Category: Legal Research

The ABA Legal Fact Check Site is Pretty Awesome

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The ABA Legal Fact Check** website takes current events (mass shootings, Colin Kaepernick taking a knee, presidential/congressional speeches/quotes/tweets, the #metoo movement, flag burning, etc.) and uses cases and statutory law to “separate legal fact from fiction”.

ABA Legal Fact Check

 

I think it’s a fun take on the bizarre issue of “alternative facts”. I’ve advised my family and friends to use it next time someone tells them it’s treason to not support a president *eyeroll*.

I also think websites like this are a great way to package legal information for non-lawyers. There’s no bulky legalese – it’s written in plain language with an informal tone. As fast as information travels, it’s comforting to have a home base where “facts” are vetted through cases and statutory law.

**I found this through the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C. (LLSDC) listserv.

Yale, Cornell Law’s A2J Lawbrarians Launch Global Online Access to Legal Information Project (GOALI)

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The Global Online Access to Legal Information project (GOALI) will provide universities, nonprofits, judges, and others in low- and middle-income countries access to law journals, e-books, and databases with a focus on international law, human rights, humanitarian law, and labor law.

Recipients within the 115 selected countries have not had previous access to these materials, and this is the first time licensed legal content will be available to these institutions in developing countries. GOALI currently provides access to more than 10,000 legal titles from 60 different publishers. The Yale and Cornell Law librarians will be in charge of curating the content and training users.

From Law.com:

The initiative, Cadmus said, “will promote access to justice by removing the economic and technological barriers to proprietary legal information in developing economies around the world.”

Students, researchers, judges, librarians, policymakers, and labor groups may request access to GOALI. If they are approved and come from a low-income nation, as defined by the UN, they will get free access to GOALI content. Users from middle-income nations pay a nominal fee.

I’m excited to see academic law librarians working on improving access to justice and legal information for low-income communities!

More info on GOALI

 

First Things First: Basic Legal Research for the Newly Minted — from the RIPS Law Librarian Blog

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I often notice a great deal of fear and frustration when many 1Ls approach the reference desk with legal research questions. The kicker: I’m trying not to show my own fear as a new law librarian!

This RIPS article is mainly about helping new attorneys, but as the author notes, it’s beneficial for pro se litigants and other legal researchers as well. Check out the article at the link below:

When you know what you’re looking at, you are better prepared to know what you’re looking for.

via First Things First: Basic Legal Research for the Newly Minted — RIPS Law Librarian Blog

Legal Self-Help Support & the Increased Demand for Legal Tech

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Mary Juetten writing for the ABA Journal:

We appear to have created a chasm between done-for-you-by-a-lawyer and DIY solutions. The bridge or answer is mobile technology with appropriate legal support. For years, Thomson Reuters’ FindLaw survey has analyzed client behavior. The most recent figures from 2016 consumer survey respondents demonstrate the need for immediate attention from local legal experts using mobile applications.

  • 71 percent use their smartphones to find a solution to a legal problem.
  • 58 percent look for an attorney within a week of their legal incident.
  • 45 percent consider legal expertise as top selection factor.
  • 78 percent wish to hire a local attorney.

Therefore, clients are demanding mobile applications that provide direct access to a firm. In addition, consumers want education; online questionnaires to gather information rather than in-person consultations; and free legal forms for specific practice areas. Rather than fighting this trend toward creating mobile legal products and services, attorneys can use online information-gathering tools to triage and educate clients and focus on professional judgment for problem-solving.

As Juetten pointed out in a previous ABA Journal article, the wide justice gap for low-income individuals in America is exacerbated by a lack of understanding of their issues. Many don’t even realize their problem is legal in nature and could be helped with an attorney.

Technology, especially mobile apps, can step in and provide a “road map,” as Juetten calls it, to accessing legal help. It seems that a lot of legal tech companies focus on providing services to firms, which is understandable – I assume there’s more of a monetary incentive to go in that direction. But the people who really need help are not inside law firms or even law schools.

Self-represented litigants may not understand the nuance of using self-help resources like websites and apps unless we spell it out for them and make them user-friendly. This is made abundantly clear by the number of frustrated people who go to law libraries in search of answers after they’ve used public Westlaw or Lexis terminals and are somehow more confused than when they started. The tech itself, while admirable, is just the beginning.

 

ROSS Intelligence start-up lands $8.7M to augment legal research with AI

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From TechCrunch:

Armed with an understanding of machine learning, ROSS Intelligence is going after LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters for ownership of legal research.

… “Bluehill benchmarks Lexis’s tech and they are finding 30 percent more relevant info with ROSS in less time,” Andrew Arruda, co-founder and CEO of ROSS, explained to me in an interview.

ROSS is using a combination of off the shelf and proprietary deep learning algorithms for its AI stack. The startup is using IBM Watson for at least some of its natural language processing capabilities, but the team shied away from elaborating.

But the most telling quote:

“The work ROSS is doing with law schools and law students is interesting,” Karam Nijjar, a partner at iNovia Capital and investor in ROSS, asserted. “As these students enter the workforce, you’re taking someone using an iPhone and handing them a BlackBerry their first day on the job.”

Interesting!

I found this article in the KnowItAALL newsletter.