Moritz Legal Information Blog

A librarian saves the day! One of the hardworking librarians at Rutgers-Camden just posted a video response to that common One L question: “How many cases should I cite?” In the video, the librarian chose to answer the real question students were asking –  “What tools do I have to assess the thoroughness of my research?” The best news of all? It's just three minutes long. h/t: Sarah Ricks at Rutgers

Who doesn't love Halloween candy , pumpkin chucking , and  vintage Halloween costumes ? And Halloween humor from professors? Wait, what? They haven't started in on that yet? Well here are a few links to get you prepped for class: Stambovsky v. Ackley Ghostbusters and False Imprisonment Halloween Law (available through OhioLINK) Halloween and the Law

From the beSpacific blog  comes news that only 2% of U.S. counties are responsible for the majority of death penalty cases. The blog post concerns a report created by the Death Penalty Information Center, the author of which states "Eighty-five percent of the counties in the U.S. have not had a single case resulting in an execution in over 45 years." While the report may be factually accurate, as a researcher you should be wary of the conclusions to be drawn from the data. For example, the percentage could indicate crimes warranting death penalties occur more frequently in those counties. In the alternative, the concentration could reflect charging practices of prosecutors in those counties. Want to learn more? Grab a copy of The Interpretation of Data .

A few months ago, a small town in Georgia made a change to its local ordinances reflecting the fact that though Americans have a right to bear arms , they also have a right not to bear arms. Ever wonder what to make of gun laws, bullets, and ballistics from a practical perspective? We have a number of books (both in print and electronic) in the law library on ballistics and evidence. Also, give a look to this compelling photo blog of the cross section of ammunition.

Six years ago, we posted about a lawsuit in which a student sued a university over dissatisfaction with the grading curve. Did Mr. Marquis appeal? To find out, log in to Bloomberg Law . Under the Litigation and Dockets tab, select "Docket Search." In the party fields, enter Marquis and Massachusetts, and select the radio button " All of the following." Then see whether you can find any appellate cases between these parties. If you try the links in that post from 2007, you may notice the Boston Globe story is no longer freely available. We have online access available to the Boston Globe for the date of the story in question . You could also use the Wayback Machine on Internet Archive. Simply click on the story link in the old blog post. Next, copy and paste it into the Wayback Machine and hit enter. This is a great workaround for many of those pesky broken links you might stumble across now and then.

October 1 typically marks the beginning of a new federal fiscal year.   This year, however, it marks the beginning of a federal government shutdown.   Many websites offer lists of impacts in light of the shutdown (see the Washington Post , for example).   The shutdown is already affecting legal research.   The website of the Library of Congress are not accessible, except for legislative information on Thomas.gov and its successor site congress.gov .   Researchers cannot access the research guides, digital collections, or the library catalog, for example, removing a free, authoritative information source from their repertories.   This internet glitch underscores potential instabilities in the world of online research.   One more reason to learn a bit about print research!    As we have discussed before , print still matters!

The work of law firms is no longer done solely by attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries. Now more than ever, law firms are partnering with outside vendors to enable greater efficiencies. Document review done by temporary workers and outsourced "legal" work performed out of the country are two faces of the new legal practice. Other vendors, like Novus Law, are stepping in to use technology and design efficiencies to help attorneys get work done more quickly and less expensively than ever before. It doesn't mean there isn't work for new attorneys. It does mean, however, that models of legal employment may be changing. Keeping up to date on these trends is half the battle. Who's Eating Law Firms' Lunch? (ABA Journal)