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Internet Legal Research for Professor Mika’s Legal Drafting
Class
April 21, 2015
FREE WEB V. LEXIS/WESTLAW It’s Free! May have more info on current topics Be careful of reliability/currency Lexis/Westlaw = better search mechanisms Large sets of formbooks on Lexis/Westlaw
CONSIDERATIONS FOR INTERNET FORMS Who publishes the site? A legal publisher? Bar association? Does the site sell forms? Who wrote the form? Use with caution, tailor to your facts
EVALUATING WEB SITES
Credibility: author; possible bias, accuracy. Currency / Updating, Coverage Writing Quality Ease of use Stability
RELIABILITY OF INTERNET SOURCESReliable – yes, no or maybe?
Court or government agency website Law firm website Lobbying organization’s website Law school website Free site published by Lexis (Lexis Communities) or Westlaw (Findlaw)
Who are they? Are they lawyers?
No Choice of Jurisdiction
A partial document, based on above facts
It won’t let you cut and paste or save
You CAN cut and paste! But…
It won’t let you cut and paste or save
“Business Contracts” and Court Forms Free. Others cost $.
Most Ks from SEC Filings.
“The CORI K-Base is made available for educational, academic and public use.”
SEC EDGAR
sample SEC filings documents attached: management contracts, executive compensation plans, articles of incorporation, by-laws, material contracts, voting trust agreements See Item 601, Regulation S-K. http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
resolve. Contract review in minutes.Coming Soon. Resolve is a next-generation tool that automatically identifies missing clauses, potentially risky clause language, and business terms in any agreement.
DOCUMENT ASSEMBLY TOOLS HotDocs
TheFormTool – Basic Version is FREE!
FillAnyPDF - No longer free, but as low as $1/month. Electronic signature.
The Form Tool• Microsoft Word
add-on• Create fillable
forms out of contracts you drafted
• Make a table of information to be filled in and link to points in the documents
• Pay version has more features
STATUTORY FORMS American Law Sources On-Line (ALSO)
Ohio Revised Code
GALE LEGAL FORMS Via Cleveland Public Library Use Cleveland Public Library card number to log in
Free with OSBA Membership
SITES FOR PRO SES Franklin County Law Library - frequently requested forms are prepared by the library. Cleveland Law Library’s FAQs ex. Living Wills/Durable Power Of Attorney
SHARED DOCUMENT SITES
DocStoc – not all docs are free! Scribd Docracy Law Help Interactive Resource Center (A2J Author) - Free HotDocs templates available for non-commercial use only.
documents submitted by nonlawyers and
lawyers
SEC EDGAR
sample SEC filings documents attached: management contracts, executive compensation plans, articles of incorporation, by-laws, material contracts, voting trust agreements See Item 601, Regulation S-K. http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
SEC EDGAR FULL TEXT SEARCH FEATURES Fields for company name, SIC code, date, form type (but not exhibit type) Natural language or Boolean Phrase (“”), AND, OR, NOT, truncation (*, communicat* ), proximity operator (general NEAR1 motors ) Past 4 years
TRY IT Find an executive compensation plan which provides for use of an automobile
"executive compensation agreement“ NEAR10 exhibit AND automobile
MORE SOPHISTICATED SEC FILING DATABASES Lexis and Westlaw Mergentonline – Available via University Library, Cleveland Public Bloomberg Law Edgar Search SECInfo.com
GOVERNMENT AGENCY FORMS Forms.gov
USA Fed Forms.com (many fillable)
State of Ohio - Agency Forms
COURT DOCKETS PACER – Federal Court dockets
Find state courts on the web – Google – Cuyahoga County docket
Bloomberg Law Dockets
DOCKETS - OHIO Ohio – full text of documents on Summit and Montgomery County & others. Search by document type on Summit county docket.
Full text on Cuyahoga County since 3/2014
COURT DOCKETS May search a case opinion database first, find case, then go on docket
PACER 10 cents a page Money savers:Justia Federal District Court Dockets FreeCourtDockets.comRecap
Free PACER Training site - http://www.pacer.gov/announcements/general/train.html
WHAT’S ON THE FREE WEB•All US Supreme Court Cases•Reported Federal Appellate from 1882•Some Unreported Fed App, Fed District •State cases: reported – 1950. unreported - early-mid nineties
WHAT’S ON THE FREE WEB, CONT’D•Statutes & Regulations- federal and states •Municipal Ordinances•Law Review Articles, Law Firm Newsletters•Forms•Dockets, Briefs & Pleadings
LOTS more!
FREE CASE LAW Google Scholar
Ohio Supreme Court
More: Free Electronic Legal Research - Case Law
FASTCASE APP Free Iphone/Ipad and ANDROID App
Don’t need to be a bar member or purchaser of Fastcase
RAVEL LAW
GOOGLE ADVANCED OPERATORS AROUND –ex. constitution AROUND(5) "home rule“ ~ searches for synonyms and related words ex. ~constitutionality - searches for constitutional, unconstitutional, etc. * placeholder for a word. Ex. sexual * abuse picks up “sexual misconduct abuse”, “sexual child abuse”, etc.
GOOGLE OPERATORS AND (default) OR (capitalized) “”Quotes for phrase. - to remove words or phrases. ~ searches synonyms * wildcard to replace word(s) (to * or * ) No truncation sue AROUND(3) brown Fields: intitle:, site:, inurl: define: finds definitions
USE LEGAL SEARCH ENGINES LexisWeb Justia
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