Law Practice General Resources
Note For additional Law Practice & Management Resources see also: US Federal Caselaw and General Legal Resources.
Justia Federal Court Filings & Dockets
Justia offers a database for searching federal district court civil cases. Browse case filings or conduct a search by party name, court, type of lawsuit or date. Information provided includes case caption, date filed, court, judge, type of lawsuit and cause of action. Justia also provides a link to the docket sheet. To retrieve it, you must have a subscription with PACER. Useful features include search-generated RSS feeds. Do a search using the above criteria (e.g., all Civil RICO cases in the E.D.PA) and then monitor new results via the RSS feed.
Accident Sketch
A free site that allows you to create a professional-looking depiction of an auto accident site, or really any other sketch you would need to make that would involve an aerial view of cars on roads, highways, and parking lots.
This site offers an excellent assortment of commentary, U.S. primary law, statistics, case summaries, and litigation guides on death penalty related topics containing motions, briefs, memoranda, strategies, case summaries, statistics and other trial documents.
The National Center for State Courts maintains this Web site devoted to jury information. Find white papers and other documents addressing issues such as juror privacy and hung juries. Also find in-depth information about jury services, jury management, jury trial innovations, jury decision making and grand juries. A newsletter, Jury News, covers current issues.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts offers this search tool for finding federal court contact information. Search by type of court and location to find the full street address, a map, phone number, Web site address and URL for submitting electronic filings.
Court Rules, Forms and Dockets
LLRX.com offers search access to source information for federal and state court rules, forms and dockets. The database includes links to over 700 sources. Search by keyword, or browse by one or more of the following criteria: jurisdiction, document type, or state. The database returns links to credible sources that match your query.
The site offers samples of medical images and sells medical legal exhibits, anatomical models and illustrations. It conveniently arranges its samples into browseable categories including medical specialties and parts of the body.
Law.com co-sponsors this blog on electronic data discovery (EDD). It provides brief commentary on legal news and events.
Federal Justice Statistics Resource Center
The Bureau of Justice Statistics offers this resource for obtaining "information about suspects and defendants processed in the Federal criminal justice system."
Sign up for a Gmail account and take advantage of Google's free office tools including document, spreadsheet, calendar and presentation applications. Gmail also allows users to make free phone calls within the US (currently until the end of 2010) and offers videochat services as well. For those wishing to upgrade, Google also offers low-cost Business Apps solutions which provides additional services and support.
Handbook for Federal Grand Jurors
Federal district court for the Eastern District of Missouri makes available a PDF copy of the Handbook for Federal Grand Jurors. "It explains some of the terms that grand jurors will encounter during their service." It provides a brief history of the federal grand jury. It also outlines the purpose and selection of a grand jury.
Federal district court for the Eastern District of Missouri makes available a PDF copy of the Handbook for Trial Jurors Serving in the United States District Courts. "It explains some of the language and procedures used in court," including the difference between an indictment and an information. It also outlines the stages of a trial.
Founded by a lawyer, JD Supra "promotes the free exchange of information to benefit the legal community, legal consumers, the media and the general public." Legal professionals may register with the site to post court filings and other legal documents or articles. Once you post at least one document, you may also create a free profile. Others may search the documents and profiles for free. Documents are available for downloading in Word or PDF.
You may search documents by keyword, and then limit the retrieval by court, type of filing or subject matter.
Judges of the United States Courts
The Federal Judicial Center offers a database of biographical information about federal judges serving since 1789. Biographical entries include the judge's full name, birth year and date of death, place of birth or death, race and gender. They also provide information about a judge's education and professional career. Search or browse by the judge's name. You may limit retrieval with certain criteria -- court, nomination date, commission date, etc. To do so, follow the link for the database, which appears mid-way down the page. (Limiting retrieval to current judges is no longer available.) You may also create lists based on certain criteria; for example, discover all female justices on the U.S. Supreme Court since 1789 (two -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor).
An interactive encyclopedia of courts and judges. Includes information on federal and state courts and judges, inlcuding links to the Congressional record for confirmation hearings. Users are encouraged to contribute content.
Judicial Business of the U.S. Courts
Judicial Business of the U.S. Courts is the most comprehensive set of detailed statistical tables published on the work of the federal Judiciary, plus charts and text explaining why increases or decreases occurred in the courts’ caseload. Publications dating back to 1997 are available online.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts provides an introduction to jury service. It cover trial juries (aka petit juries) and grand juries as well as the qualifications required to serve as a federal juror.
Jury Verdict Review & Analysis
Jury Verdict Review Publications, Inc. publishes several monthly reporters containing summaries of civil jury verdicts. Jury Verdict Review & Analysis is currently available in six editions--national, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, New England and Florida. Another reporter, Medical Liability Alert, covers medical liability verdicts. These publications require a paid subscription. You can, however, sign up for free monthly email alerts containing verdict updates. The updates provide the type of verdict, amount if relevant, county, type of legal action and brief description.
The ABA's Law Practice Management Section publishes this webzine covering management, marketing, technology and finance issues. Articles are available for free. The RSS news feed consists of headlines and a brief description.
Online Legal Services Ltd., a marketing company that specializes in advertising for lawyers and law firms, provides information about class action and personal injury cases. You may browse the index by "hot issue" or category, or search the collection of cases by keyword. The information retrieved includes a description of the case. Cases in the collection include those that have settled, those that are pending, and those investigating the possibility of filing a lawsuit.
Lawyerist is a law practice blog, focusing on marketing, practice management, career development, and more.
This subscription-based site provides a portal to civil and criminal case information and court docket systems for federal, state and local courts in the United States. In June 2008, it added coverage for real estate and county recorder records as well as UCCs, business filings and professional licenses.
Legal Marketing Reader
Marketing communications consultant Amy Campbell maintains this Web site devoted to legal marketing issues. It offers articles, a separate blog and a special search engine for finding commentary on legal marketing.
Exclusively available via LexisNexis (fee-based), CourtLink eAccess provides electronic access to court records in over 4,000 federal, state and local courts. CourtLink eFile - now available in 90 courts - provides online filing services.
Linked here are all available federal court Web sites offer docket sheets via Web-based PACER.
Lexbe, a Web-based case analysis and document management system, sponsors this free collection of articles for litigators. In accordance with the site's terms of use, to be included, "[a]rticles must have been presented as part of a legal continuing legal presentation (CLE), in a bar journal, or be of similar quality, be of current interest to litigators and related legal professionals, and published in the last two years." You may search for articles by keyword or browse them by topic. Queries yield the title of the article, a description and a link to the original article, whether at Litilaw, a law firm Web site, or other Web-based location. As the collection grows, legal professionals should find it increasingly valuable.
Mobile Applications for Legal Research & News
From the UCLA Law Library, this guide highlights a number of mobile applications that might be of interest to law students and lawyers.
The Federal Judiciary publishes a notice to courts concerning the rate to be applied to judgments affected by the provisions of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1961 and 40 U.S.C. Sec. 258(e)(1). The notice includes the percent yield of the most recent auction of 52-week Treasury bills as well as a table of equivalent coupon issue yields for the 52-week Treasury bills since April 1982.
For decades Jay Foonberg, a California lawyer, has published materials to help attorneys plan and start their own law firms.
A networking community for lawyers and law students to help them learn about and manage the nuts and bolts of operating your own law practice.
Automated process service company Serve-Em.com offers state service of process rules, information about service in foreign countries, and various related federal forms.
Reference from Coast to Coast: Jury Instructions Update
LLRX.com provides a list of online access to state jury instructions for all 50 states. It covers civil and criminal jury instructions.
This public interest advocacy site by the Public Justice law firm offers news and information about some of the key cases the organization is currently litigating. It also provides briefs and other legal documents (typically in both HTML and PDF formats), its Public Justice newsletter, a guide for seeking justice through the courts and submitting a potential case to the organization, as well as a database of useful nonprofit resources and contacts for public interest advocates.
PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) provides access to an index of court filings in federal district, bankruptcy and appellate courts. Conduct one search in available courts nationwide, or search individual courts. Review the site's Courts Not on Index to determine whether the court you want is available via the index. This is an easy inexpensive way to find federal civil or criminal litigation involving companies or individuals. Access requires a subscription.
Legal Threats Database
Th Citizen Media Law Project, jointly affiliated with Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Citizen Media, makes available a database of information about legal threats. Threats include intellectual property infringement lawsuits, cease and desist letters, defamation actions, civil rights actions, and more.
This community offers legal professionals a forum for discussing legal technology and practice management issues, as well as legal products and services. Community managers then compile the submissions into various email newsletters, which they also archive. Joining the community requires free registration.
What's News @ Legal Market Reader
This is the companion blog for Legal Marketing Reader. It summarizes new articles available at the main Web site. It also has an RSS feed.
