Internet Legal Research for Professor Mikas Legal Drafting

Internet Legal Research for Professor Mika’s Legal Drafting Class Dec. 2, 2009

Outline l Internet v. Lexis, Westlaw l Forms l Evaluating Web Sites l Legal Portals and Search Engines l Free Case Law/Primary Sources l Current Awareness l Internet Documents in Court

Internet v. Lexis/Westlaw l Internet is Free. No charges to clients l Some info exclusive to Internet Municipal Ordinances l Some Court Filings l New case/regulation (within one day) l New topics/issues l

Internet v. Lexis/WL Benefits of Lexis, WL, others (Casemaker): l Coverage. Internet, Ohio cases back to 1950, mid 90 s for unreporteds l Better Search Mechanisms l Editorial features – headnotes, annotations l Secondary sources – treatises, practice books l Aggregate Info for one stop searching l Trustworthiness

Forms l Forms and Practice Materials Resource Guide

Forms and Sample Contracts l Who publishes the site? A legal publisher? bar association? l Does the site sell forms? l Who wrote the form? l Use with caution, tailor to your facts

Attorney Work Product Sites • JDSupra Documents are tied to attorney profiles • Scribd • Doc. Stoc • Law. Link • Legal On-Ramp

TRY IT l Look l Find for a lease form on JD Supra information about the attorney who submitted the form

Transactional Documents via SEC EDGAR • sample SEC filings • documents attached: management contracts, executive compensation plans, articles of incorporation, by-laws, material contracts, voting trust agreements See Item 601, Regulation S-K.

SEC Edgar Full Text Search Features l Fields for company name, SIC code, date, form type (but not exhibit type) l Natural language or Boolean l Phrase (“”), AND, OR, NOT, truncation (*, communicat* ), proximity operator (general NEAR 1 motors ) l Past 4 years

Try it l Find an executive compensation plan which provides for a parking space

More sophisticated SEC Filing databases l Lexis and Westlaw l Mergentonline – Available via University Library, Cleveland Public l SECInfo. com

Transactional Forms – Other Ideas l Search engines – general or legal l Court dockets l Cleveland Law Library FAQs – ex. Living Wills Durable Power of Attorney

Legal Drafting Advice l Cleveland Marshall Law Library’s Research Guide: Forms and Practice Materials l Adams. Drafting Blog

Evaluating Web Sites l Credibility: author; possible bias, accuracy. l Currency / Updating, Coverage l Writing Quality l Ease of use – Design, navigation, searchability, help l Stability

What’s on the Free Web l All US Supreme Court Cases l Reported Federal Appellate 1882 -, Fed District 1932 l Some Unreported Fed App, Fed District l State cases: Reported cases from 1950 -, unreported varies (1990 s on) l Statutes & Regulations- federal and states l LOTS more!

Internet Portals l Library Home Page – Legal Research on the Web l Public Records & People Finders l Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII) l Find. Law l Other Portals

Use LEGAL Search Engines • Cornell University Legal Research Engine • Lexis. Web • Find. Law. Crawler • Justia • List of Search Legal Engines

Search Engines • Clustering search engines: Clusty , Ask. com • Metasearch engines: Dogpile, Clusty • Internet Wayback Machine • Learn search syntax of Google and a few other search engines, See Web Searching Guide - Search Engines

Web Sites to Know l l l l Thomas. gov – Federal Legislative History Lexis. ONE – past 10 yrs cases, Lexis search capability Google Scholar – best coverage of cases, decent search capability, law review articles GPO Access – Fed’l Govt. will be FDSys Martindale Hubbell Law Digest Ohio Supreme Court PACER – Federal Court dockets

The Invisible Web l Search Engines not index entire web l Search engines cannot type or think. l “Invisible Web” includes information stored in databases and password restricted information l The Invisible or Deep Web by U. C. Berkeley

Accessing Invisible Web l l l Find databases via directories or search engines (search for a subject term and the word “database”), or ask a librarian. The Librarian’s Internet Index and Complete Planet. Bookmark the databases you find See Web Searching Guide Example – A person's traffic tickets. Try a search on Google, then try a search on pipl. com

Case law • Legal Research Workstation - Case Law • Google Scholar – state reported 1950 -, fed circuit/ district 1923 • Ohio Supreme Court • Public Library of Law – boolean searching, good coverage • Open Jurist – fed reported appellate 1882 -

• Demo Ohio Supreme Court case search

Current Awareness Tools • Blog Search Engines and Directories • RSS Readers - What are they? Ex. Bloglines • Ohio Supreme Court cases – new opinions, case activity notification • Current Awareness Resources for Ohio Law • Watch That Page

Internet Documents in Court • Law itself (statutes, case law, etc. ), Internet versions are usually not the official version or an authenticated version. See blog post: Web Resources: Official or Authentic • Articles or other evidence, print off the web page to show date retrieved • see 5 Weinstein's Federal Evidence, Lexis. Nexis, Chapter 900, esp. 900. 07

Conclusion l Use Free Web, but be aware of its limitations in coverage, currency, searching ability, reliability l Go beyond Google: Use free legal databases, legal search engines and portals