Licensed to Practice?--2010 Update

Where do you go when you have to know: Is Lawyer X licensed to practice in State Y? This sometimes elusive information might be available from a state court, bar association, or licensing and disciplinary commission, depending upon the state. But one guide, "A Compilation of State Lawyer Licensing Databases," by Andrew Zimmerman and Trevor Rosen, puts it all together, with licensing authority links, phone numbers, and special notes and advice on attorney directory access for all fifty states. Just this week, a newly revised and updated version was published on LLRX, the law and technology site. This guide and LegalDockets.com, for locating state and county bar association memberships, disciplinary actions, and lawyer referral sites, are great resources to bookmark for future reference.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL GRADUATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have made it through!! Best of luck to you!! Definitely stop by now and again to visit - either online or in bricks and mortar.

Also, WAY TO GO!! to everyone else. You made it through the year. I look forward to purring with you over the summer and/or next Fall.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Beware What You Tweet, If You Visit The UK

Careless use of social media bears its own hazards, both domestically and abroad. See, for instance, this news story, in which a man was convicted of communicating an ostensibly threatening message via Twitter, in violation of UK law.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Disability Nondiscrimination Law Advisor

Check out the Disability Nondiscrimination Law Advisor. Created by the United States Department of Labor, it is a tool that helps businesses determine which federal disability discrimination laws apply. It also provides guidance and information to help businesses understand the requirements under these laws.

Hat tip to the Workplace Prof Blog


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

CourtListener.com

CourtListener.com The goal of the site is to create a free and competitive real time alert tool for the U.S. judicial system.

At present, the site has daily information regarding all precedential opinions issued by the 13 federal circuit courts and the Supreme Court of the United States. Each day, we also have the non-precedential opinions from all of the Circuit courts except the D.C. Circuit. This means that by 5:10pm PST, the database will be updated with the opinions of the day, with custom alerts going out shortly thereafter.

The coverage of our corpus for a given court varies, but it is growing on a daily basis. We are working to integrate the documents from other online sites that provide free public access to court documents.

Boolean searching of the opinions is available and I recommend clicking on the Advanced search link and "more details" at the bottom.

Hat tip to Law Librarian blog for the site.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Increase in Link Rot for Law and Policy Related Web Resources

I came across a very interesting post while prowling the Law Librarian Blog. Apparently,the Chesapeake Project Legal Information Archive's Third Annual Study reports that “link rot” has doubled among the original URLs for law- and policy-related materials published to the Web and archived though the Chesapeake Project .

Click here to see the Project's findings.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Hat tip to the Law Librarian Blog

Grading Law School Exams

In the midst of exam week stress, have you ever taken a minute to think about your stressed out professors, faced with grading all those exams? For a humorous take on how law professors really grade exams, check out Assault and Flattery 2009, scenes from Louisiana State University Law School's annual comedy show and roast of the third year class, produced by the school's SBA. The professors are real. Hopefully, the exams were not.

A hat tip to Legal Blog Watch for the timely reminder.




Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

One stop shopping

I am going back to an old favorite today. Refdesk.com . You can find a link to just about anything on this page. Need to know gas prices by location - who knew there are about a dozen sites which you can explore. I just learned on this date in 1824 Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiered.

It has links to the useful search engines, calculators, weather . . . I could go on and on. Great for a quick study break. Just be warned, you may get hooked.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Strange Bedfellows Critique Congressional Lawmaking

According to this Associated Press news story, the Heritage Foundation and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers have joined forces to challenge what they feel is the Congress’s excessively loose and vague drafting of criminal laws. Have a look at the story, and tell us what you think.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Index to Legal Abbreviations

Need to decipher a legal abbreviation? Check out the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations. Just type your abbreviation into the "search by abbreviation" box and it will find the name of the publication publication for you.

Conversely, if you have the name of a common legal publication, type the name into the "search by title" box and it will find a recognized legal citations for you.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat