CMLawLibraryBlog

Cleveland-Marshall has added a new internationally-focused law review to its list of journals. The new Global Business Law Review (GBLR) will be a combination of a traditional paper publication and an electronic journal, including a blog and video material. The first GBLR symposium is scheduled for October 16, 2009 and will center on private business law in a global context. Students have the opportunity to join GBLR through either grading on or writing on - the GBLR website provides more information.

HotDocs software allows attorneys to create a template based upon a legal document they composed. When the template is created, it can be used to generate similar documents for different situations. The template is opened using HotDocs Player. Per the HotDocs site,

“HotDocs Player guides you through interview-style questions to gather necessary information and then assembles a custom document based on your answers. You can modify the custom document in your word processor.”

HotDocs Player is free to download and use. There are free HotDocs templates available at LexisONE Automated Forms. ( Free registration is required to use LexisONE.) There are also free templates available at NPADO.org for non-commercial use only. See A2J Author Blog post. If you want to turn your document into a HotDoc, you must purchase software to do so.

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The Library has a ton of new study aids – just in time for exam season. Check Scholar, the library catalog for a specific subject if you don’t see it listed below. Most of the materials are in room AO66 and can be checked out; some are on reserve. If you’re really quick about it, the materials may still be on carts behind the Information Services Desk.

First Year Classes

• Understanding Torts KF1250 .D5 2007
• Understanding Property Law KF561 .S67 2007
• Questions and Answers: Contracts KF801 .Z9 R69 2006
• Questions and Answers: Civil Procedure KF8841 .D65 2007
• Questions and Answers: Constitutional Law KF4550 .Z9 M23 2007

Upper Level Classes

• Understanding Evidence KF8935 .G52 2006
• Understanding First Amendment KF4770 .W43 2006
• Understanding Family Law KF505 .G734 2005
• Understanding Secured Transactions KF1050 .L39 2007
• Understanding Modern Real Estate Transactions KF665 .Z9 J638 2007
• Understanding Employment Discrimination KF3464 .H34 2008
• Understanding Bankruptcy KF1524 .F47 2007
• Understanding Insurance Law KF1164 .J47 2007
• Understanding International Criminal Law K5015.4 .P63 2008
• Understanding Patent Law KF3114 .L36 2008
• Understanding Federal Income Taxation KF6369.3 .B87 2008
• Questions and Answers: Wills, Trusts & Estates KF753 .Z9 F43 2008

Just a reminder -- be sure to log off of your account each time you’re in the computer lab.

Picture:http://icanhascheezburger.com/

We will be open the following hours during the week of Thanksgiving, Monday, November 24th through Sunday, November 30th...

Monday and Tuesday---8 am - 11 pm

Wednesday---8 am - 6 pm

Thursday and Friday---CLOSED

Saturday---9 am - 5 pm

Sunday---Noon - 9 pm

Regular semester hours will resume on Monday, December 1st.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Findlaw.com provides various outlines and exams broken down by area of law. Some of the material is slightly dated, but could still be useful when studying or preparing for exams. Findlaw does not maintain the links, so some of the links they provide may be dead.

Findlaw - Outlines & Exams

Amy L. Jarmon’s Adviser column in the November issue of Student Lawyer focuses on relieving stress during this very stressful month. Some of her best study and time management tips include:

• Stay current on class reading, and pick up the past reading you’ve missed in smaller chunks.
• If you’re behind in outlining for a class that covers non-overlapping topics, focus on outlining the most recent topics first, then go back for the older ones.
• If you’re behind on researching and writing a seminar paper, set specific calendar deadlines to complete the tasks of researching, writing, and editing. And stick to them.

Ms. Jarmon also offers lifestyle tips to help reduce stress. Some of them you’ve heard about a million times before (get eight hours of sleep, be sure to exercise) – but a couple stood out as particularly helpful:

• Choose a low-maintenance wardrobe during study season.
• Clean house only every two weeks and do the necessities in between.
• Drink water or green tea instead of constant coffee or pop.

The only piece of questionable advice was the part about freezing sandwiches for the week and taking one out each day to thaw for lunch. Eating a once-frozen sandwich?!? Now that would stress me out.

President–elect Barack Obama's rhetorical prowess has channeled Abraham Lincoln - now Julie Oseid offers The Power Of Brevity: Adopt Lincoln’s Habits in the latest issue of the Journal of Legal Writing Directors.* Professor Oseid studies Lincoln’s legal practice history and three of his landmark speeches – the First Inaugural, the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural as examples of the virtue of brevity in the art of legal persuasion. Brevity’s goal is clarity: to achieve it, Oseid advises to start writing early, visualize your audience, and to edit, and edit ruthlessly, for brevity.

*Oseid, Julie A.,The Power of Brevity: Adopt Abraham Lincoln's Habits(October 31, 2008). Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors, 2009; U. of St. Thomas Legal Studies Research Paper No. 08-30. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1293001

One of the best internet legal research products, the Cornell Legal Information Institute's collaboratively produced legal encyclopedia/dictionary Wex , has added over a hundred Spanish content pages in practice areas such as family law, copyright, employment law, and juvenile justice. For a complete list of topics in Spanish, see Wex: Espanol . LII's announcement says it best:

"Our legal dictionary and encyclopedia make the LII uniquely useful among open source online legal information providers, and its new Spanish content will extend and deepen its reach. Viva lengua legal!"

Current Models of Digital Scholarly Communication, a new study released by the Association of Research Libraries, takes a look at the variety of digital scholarly resources used by members of the academy today, how they parallel and also how they deviate from their print counterparts, and notes several trends in the scholarship landscape. Among the trends and issues noted:

• Every academic discipline is experiencing digital innovations, although multimedia elements and advanced communication tools are appearing more often in the sciences than the humanities
• Traditions of scholarly culture, such as credentialing, peer review and citation metrics dominate in the digital environment
• Multimedia and Web 2.0 applications are being used to create new forms of scholarship with no print equivalent such as video articles, data sites, peer reviewed reader commentary
• Establishing credibility and reputation for quality is a critical issue for all forms of digital publications in order to attract and impact scholars
• Continued sustainability, especially for open access resources, requires new economic models to replace traditional subscription support

Alex Botsios, a 1L Arizona State student, took the law into his own hands...literally. Recently, Alex was awakened in his apartment by intruder, Gabriel Saucedo. After taking his wallet and some other belongings, Saucedo went for his laptop. That's when Botsios took the law into his own hands. He wrestled a bat from Saucedo and proceeded to use it against him, several times, sending him to the hospital for stitches and jail for armed robbery and kidnapping!

I don't need to tell you all how important a laptop is to law students: class notes, papers and months and months of work. To what ends would you go for your laptop?

This leads me to an important point...DO NOT LEAVE ANY OF YOUR BELONGINGS UNATTENDED. Not only during busy exam season but throughout the semester. If you notice any suspicious behavior, please contact the Access Services desk immediately.

The library has digital audio recorders available for faculty to record their in-class exam reviews (or any class session). They work just like tape recorders. Come to the information services desk to check one out. When you are done with class, return the recorder, and Automation will put the recording on your course page or elsewhere on the law school web site. Your recording can be password protected so it is available only to Cleveland Marshall College of Law faculty and students.

If you want to ensure availability, just let the library staff know what date and time you will need the recorder. Call us at 216-687-2250 or email: information.services@law.csuohio.edu.

If you want to record an exam review outside of class, we recommend using Audacity software and a headset microphone. The library staff can help you do this. Headset microphones are available at the library.

For more information, see Classroom Media Options - Podcasting.

Oral argument is scheduled for January 20, 2009 in the cases of State of Ohio v. City of Akron, Case No. 2008-0418 [Appellate decision: City of Akron v. State of Ohio, (Jan. 9, 2008), 2008-ohio-38] and City of Lima v. State of Ohio, Case No. 2008-0128 [Appellate decision: City of Lima v. State of Ohio (Dec. 3, 2007), 2007-Ohio-6419, Allen County App. No. 1-07-21]. These cases held unconstitutional the state’s restrictions on city residency requirements enacted by S.B. 82 in 2006.

How did I stumble upon this bit of info? Sue Altmeyer recently added an option to subscribe to an RSS feed of Pending Ohio Supreme Court Opinions re the Ohio Constitution to her Ohio Constitutional Law and History Resource Guide on our web site. If you have in interest in Ohio state and local government, be sure to bookmark this guide: it is a tremendous source of information and insight into how Ohio operates (not a bad source for ideas for paper topics, either!)

Back in May, we blogged about a professor who filed a defamation suit against some former students on claims they falsely accused him of racism. Professor Richard Peltz, of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has dropped his defamation suit against some former black students and UALR’s Black Law Association, after the Interim Dean of the law school released a letter stating that there wasn't any evidence of his being a racist. Professor Peltz sited his reason for suing as regaining of his reputation. This is quite the paradox...Professor Peltz is considered an authority on free speech, yet that is what may have in fact become limited through the suit.

Perhaps a future client might want you to know about the legal aspects of this area of employment law. You’re in luck – Thomas H. Barnard is the Fall 2008 Cleveland-Marshall Employment & Labor Law Lecturer, on Tuesday, November 18^th, at 5:00 p.m., in the Moot Court Room. He is speaking on The Impact of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act on the Workplace. The announcement notes his record of litigation experience in this area of law; see also his page on the Ogletree Deakins site. This 33-office firm offers a wide range of labor and employment law services to management clients.

For some quick info, see the EEOC site & its Facts About Pregnancy Discimination. The EEOC has compiled nationwide Pregnancy Discrimination Charge Statistics; however they discontinued their Litigation Settlement Monthly Reports in 2006.

For research, if you are a Cleveland-Marshall student:

• In the CCH Research Network: Health and Human Resources (in the Law Library or via PIN), click on the Labor and Employment Law tab and select EEOC Compliance Manual. Search for - pregnancy discrimination act. Your results screen also shows the list of synonyms the software automatically used in that searching.

• In the Labor Relations Reporter/Labor and Employment Law Library (in the Law Library and for C-M students via PIN) click on Topical Indexes in the upper left hand corner. Search the General In dex and/or the EEO Compliance Index.

• And, for an easy to use comprehensive Law Library title, take a look at the multi-volume Employment Discrimination Coordinator (KF 3464 .A6 E47).

Interested in resources for finding people and public records? How about finding forms and practice materials? Then click here for powerpoint slides and written materials I prepared for two recent presentations. The National Business Institute presentations concentrate on free Internet resources. Among other topics, the materials cover finding neighbors and relatives; social security numbers; locating assets; criminal records, information on lawyers, judges & expert witnesses and jury verdict research.

These resources will be incorporated into research guides on the law library's web page.

What’s the EEZ? It’s a concept in international law that developed out of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The EEZ or exclusive economic zone gives coastal nations the rights to exclusive jurisdiction and control over 200 miles of waters adjacent to their coastline. Coastal nations have the right to use the natural resources in the sea-bed, sub-soil and waters within their EEZ. Other nations have the right of freedom of navigation, overflight, and the laying of submarine cables within the EEZ of other nations.

A great source for finding a quick overview of this and other international law concepts is Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, available in the reference collection at KZ1161 .P37 2004.

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The How to Survive Your First Year of Law School Wiki has lots of helpful hints such as:

• "Do your own outlines" (Although others in the Discussion section disagreed)
• "After first year try to clerk. There is no substitute for real world exposure."
• "Speak up in class. Participating actively in class is the best way both to "get it" and to evaluate for yourself how you are doing."

And of course, my favorite:

• "Use the library to fill in gaps. It isn't just a study hall. The library has books [and CDs too!] that can help you understand material that is not clear from assigned reading or lectures. Ask the librarian."

Because anyone can edit the Wiki, take some of the advice with a grain of salt.

Thanks to the Legal Writing Prof Blog.

Image: 'studying up'
www.flickr.com/photos/72324736@N00/2394236987

Aiming for a very high position in the new administration? If so, your important reading is the brand new 2008 edition of the Plum Book (more formally known as United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions.) The online version allows you to link in by section, which is broken down by branch of government and department. We also have a link to it via Scholar.

If you must have your own printed copy, it’s a best seller at the U.S. Government Bookstore (Stock Number 052-070-07534-1).

Because we are a designated U.S. Government Depository Library, we know there are a wide range of U.S. Government offices and agencies and we can assist you in finding out more about them.

Even if you’re not at that stage, think ahead – maybe in a few years . . . Why not a number of C-M Alums in top federal government posts?

Patrick Radden Keefe, Program Officer and Fellow at the Century Foundation, is the second 2008-2009 Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Criminal Justice Forum speaker. He will speak Wednesday, November 12^th at 5:00 p.m., Moot Court Room at the College of Law on Warrantless Wiretapping, Islamic Charities and the State Secrets Privilege: The Saga of Al Haramain.

Our Calendar of Special Events has information about this and other upcoming lectures.

Documents of interest related to this talk:

• The background info on Al Haramain v. Bush, at the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Case Information ; its NSA Spying may also be of interest.
• In Re: National Security Agency Telecommunications Records Litigation Order 564 F. Supp.2d 1109 (D.C.N.Cal. 2008); Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Inc. v Bush, 507 F.3d 1190 (9^th Circ. Cal. 2007)
• For law review articles discussing the state secrets privilege consider submitting the above citation using Shepard's via LexisNexis Academic – in the Law Library or remotely with a CSU ID and Scholar PIN.

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The Law Library of Congress and Google have teamed up to digitize over 75,000 volumes of Congressional hearings and make them freely available on the internet. The three collections offered so far, Census, Freedom of Information/Privacy, and Immigration, offer an incredible opportunity to understand the history of issues and policies still reverberating today through the testimony of Congressmen, government officials, experts and citizens. See for example:

American citizenship rights of women. Hearing before a subcommittee of the Committee on Immigration, United States Senate. PDF

Deportation of Aliens. Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Immigration, United States Senate, Seventy-sixth Congress, second and third sessions, on H.R. 4860, an act to amend existing law so as to provide for the exclusion and deportation of aliens who advocate the making of any changes in the American form of government. July 28, 1939; February 21 and April 25, 1940. PDF

Protecting the privacy of consumers’ social security numbers : hearing before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eighth Congress, second session, September 28, 2004. PDF

The Ohio experience : what can be done to spur brownfield redevelopment in America’s heartland? : hearing before the Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census of the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Ninth Congress, first session, May 16, 2005. PDF

The Library of Congress invites your comments on the project

Yesterday’s IntLawGrrls post on Dame Rosalyn Higgins, the current President of the International Court of Justice, comments on how out of step the Court is in terms of appointing female justices. Starting in early 2009 when Higgins steps down, the World Court bench will revert to an all-male affair. Women have served on the benches of a number of other international tribunals. A few examples: Patricia Wald, former ICTY judge, Navanethem Pillay, former President of the ICTR and Akua Kuenyehia, first Vice President of the International Criminal Court.

The Ohio Supreme Court today announced that our own Professor Steve Lazarus will chair the court’s Commission on Professionalism beginning January 1, 2009. The Commission is charged with monitoring professionalism efforts and activities in Ohio’s courts, bar associations, laws schools and jurisdictions outside the state, promoting, developing and sponsoring activities to enhance and emphasize professionalism, and making recommendations to the Ohio Supreme Court, judicial organizations, bar associations and law schools.

When Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus Steven H. Steinglass was putting together the Ohio Constitutional Law and History Web Page, he noticed that a major resource was not available in electronic form. The 1912 Ohio Constitutional Convention Proceedings were available in two print volumes totaling over 2,000 pages, but they were not online.

Professor Steinglass asked the Ohio Supreme Court if they could scan in the voluminous document and make it available on the Web. See the Ohio Supreme Court's Press Release , Nov. 5, 2008. The Court accepted the challenge, resulting in searchable pdf files for each day of the convention. There are also searchable indices. The proceedings are available at this link: 1912 Ohio Constitutional Convention Proceedings

As noted in our prior post, 1912 Ohio Constitution Proceedings Now Online, the proceedings are very much of interest to lawyers today. The 1912 Constitutional Convention proposed 42 constitutional amendments and the voters approved 34 of them. Courts today often rely on the 1912 Constitutional Convention Proceedings in deciding controversies involving the amendments added in 1912. For a recent example, see State ex rel. Ohio Gen. Assembly v. Brunner (2007), 114 Ohio St.3d 386, paragraphs 156-171.

The Ohio Constitutional Law and History Web Page offers even more sources, including prior versions of the Ohio Constitution, convention proceedings from other years, a list of recent decisions and pending Ohio Supreme Court cases, a table of proposed amendments and votes, and much more.

For a brief historical synopsis of the 1912 Convention, see Ohio History Central.

Professor Karin Mika recently used Camtasia to record a classroom presentation about searching in Lexis and Westlaw. Camtasia captured the screenshots of Lexis and Westlaw, as well as Professor Mika's verbal narration. The results are posted on Professor Mika's course page as: Introduction to Lexis and Westlaw Research.

Persons without a Cleveland Marshall College of Law username and password may take a look at the screencast via this link.

Students can watch the presentation and review various topics. For a key as to what topics are discussed at what point in the 22 minute presentation, see Professor Mika's Course Page under legal research videos. Topics include the West Digest, Lexis Headnotes, Shepards and Keycite.

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The Law Library has just posted a new Animal Law Research Guide. In it, you’ll find links to the best animal law sites on the Web, search tips for finding legislation, regulations, and case law, and plenty of secondary sources. The guide also points you to the top animal law blogs (or blawgs) out there. The sources listed are useful for researching issues relating to companion animals, wildlife, and animals used in agriculture or research.

A recent study found that there is no correlation or only a slight positive correlation between teaching evaluations and measures of research productivity. Barton, Benjamin. Is there a correlation between law professor publication counts, law review citation counts, and teaching evaluations? An empirical study. 5 J. Empirical Legal Studies 619-644 (2008). Barton studied the entire tenure track faculty of 19 different law schools. The 19 different law schools were selected to be a representative sample of law schools from various regions, rankings, types and sizes. Barton studied five measures of research productivity including raw publication count, scholarly publications, practical publications, total citation count and citations per year of full-time teaching. The publication counts were taken over a 3 year period, while the citation count covered the faculty members' entire career.

Lexis Legislative and Regulatory Impact are now available to law school users. These services offer real-time analysis of how proposed legislation and regulations impact existing law.

Legislative Impact allows you to see what sections of the U.S. Code a pending bill will change. For bills that have passed, it shows (1) the changes to the U.S. Code made by the bill, (2) amendments made by subsequent legislation and (3) pending bills which will make changes. This information previously was very time consuming to gather, but Lexis (via Potomac Publishing Company) offers it all in one easy-to-read report. Also, for a particular U.S. Code section, this service lists pending bills that will make changes to that section.

There are similar databases for twenty state legislatures, and all fifty states will be available early next year.

To access: from the Legal tab, click on "Federal Legal-U.S.", scroll down to "Find Statutes, Regulations..." and you will see a link for Legislative Impact & Regulatory Impact. Also, if you pull up a pending bill, Public Law(federal) or state session law , there will be a link to retrieve the legislative impact in the top left hand corner.

Similarly, Regulatory Impact tells you what administrative code sections are affected by final and proposed rules.

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The American Society of International Law is soliciting papers for its 2009 conference, with the theme “International Law as Law.” Papers selected from submitted abstracts will be presented at the Annual Meeting on a “Cutting Edge Panel.”

Deadline for submission of abstracts is December 1, 2008. For complete information, see ASIL Participate.

For up-to-the minute election coverage, check out Election Law @Moritz. This is a joint venture between The Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law and the Moritz Law Library. They have information on current litigation, election related issues and links to individual state coverage including each state's election laws. It's quite extensive.

Versuslaw brings you FindACase . A good place to access this and other free case law databases is via the Law Library's Legal Research on the Web.

About FindACase:

Coverage: FindACase contains U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1886-, U.S. Circuit decisions, typically from 1930 on, and U.S. District Court and State Appellate decisions, coverage varies by court. see Content Directory. New cases appear within 24 hours of release.

Mostly Free?: The case name and opinion text is provided, but citation of the case and docket number are not. One could obtain the citation by finding the case cited within another case. Or, the citation will be provided for a $2.95 fee.

Search Mechanism: One can search using Boolean logic. See FAQ for details on what operators are available. You may also search by citation.

Quirks: You must provide your zip code and enter a CAPTCHA character string to do a search.

Thanks to the Law Librarian Blog.

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• Another Reason to Perfect Your Online Research Skills
• Got Issues with Your Issues? Get Tips Here
• Hints for Multiple Choice Test Creators and Takers
• New Faculty Resource for Copyright Information
• New Global Business Law Review
• HotDocs for Creating Legal Documents
• This Just In: LOTS of New Study Aids

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