Category «Legal Research»

Canine Detection Evidence

For nearly 15,000 years dogs have lived with and served humankind as companions, hunters, shepherds and most recently detectives. The average canine possesses hundreds of millions of receptors for odors, compared with a few million for humans. Their outstanding sensory endowment – olfaction – makes dogs sought after by law enforcement. And in the last century, the cultivation and harnessing of this ultra sensitive faculty has become a part of many facets of criminal investigation. Ken Strutin’s article surveys select studies, standards and resources about canine scent detection evidence.

Subjects: Legal Research

Law Libraries Transformed

Not long ago, the law library was “a place”. It housed printed materials and staff and provided work space for research. Lawyers went there to use books and consult librarians to locate and complete assignments. Today Eleanor Windsor and Ron Friedmann report that the notion of a modern law library is very different, shaped by the skills of specialized researchers and information managers rather than by bookshelves and bound volumes.

Subjects: Business Research, Features, Law Firm Marketing, Law Librarians, Legal Research, Legal Technology, LEXIS, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Outsourcing

FOIA Facts – Ideas for Faster FOIA Processing

Scott A. Hodes notes that in the current Congress there are bills pending that would create a commission to come up with ideas for faster FOIA processing. He contends that by taking those ideas, along with a few days of congressional oversight hearings to solicit other opinions, Congress would have ample information to create an actual bill that would implement faster FOIA processing now rather than wait for a “commission” to come up with these same ideas.

Subjects: FOIA Facts, Freedom of Information, Legal Research

What is Open Source?

In the past few years, the term open source has been bandied about not just in library-land, but in every industry. When a term is talked about this much, some would say to the point of overuse, people start to think it’s a fad. In this and upcoming articles, Nicole C. Engard is here on LLRX to tell you that open source is no fad, and why.

Subjects: Legal Research, Technology Trends

Forensic Evidence and the CSI Effect

The media’s popularization of certain types of evidence may be inspiring a “CSI effect” on decision makers according to Ken Strutin. There is a question about whether impressions created by the media in its treatment and portrayal of forensic proof as either irrefutable or absolutely necessary for conviction is truly impacting the outcome of criminal cases. Ken’s guide is a collection of select legal scholarship and media studies that illuminates the extent of the phenomenon and whether it needs to be addressed and how.

Subjects: Criminal Law, Internet Resources - Web Links, Legal Research, Online Legal Research Services

Justice Stevens Invented the Internet

With the announcement that Justice John Paul Stevens will resign from the Supreme Court at the end of this term, Jonathan Band and Matt Schruers focus on one of his opinions that has had a direct daily impact on virtually all Americans: the majority opinion in Sony v. Universal, decided by the Supreme Court in 1984. This decision is the legal foundation of the Digital Age.

Subjects: Legal Research, Legal Technology

Of Refrigerators and E-Discovery

Conrad J. Jacoby’s commentary offers perspective on the complexities and nuances of technology innovations, in the home and in the office, causing him to reflect on how incomplete or incorrect impressions of how a responding party organizes and manages its business records impacts knowledge management and e-records.

Subjects: Case Management, Digital Archives, E-Discovery, E-Discovery Update, Features, Information Architecture, Legal Technology