Law School Website Search Engine

John Doyle at the Washington & Lee Law School Library has created a custom Google search engine that allows users to search U.S. law school websites simultaneously. It's a neat tool.

From beSpacific and Ziefbrief.

Friday's Lighter Side of the Law

Funniest Firm Names

Law Blog Trial Issue of the Day: Attorney Facial Hair

Sense of Humor as an Alternative to Cease-and-Desist Letters

Don't fret -- call the Guitar Lawyer

Blue Book Citation Tools

Bonnie Shucha has an interesting post about Blue Book Citation Tools at WisBlawg:

Citrus (think Cit-r-us) is a new legal citation tool which automatically corrects legal citations in Word as you type. "When you're ready to type a citation, press F2 and make an educated guess. Once you're done, press F2 again, and Citrus will generate a correct Bluebook citation." An individual license is available for $495 per computer.

Citrus cites to cases, federal and state statutes, CFR, Fed. Register, U.S. Constitution, court rules and more. According to the web site, it also includes parenthetical information, "such as whether a decision is per curiam, whether you need to cite the editor as well as the case reporter, or even whether an opinion in the U.S. reporter came from the court or an individual circuit Justice."

Has anyone used Citrus? I'd be interested in learning more about it. Can it handle law reviews and other more complex citations? There is a "tour," but it's nothing more than a couple of screen shots.

A similar tool that I have used is Citation: Legal Edition. Citation, however, is a bibliographic database management system (unlike Citrus which seems to be an add-on to MS Word). You enter (or import)your citations into a database, and it generates the proper blue book cites for you. It seemed to work very well. Great for scholarly research.

I've since moved to RefWorks which is available campus wide at the University of Wisconsin. Unfortunately, it doesn't support Bluebook citation style (which, I've been told, is because it is too complex).

Anna Nicole Smith's Will

You can view a PDF copy of Anna Nicole Smith's will at CNN.com. Law professor Kaimipono Wenger discusses some of the issues concerning the will in an interesting post at Concurring Opinions.

Federal District Court Filings and Docket Database

Justia has just launched a Federal District Court Filings and Docket database. beSpacific offers a nice summary:

Another terrific project from the Justia team, this database [still under development] of recently filed Federal District Court civil cases allows users to browse by State, Nature of Suit and Cases, as well as seach by Party Name, jurisdiction, type of lawsuit, and within a given date range. According to Tim Stanley, there are currently "over 300,000 case titles since January 1, 2006, and they are updating [the database] daily."

TVC, Law Dawg Blawg, Valpo Law Blawg and BoleyBlogs all have additional information about Justia and its new database.

The Litigation-Filled Life of Anna Nicole Smith

A good Findlaw commentary by Joanna Grossman, The Litigation-Filled Life of Anna Nicole Smith, and the Legal Aftermath of Her Demise, discusses the legal environment following the death of Anna Nicole Smith.

From BarclayBlog.

Guide to 2008 Presidential Contenders

The Wall Street Journal Online (WSJO) has created an online chart, Circling the Oval Office, that tracks the intentions of candidates and potential candidates for the 2008 presidential election. The website is free and is udpdated as candidates make announcements. From WSJO:

Speculation about the contenders in the 2008 presidential election has been swirling for months, and with last year's midterm election out of the way, the race for the White House is starting to heat up. Who will throw their hats into the ring? A look at who's in the race, who's out and who's somewhere in the middle for 2008

From beSpacific.

Chief Justice's Northwestern Address

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts recently visited the Northwestern University School of Law. The Chief Justice addressed the school on February 1. "Roberts provided those in attendance with his perspective on the history of the court and his predecessors as Chief Justice. He also took questions from those in attendance." Northwestern has made the audio recording of his remarks available on its website.

U.S. Gov't Budget: 2008

The Budget of the United States Government: Fiscal Year 2008 is available from GPO Access.

Issued by the Office of Management and Budget, the Budget of the United States Government is a collection of documents that contains the budget message of the President, information about the President's budget proposals for a given fiscal year, and other budgetary publications that have been issued throughout the fiscal year. Other related and supporting budget publications, such as the Economic Report of the President, are included, which may vary from year to year.

New Legal Research Engine

From the Cornell Law Library:

Cornell Law Library is pleased to announce its new Legal Research Engine available at http://library.lawschool.cornell.edu/guides/researchengine.asp

This specialized search engine helps users easily find authoritative online legal research guides on every subject. It searches approximately 20 different web sites that either prolifically publish guides, or index and link to guides. The number of web sites searched was deliberately kept small to keep search results manageable and focused. You can also add it to your Google home page.

Formal Process for Adoption of Smoking Ban Regs Begins

From the Cleveland Law Library Weblog:

On Jan. 25, 2007, the Ohio Department of Health filed its proposed smoking ban regulations with the Secretary of State and the Legislative Service Commission, beginning the formal process for adopting regulations. There will be a 65 day public comment period on the rules. A public hearing will be held on Feb. 27 in Columbus, Ohio, where individuals can testify and provide comments about the regulations. More information on the hearing, including preregistration information is available in the following ODH press release: ODH Begins Formal Rule-Making Process for Indoor Smoking Ban, Jan. 25,
2007.

The proposed regulations can be accessed at the Department of Health's Website, or through the Register of Ohio, Rules for Deparment of Health. To access via the register, keep hitting "next" at the bottom of the screen, until you get to Rule No. 3701-52-01 thru -09, filed 1-25-07.

The Department of Health hopes to begin enforcing the ban in April. See Smokers to Get 1 Warning, then Fines Start for Violating Indoor Smoking Ban by John Seewer, The Plain Dealer, Jan. 26, 2007.

CA Dem Seeks to Ban Incandescent Light Bulbs

California Assemblyman Lloyd Levin (D-Van Nuys) announced on Tuesday (1/30) that he is introducing legislation to ban incandescent light bulbs in California. Although he is not in favor of the proposed ban, law professor Glen Reynolds has been very interested in compact fluorescent bulbs lately (the good and the bad).

Tip from beSpacific.