Comments on: More Free and Open Source Law Resources http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/03/more_free_and_o.html The Law, the Universe, and Everything Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:18:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: More Free and Open Source Law Resources :: in propria persona http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/03/more_free_and_o.html/comment-page-1#comment-67401 More Free and Open Source Law Resources :: in propria persona Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:32:30 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2008/03/more-free-and-open-source-law-resources.html#comment-67401 [...] Concurring Opinions — More Free and Open Source Law Resources: Law​.com has a good sum­mary of the way projects seek­ing to make opin­ions, statutes, and other legal mate­ri­als free. The his­tory of these efforts goes back to the early 90s, but the recent changes may the ones to threaten the big shots. According to the arti­cle Public Resource now offers “vir­tu­ally all of the Federal Reporter sec­ond and third series, said to be the equiv­a­lent of 1,858 vol­umes of case law.” The link to the courts resource seems bro­ken (kept dis­play­ing direc­tory page) but assum­ing it will work just as the other ser­vices on Public.Resource do (Smithsonian, House of Representatives, and Dept. of Commerce are cov­ered by the group as well), that will be a big step in offer­ing open access to the law. Share/​Save Related articlesNew law journal launches that focuses on open source [...] [...] Concurring Opinions — More Free and Open Source Law Resources: Law​.com has a good sum­mary of the way projects seek­ing to make opin­ions, statutes, and other legal mate­ri­als free. The his­tory of these efforts goes back to the early 90s, but the recent changes may the ones to threaten the big shots. According to the arti­cle Public Resource now offers “vir­tu­ally all of the Federal Reporter sec­ond and third series, said to be the equiv­a­lent of 1,858 vol­umes of case law.” The link to the courts resource seems bro­ken (kept dis­play­ing direc­tory page) but assum­ing it will work just as the other ser­vices on Public.Resource do (Smithsonian, House of Representatives, and Dept. of Commerce are cov­ered by the group as well), that will be a big step in offer­ing open access to the law. Share/​Save Related articlesNew law journal launches that focuses on open source [...]

]]> By: Deven Desai http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/03/more_free_and_o.html/comment-page-1#comment-49883 Deven Desai Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:25:54 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2008/03/more-free-and-open-source-law-resources.html#comment-49883 John C, Thanks for the feedback. It is great to hear from someone who has used the services. The point about Lexiz and West is dead on, for now. At least there is the potential for change if others hit the search issues. The new services are claiming better natural language search (I prefer terms and connectors but better search will be the issue). In short, yes the hard part is finding those cases that matter and doing it well. The new services seem like the first time that the raw resources are available i.e., the cases. Now the idea that the material is thrown out there for other to build the search tools and other interfaces will have to work. So rest easy West and Lexis in the short term. The future, however, may not be so simple. John C,

Thanks for the feedback. It is great to hear from someone who has used the services. The point about Lexiz and West is dead on, for now. At least there is the potential for change if others hit the search issues. The new services are claiming better natural language search (I prefer terms and connectors but better search will be the issue). In short, yes the hard part is finding those cases that matter and doing it well. The new services seem like the first time that the raw resources are available i.e., the cases. Now the idea that the material is thrown out there for other to build the search tools and other interfaces will have to work. So rest easy West and Lexis in the short term. The future, however, may not be so simple.

]]> By: John C http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/03/more_free_and_o.html/comment-page-1#comment-49882 John C Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:24:21 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2008/03/more-free-and-open-source-law-resources.html#comment-49882 I've dipped my toe into PreCyDent and PLL, and can't say I'm impressed yet. The most beneficial aspect to Lexis and WL is the tremendously powerful search functions (as well as the essential bells and whistles like Shepardizing, treatises, jury instructions, news, etc.). Until these public resources get a truly powerful search function (which they do not have now), they will be of little use to the practitioner (since one is likely to know the "big cases" in a particular field - it's finding hard-to-find cases and secondary materials that makes an attorney worth his salt, I think). I’ve dipped my toe into PreCyDent and PLL, and can’t say I’m impressed yet. The most beneficial aspect to Lexis and WL is the tremendously powerful search functions (as well as the essential bells and whistles like Shepardizing, treatises, jury instructions, news, etc.). Until these public resources get a truly powerful search function (which they do not have now), they will be of little use to the practitioner (since one is likely to know the “big cases” in a particular field – it’s finding hard-to-find cases and secondary materials that makes an attorney worth his salt, I think).

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