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Internet v. Lexis, WestlawFormsEvaluating Web SitesLegal Portals and Search EnginesFree Case Law/Primary Sources Current AwarenessInternet Documents in Court
Internet v. Lexis/Westlaw
Internet is Free. No charges to clientsSome info exclusive to Internet
Municipal Ordinances Some Court FilingsNew case/regulation (within one day)New topics/issues
Internet v. Lexis/WL
Benefits of Lexis, WL, others (Casemaker):Coverage. Internet, Ohio cases back to
1950, mid 90s for unreportedsBetter Search MechanismsEditorial features – headnotes, annotationsSecondary sources – treatises, practice
booksAggregate Info for one stop searchingTrustworthiness
Forms
Forms and Practice Materials Resource Guide
Forms and Sample Contracts
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
Attorney Work Product Sites
• JDSupra - Documents are tied to attorney profiles
• Scribd
• DocStoc
• LawLink
• Legal On-Ramp
Transactional Documents via 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.
SEC Edgar Full Text Search Features
Fields for company name, SIC code, date, form type (but not exhibit type)
Natural language or BooleanPhrase (“”), AND, OR, NOT, truncation
(*, communicat* ), proximity operator (general NEAR1 motors )
Past 4 years
More sophisticated SEC Filing databases
Lexis and WestlawMergentonline – Available via University
Library, Cleveland PublicSECInfo.com
Transactional Forms – Other Ideas
Search engines – general or legalCourt docketsCleveland Law Library FAQs – ex.
Living Wills Durable Power of Attorney
Legal Drafting Advice
Cleveland Marshall Law Library’s Research Guide: Forms and Practice Materials
AdamsDrafting Blog
Evaluating Web Sites
Credibility: author; possible bias, accuracy.
Currency / Updating, CoverageWriting Quality Ease of use – Design, navigation,
searchability, help Stability
What’s on the Free Web
All US Supreme Court CasesReported Federal Appellate 1882-, Fed
District 1932-Some Unreported Fed App, Fed District State cases: Reported cases from 1950-,
unreported varies (1990s on)Statutes & Regulations- federal and
states LOTS more!
Internet Portals
Library Home Page – Legal Research on the Web
Public Records & People Finders Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII) FindLaw Other Portals
Use LEGAL Search Engines
• Cornell University Legal Research Engine
• LexisWeb
• FindLaw LawCrawler
• Justia
• List of Search Legal Engines
Search Engines
• Clustering search engines: Clusty , Ask.com
• Metasearch engines: Dogpile,Clusty
• Internet Wayback Machine
• Learn search syntax of Google and a few other search engines, See Web Searching Guide - Search Engines
Web Sites to Know
Thomas.gov – Federal Legislative History LexisONE – past 10 yrs cases, Lexis search
capability Google Scholar – best coverage of cases,
decent search capability, law review articles GPO Access – Fed’l Govt. will be FDSys Martindale Hubbell Law Digest Ohio Supreme Court PACER – Federal Court dockets
The Invisible Web
Search Engines not index entire webSearch engines cannot type or think. “Invisible Web” includes information stored
in databases and password restricted information
The Invisible or Deep Web by U.C. Berkeley
Accessing Invisible Web
Find databases via directories or search engines (search for a subject term and the word “database”), or ask a librarian.
The Librarian’s Internet Index and Complete Planet .
Bookmark the databases you find See Web Searching Guide Example – A person's traffic tickets. Try a search
on Google, then try a search on pipl.com
Case law
• Legal Research Workstation - Case Law
• Google Scholar – state reported 1950-, fed circuit/ district 1923-
• Ohio Supreme Court
• Public Library of Law – boolean searching, good coverage
• Open Jurist – fed reported appellate 1882-
Current Awareness Tools
• Blog Search Engines and Directories
• RSS Readers - What are they? Ex. Bloglines
• Ohio Supreme Court cases – new opinions, case activity notification
• Current Awareness Resources for Ohio Law
• Watch That Page
Internet Documents in Court
• Law itself (statutes, case law, etc.), Internet versions are usually not the official version or an authenticated version. See blog post: Web Resources: Official or Authentic
• Articles or other evidence, print off the web page to show date retrieved
• see 5 Weinstein's Federal Evidence, LexisNexis, Chapter 900, esp.900.07