local Rules

Forensic Evidence and the CSI Effect

The media’s popularization of certain types of evidence may be inspiring a “CSI effect” on decision makers according to Ken Strutin. There is a question about whether impressions created by the media in its treatment and portrayal of forensic proof as either irrefutable or absolutely necessary for conviction is truly impacting the outcome of criminal cases. Ken’s guide is a collection of select legal scholarship and media studies that illuminates the extent of the phenomenon and whether it needs to be addressed and how.

Subjects: Criminal Law, Internet Resources - Web Links, Legal Research, Online Legal Research Services