Moritz Legal Information Blog

How many heads tall is the average man? What on earth kind of measurement is "a head?" Or a bushel? Or a fortnight? You know we love weights and measures here at the Moritz Law Library, and its a more pressing topic  as drug laws around the country change . Well, great news! Franklin County, Ohio, will celebrate National Weights and Measures Week March 1-7 celebrating the 216th anniversary of the first weights and measures law in the United States. The Franklin County Auditor’s Office Weights and Measures Department will be hosting all sorts of cool events to celebrate

In the past, using Black's Law Dictionary on WestlawNext has been trying.  You look up "constitution" and see a reference to another definition for "penumbra."  But you cannot click on "penumbra."  You must start a new search. That problem has been solved.  WestlawNext recently added hyperlinks, so you can click through cross-references and find what you need more quickly.  In other WestlawNext news, users can now save files from WestlawNext directly to DropBox. Clicking the download button offers this choice.

The intricacies of legislative history beset many a researcher.  Changes in the legislative process can further complicate an already difficult process.  For example, in 2011, the House of Representatives adopted a new rule requiring a Constitutional Authority Statement linking every bill or joint resolution to specific constitutional bases.  This rule produces a new legislative history document, one which Another congressional change in the news involves committee names.  Understandably, some committee names evolve with the culture or with technology, as when Committee on Roads and Canals became the Committee on Railways and Canals and now the Transportation Committee.  Of late, Senator Cornyn has removed "civil rights" and "human rights" from the name of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee he chairs, leaving it the Constitution subcommittee.  Tracing multiple attempts at a bill over a series of Congresses may mean researchers will encounter unfamiliar committee n

Federal court rules change, and you do not want to be the attorney behind the times who doesn't keep up with those changes. Change is good. Really. Especially when the changes are responsive to modern technologies. For example, back in 2013, the Supreme Court proposed changes to Rule 45 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, i.e., discovery. Where the changes adopted? If you looked at the latest version of the FRCP, could you tell? Could you tell what the old language looked like? Good news for researchers: Georgetown has a comprehensive research guide all about federal court rules! Section XVI is titled “ Where to Find the Legislative History of Federal Court Rules ;" it refers you to the federal court rulemaking process as described here . The guide also provides extensive details about the process. It’s quite complex and interesting. The Judicial Conference has a Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (i.e., the Standing Committee), and there are also five

Portlandia ---a television show that depicts Portland, Oregon, in what might find a cringingly accurate (yet lovable) way---had an excellent segment that featured artist/bike messenger Spyke (1) being sued by Matt Groening for copyright infringement because Spyke was screen printing shirts featuring Bart Ska-mpson, and (2) stopping by his local law library (!) to research and prepare for the copyright trial. The concept is great: "the man" suing the street artist for copyright infringement. But as you'll soon discover after taking an intellectual property class in law school , the accuracy of the law is shunted to the side in favor of the story. Problem number one: the trial is not necessarily set in federal court. Instead, it's in "Portland Courthouse South-west Portland." Not a big problem, I know, but it sets the tone. And then I spent the rest of the episode analyzing the legal claims. So if a career in copyright law doesn't pan out, conside

If you're still exploring the legal profession, trying to decide on a career path, consider subscribing to one of PinHawk 's free Daily Digests to get the latest news headlines usually related to the business or practice of law. If the headlines pique your interest, they may suggest to you some viable direction to head with your legal interests. Three of the free digests are Legal Administrator Daily, Librarian News Digest, Law Technology Daily Digest. Here are a few highlights from the most recent edition of Law Technology Daily Digest: Succeeding in an anti-lawyer corporate culture , Inside Counsel, February 12, 2015 Taking the pulse of digital health: Key legal issues surrounding wearable technology , Inside Counsel, February 12, 2015 The hackers we know... Ethical hacking and how it can help your client , Inside Counsel, February 12, 2015 The evolving role of the GC: What influences the many hats you wear , Inside Counsel, February 12, 2015 Cloud Computing: Best Pr

The blog post title isn't intended as click bait, but it is a bit of a misdirect as I am just  a librarian, so I can't speak for all librarians. So what does this librarian think about Wikipedia? It's a useful tool like all databases and websites, but it is only useful if you know how the site is organized and where it gets its content so that you can make an educated assessment of your search results. Which is why a recent article, The Wikipedia Ourboros , is so interesting. If you're trying to get a little traction on your research so you have a basic framework to understand what you're looking for, Google and Wikipedia aren't the worst places to start. But they're not remotely where your research should stop. The lead of the article says it all: "The online encyclopedia chews up and spits out bad facts and its own policies are letting it happen." Here's the critical quote: The rule of Wikipedia is that authority trumps accuracy. Edit

Perhaps if you are a law student now, you don't have strong memories of Beanie Babies, which were popular in the 1990s. That's a shame because the novelty plush toys made Americans pretty frenzied in a way that I still can't fathom. Maybe it's because I was in my late teens when they hit the market. In other words, I was "too cool" to be impressed by much. But still, people paying $5,000 for a small stuffed animal simply because of economic conditions driving demand leaves me without words. It's inexplicable Slate.com has a great article on the subject, Plush Life: Why did people lose their minds over Beanie Babies?  The article posits that in a nutshell, people wanted them because they were hard to get. But what's the legal angle? The article includes a photo of a divorcing couple divvying up Beanie Babies in a courtroom with a judge overseeing the process. Seriously. The collection was valued at between $2,500-$5,000. Conceivably legal fees to co

The New York Times featured "information sleuths" at the New York Public Library in yesterday's edition. My favorite quote from the story: "In a certain sense, the work I do begins where the Internet ends,” Mr. Boylan said. “Certain things you can’t find with Google.” The New York Public Library features nine full-time researchers. The takeaway from the story? You can call them. You don't have to be in New York. Just like when you graduate from law school, you're welcome to get in touch with us here in the law library. And if you're interested in work that requires you to learn something new every day, consider librarianship--- law librarianship in particular if you're at Moritz getting your J.D.