Robert Ambrogi Blog
A month ago, I invited readers to vote for their top legal blog. I should have known better.
Here is what I wrote at the time:
This is an experiment that I hope will allow me to tap into the collective wisdom of my readers. My RSS reader is flooded with law blogs. Every day, I discover more great law blogs. They provide me great information as well as plenty of fodder for the three blogs I write: Lawsites, Media Law and Law.com’s Legal Blog Watch. But I can’t read everything. I need to make choices, to prioritize. Maybe I need to cut some and maybe I should add others.
Thus, this poll. What I want to know is this: What is the one law-related blog you feel you must read as regularly as possible? No fair naming your own. From your responses, I hope to find guidance in deciding which blogs should be on my own must-read list.
Overall voter turnout was low — about 60 legitimate votes. Most of the messages I received were spam. Three people nominated their own sites, one of which was not even a blog. For the two highest vote recipients, the disproportionate number of votes they received leads me to wonder whether someone was beating the bushes to get out the vote. And for the highest vote getter, at least two of the votes came from people who contribute to it. A few people were polite enough to vote for my blog.
That said, I never intended this to be a vote for the top law blog. I wanted to hear your top law blog in the hopes of helping to enhance — and possibly pare — my own RSS list. Through this exercise, I learned of a couple blogs I’ll add to the list of those I regularly check. Unfortunately, I won’t be cutting any. Herewith, the results of your votes:
Slaw
Comments:
“Best Canadian collaborative blawg!”
“Canadian legal research and technology blog. Prolific posts from some of the top legal research minds in Canada. **note I am a contributor to Slaw, but I would still be reading it every day even if I wasn’t!”
“Slaw is a co-operative weblog about Canadian legal research and the impact of technology on it.”
“Law, research, tech, software, and whimsy.”
“Cannot miss it every week.”
“The beauty of this blog is the diversity of opinion – many contributors give multiple perspectives on law and legal research.”
“Slaw is a co-operative weblog about Canadian legal research and the impact of technology on it. We hope that our audience will include practicing lawyers, legal librarians, legal academics and students — anyone, in short, who uses IT in researching the law. The aim is to share information, offer advice and instruction, and occasionally provoke.”
“A great site!”
“Completely dominates the landscape up here, and I think is usefully read elsewhere.”
SECOND PLACE
Quiz Law
Comments:
“Best. Law Blog. Evah! The daily memo is a great summary of what’s what. I always look forward to the entry titles and the picture they choose to tie to the entry… always top drawer…”
“Quizlaw has really easy and fun to read legal commentary, written in an amusing style. There are multiple new posts every weekday. It’s a really great site.”
“As a 2L, I’m far enough into law school to no longer be the bright eyed student I once was, but also far enough away from graduation to feel like it’s never going to end. QuizLaw is my daily shot in the arm that reminds me that I do have a career to look forward to.”
“This is the funniest law blog I’ve ever read. It makes reading the law stuff more interesting.
A close second is Corporate Crime Reporter.”
“They define snarky.”
THIRD PLACE TIE
Patent Baristas
Comments:
“Top U.S. patent law website. Timely case law reviews are best available.”
Patently-O
Comments:
“It’s neck-and-neck with patentbaristas.com.”
Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites
Comments:
“Best Coverage of the blawgging and online legal community.”
“Robert is on the case!”
FOURTH PLACE TIE
Law Librarian Blog
Comments: None.
Legal Blog Watch
Comments:
“I have less and less time for blawg-hopping, but I can count on LBW to consistently find the most interesting law-related postings and offer useful summaries and perspectives. Sorry that this won’t help pare down your list, Bob.”
“Like you, I discover great blogs all the time. But I depend on specific folks, like you, to post the cream — at least they seem to be the things I find the most interesting and useful. Other web sites I always check: Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Legal Blog, Evan Schaeffer’s Illinois Trial Practice Blog, Ray Ward’s Minor Wisdom and the [new] legal writer, Tom Mighell’s Inter Alia, Mary Mack’s Sound Evidence, the Law Professor Blogs, BeSpacific, LLRX.com, and others.”
Sentencing Law and Policy
Comments:
“This is the one I read first and use most, It is well done and informative. Picking one was hard. In the end, though Berman’s blog is the one I use in my practice and for help deciding topics I should post about.”
“FeedDemon says it’s my most read, and while I might have picked others if left to my own devices, I have no argument with picking Berman’s blog.”
ONE VOTE EACH
Balkinization
Comments:
None.
Ideoblog
Comments:
“Focused and well-researched with helpful links and frequently updated.”
Comments:
“Every day a blawg of the day, so can regularly discover new blawgs (legal weblogs).”
IPGeek
Comments:
“The best EU patent blog, could not find anyhting more updated in blogsworld.”
Legal Andrew
Comments:
None.
Legal Reader
Comments:
“Legal Reader provides a good sampling of legal news from across the legal spectrum. For that reason, I read it more often than more specialized blawgs.”
lexBlog Blog
Comments:
“Bob, You’ll be familiar with this guy
who I find a bit edgy and pushes his own product but he has some good content in between times.”
Supra
Comments:
“I had to vote twice. This is a blog written by a law student. Usually funny and concise. As a law student I don’t any extra reading. thanks.”
Volokh Conspiracy
Comments:
“Best over all. But I also love the FL-only blog Abstract Appeal.”
WSJ Law Blog
Comments:
“That’s an easy one for me…but with Peter Lattman’s resources, and help, and as talented as he is, it’s not even a fair fight…”
SELF VOTES
(I asked that people not vote for themselves. Some did anyway. Since they took the trouble to vote at all, I am including them here.)
Aref El-Aref
Comments:
None
Karel’s Legal Blog
Comments:
“(From blog’s author) I’m not voting for my own blog, but just want to mention that my blog is for a limited target audience only: anyone who has (or may have) to deal with Netherlands Antilles law issues. BTW, it is the only legal blog in my country!”
PA Elder, Estate & Fiduciary Law Blog
Comments:
“I am the author. This is the purpose: A blog established by a practicing & teaching lawyer in Pennsylvania for the benefit of law students, consumers, & professionals interested in legal developments affecting Elder Law, long-term care, End-of-Life issues, estate & personal planning, fiduciary administrations (by agents under powers of attorney, custodians, guardians, & trustees), elder conflict dispute resolution, or Orphans’ Court litigation in this Commonwealth, with reference to trends nationally.”