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USF Zief Law Library Research Guides ZiefBrief's Favorite Free Sites Alumna / Alumnus Publications Blawgs, Blogs & Podcasts California Legal Research Faculty Publications Global Legal Research Harriet Miers Nomination Hidden Research Gems John Roberts Nomination Legal Education News Legal News Legal Publishing News & Trends Legal Scholarship Legal Technology Lexis/Westlaw Announcements Library Announcements New on Lexis/Westlaw New Online at Zief New Zief Bobbleheads New Zief Books & Journals New Zief Films Picturing Justice - New Articles Primary Sources Research Tips Samuel Alito Nomination Search Engines Studying Law Surfing the Web Surviving First Year Teaching Law & Research Tech Tips U.S. Legal Research      Blog powered by TypePad Can You Sue God? The answer from Douglas County District Court Judge Marlon Polk is no. According to this Associated Press story on Law.com, a senator in the Nebraska State Legislature, Ernie Chambers, tried to sue God in order to prove that "anybody can sue anybody." Judge Polk disagreed, ruling that if Senator Chambers was not able to serve notice of the lawsuit on God, the case would have to be dismissed. Although Senator Chambers tried to argue that God's omniscience made notice unnecessary, Judge Polk was not convinced, and he dismissed the suit. Posted by Amy Wright on October 15, 2008 in Legal News | Permalink | Comments (0) Technorati Tags: douglas county, ernie chambers, god, legal news, marlon polk, nebraska The Texas Scuffle Remember our post about a Houston's attorney indignant letter to a Dallas attorney about a deposition cancellation? The Dallas attorney has responded and at great length. Above the Law has full details along with ongoing commentary on this Texas saga. Posted by Amy Wright on October 14, 2008 in Legal News | Permalink | Comments (0) Technorati Tags: dallas, houston, hurricane ike, legal news Typos Matter Legal writing and research instructors spend a lot of time emphasizing the importance of proofreading briefs and memos, and here's why -- The Legal Intelligencer reports today that a federal judge decided to award just $26,000 in attorneys' fees instead of the requested $180,000, in part because the petitioning attorney's brief was filled with typographical errors. In fact, the attorney inserted some text from a brief involving different parties, but never bothered to change the defendants' names. The judge made this wry comment about the attorney's "cut and paste" error, "It is suggested that I sign an order which recites the wrong amount of McKenna's judgment and orders three strangers to this action to pay attorneys' fees and costs." Ouch. In his closing paragraph, the judge stated:A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, each lawyer knew he and she could not nail any old slap-dash parchment to the church door and expect someone else to pay for it. Most lawyers who practice in this court also know that. They all should. Posted by Amy Wright on October 08, 2008 in Legal News | Permalink | Comments (0) Technorati Tags: legal news, legal research, legal writing, typographical errors Professor Richard Leo's New Book on the Norfolk Four Case  Professor Richard Leo's new book, The Wrong Guys: Murder, False Confessions, and the Norfolk Four, will be released on November 3, 2008. Co-authored with Tom Wells, the book traces the prosecution of four innocent men for a murder committed in 1997. Although the real perpetrator was identified and convicted, three of the four innocent men remain imprisoned today. The book's publisher, The New Press, describes the book as "an urgent call for justice and a convincing case for reform in the criminal justice system. . . . writer Tom Wells and lawprofessor Richard Leo masterfully interweave a narrative covering theunfolding of the case with an exploration of topics ranging fromcoercive interrogation, police perjury (“testilying”), andprosecutorial politics to the role of the death penalty in criminallaw." You can find a copy of The Wrong Guys in the Zief collection. Posted by Amy Wright on October 06, 2008 in Faculty Publications | Permalink | Comments (0) Technorati Tags: richard leo, tom wells, wrong guys Follow-Up on Kennedy v. Louisiana Weeks ago, we reported on the legal research omissions that led some parties to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling in Kennedy v. Louisiana. To bring closure to our coverage, we are linking to the SCOTUSblog post that reports on the Court's action in this area. In a nutshell, the Court decided not to rehear the case, but it did modify the majority and dissenting opinions by adding a footnote to both segments. Posted by Amy Wright on October 01, 2008 in Legal News | Permalink | Comments (0) Technorati Tags: legal research, supreme court Practicing Kindness: Dallas Lawyer Chooses Not To I follow Mary Flood's excellent blog on Houston legal happenings, Legal Trade, because one of my closest friends is a Houston attorney. Thanks to my friend's regular updates, I know just how disruptive Hurricane Ike was for Houstonians. Yesterday, Mary Flood reproduced the text of a letter that a Houston attorney sent to a Dallas attorney regarding the Dallas attorney's demand for travel expenses for a deposition that had to be postponed so that the Houston attorney could deal with an Ike-related sewage disaster at his home. From the letter excerpts below, readers will get a general idea of how understanding the Dallas lawyer was about the postponed depo:I am sorry that a hurricane hit Houston.I am sorry that the Houston Public Works Department had to use afire hose to blow human feces out of my yard on the day our depositionwas scheduled. I am sorry that the city required my presence at the debacle notedimmediately above. I am sorry that your office communicated that you would only "agree"to my rescheduling the deposition if we agreed to pay your travelexpenses. I am also sorry they did not mention anything aboutattorney's fees in your voicemail. I am especially sorry that yourassociate, after I agreed to pay your reasonable travel expenses,decided to put in writing that while the deposition was cancelled itwas "unilaterally canceled," and that you did not "agree" to thecancellation. I am sorry that you either went back on your word or,more likely, just do not have a word. I am sorry that you think the judge should be involved in this matter. I wonder if the judge will be sorry about that, too.Just remember, the next time that you're tempted to be unpleasant and uncompromising with opposing counsel, your conflict could end up on legal blogs all over the country. You can still play nice and advocate zealously for your client! Posted by Amy Wright on September 30, 2008 in Legal News | Permalink | Comments (0) Technorati Tags: dallas, houston, hurricane ike, legal news Yelpers Weigh In On SF Jury Duty Even the tiniest mom and pop businesses gather Yelp reviews, but I was surprised to see that the experience of jury duty in San Francisco now has 21 Yelp reviews.* What's not so surprising -- the collective two and a half stars for the jury duty experience (for those of you who are unfamiliar with Yelp, the highest rating is five stars). Still, there are a few rare individuals out there who love jury duty and can't get enough of it, like Solange M. She gushes, "I must be the only person in the WORLD who loves - LOVES, LOVES, LOVES - jury duty" and ends her review with a plea, "Please, call me back in." All I can say is -- wow.*For those of you who abhor profanity, avoid this Yelp link and Yelp in general. Many Yelpers love to pepper their reviews with liberal doses of profanity, so it's not the site for you if the f-bomb makes you cringe. Posted by Amy Wright on September 27, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) Technorati Tags: jury duty, san francisco, yelp Summary of 2007-2008 U.S. Supreme Court Term Looking for a concise summary of the Supreme Court's major decisions during the 2007-2008 term? You can find it in American Law Reports on Westlaw at 30 A.L.R. Fed. 2d 637 (Westlaw password required for access). In addition to summarizing all of the Court's major decisions, this document also contains links to the full-text of each opinion and related ALR annotations. Posted by Amy Wright on September 09, 2008 in Research Tips | Permalink | Comments (0) Technorati Tags: legal research, supreme court First Year Tips: Better Late Than Never! Professor David Post from Temple Law has a few more useful tips for first-years in his post at Volokh Conspiracy, and his most important tip, IMHO, is don't blow off your first-year legal writing and research class! More from Professor Post: You’re probably taking some kind of “legal research and writing” classduring your first year, and, if you’re tempted to blow it off (as youmay well be), my advice to you is: Don’t. In many, many ways, what youlearn there is more important than what you learn in any one of yourdoctrinal classes – there are a lot of terrific lawyers out there whonever really understood (and still don’t understand) property law, say,or constitutional law, or contracts. But there are very few terrificlawyers out there who haven’t mastered legal writing and legalresearch. (And consider this, too: all of those judicial opinionsyou’re reading in your “doctrinal” classes are themselves the output ofjudges (and their law clerks) engaged in the process of “legal researchand writing”; the more you understand about that process, believe me,the better you’ll be able to understand those opinions and, therefore,the better you’ll be able to understand the various doctrinal subjectsyou’re encountering). If I had the magic bullet to get you to writewell I’d reveal it to you, but I don’t. Legal writing, in my view, isone of those things (like playing the piano, or juggling, or carpentry)that you get better at by practice, and only by practice.Same thing goes for legal research -- you won't learn how to become an efficient, effective researcher unless you practice and ask lots of questions about your research. If you use your time in law school to refine your legal writing and research skills, it will make the first years of practice much less stressful. Posted by Amy Wright on September 08, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) Technorati Tags: first-year law, law students, legal research, legal writing The No Billables Experiment: One Year Later Last fall, we posted about an Atlanta law firm, Ford & Harrison, which dropped billable hour requirements for first-year associates. So how is the experiment working one year later? According to this National Law Journal article, the experiment is a big success with the firm's attorneys and, most importantly, with the firm's clients. The clients are pleased to have junior attorneys working on their matters now that they are no longer paying for the new attorneys' training:Clients don't want to see on their bill juniorassociates they don't know, so when we are billing for hours there is areal disincentive to having the partner bring an associate," Holmansaid. "With the clinical hours, the partners can tell the client not toworry about the bill. It is an effective client development tool.The partners like the new system, too. Partners report that associates are gaining the skills they need faster than they would if they were worried about billables:Holman said the firm has been surprised at how fastfirst-year associates begin to produce work that is billable once theyare no longer under pressure to do so. She called the 1,900billable-hour requirement "an unreasonable expectation" for first-yearassociates.And the associates? They're happy, too. One of the first-year associates quoted in the story notes that "a lot of my friends at other big firms do documentreview all day and into the night. I am already on cases, and they arenot going to have a chance to do that for a couple of years." Will other mid-sized firms follow suit? Stay tuned -- if we see any Bay Area firms eliminating first-year billable hour requirements, we'll be sure to report it here. Posted by Amy Wright on September 08, 2008 in Legal News | Permalink | Comments (0) Technorati Tags: billable hours, first year associates, ford and harrison, law firms Next »  Subscribe to this blog's feed Can You Sue God? The Texas Scuffle Typos Matter Professor Richard Leo's New Book on the Norfolk Four Case Follow-Up on Kennedy v. Louisiana Practicing Kindness: Dallas Lawyer Chooses Not To Yelpers Weigh In On SF Jury Duty Summary of 2007-2008 U.S. Supreme Court Term First Year Tips: Better Late Than Never! The No Billables Experiment: One Year Later October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 Above AbsTracked BeSpacific California Appellate Report Center for Engaged Learning in the Law (CELL) Blog Concurring Opinions Gleeson Gleanings Heafey Headnotes How Appealing Inter Alia Law Librarian Blog Law School Innovation Legalwriting.net LLRX.com Ms. JD One takes two . . . 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