'SITES FOR SORE EYES'

OR

'UNION LAWYERS CAN DO IT ON THE INTERNET'

Adapted From A Presentation to the 2001 LCC Conference by:

Howard B. Lenow, J.D., D.C.E. (dot.com wannabe)

Lenow & McCarthy

13 Pelham Island Road

Wayland, MA 01778

Voice: 508.358 8181 Fax: 508.358.8989

Email: lenow@masslaborlaw.com

http://www.masslaborlaw.com


This paper is intended as a springboard to help lawyers dig in and start using the Internet 'and dare I say it, new technologies -- as more of an integral partner in your practice. This paper is both a guide to the Internet's myriad of legal resources and a consumer's guide to the limits of using the Internet for legal research. It is as important to understand what the Internet cannot provide for you as well as what it can. This paper begins with some general lessons about how to get started with legal research, moves on to explain the uses of different search engines, focuses on some specific labor law resources and some fun resources and finishes with a brief discussion about new developments in legal technology over the next year. The online version is coded with hypertext to allow direct links from the web sites listed.

BIG TIME REGULAR LAWYER-TYPE DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this paper is based on my extensive and all-inclusive review of each of the one billion web pages on the net. As such, it is possible that in collating such a massive amount of information, I may have missed one or two sites or that by the time this paper is distributed, these sites may no longer exist. It is also possible that despite my uncanny resemblance to actor and comedian Robin Williams, more in the true style of that great borscht belt comedian, Milton Berle, I generously borrowed advice or directions from the great law librarians and techno-lawyers who actually know what they are doing in the field of legal research on the internet. As such, in order to avoid a host of copyright lawsuits or even copywrong lawsuits, I acknowledge that nothing you read in this paper or hear in my presentation is an original thought, concept, idea, list or design. Anyone who relies on anything in this presentation lacks both judgment and good sense for which I take no responsibility. Obviously because even I don't take credit for this material, neither does the LCC or any other worthwhile organization.

How To Make Sense of the Madness

The Internet is vast and you should be humbled by its magnificence. I, for one, am humbled by a lot less than magnificence. Current estimates place the number of web pages at over one billion (shades of Carl Sagan) and growing by leaps and bounds (for those of you on the metric system, bounds and leaps). Experts who waste more time on the web than me estimate that even the best search engines only catalogue 16% of the web's content. I can assure you from personal experience that in my continuing and crass efforts at promoting my web site, www.masslaborlaw.com, in hopes that I too will find the dot.com nirvana of so many other twenty-year old internet acolytes (ok, edit out 'twenty-year old'), I find that unless you keep registering your site over and over, the search engines forget about you.

So, why waste valuable space to share this with you? The more insightful among you (sorry Dubya) will realize that the lesson here is that research on the Internet can drive you crazy. Sometimes you will plug in a search and get a response showing 130,000 sites; sometimes you get zip. Often the sites that pop up have nothing to do with what you are looking for even after you have scrolled through 300 sites. So, what's a mother to do?

WHY WASTE YOUR TIME?

Jerry Lawson, author of The Complete Internet Handbook for Lawyers (ABA Law Practice Management Section: 1999) warns that doing research on the Internet is difficult because:

'It is hard to find what you want among the masses of data.

'The available information varies widely in quality.

'In many cases depth of information is lacking. There is seldom anything approaching the coverage of historical cases that you get in a law library, and coverage of state law cases generally is spotty.

'Most sites provide little if any technical support.

'There are so many interesting side trails that it can be difficult for all but the most disciplined researcher to avoid wasting time.

'There is little uniformity in site organization and presentation. Each site tends to be put together in a unique, and sometimes haphazard fashion.

OK. So it won't be easy. OK, so you may end up wasting perfectly good billable time searching through hundreds of sites to find that one footnote that no arbitrator is likely to read anyway. Is this any reason not to try? Aren't you sick and tired of relying on that twenty-one year old legal intern for help? Look where that got our former President? And most of all, don't you want to be COOL?

STARTING POINTS

If you are still reading, I assume you have been sufficiently shamed to join those of us who have entered the MATRIX. Here are some good lessons to keep in mind:

1. Decide Where To Start: Duh! Seems obvious but you must first decide if you are going to hit Westlaw and Lexis (is the client going to pay?) or free Internet resources. If you need citations or a good round of Shepards, pay the $4.00 per minute. If you need the actual case, statute or regulation, articles on specific issues, news research, factual research, advice from other lawyers, good lawyer jokes or other secondary information, dive in.

2. Pick Your Internet Portal: Are you going to use a general search engine, a legal research meta-page, a previously saved link, or a practice-specific page?

3. Research Strategies:

a. Searching Methods:

i. Boolean: X and Y but not Z

ii. Proximity: X within (number) words of Y

iii. Case sensitivity

iv. Exact match versus partial or all match ('all the words' or 'any of the words' or 'words like these')

b. Limit your search to finds in the title, images, URL, fields, text of a web page

c. How many different search engines will you try? Each search engine looks for different things and can produce dramatically different results.

d. Phrasing Your Search: Just as in legal research, use unique words that are more likely to turn up the information you are looking for. Use quotes around names or descriptions that will limit the search to the entire phrase, not parts. Don't use 'the' or 'of', use synonyms and learn how to use 'Search Operators.' For a great summary of the different search operators, check out the Lawson book referenced above at pages 80-82 for a chart on operators.'

4. Use Specialty Pages and Links: There is no need to re-create the world. Find the specialty pages that deal with your research subject and use them like you would use Morris' The Developing Labor Law for everything you forgot from labor law in law school. By the way, a new site just appeared at www.laborlawonline at which the publisher claims will host a complete labor law treatise by Charles O. Gregory and others.

5. Use my web site, www.masslaborlaw.com as a resource page, the LCC site at http://lcc.aflcio.org or the soon to be upgraded ABA Labor and Employment site http://www.abanet.org/labor/home.html.You can always email me at lenow@masslaborlaw.com for suggestions.

6. For News Information: See the directory of links to online news sources at www.newslink.org/menu.html and for a directory of electronic publications at www.qrl.org/scomm/edir/archive.html

7. For Research on Companies: www.hoovers.com, www.wsrn.com or www.companylink.com, or EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar.htm for SEC filings.

8. Online Articles on Specific Practice Areas: See www.legaline.com, the website of Robert Ambrogi, author of the syndicated column legalonline which appears monthly in a variety of legal periodicals and 'Web Watch' for Law Technology News at www.lawtechnews.com.

9. Get Statistics On Anything: Go to www.festats.gov that has links to statistics from federal agencies or see www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/stats.html for an even broader directory of statistics.

10. Sign on To Law Lists That Interest You: A great starting point to find out what other lawyers have found helpful can be found in the thousands of online discussion groups called listserves. For a list of lawlists and an explanation of how lists work go to www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/lawlists/info.html .See also www.legalminds.com to sign on to a variety of legal lists. The LCC web site is an online bulletin board, not technically a law list but it serves the same purpose. The ABA Labor and Employment web site also has its own message board but is still underutilized. Right now, I have the distinction of being the only participant and I certainly wouldn't take advice from me.

SEARCHOLOGY: LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD SEARCH ENGINES:

Lets assume you are a complete ignoramus about the web and that you don't have a clue how to even think about narrowing issues or thinking strategically. While you might be able to serve as Governor of Texas without anyone noticing, you might not do well using the more sophisticated search strategies discussed later. So, if you have no idea at all what you are doing on the web and are not focusing on legal research, start with one of these general search engines. Each search engine has different features and coverage. For a comprehensive review of these differences and a chart showing the different search languages, see 'Update to Search Engines Compared' by law librarian Diana Botluk at http://www.llrx.com/features/engine3.htm. Here is a shortened lesson:

1. Google: http://www.google.com

This is my default search index. It is simple, fast and comprehensive. Its search language does not allow for the more complex searches inquiries that lawyers are used to but it is a great place to get started.

2. Hot Bot: http://www.hotbot.com

This used to be my favorite. It has the easiest to use sophisticated search tools if you used the advanced search page. This engine will bring up the top ten popular links for your search.

3. AltaVista: http://altavista.digital.com

Another sophisticated search engine allowing for traditional Boolean searches as well as addition of field restrictors.

4. AskJeeves: http://www.askjeeves.com

Ask your kids. On this site, you just type in your question as if you were talking to a librarian. The site will then show you research questions that might be helpful and direct you to those sites.

5. Northern Light: http://www.northernlight.com

I included this one because it was created by a college roommate. The Northern Light research engine claims a patented classification intelligence and precision relevancy ranking to improve Web searching. They encourage searching through a Special Collection' of over 7100 respected full-text publications not otherwise available to Web searchers, which are organized into Custom Search Folders' so that users don't have to waste time weeding through useless information.

6. AllONE SEARCH. http://www.allonesearch.com

This site lists 800 other search engines with special functions. For example, you can use the shopping search engine to find low prices, the monster search engine to search 8 major search engines at once.

LEGAL SEARCHOLOGY:

For those of you as committed as I to reducing your billable hours in search of the perfect web site, I have provided you with access to a series of co-dependency sites that will enable you to join me looking for the Holy Grail.

ONLINE GUIDES TO LEGAL RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET

If I were you, you would have written this paper and you wouldn't need my help. But you're not me and for reasons that escape me, you are wasting perfectly good time reading my advice. I, however, did not rely on myself to learn about legal research on the net, but on others. And so, here are some sites to turn to when you realize that depending on me was a huge mistake.

1. Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Primer: http://denniskennedy.com

Dennis is the recipient of the 2001 Technolawyer of the Year Award. I wasn't even nominated. His site is chock full of how to do everything for lawyers on the web including his incredibly useful online book, The Legal Technology Primer. Here, he includes his 'Internet Toolbox for Legal Research.' I seriously considered not telling you all about this site so I could continue to appear like I knew more than you. Once you read this, we're even.

2. Legal Research on the Internet:

http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/mpoctalk.html

This is an excellent nuts and bolts site about legal research on the Internet produced by Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Librarian and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Don't be fooled, however, because if you are looking for places to buy nuts and bolts, you won't find it here. Her site is more of a list of where to start than a 'how to' site, but her brief annotations are extremely helpful in deciding which legal sites to visit. She also lists other 'Guides to Legal Research' on her site.

3. Law Resources on the World Wide Web: http://users.erols.com/dianab/weblaw.htm

Another great site by Diana Botluk. This site is a well-organized list of legal research sites on the web directing the viewer to courts, legislative materials, agency sites and related legal information. The site is designed as an online seminar with Diane's suggestions on to how to learn to find materials.

4. Legal and Factual Research on the Internet

http://www.virtualchase.com/legalresearcher/intro.html

Another site by Genie Tyburski, law librarian and web host extraordinaire. This site is also structured as an online seminar about legal research in the form of an interactive web site. This site allows the viewer to learn how to find law and other materials on the Internet by walking through a series of research exercises. Also, check out her 'Legal Research Guide: An Annotated Finding Aid for Legal Professionals' at www.virtualchase.com

5. The Compleat Internet Researcher

http://www.aallnet.org/products/crab/index.html

This site is a collaborative effort by a group of Internet law librarians that was created for a conference of the American Association of Law Librarians in 1977. The site reads like a seminar and discusses the limits of using the Internet for legal research and how to develop strategies for conducting effective legal research. And yes, they spelled 'compleat' that way on their site.

A REVISED TOP TEN LEGAL RESEARCH SITES FOR LAWYERS:

Aside from those mentioned above, here is a list of ten sites I recommend that you place in the bookmarks or favorites section of your browser:

1. Law Library Resource Exchange: www.llrx.com

This is an online magazine produced by law librarians. No one understands legal research on the web like these folks. Aside from the general content and easy direction to legal resources on the web, the site often produces excellent articles on subject or practice specific information like Michael Dahn's piece on Labor and Employment Law Resources on the Web' at www.llrx.com/features/labor.htm.

2. NetLawTools.com: www.netlawtools.com

This is the site of the author of the earlier referenced ABA publication by Jerry Lawson, The Complete Internet Handbook for Lawyers. In addition to providing indexes for legal research, he also includes links to articles on legal research and reviews of helpful sites and books on the subject.

3. Findlaw: www.findlaw.com

This is still the best 'mega-site' for focusing your search for legal resources by subject area. For example, findlaw's labor and employment section, http://guide.lp.findlaw.com/01topics/27labor/index.html, divides its links into eight categories including government documents, journals, newsletters, mailing lists, message boards, government agencies, outlines, software and labor law resources. Most Internet researches agree this is the place to start. You can also sign on the 'My Findlaw.com' to set up a personalized portal for your practice interests by subject area and state.

4. Macattorney: www.macattorney.com

This site maintains one of the most comprehensive set of links to all matters legal on the Internet. The site is maintained by Randy Singer, an intellectual property lawyer and author of the Macintosh Bible. While Randy is a devotee of Macintosh computers (any my personal savior) and this the place to go to learn about what is available to lawyers using Macs, his site is an amazing collection of indexes to courts, statutes, agencies, state resources, and specific practice areas. If for nothing else, you should bookmark his site to use his 'Attorney's Toolbox' at www.macattorney.com/tools.html that has hundreds of links to every practical resource you can imagine ranging from finding experts to testify, finding zip codes, faxing over the net, finding phone numbers, financing college tuition, and on and on.

5. Labor and Employment Law:

http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/lr/rs/labor.html

This is a helpful collection of sites maintained by the Georgetown Law Library dealing with labor law. The site has little in the way of guides but is a helpful collection of links to cases and statutes dealing with labor and employment law.

6. Law.com: www.law.com

This is a commercial site maintained by American Lawyer Media. It is fast becoming the monster site for Internet legal news. You can access the main site for general legal news with a free subscription. If you want to enter their practice centers like 'employment law' you have to pay an annual fee of $132. For this you get automatic news emails on employment law developments and access to practice papers. I am still experimenting with this site but it looks promising.

7. ABA Section of Labor and Employment Web Site:

http://www.abanet.org/labor/home.html

As the new Union Co-Chair of the ABA's Section on Labor and Employment Technology Committee, I am compelled to direct you to this site. We are in the process of re-designing the site with the help of a grant and minions of law students (that's minions, not minyans) and hope to have it completed later this spring. Our goal is to have the site become the source on the Internet for labor law research.

8. Workindex.com: www.workindex.com

This site is published collaboratively by Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Human Resource Executive magazine. It is a great resource for information on human resources, labor relations, benefits, training, technology, staffing, recruiting, leadership, motivation, insurance, relocation, legal issues and more. Its search engine seeks out sites related to human resources and labor issues and avoids the millions of hits from a general search engine. The site is very deep including links to online seminars for 'How Unions Can Use the Internet' and other research guides in labor law and human resources.

9. Labor Relations Information System: www.lris.com

This is the only site I have found dealing with personnel issues for public safety professionals and their employers. It is published by Oregon union attorney Will Aitchison. You can register for a free newsletter, gain free access to some wage and benefit data, and use basic but helpful links for public sector labor law research.

10. Benefits Link: http://www.benefitslink.com

This is the most comprehensive and independent web site dealing with employee benefits issues. The site runs its own search engine for benefits issues and has a long list of links to access original source material for benefits compliance issues. Make sure to find the excellent article 'Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research' by the site's publisher David Baker.

(OK'I said top ten sites, but whose really counting)

11. The United States Government: www.firstgov.gov

Believe it or not, the federal government got it right with this site. This is the best way to get to anywhere in the United States Government. You can find any agency, board, commission and jump easily to the congress or the federal courts. The site says it best:

'FirstGov allows users to browse a wealth of information ' everything from researching at the Library of Congress to tracking a NASA mission. It also enables users to conduct important business online ' such as applying for student loans, tracking Social Security benefits, comparing Medicare options and even administering government grants and contracts. This monumental breakthrough in one-stop shopping for government services will help Americans across the country and around the world find the information and resources they need at a click of a mouse ' quickly and easily.'

12. Nolo.com: www.nolo.com

This is the famous site dedicated to helping consumers avoid using lawyers. Despite this madness, I love their site. They have a very nice section on employment law with a set of 'frequently asked questions' for employees ranging from severance rights to sexual harassment. And of course, don't skip the archives of lawyer jokes.

TEN SITES for DAILY SURVIVAL

1. New York Times: www.nyt.com (How can you miss Maureen Dowd attack George W. or Tom Friedman explain the Middle East)

2. Mapquest: www.mapquest.com (Get door to door directions from anywhere to anywhere'or somewhere to nowhere)

3. Moviefone.com: www.moviefone.com (Find a movie, its time and a review); The Internet Movie Database: www.imdb.com (The top-rated web site for movie buffs on the net.)

4. CNET: www.cnet.com or MySimon: www.mysimon.com (Before you buy anything, plug in your product and let CNET or MYSIMON find the best price on the net.)

5. Travelocity: www.travelocity.com (Not that anyone has money left after April 15th, but get the best prices on travel then book your flight, car or donkey.)

6. Inter-Links: www.alabanza.com/kabacoff/Inter-Links (Claiming over 100 million visits since 1994, this site is billed as an Internet navigator, resource locator and tutorial. Maintained by a real live Ph.D., this is another Swiss army knive type of site particularly helpful for its 'Finding people on the Net' list.

7. Bluebook Citations: www.law.cornell.edu/citation/citation.table.html (An online copy of the Seventeenth Edition of the 'Bluebook.'

8. Virtual Reference Desk: http://web.lwc.edu/administrative/library/ref.htm (Your very own reference librarian. The home page is a directory of the hundreds of subjects that you might ask a reference librarian to help you find. For example, if you click on 'Books' you can find any book in print, book reviews, information on authors, etc.

9. Working Families: www.workingfamilies.com (This is an Internet portal sponsored by the AFL-CIO. The concept is that all union members will start their Internet day through this site. The front page has snippets of union-related news along with promotions for worker-friendly businesses, weather and links to entertainment resources. You can also sign in to your local 'digital city' by entering your zip code.

10. HowStuffWorks: www.howstuffworks.com (A great resource site for helping with homework or just learning about the world. This week, the site posted pictures, diagrams and explanations of how the EP-3E spy plane that 'collided' with a Chinese fighter collects information.

SITES TO SEE FOR NO REASON AT ALL OTHER THAN TO LAUGH

1. 404 NOT FOUND: http://www.mindspring.com/~isixtyfive/404page/404_fame.html

Someone actually collected a list of sites for that common and infuriating web notice '404 Not Found'. Check out the third site listed as fubar.

2. The Center for On-Line Addiction: www.netaddiction.com

I thought this was the funniest site I had ever seen until I realized they weren't trying to be funny.

3. Future Horizons: www.futurehorizons.net

You can really order personal jet packs to fly from one appointment to another. You might even consider cryonics.

4. The George W. Site: www.dystopical.com

Of all the Bush sites, I think this is the most cleveristist.

5. Betty Bowers is a Better Christian Than You: www.bettybowers.com

Please don't be offended, but if you are, you have no sense of humor. This site is an example of what wit and great design can produce.

6. Jokes.com: www.jokes.com

A meta-index of jokes. Plug in the subject area and the site gives you a rating from 1 (blows) to 5 (hysterical) along with a rating for explicitness.

7. The Onion: www.theonion.com

One of the most popular newspaper parody sites with stories like, 'Clinton Forgets to Hit 'Save'on Federal Budget.' A favorite of the college intelligentsia. Really, my son promised!

8. Ad Critic: www.adcritic.com

This site allows downloads of QuickTime videos of the best commercials and commercial parodies. My favorite was the group of Hasidic Jews saying 'Shalom' to each other like the Budweiser 'Wassup' commercials.

9. Gavel2Gavel: www.re-quest.net/g2g

A general legal resource directory with a very funny section on legal humor. The publishers divide their collection of legal humor into case law humor (real cases), courtroom humor (real transcripts), lawyer jokes and political humor. For example, 'Attorney: Are you married? Witness: No, I'm divorced. Attorney: And what did your husband do before you divorced him? Witness: A lot of things I didn't know about.'

10. Project Cool: www.projectcool.com

A site devoted to finding the most interesting and well-designed web sites from the perspective of graphic designers. Click on 'Sightings' to see some amazing web sites.

THE YEAR 2001: WHAT TO EXPECT
(I wrote this in 2000: I must be psychic!)

1. The Wireless Web: Wireless access to the web is now available but only at speeds of outdated landline modems at 19,200 Kbps. E-mail is functional at these speeds, but not much else. Those with Palm Pilots or other handhelds can also use 'web-clipping' services to access web sites that have maximized content for these slow downloads. The most promising development in wireless services is the new Ricochet wireless service that is available at 128 Kbps, roughly the speed of ISDN lines. The service is only available in six cities but should spread quickly making full wireless web browsing available this year.

2. ASPs: Application Service Providers The newest software applications are web-based applications. These web-based providers make their expensive software available over the web so that law firms can purchase the newest software applications only for the time they need to use them. Some ASPs act as virtual law firms with full case management, calendaring and legal research.

3. Extranets and Intranets: Law firms will make greater us of extranets ' web based subscriber services for clients providing direct services over the web.

4. Streaming Media: As Internet access over high-speed lines becomes more common, law firms will make greater use of video conferencing for real time meetings over the Internet. Several companies like I-Dep at www.i-dep.com are marketing services that allow for participation in depositions from multiple locations. Streaming media for live and participatory video conferencing will also find more use in training and education on the web.

5. Voice Recognition: Current software and hardware solutions allow lawyers to dictate into computers as quickly as normal speech. These solutions will slowly move into using handheld computers and surfing the Internet by voice command.

6. The Mobile Lawyer: The continued development of smaller lighter hardware along with the increased speed of wireless solutions will allow a complete law office to fit in a briefcase. Laptops running at over 500 Mghz with 30 Gigabyte drives and CD-RWs are now less than 5 pounds. LCD projectors for presentations are now an incredible 2.9 pounds. Scanners and printers are being produced at similar sizes. New hardware allows full presentations from handhelds like Palm Pilots and Visors obviating the need for traveling with laptops.

7. Evolution of PDAs: Palm Pilots and similar handhelds will become increasingly popular with lawyers. Westlaw and Lexis recently announced clipping services for those with wireless access on PDAs. Thousands of software applications allow transport and editing of complex documents from Word, spreadsheets from Excel and databases from many applications.

8. Macintosh Computers: A recent study by the ABA showed that 23% of lawyers are now using Macintosh computers. The new G4 Titanium PowerBooks is now the fastest laptop in the world. Watch for Apple's increasing market share among lawyers. See Randy Singer's amazing web site at www.macattorney.com for all things legal on the Macintosh as well as the ABA's site for Macintosh users.

SUMMATION: JUST DO IT!

Howard Lenow

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