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Want to know what "precrimination" means? Or how about "glamping" or "stoozing"? The Word Spy site tracks usage of new words and phrases in popular media, supplying definitions and examples of how the new word has been used in recent media sources. It's clearly modeled after the venerable Oxford English Dictionary, and it's a fun site to browse when you need a break from studying your outline for the umpteenth time. Thanks to beSpacific for highlighting this site!
Westlaw decided to give all legal researchers something to be deeply thankful for this month. After listening to librarians' pleas for easier access to West Key Numbers on Westlaw for years, West has finally acquiesced, and you can now find a link to West Key Numbers on the main menu at the top of the Westlaw legal research screen. Here's what it looks like:
When you click on the "Key Numbers" link, you'll pull up a screen that gives you the choice of browsing the West Key Number Digest Online or using a keyword search to find a relevant West Key Number. If you're not sure which topic and key number you need, browsing the topic outline is a good way to orient yourself to the available topics. In the world outside academia, there's no charge for browsing or searching the key numbers. However, if you search case law for particular key numbers in a practice setting, that search will cost money.
If you're reading this post and still wondering what the heck a key number is, here is the explanation from West:
Key Numbers help you search for legal concepts [in case law]. The American system of law is broken down into Major Topics -- there are more than 400, including topics like Civil Rights, Negligence, and Pretrial Procedure. Each of those topics is divided, in greater and greater detail, into individual subtopics that represent specific legal concepts. Each specific legal concept has a unique number, called a Key Number. Every case headnote in Westlaw is classified to a particular Key Number, which allows you to find cases on any of the more than 100,000 Key Numbers. The whole outline, along with the case headnotes classified to it, is called the Key Number Digest System.
Big changes are coming for the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure! The new rules will go into effect on December 1, 2007. Some of the modifications are more substantial than others, but most practitioners agree that the changes are the most dramatic modifications to the rules in decades. The gussied-up new rules have even won an award -- the Burton 2007 Reform in Law Award! For even more on the changes to the rules and the Burton honor, read this exciting press release from the Newsletter of the Federal Courts.
Public.Resource.Org issued a press release today announcing that they will "release a large and free archive of federal case law, including all Courts of Appeals decisions from 1950 to the present and all Supreme Court decisions since 1754. The archive will be public domain and usable by anyone for any purpose." They are able to do this thanks to an agreement they reached with Fastcase, Inc.
Carl Malamud, the founder of Public.Resource.Org is famous for his efforts making the SEC's EDGAR materials available to the general public for free. There is a great story about Malamud and his effort to convince West Publishing Company to allow his organization to digitize West materials at Tim O'Reilly's (of O'Reily computer books) blog.
