Internet Newsletter for Lawyers
September/October 2001, by Delia Venables

News from the publishers - Lawtel, Smith Bernal and IBC, and Westlaw

Lawtel Human Rights

Lawtel has announced several additions to Lawtel Human Rights:

• Expert criminal commentary provided by Adrian Waterman and colleagues of leading set 11 King's Bench Walk;

• Referencing of two law reports: the "UK Human Rights Reports" and the "Human Rights Law Reports - UK cases", and the indexing of a new journal, "Human Rights";

• Lawtel Human Rights Bulletin.

This new Bulletin highlights important human rights developments of the previous week and provides separate sections for civil and criminal information, each including:

• Summaries of judgments given by the European Court of Human Rights in the previous week.

• Summaries of European Court of Human Rights Admissibility Decisions ofinterest.

• Comments on important European Court of Human Rights and domestic human rights cases.

• Summaries of articles from the European Human Rights Law Review and Human Rights.

• An In the news section discussing the way in which selected human rights issues have been covered by the media.

• Direct links through to the full text of available documents held on official UK and EU websites as well as from cited news articles straight to the original source.

Lawtel Personal Injury

This now includes a Quantum Index Document, informing subscribers of the existence of cases involving a PI award or settlement from the Royal Courts of Justice and other sources within 24 hours of Lawtel receipt of information.

These Index Documents appear in advance of a full Lawtel PI Quantum Report and include the name of the case, the court in which it was heard, the general injuries involved, the overall figure awarded plus the legal representatives. This will be of particular use to lawyers who might have read details of a case in the press and are endeavouring to find out more information.

Lawtel has also announced the addition of the Inflation Calculator to its personal injury service. Subscribers will now be able to update the value of any PI settlement or award instantly, thus effectively allowing a 10-year old PI award to be treated as if it had been decided yesterday.

Contact deborah.talbot@lawtel.com.

Smith Bernal and IBC produce KeyNote Online

Smith Bernal, official transcribers to the Court of Appeal and now part of the international WordWave group, already offer a subscription service called Casetrack (http://www.casetrack.com), a searchable online database of full text judgments from the courts.

Using the same transcription, database and searching technology, WordWave has launched a new service, KeyNote Online, in association with conference organiser IBC. This takes IBC's conference material and creates a current awareness product which can be accessed and searched in many different ways.

Speeches at IBC's legal conferences are recorded using digital audio recording equipment, emailed to the transcribers and within five days of the speech a transcript can be downloaded from the website. Subscribers can search for, read and download transcripts of speeches from IBC's conferences and events worldwide and/or listen to the audio file for each speech and view slides and other materials used by the speakers.

Law firms, barristers' chambers, government organisations and academic institutions have been trialling the service which concentrates, so far, on Competition law, Media, Information Technology and Intellectual property.

There are now seven conferences on the database, comprising over 120 transcripts in all:

• the International Law Congress in Dublin (May 2001)
• Communications and IT Outsourcing )June 2001)
• International Patent Disputes (June 2001)
• Patent Porfolio Management (July 2001)
• Telecoms Law Summer School (July 2001)
• IT Law Summer School
• EC Competition Law Summer School (August 2001).

The cost of full unlimited access depends on the size and type of organisation. There is also the option to subscribe by subject or to pay-as-you-go.

Ring 020 7421 4006, email keynote@wordwave.co.uk or visit the website at http://www.keynote-online.com for a free two-week trial.

Westlaw UK Crime

This is a new Practice Area service on the Westlaw UK platform, providing full integration of Sweet & Maxwell's leading criminal law titles with full text consolidated legislation, cases, current awareness and commentary.

Included on Westlaw UK Crime is the renowned rchbold: Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice. Also featured are the specialised case reporting series, Criminal Appeal Reports and Criminal Appeal Reports (Sentencing).

Other Sweet & Maxwell titles, including Criminal Law Review and Current Sentencing Practice provide additional expert opinion, together with a criminal law subset of the Legal Journals Index, fully consolidated legislation and a current awareness service, updated three times a day.

Ring 0800 028 2200 or visit http://www.westlaw.co.uk.

Westlaw UK Intellectual Property

This has now been significantly enhanced to include a number of leading commentary titles including the Copinger & Skone James on Copyright, Terrell on the Law of Patents and Kerly's Law of Trade Marks and Trade Names.

In addition to this new content, Westlaw UK Intellectual Property also features full text case reports including The Fleet Street Reports, full text, fully consolidated legislation and access to Sweet & Maxwell's top IP journals. A daily current awareness service is updated with today's developments in IP by 9.00am, with further updates throughout the day as events happen.

Ring 0800 028 2200 or visit http://www.westlaw.co.uk.

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