LLRX.com - Legal and Technology Articles and Resources for Librarians, Lawyers and Law Firms

Negotiating Justice: The New Constitutional Spectrum of Plea Bargaining

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:45:51 -0700

Ken Strutin focuses on the impact of the Supreme Court's decisions in Missouri v. Frye and Lafler v. Cooper, and the upcoming appeal in Burt v. Titlow in regard to placing plea bargaining front and center on the national stage. As a result, they have divided practitioners and scholars into two camps: (1) those who consider the rulings to be a new statement in the law of plea bargaining and right to effective assistance of counsel; and (2) those who believe they are only a restatement of established principles. These cases have generated interest in the centrality and regulation of plea bargaining, the ethics and effectiveness of defense counsel as negotiator, the oversight of prosecutors regarding charging decisions, sentence recommendations and pre-trial discovery, and the scope of federal habeas corpus review and remedies. Ken's article is a comprehensive annotated guide to high court opinions, scholarship and commentary regarding the themes addressed by the Supreme Court in Lafler and Frye as well as their implications for the administration of criminal justice.

Voice Dream e-reading app: Stellar for text to speech - and promising as a general reader

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:04:11 -0700

David H. Rothman reviews the Voice Dream Reader app for iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches. At $10 it is more expensive than the average app, but David's deep dive has resulted in a recommendation that there is enough value to justify the cost.

Promising DPLA debut--but please don't confuse with a full-fledged 'public library' demo

Sat, 04 May 2013 11:00:03 -0700

David H. Rothman discusses the strengths and gaps of the current site, which he notes is a demo project with which the DPLA hopes to raise money and attract more, and much needed volunteers. The organization also plans to use this iteration as an opportunity to apply lessons learned to future versions as the project navigates forward in a demonstrably challenging time for libraries.

Journalism Resources on the Internet

Sat, 04 May 2013 10:30:53 -0700

This guide by Marcus P. Zillman is a comprehensive listing of journalism resources and sites on the Internet. These sources provide researchers with a wealth of reliable, topical and comprehensive data, information, reports, images, bibliographies, style and writing guides, from a wide range of public, institutional, association, advocacy and news organizations.

Copyrights, Fundamental Rights, and the Constitution

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 14:15:00 -0700

The recent Supreme Court decision, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, addresses fair use and the “first sale” doctrine, upon whose protection libraries, used-book dealers, technology companies, consumer-goods retailers, and museums have long relied. Professor Annmarie Bridy's commentary focuses on the position that intellectual property rights in general and copyrights in particular are important, and when their scope is circumscribed to ensure the existence of a robust public domain, they benefit society. However important IP rights are, though – and reasonable people disagree pretty vigorously about that – they are not fundamental in the Constitutional sense.

DOE Launches New Database: SciTech Connect

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:44:29 -0700

Tim Byrne announced that the Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) launched a new database product called SciTech Connect that employs an innovative semantic search tool enabling users to retrieve more relevant information. Other features include faceting, in-document search, word clouds, and personalization.

Introducing the Central Library of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union and of the European Council

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 17:22:17 -0700

Carlo Marzocchi Head of Sector, Library & Information Service shared this announcement on the resources of Central Library Council of the European Union. The Council of the European Union is the European Union institution where the Member States' ministers responsible for specific areas (e.g. finance, health, education) meet to discuss issues of common concern within their countries. The European Council consists of the Heads of State, or Government, of the Member States, together with the President of the Council and the President of the Commission. The European Council provides the Union with the necessary impetus for its development and defines its general political directions and priorities. It does not exercise legislative functions. The administrative support to both institutions is ensured by the General Secretariat of the Council or GSC. The Central Library holds over 100,000 monographs and EU publications. Newspapers and periodicals from EU Member States are available in the reading room. The Official Journal of the European Communities is available on paper, on microfiche (until 1997), on CD-ROM (from 1998 on) and via internet.

Canine Assisted Investigation in the Borderlands of Privacy

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 17:43:58 -0700

Ken Strutin brings attention and focus to the fact that dog detection at airports for contraband, in traffic stops for narcotics, at fire scenes for accelerants and at suspect lineups are playing an increasingly important role in criminal investigations. At the same time, Ken documents that the thresholds of olfactory detection continue to test the limits of privacy, probable cause and due process. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two cases involving animal assisted investigation. The fallout from these decisions will add to the evolving body of case law in federal and state courts as they continue to sort out the constitutional limits of this type of investigation.

Statistics Resources and Big Data on the Internet 2013

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 17:07:28 -0700

Marcus P. Zillman has updated his best practices bibliography of sites and reliable sources focused on the hot topic of statistics and big data. These sources are representative of multiple publishers, national and global - government, academia, NGOs, and industry, many of which leverage open source and collaborative applications.

Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:20:06 -0700

Perhaps there is a local historical society in the neighborhood where you live or work. Archivist and Librarian Celia Caust-Ellenbogen educates us about a project that seeks to uncover important archival resources held at small, primarily volunteer-run history organizations in the Philadelphia area.

LegalTech 2013: Old habits die hard, but die they do

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 20:02:06 -0700

Attorney Nicole Black's article on the LegalTech 2013 conference, sponsored every year by American Lawyer Media, updates all of us who could not attend on the latest legal technologies and innovations.

Another NY court on discovery of social media evidence

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 19:54:14 -0700

Attorney Nicole Black brings context to the impact of the proliferation of social media accounts among the majority of adults in the United States. The information from these accounts has become a prime source for lawyers to mine for evidence to support their clients' cases.

Poems by Brandon D. Johnson

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 17:43:13 -0700

LLRX is honored to publish two poems by Brandon D. Johnson, a colleague of several decades working in the legal and legislative arena in Washington, DC - providing expert services to law firms and government agencies. Brandon is an insightful and fluent poet, as well as an agile teacher of the craft.

New Economy Resources 2013

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 17:04:46 -0700

The world is rapidly changing as government data transparency, Big Data and the ability to access actionable information from institutional databases is increasingly released on the web without restrictive fees or subscriptions. This new guide by web research guru Marcus P. Zillman comprises the leading world wide web resources for discovering new knowledge and leveraging the latest reliable data on the New Economy.

Post-Conviction Representation, Pro Se Practice and Access to the Courts

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:40:11 -0700

After the first criminal appeal, there is no constitutional right to counsel. Thus, the convicted and imprisoned pursuing discretionary appeals and habeas corpus relief must research, investigate and litigate as their own attorney. Law librarian, criminal defense attorney, and well-known writer and speaker Ken Strutin's guide documents a body of law that has developed defining the spectrum between full-blown post-conviction representation and the impact of the conditions of confinement on pro se litigants.