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Showing posts from September, 2006

Proposed Ohio Civil, Criminal and Evidence Rules

The Ohio Supreme Court has published proposed amendments to the Ohio Civil, Criminal and Evidence Rules. The Cleveland Law Library Weblog has more information: The rule revisions include rules regarding video conferencing in criminal cases (Crim.R. 10, 43); numerous changes to criminal discovery rules (Crim.R. 16); and changes concerning the affidavit of merit in medical malpractice cases (Civ.R. 10(d)(2)). Numerous evidence rules are changed to incorporate gender neutral language. The Supreme Court will accept public comments until November 8, 2006.

National Center for Adoption Law and Policy

InSite recently wrote about the National Center for Adoption Law and Policy . From Insite : Sponsored by Capital University Law School, the National Center for Adoption Law & Policy (NCALP) seeks to improve the law, policies, and practices associated with child protection and adoption systems using education, advocacy, and research. The NCALP website provides a weekly news summary and information about several of the Center's projects, such as the Adoption JobSite and the Adoption LawSite Project. Legal researchers will be interested in the site's "Weekly Case Summaries," a weekly summary of relevant case law in the areas of adoption, and child welfare available via e-mail or through the Center's website. Summary archives are available back to 2002.

Database of Articles by Law Librarians

From Bonnie Shucha at WisBlawg : PIC , the AALL Publishing Initiatives Caucus, is pleased to introduce a new and improved database of articles published by law librarians. These articles appeared in legal publications that are read by practicing attorneys, legal administrators, law professors, judges, and others in organizations that employ AALL members. Note that you can resort this list by author, article title, publication, etc. by clicking the field name at the top. You can also do a search by author, title, publication, etc. (see link at top).

Same-Day Supreme Court Transcripts

From the U.S. Supreme Court : Beginning with the October 2006 Term, the Court will make the transcripts of oral arguments available free to the public on its Web site, http://www.supremecourtus.gov/index.html , on the same day an argument is heard by the Court. In the past, the transcripts had been posted on the Web site approximately two weeks after the close of an argument session. Previously, transcripts could be obtained sooner than they were posted on the Court's Web site by making arrangements in advance and purchasing them from the Court's contract reporting service. In the past, oral arguments had been transcribed off-site from audio recordings. The Court's current contract reporting service, Alderson Reporting Company, will now utilize the services of a court reporter in the Courtroom and high-speed technology to transcribe the oral arguments more quickly. Transcripts can be located by clicking on the "Oral Arguments" prompt on the home page of the Court&

Images of Milestone U.S. Documents

The National Archives and Records Administration has compiled a list of 100 milestone documents in U.S. history. The documents chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965. All of the documents on the list are viewed as scanned images of the originals. The list includes important documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Check for the Purchase of Alaska, and the Surrender of Japan. From Reference Cafe .

Large Increase in Federal Criminal Caseload

The U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics recently released a report indicating that "[t]h number of suspects and defendants processed in the federal criminal justice system grew substantially during the 10-year period of 1994 to 2003." The full report can be download from this web page . From TVC .

Clerkship Notification Blog

The Clerkship Notification Blog intends to "...provide a forum for law clerk applicants to share information regarding their clerkship applications." The Blog is run by Katherine McDaniel, a 2006 graduate of the Yale Law School. Each circuit, state and district courts are listed as separate blog posts. Students can view or add information in the comments to each post. Thanks to Ian Best at 3L Epiphany for the tip.

9/11 Resources

The Librarians' Internet Index has compiled a list of resources for September 11 and related topics . The list covers a wide variety of topics. People should also check out the U.S. State Department's EJournalUSA 's collection of 9/11 web resources . From BarclayBlog .

Electronic Voting Machine Report

The Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law recently released a its report, The Machinery of Democracy: Usability of Voting Systems . The report "...examines, among other things, the extent to which current voting systems correctly record voters’ intended selections, i.e., the systems’ 'effectiveness.' Specifically, the report looks at the residual vote rate for each major voting system in the 2004 presidential election." The Center's report and policy proposals concluded: [T]hat two of the most commonly purchased electronic voting systems today are better at recording voter intentions than older systems like the punchcard system used in Florida in 2000. At the same time the report faulted one electronic voting system under consideration in New York and in use in parts of New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Tennessee that continues to unduly hamper voters’ ability to easily and accurately cast a ballot for th

Law School Sued for Expelling Students

From the National Law Journal via Law.com : A former law student has filed a federal class action against St. Thomas University School of Law of Miami, claiming that it is illegally accepting and then expelling more than 25 percent of its first-year class to boost its flagging bar pass rates. Filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, the complaint alleges that the private law school unlawfully dismissed Thomas Joseph Bentey and as many as 80 students from the incoming class of 2005 because they failed to maintain a 2.5 grade point average. Thanks to the Legal Reader .

National Obscenity Law Center

InSite recently wrote about the National Obscenity Law Center . From Insite : The National Obscenity Law Center (NOLC) is a clearinghouse on civil and criminal obscenity law. The Center maintains copies of all reported obscenity cases since 1800. NOLC files also include categories of material and information such as legal memoranda, pleadings and motions, jury selection, jury instructions, expert witness bank, articles, statutes and ordinances. Begun as a recommendation of the Hill-Link Minority Report of the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography (often cited by the U.S. Supreme Court), the clearinghouse concept was tested and proven as a Law Enforcement Alliance of America (LEAA) project from 1973 to 1975, and is now continued through private funding. NOLC makes available selected articles from its bi-monthly "Obscenity Law Bulletin," which contains information, articles, and comments regarding the most recent obscenity cases and related issues. Chapter des

National Agricultural Library

Internet Legal Research Weekly recently highlighted the National Agricultural Library website : The NAL houses "one of the world's largest and most accessible agricultural information collections and serves as the nexus for a national network ofstate land-grant and U.S. Department of Agriculture field libraries." You can search the entire library by keyword, or you can browse by subject --these subjects include animals and livestock, education and outreach, food and nutrition, marketing and trade, plants and crops, research and technology, and more. Each topic area contains links to other sites andhelpful articles, as well as links to sub-topics.