Articles Posted in July, 2005

For members of a profession often portrayed as greedy, it is nice to have evidence that proves otherwise. A survey released today finds that two thirds of U.S. lawyers gave free legal assistance to people of limited means and organizations serving the poor, volunteering an average of 39 hours of pro bono work a year.…

Beginning Sept. 15, the legal research service VersusLaw will expand its library of federal district court opinions to include cases back to 1950. At the same time, it will raise the monthly prices of its premium and professional plans by $5. The monthly subscription to the premium plan will increase from $19.95 to $24.95…

Thanks to everyone who supported my son and me in our ride Sunday in the Reid R. Sacco Memorial Foundation bike-a-thon. A day of perfect weather and a beautiful seaside route made for a great 28 miles. I met several of Reid Sacco’s friends and family members and came away impressed that someone so…

Thanks to excited utterances, I learn that Alan J. Rothman has launched a blog, The Subway Fold. A non-practicing lawyer and MBA, Alan is a veteran expert in legal technology and the Internet. Until recently, he ran the Computer Law Lab for the New York County Lawyers Association. Earlier in his career, he…

The Thomson Corporation yesterday announced that it had acquired Global Securities Information, owner of LIVEDGAR, a Web service for searching and delivery of EDGAR filings and other SEC information. GSI will become part of Thomson West, publisher of Westlaw. The announcement says:

“The acquisition will enable West to satisfy the currently

My son and I made a last-minute decision to ride in a 28-mile bike-a-thon this weekend to help raise money to fight cancers in young adults. The event is in honor of an extraordinary 20-year-old man who died in April after a two-year battle with sarcoma.

We need sponsors. If anyone would like to pledge…

One other piece of news from my phone call with Scott Kinney, CEO of FindLaw: By the end of July, FindLaw will launch a directory of law-related blogs. It will be “an initial version,” with FindLaw continuing to add blogs “as rapidly as we can.”…

FindLaw CEO Scott Kinney called me today to discuss my survey last week showing the deterioration of FindLaw’s index of law-related Web sites. Kinney said that, as of Friday, the links were verified through a new content-management system and should now be 100 percent accurate.

A quick check showed there may still be some…

Alliance for Justice yesterday launched a Supreme Court Watch podcast as part of its larger Supreme Court Watch Web site. The podcast focuses on discussion of the future of the Supreme Court. AFJ also has a blog, Insider Scoop, devoted to the Supreme Court vacancy. AFJ is a national organization advocating…

A Massachusetts MD’s blog may become evidence in criminal harassment charges lodged against him, reports The Patriot Ledger. After a former patient took out a restraining order against the doctor, he took to his blog, where, in more than a dozen entries, he professed his love for the former patient and promised to divorce…

Bills pending in Wisconsin would allow divorced parents to visit their children through computer videoconferencing and other electronic forms of communication, the La Crosse Tribune reports. Only one state, Utah, already authorizes electronic visitations.

[Via Court Tech Forum.]…

I spoke yesterday to Kyle Christensen, corporate communications manager for Thomson Legal & Regulatory, about my survey showing FindLaw’s index of legal Web sites to be out of date. He acknowledged that FindLaw has fallen behind in keeping the index current, but he said that efforts are underway to update the information and…