Not me but Small Biz Survival. The blog even gives a guided tour. Which I think is brilliant and something I might add to this blog. Good practical advice. Check it out.
Here is my criterion for praise: when I see something that I know is better done than what I have done. I have tried to post article that I think that are helpful to my business clients and I have tried to write law articles accessible to the general public as well as other lawyers. BizzBangBuzz blog from Anthony Cerminaro.
One post that caught my attention or caught my mood today was Overcoming Resistance to Change:
Want to start a business or make some other personal change? Something holding you back?Give him a look.
Perhaps you will recognize yourself in this list from How to Save the World. It is a top ten list of obstacles to making changes and ideas for how to overcome them:
"1. Procrastination. Fight it like the addiction it is. Separate the urgent from the Important. Have a list of the Important things and keep it in front of you. Break the Important things into manageable steps. Do one 'next step' towards your Important things every day. Learn to say 'no' to things that aren't as important. Don't try to do too many Important things at once. Don't wait for a crisis, or until it's too late. Don't beat yourself up about it, but don't deny it either.
While this particular blog focuses on Minnesota employment law, I like it. Written by Roy A. Ginsburg of Dorsey & Whitney, you got to like something named Quirky Questions - Real-Life Employment Blog. The blog describes itself as follows:
"Nearly every day, executives and managers, and the Human Resources personnel who work with them, are confronted with unanticipated questions regarding the workforce. Just when they think they have 'seen it all,' along comes a new and often stranger scenario involving an odd twist to an area they thought they fully understood. Whether the situations involve sexual harassment, disability issues, leave questions, compensation inquiries, or a myriad of other issues, managers and executives often find themselves back at square one when trying to construct an appropriate response and devise a creative solution to the problem presented. Sometimes these 'Quirky Questions' can be resolved easily; other times, they implicate issues (both legal and practical) that are not immediately apparent."
Many visiting here look for forms and that is not really the purpose of this blog. Instead, read What is LegalZoom? from eLawering Blog. I think the review does a good job of balancing the pros and cons of a service like LegalZoom.
The review makes a point of something I have noticed about these online sites:
The company claims that: "With LegalZoom's lawyer-free service, you can save up to 85% off the rates an attorney would charge for the same procedure. " This comparison misrepresents the contribution that an attorney makes when serving a client. It suggests that the LegalZoom service is equivalent to the services of an attorney, when it clearly isn't. The representation suggests that a consumer will receive the same result that they would get if they went to an attorney, which is clearly not the case. Moreover, there are many attorneys who charge fees which compare favorably with LegalZoom's fee structure, so the fees that lawyers charge for comparable transactions which are published on the LegalZoom web site are true of some law firms, but not all solo and small firms.Cheap is cheap, and you need to keep that mind. A little research into what a local attorney will charge for forms and services would do you better than relying on a commercial with nationwide reach.
Probably you have some idea of open source software, but whether you do or do not take a look at Open Source for Lawyers - Home. The site describes itself this way:
"If you are a lawyer or legal worker who is interested in implementing open source software in your practice, you have come to the right place."Can we continue to compete as lawyers with the increased costs of software? I do not think so. I suggest taking a good look at this site, keep looking at it, and ask questions if you do not see the need or the cause of the fuss.
Need to know more about the law and information technology? The IT Law Wiki describes itself this way:
This wiki is an encyclopedia of the legal issues, cases, statutes, events, people, organizations and publications that make up the global field of information technology law (often referred to as “computer law”).What business, what lawyer could not use such an introduction/guide to computer law?
Credit Wake Forest Law School's Elder Law Clinic with a compact collection of links to books, articles, and newsletters relating to estate planning and elder law.
No, it is not legal advice but legal information. Like this blog, it is a place to start your legal research and not its end.
Not endorsing - just informing.
Global Legal Iinformation Network:
The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) is a public database of official texts of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations. These GLIN members contribute the full texts of their published documents to the database in their original languages. Each document is accompanied by a summary in English and, in many cases in additional languages, plus subject terms selected from the multilingual index to GLIN. All summaries are available to the public, and public access to full texts is also available for most jurisdictions.
Searching the Web is easy. Why should searching the law be any different? That's why Fastcase has created the Public Library of Law -- to make it easy to find the law online. PLoL is the largest free law library in the world, because we assemble law available for free scattered across many different sites -- all in one place. PLoL is the best starting place to find law on the Web.
Consider this post as an open invitation for comments. I encourage anyone to let the world (well, the very small slice of the world reading this blog) know what they think about posting forms to Net and JD Supra.
JD Supra is a recent and probably important Internet legal resource. That The New York Times published Lawyers Open Their File Cabinets for a Web Resource might show the site has drawn some important attention except that The Times filed the article under "Novelties".
The Times described the site like this:
It works like this: Lawyers who contribute to JD Supra dip into their hard drives for articles, court papers, legal briefs and other tidbits of their craft. They upload the documents, as well as a profile of themselves that is linked to each document. Site visitors who have a legal problem and are thinking about finding a lawyer can use an easily searchable database to look up, say, “trademark infringement,” find related documents and, if they like the author’s experience and approach, perhaps click on his or her profile.
Looking purely from a consumer's view, I see the benefits of sharing work product as:
- The ability to read these documents & become better informed;
- Increased reliability of documents where Lawyers take public ownership of them;
- Researching legal issues within a collection of vetted documents;
- Ability to identify a lawyer with rare experience (& not worth the lawyer's effort to market);
- Ability to identify expertise by geographic region or practice area;
When decisions & execution are *this* important, I can't see DIY legal work being an issue. The question then becomes, are Consumers better off with these documents available?
While not yet ready for public display, I decided about six weeks ago to work on a special project involving Indiana's law on funeral homes, cemeteries, and related subjects.
Why a wiki? Because unlike this blog, a wiki is meant for collaboration. Binary Law's Blogs vs wikis for an explanation of the uses of a wiki versus a blog. For more of an explanation what is a wiki there is Video: Wikis in Plain English or this Wikipedia entry.
Being meant for collaboration requires collaborators. I invite any Indiana lawyers representing funeral directors or funeral homes or cemeteries to send me an e-mail - if they want more information. For those wanting to a very rough draft of a work in progress, click here.
Any further writing by me about the law of funeral homes, cemeteries, and related subjects will take place there and not here. This is also the start of my reshaping this blog to fit a bit better my current practice and provide a bit more of a focus to the blog itself.
Need to keep up with or find federal regulations? Check out Justia's Regulation Tracker. It is still in beta and that means it is not quite a final product - yet. I find it useful and hope you do also.
I probably ought to just post a link to Cornell's Legal Information Institute as being the online legal resource. I have been visiting this site for over ten years now and there is a wealth of information. Today, I will just highlight the Federal Rules of Evidence (2007). What makes this - to me - a better than average resource is the site also publishes the Notes for the Rules. For example, the Notes for FRE 101 are here.
A bit more for any lawyers is K&L Gates' Searchable e-Discovery Case Log:
"K&L Gates maintains and continually updates a database containing over 900 electronic discovery cases collected from state and federal jurisdictions around the United States. This database is searchable by keyword, as well as by any combination of 28 different case attributes, e.g., on-site inspection, allegations of spoliation, motion for a preservation order, etc. Each search will produce a list of relevant cases, including a brief description of the nature and disposition of each case, the electronic evidence involved and a link to a more detailed case summary if available."
You can find on Virtual Chase a review of free case law database. If you are fed up with West or Lexis-Nexis (or even Loislaw), I suggest reading this review. As with any lawyer, I have my worries about Shepardizing (or West Cite. I know I am showing my age here).
Still, I think these databases have a good use. You can do what I do with the online archive of Indiana cases from the State of Indiana - get the case, and read it for free and then go to West or Lexis-Nexis for the detailed research.
Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks, Trade Secrets - Pierce Law Center ...And let us not forget Trade Secrets Blog itself. A bit of oddity here because it seems to lack live links in most of its posts. I also cannot find any information on the people behind the blog. Against all that is the fact I am seeing information that I have seen nowhere else.
Source: www.ipmall.fplc.edu
Business Technology Management Research and Stock Market ...
Source: portal.brint.com
Trade Secrets
Source: tnr.com
Trade Secrets: A Practitioner's Guide - Google Books Result
Source: books.google.com
No, I have not time to really check out The Public Library of Law but I want to note it for the lawyers reading me and for the general public.
For the lawyers, we need to recognize this as a trend that has been around for a while on the Internet and may finally be taking a solid shape. The Bluebook has a citation form for online materials. Whether or not this affects West or not is a good question. It may make its headnotes even more valuable. It also raises questions for me about Shepardizing."Searching the Web is easy. Why should searching the law be any different? That's why Fastcase has created the Public Library of Law -- to make it easy to find the law online. PLoL is the largest free law library in the world, because we assemble law available for free scattered across many different sites -- all in one place. PLoL is the best starting place to find law on the Web."
What I think of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act will probably disappoint everyone. That I think the ADA serves a good purpose will annoy employers. That I also think that the ADA does little to help those facing employment discrimination will upset its advocates. My reasoning is that the United Supreme Court eviscerated the ADA many years ago and nothing has been done to fix it. Which is the reason I no longer take on plaintiff's work under the ADA.
Nevertheless, I see the ADA as aiding people who want to work against irrational employers (and what is discrimination but irrationality when faced with a capable and willing employee that one does not want to hire because of a disability?). Which is why I want to mention ADAWatch.org:
ADA Watch is a project of the National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR), a nonprofit alliance of hundreds of disability, civil rights, and social justice organizations united to defend and strengthen disability rights.
Thanks to Rush on Business for leading me to The Manpower Blawg. While I disagree that The Manpower Blawg uniquely provides free legal information (I think I and all other legal bloggers are doing this), I fully endorse this statement: "This blog -- or blawg -- is designed to provide you with up-to-the-minute employment law information without putting you to sleep...." The blog does anything but bore and worth keeping an eye on - especially for plaintiff attorneys.
I do not mention Blawg Review. I probably should. Blawg Review is a weekly roundup of law blogs or law related blogs written by different lawyer bloggers. The Invent Blog concentrates on patents and inventions in Blawg Review #146
New guide favoring online publishing information but does have some general business information:
- Forming a Business and Getting Online, which covers the practical issues to consider in deciding how to carry on your online publishing activities, including forming a for-profit and nonprofit business entity, choosing an online platform, and dealing with critical legal issues relating to the mechanics of online publishing.
- Dealing with Online Legal Risks, which covers managing your site and reducing your legal risks, finding insurance, finding legal help, and responding to the different kinds of legal threats you may face as a result of your online publishing activities.
