 on the Legal Internet
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Here are three sponsored links; new ones each week....
Last updated on May 9th.
Law on the Web and Can I Claim?
are two of the best established sites on the web providing legal information and advice for individuals.
The sites have several hundred pages of free information as well as documents for sale, pre-paid telephone
advice and panel solicitor membership.
The sites are apparently flourishing with around 250,000 visits in the first 4 months of this year and they generate
substantial numbers of personal injury and medical negligence leads.
They have been set up and run by solicitor Martin Davies since around 2000 and he and I have kept in
friendly contact throughout that period. However he now wants to move onto other things
and is looking for a buyer. There is more information
here.
This would be an interesting prospect for an entrepreneurial solicitor or firm willing (as Martin says)
"to take these sites to the next level".
The Law Society's Property Section Spring Conference has Dr Vincent Cable MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow
Chancellor as keynote speaker. The event covers market drivers, PR, financing and funding your business
and how to develop your business in a changing and competitive market place.
Lexology is a web-based service that provides company
law departments and law firms with a daily feed of new articles written by commercial lawyers
in a wide range of law firms. It is free to the user. The service is now also being provided to
SCL (Society for Computers & Law) members
with a special news feed tailored to the needs of the majority of SCL members and covering IT law and
e-commerce subjects affecting the UK and EU. The feed will give links through to short articles on topics of
interest, written by lawyers from many leading law firms. The special registration page for SCL members is
here.
Last updated on May 7th.
The Law Society's campaign -
Your solicitor, qualified to answer is described here. As it says on the site "The campaign will focus
on the reasons why solicitors are the only sensible choice for consumers:
more expert and reliable than other providers of legal or quasi-legal services,
properly regulated and excellent value for money."
The Law society will be advertising in the national press and on outdoor advertising around the country.
There will also be extensive online promotions and PR activities.
Advertisements will appear between 5 May and 22 June in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph,
The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, The Observer, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Express and the
London Evening Standard.
They are also sending information about the campaign to major employers around the country,
encouraging them to promote our guides to common legal problems to their employees.
Last updated on May 2nd.
Special Summer Offer!
Many people visiting this page will already be readers of the
Internet Newsletter for Lawyers & Law 2.0 edited
jointly by Nick Holmes and myself. The newsletter contains a lot of information which is of use to
firms wishing to gain experience of what they can do online - what legal information is available to
them (including free resources) and what firms can do themselves in terms of selling and marketing
their own legal services online. It covers how to improve your own website and how to get into
the search engines. It is a very practical how-to-do-things sort of newsletter.
It also covers the developing phenomenon of Web 2.0, particularly Law 2.0 for legal applications.
The newsletter is primarily a printed publication (designed for lawyers, librarians, IT people
and marketing people in law firms who do not want to spend ALL their time in front of a computer)
but it is also available to subscribers in a web version without extra charge.
The newsletter usually costs £45 for a year (6 issues). As a special summer offer,
you can sign up for your first year's subscription at the special rate of £30.
You will also receive the last three printed issues for free and access to ALL past issues online.
Go to
Internet Newsletter for Lawyers & Law 2.0
and follow the link at the top to "About the Newsletter and How to Subscribe".
You can pay with your credit card or pay on receipt of invoice.
(Special note - this offer also applies to people who have had subscriptions in the past but where
the subscription has lapsed. Believe it or not, there are a few of these!).
The Chancery Bar Association has a new web site.
The Chancery Bar Association represents the interests of over 1,000 barristers handling the
full breadth of chancery work, in London and throughout England and Wales. The site is light
and bright and informative. It gives the history of Chancery work and describes the sort of
work involved. It lists all Chambers with members of the Chancery Bar Association and
provides news and updates; it also has a good set of legal links.
Last updated on April 28th.
Criminal Law Week acquired by Sweet & Maxwell
Sweet & Maxwell (via Thomson Reuters)
has acquired one of the leading independent print and online legal publications in the UK,
Criminal Law Week which provides digests of case
decisions and new legislation on a weekly basis to 15,000 criminal law practitioners.
First published in 1997, with the online service launched a year later, Criminal Law Week
is run by barrister James Richardson, who has also edited Archbold since 1982. The online
version gives access to all back issues, providing a database of 12,000 digests of cases,
statutes and statutory instruments, as well as a Statutes Service (full annotated text of
key pieces of legislation). The online service also offers extensive search tools as well as
links to full text transcripts from Casetrack and an update feature indicating where digests
have been affected by subsequent developments. The journal also provides CPD as part of the online service.
James Richardson will continue to create the content for the publication under its new ownership.
The SLF Blog comes from
Smithson Law Firm, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
It is not designed for other lawyers but instead offers legal advice for businesses on topics
including employment law, credit control and rural law. In other words, it is really part of
the firm's overall marketing approach. It is light and bright and with good pictures - and also
informative.
Last updated on April 27th.
Now complete!
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1913 is
"A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people
ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court."
It is now complete.
"The Proceedings" is the name of the original published version. Here is what it says about these:
"The Proceedings contain accounts of trials which took place at the Old Bailey. The first published
collection of trials at the Old Bailey dates from 1674, and from 1678 accounts of the trials at
each sessions (meeting of the Court) were regularly published. Inexpensive, and targeted initially
at a popular audience, the Proceedings were produced shortly after the conclusion of each sessions
and were initially a commercial success. But with the growth of newspapers and increasing publication
costs the audience narrowed by the nineteenth century to a combination of lawyers and public officials.
With few exceptions, this periodical was regularly published each time the sessions met (eight times
a year until 1834, and then ten to twelve times a year) for 239 years, when publication came to a
sudden halt in April 1913."
The site is beautifully prepared, with the full text available as well as digital images of the
original reports. There are also some pictures from legal material of the time together with an extensive Introduction.
There is a particular section for schools, with the site obviously seen as material for school projects.
The project is a collaboration between the Open University and the Universities of Hertfordshire and Sheffield
and is funded by various grants so that access can be free. There is to be a conference in
July on the project called "The Metropolis on Trial", to be held at the Open University, Milton Keynes.
A major (free) exhibition and conference on Internet topics this week
Internet World 2008 will take place from 29th April
to 1st May at Earls Court. There are seminar streams covering key areas including Search, Email,
Web 2.0, IPTV, Online Advertising, eCommerce, Mobile Marketing, Connectivity, Content Management,
Analytics, Usability and Affiliate Marketing and (apparently) 300 exhibitors in these general areas.
This is not a legally-oriented exhibition but a general one, and useful for serious internet devotees.
Last updated on April 24th.
Online services have not totally replaced the printed word - yet
LexisNexis has announced that it is now
launching the fifth edition of Halsbury’s Laws. The new edition will be contained in 102 volumes which is a graphic indication of the inexorable growth
of the law and the amount of new material which is being incorporated.
There will be new volumes on Rights and Freedoms, Matrimonial and
Civil Partnerships, Sports Law, Sentence and Sentencing, Information Technology, Consumer Protection,
Immigration and Asylum, Environment and Public Health, and Licensing and Gambling.
Halsburys Laws was previously published by Butterworths which is now part of LexisNexis.
- The first edition was published in 1907, and contained 31 volumes.
- The second edition published 37 volumes between 1931 and 1942.
- The third edition published 43 volumes between 1952 and 1964.
- The fourth edition published 56 volumes between 1973 and 1987.
- The fifth edition will be 102 volumes.
Last updated on April 21st.
Opus 2 Reporting is a new company set up
by Graham Smith-Bernal, the originator of the LiveNote court Reporting Sotfware.
The company is now licensed to supply and support LiveNote throughout the world, outside North America.
Graham Smith-Bernal created LiveNote in 1990 as a service differentiator for his court reporting business (Smith Bernal).
The product rapidly took off and in 1994 LiveNote set up its operation in the US.
He sold his original court reporting business to WordWave which was in turn later acquired by the
Merrill Corporation. The LiveNote product is now owned by the Thomson Corporation.
Last updated on April 13th.
There have been several significant developments in the legal software market over the last week....
Iris is a major UK software company which last year bought out the
Computer Software Group - which itself had acquired several leading names in the legal software world over the
previous couple of years, including AIM, Videss, Mountain and Laserform. Now, Iris has announced its product
strategy for practice and case management.
They will be concentrating their development on the Videss system (for larger firms) with a product
named Iris Law Enterprise, and on Mountain's new "Connected" product (for smaller firms) with a product called
Iris Law Business. In fact the Connected product is itself based on Mountain's system for Chambers,
since Mountain bought out the prevous leader in the barristers' market, Meridian Law, a few years ago.
Customers of AIM and TPS (The Partnership Suite, strong in Scotland) will continue to be fully supported until July 2011 and
will be offered a free software upgrade to Iris Law when they are ready.
Arlene Adams, MD of the company, said that they would be investing £5 million in developing their legal systems
over the next few years.
TFB have been purchased by the
Tikit Group. This apparently creates the largest Independent supplier
of quality IT solutions and services to the legal profession in the UK with
a combined client base ranging from regional firms to the magic circle.
Tikit is a leading provider of IT solutions and support services to the legal and accounting industries, working
with 90 of the top 100 UK law firms and over 250 accounting practices but it has not up until now,
had a range of legal software of its own to offer its clients. This is presumably a major motivation for the takeover
of TFB, which developed the Partner for Windows Software suite (P4W), and has been a leading independent supplier
of integrated IT solutions for case and practice management to medium and small UK law firms for many years,
with approximately 500 clients.
TFB will continue to trade as an independent company within the group with Simon Hill (Managing Director) and Mark Garnish
(Business Development Director) remaining in the same roles as before.
Solicitors Own Software (SOS), another leading supplier of legal
software to solicitors, is however bucking the trend of being bought out by larger companies!
They have has undergone a management buy-out (MBO) by the current executive team, following the planned retirement of
founder Michael Platt. The management team includes directors Keith Denman, Elaine Galvin, Graham Colbourne,
Stephen Parry and David McNamara, formerly sales and marketing director who now becomes managing director.
Michael Platt said that he was very pleased to be able to leave SOS as an independent company, providing continuity of service and
product development and able to provide the very best integrated practice management and case management software.
Newly appointed managing director, David McNamara said that he thought that many law firms would be let down by the
many takeovers and consolidations currently taking place as some legal software will inevitably be dropped and
law firms will be forced in a direction that they don't necessarily want to take.
"Our MBO removes any speculation that SOS clients might suffer a similar fate" he said.
Last updated on April 6th.
Law Society Library Online is a joint
venture between the Law Society and LexisNexis. The new service replaces Catalyst, the previous Law Society
library catalogue and indexes. The new service includes:
Queries and Enquiries Database of over 4,000 records
English Cases Index case citator updated on a daily basis
Commencement Index - an index to UK statutes going back to 1974
EU Developments - updates on EU legislation
Free access to a monthly e-mail alert from LexisNexis
LexisNexis Butterworths Journals index - article abstracts from 120 journals.
You have to register to obtain most of the content - Law Society members can register as well as
anyone working for members of the Law Society, including trainee solicitors, legal information professionals etc.
Last updated on April 4th.
piCalculator is a free online tool designed to assist
Personal Injury lawyers to prepare personal injury and clinical negligence claim documents.
It consists of a number of pages that allow easy access to Ogden tables and Tax and NI information:
ageCALC - obtain an accurate (2DP) age at a particular date
interestCALC - calculate the interest due between two dates
upliftCALC - a Heil -v- Rankin calculator using RPI figures
discountCALC - time related discounts and multipliers
retirementCALC - discounts and multipliers to retirement
lifeCALC - life expectancy calculator
taxCALC - tax and national insurance deduction calculator
This website was created by Mark Hewitt and Tom Gentry of
Steel City Technology together with Mark’s sister,
Rebecca Hewitt of
Darbys LLP in Oxford. An interesting collaboration!
A firm with two very extensive specialised sites - the best web marketing there is
Geoffrey Miller of Manchester has two extensive specialised sites,
www.motoroffence.co.uk, subtitled "Defending Drivers Nationwide" and
www.xalc.co.uk, a specialised site for alcohol related offences.
Each of these sites has a massive amount of useful (free) information which would provide essential reading
for someone with a problem in these areas. The sites, although specialised, promote the name of the firm very heavily -
I am often surprised that an excellent site often does not shout that it is set up by solicitors but more or less
"could be anyone". Another unusual feature - they have cooperated with Lawpack to write a "kit" on fighting
trivial motoring and parking tickets.
The site explains that this type of offence, which does not bring serious penalties,
are not generally worth bringing in real life solicitors.
Last updated on April 3rd.
Latest interesting blog.....
Corporate Law and Governance
is a blog from Robert Goddard of Aston Business School Birmingham. It provides
news from the UK and beyond concerning corporate law and governance.
These areas are broadly defined to include capital market regulation, financial reporting
and the legal environment in which companies (of all sizes) operate.
Last updated on April 1st.
Perhaps you do not want to be a lawyer any more? Now is your chance to think about what else you might like to do!
Cows from my Window is the website of Sarah Cooper, a former City solicitor
who is now a qualified career and personal coach. Sarah specialises in working with professionals such
as lawyers and accountants who are rethinking their career path. She supports them in rediscovering
their passions: many make radical career changes which draw on their creativity, offer a personal
service or help individuals or society in some way.
She will provide a complimentary 30 minute trial coaching session and she also provides weekend workshops -
the next one, called
Find Work you Love is the weekend of 9th May on Exmoor.
Last updated on March 30th.
Two organisations trying to fill the gaps left in legal aid funding
The Free Representation Unit (FRU)
is a charity that provides legal advice, case preparation and advocacy in employment,
social security, some immigration and criminal injury compensation tribunal cases.
The people who are able to take advantage of this are those who could not otherwise obtain legal
support for want of personal means and public funding. To provide the service they train volunteer
law students and legal professionals in the early stages of their career in the skills required
to give confident and competent support for the rights of others.
There are about 270 volunteer representatives active in any year.
The London Legal Support Trust is
a charity which provides support for certain types of case which would otherwise not receive funding.
They raise money with various sponsored events such as the 2008 London Legal Sponsored Walk.
Last updated on March 23rd.
Conscious Solutions, a leading web site designer for firms of solicitors,
has a completely new web site of its very own.
There is a lot of information about web site design, content management systems, marketing,
search engine optimisation, intranets and portals on the site as well as lots of examples of sites set up for clients.
Most people would learn quite a lot from a few minutes spent "browsing" the site.
The site itself is clean, bright and unfussy.
Last updated on March 17th.
Nearly Legal is a blog on "The Joy of Housing Law".
It is a serious housing law blog from a trainee solicitor with a legal aid franchised firm (he writes anonymously).
There are frequent case law updates and analysis. Readers and commentors include
barristers and solicitors in the field, as well as social landlords.
Comments are quite often made by those acting in the cases discussed,
sometimes with breaking news on appeals. There is a section on custom search engines, i.e. ones which
he has developed himself using "Google Co-op" (create your own search engine), and the search engine he
has developed may be used freely by viewers and even pasted into other web sites.
There is currently news on the Shelter staff dispute which is
caausing serious ructions in the Not for Profit world (i.e. how mean can you be to your own staff just
because you are a charity?)
Last updated on March 11th.
The Institute of Money Laundering Prevention Officers (IMLPO)
was set up in 2001 for the UK's anti-money laundering community and is a broad, cross-representative forum of
AML practitioners. It provides a safe environment in which members can share experiences of and opinions on
the day-to-day business of combating money laundering.
IMLPO has recently broadened its membership beyond financial institutions, to include practitioners from the
whole anti-money laundering community. There are now over 160 members, not only from banks, insurance companies etc
but also from the new "gatekeepers" such as law firms, gaming companies, accountancy firms and stockbrokers.
Their fifth annual conference will be held at The Midland Hotel, Manchester on 12th and 13th May 2008.
This is now a very popular annual event. Speakers at the 2008 conference include Barrie Mayne of
the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bill Jones of JMW Solicitors.
There are full details
here.
Last updated on March 9th.
Garden Court North Chambers now have a stylish new web site
which offers a substantial number of case commentaries
in their areas of work and also a series of news items on legal rulings and topics. There is up to date
summary information on the front page linked with more detailed sections elsewhere on the site,
and an ability to search for a barrister by keywords as well as providing a gallery of photos,
thumbnails and full descriptions.
Last updated on March 7th.
Wikivorce is an interesting site on divorce which uses Web 2.0
facilities to provide an interactive (and wiki-type) experience for those involved in, or considering, a divorce.
As well as factual information, e.g. Divorce Guide and Divorce Calculator, there are blogs (several of the
existing well known blogs are included), chat rooms and forums.
In other words, it is a community based web site where other members of the community do most of the work!
It seems to be very popular and already has 10,000 people registered, which for a relatively new, UK based
site is pretty good going. There is also a bookstore and a "find a solicitor" section.
Firms can obtain a listing for £10 a month.
Last updated on March 6th.
Two very informative web sites from Nicholas Hancox, Solicitors
Nicholas Hancox is a firm which specialises
in the law relating to schools and colleges. They advise local education authorities and independent schools,
church schools, faith schools, FE colleges, nursery schools, extended schools and special schools.
There is a great deal of information on the site covering all these types of education and also admissions and exclusions,
independent appeal panels, parental complaints, accidents at school and pupil misbehaviour.
Cavell House also comes from Nicholas Hancox,
covering Highways Law. Topics covered include maintenance, obstruction, case law, compulsory purchase and
also the law relating to the many different types of council and public body who have a role in Highways
and Planning.
Last updated on February 29th.
Interesting example of a public interest web site
ExploreHomeInformationPacks is a non profit-making
site designed to provide overall information on HIPs for the ordinary person.
There are sections on Benefits of HIPs, How Useful is a HIP, What Will HIPs Change about the House Buying Process?,
Buying a Home, Important Things to Look Out For, Questions a Homebuyer Should ask, & Receiving a HIP.
There are over 40 articles on these and related HIPs topics written by property experts.
There is a section on
Features of HIPs
with more technical (legal) information.
Last updated on February 28th.
An interesting new development from Central Law Training (CLT Group) branching out into web services.
CLT totalSOLUTION is a complete website service for firms of solicitors in England and Wales,
providing everything needed to market a law firm online. They specialise in building websites
for solicitors, offering a comprehensive range of services suitable for law firms without a
website and those who already have one. There are lots of designs to choose from.
Prices start from £149 per month plus VAT for CLT Subscription Members (£179 for Non-Subscribers) and
There is a minimum contract period of 12 months.
See my Web Services Section for more on this including links to ten solicitors'
sites that they have created so far.
Last updated on February 27th.
Law and More is an interesting new site for legal jobs -
"Where employment meets Enjoyment" is the sub title!
The Employment section offers a broad range of job opportunities across the country and the
Enjoyment section covers topics like holidays, hotels, fashion, fitness & wellbeing, music, theatre and others.
It's something a bit different.
Last updated on February 24th.
First CPD is a new website for Irish Lawyers providing CPD online. The
concept of obtaining CPD online has only just been approved by the Irish Law Society and even now it only
allows 2 hours of the 10 hours requirement to be obtained online.
However, Irish independent publisher Bart Daly, who runs
First Law (which was the first company to bring provide online legal material
in Ireland) is now taking a leading role in the new CPD company and he is well placed to do so.
He is working with a global provider or e-learning solutions,
Prime Learning to offer these courses.
Initial courses include Employment Law, Judicial Review and Tort and courses for Accountants are also available.
The Law Society of Ireland has entered into a contract with First Law and Prime Learning Ltd.
for the purposes of designing and producing these e-learning courses.
The Barrister Bard comes from David Osborne,
a successful and experienced barrister. His fields of expertise range from crime, prison law and personal
injury, to family and matrimonial law. He is also an acknowledged authority on human rights.
He is also a bestselling author and public speaker.
His aim is to comment on topical legal issues - sometimes humorously, but
usually with a serious message. His latest post (today) calls for legalised brothels, a train of thought
brought on by the horrific Ipswich murders. He calls also for a competition
to find a new word for "brothel" which would allow the concept to get proper consideration
(this is the humorous bit - I think).
An interesting new resource for students
Online Legal Coach is a new site set up by group of
experienced legal practitioners and law lecturers to provide additional support to law students in their studies.
There are study guides and videos, a case law library and a forum in which questions can be asked and answers received
from the experts. You have to register (quite a long registration form) to use the resources but it is free.
There are some additional services, such as essay marking, which are provided for a fee.
Worth a new look - this site has become an excellent resource for criminal solicitors. Now there is free CPD too.
Criminal Solicitor Dot Net provides
criminal practitioners with news (frequently updated) and resources on criminal law and criminal contracting.
The site is principally run by Gavin Burrell of BTMK Solicitors in Essex. The
site offers access to forums to discuss criminal law and contracting issues and provides a case
law updater and legislation updater to keep members aware of impending or recent changes in criminal law.
You have to register to be a "member" but it is free. There is also a weekly email newsletter on which free
CPD (1 hour a month) can be earned.
The site also incorporates several blogs and newsfeeds - Diary of a Criminal Solicitor,
The Law West of Ealing Broadway, and The Policeman’s Blog (all reached via the site as above). These blogs
contain the news items available on the site but are "filtered" according to these categories.
Last updated on February 16th.
RIKY is an interesting new site for landlords which offers a
great deal of free information and advice and then provides a membership at modest prices which enables members to access forms and documents
and obtain tenant credit checks.
Areas covered on the site include the ability to find out what letter, notice or form is required,
issue rent arrears notices, compare Landlord's Insurance and issue a Section 21 Notice. There are also
sections to explain property investing, Tenancy Agreements, Landlords Tax,
Legislation (TDS, HMO, HSSRS and HB) and provision of a free Tenants Handbook and a free Buy to Let Finance Guide.
Last updated on February 10th.
Amicable Divorce is a new site which has been created
by a group of solicitors in Worcester who practice either mediation or collaborative family law.
This is the first time that a group of Family Law ADR specialists have established a site that covers
the spectrum of available ADR in a geographically defined area. There is general information on mediation and
collaborative law as well as information on the individual firms and solicitors available in the area
for this type of work. The site also includes details of divorce coaches and (currently one) financial neutral.
Last updated on February 5th.
LexisNexis has acquired
Axxia, one of the leading suppliers of practice management
software for lawyers. LexisNexis already owns
VisualFiles (previously Solicitec) the major case management
supplier so the two key suppliers may well develop common systems in future.
Last updated on February 3rd.
Two interesting software developments related to use of the internet from key suppliers of legal software.
Linetime have developed a new facility for their
Liberate case management product called
Liberate B2C. This allows clients to review current case and
matter details, create new cases and matters and exchange instructions. Via a secure Internet connection,
Liberate B2C users are able to submit and receive instructions and review individual cases and matters.
Individual private clients are allowed to view their own case and matter details whilst the Partner Zone
allows "bulk referrers" to view details of all of their client's transactions.
The software links particularly well with Linetime's Debt Recovery system DebtimeSQL so that clients can enter
new cases online and the software allows debtors to make secure credit and debit card payments online.
A full audit-trail of all transactions is maintained.
DPS have launched a new case and matter management system
operating entirely within Microsoft Outlook, with which most lawyers are already entirely familiar. As they
check their email, they can also preview their cases and documents and indeed open new cases. The software
combines case management with the phone, digital dictation, task, web and text messaging services, legal accounts
and document assembly. DPS software can be run remotely, (Software as a Service) and DPS are encouraging
this type of operation for smaller and medium sized firms in particular, since it reduces the IT burden for
the firm concerned.
Last updated on January 31st.
LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell have upgraded their site, which
provides access to more than one million legal professionals worldwide and includes complete coverage of the
USA legal profession. There are new facilities available
including, for example, a feature called “My Martindale Network,” which enables corporate counsel to
create and manage their own personalised preferred provider lists.
There are apparently a number of Web 2.0 enhancements now available, including knowledge sharing abilities and the
ability to personalise data.
Last updated on January 26th.
Your Legal Rights comes from solicitors
Russell Jones & Walker.
The site provides information on rights relating to Employment, Accident and Injury, Family, Property,
Citizens' Rights and Consumer Rights. The site is designed to provide useful information but also to
help people decide whether they need legal advice.
Last updated on January 19th.
The Law Society is launching a media campaign aimed at
consumers to reinforce the message that it is best to use a solicitor to create a HIP. This is aimed to
coincide with a major press advertising push later this month by the Communities and Local Government
(CLG) on sellers' legal obligations to provide HIPs.
There is a marketing toolkit and HIPs packages available to be downloaded from the site.
The provision of services for transcription is a very hotly
contested field at the moment. I get more requests to put up entries for transcriptin companies than for
any other section of the site - there are over 50 companies waiting for your visit! Transcription
is obviously a very efficient way to use the internet to "outsource" typing work without ongoing staff
or equipment costs, as well as coping with more complex tasks such as court hearings and meetings.
Companies providing the equipment for digital dictation are described on a separate page
here.
Last updated on January 12th.
White Rabbit is a blog from criminal lawyer Andrew Keogh.
The blog is not mainly about the law however - more a look at some of the idiocies of life (hence the title and the web address).
However, Andrew says that the law will doubtless feature soon.
DataGuidance is a new web resource designed to assist lawyers and companies
to understand data protection principles, as they apply in real life, in UK, Europe and (over a period of time)
the world as a whole. The resource has been created by Cecile Park Publishing Ltd, led by Lindsey Greig, which already
publishes a number of journals including e-commerce law & policy, e-commerce law reports,
e-finance & payments law & policy, world online gambling law report, world sports law report,
data protection law & policy and e-commerce law direct. In particular, the new resource brings together
all the legislation, official guidance and codes of practice as well as
Data Guidance Notes, written by data protection experts on key issues such as data transfer, e-mail marketing,
employee monitoring and data breaches. This is a subscription resource but it can be purchased in short access periods
e.g. £14 for an hour's access to the UK section or £20 to Europe overall, or, for professionals, by the year.
The company is very willing to provide a telephone-assisted free trial, on request.
Last updated on January 2nd.
The HCA is a new E-Zine published by Andrew Keogh, originator of the Crime Wiki
CrimeLine.
Apparently there are already over 4000 HCA's - a number that is growing each week. The E-Zine is produced
bi-monthly as an online publication and includes cases, legislation, news, practice tips,
and in depth analysis of evidential and procedural issues. It will build into an extensive resource centre
for the HCA and costs £49 +Vat per year. The first issue, to show the sort of thing to be covered,
is available now on the site (free).
Web Site Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Web Content and
Hosting Services is an important section of this site. The types of services now available to firms of solicitors
and chambers has expanded fast over the last couple of years and these are laid out, with examples, on these pages.
Last updated on December 31st.
nipc IP/it Update is a blog which provides news and
comment on intellectual property,
technology, media, entertainment and competition law from the UK, EC and around the world.
The blog updates and supplements the main NIPC chambers website at
Intellectual Property and Information Technology Update.
NIPC is the first and (apparently) so far the only full time, specialist intellectual property (IP) chambers outside London.
The Law Society practice note on the new money laundering regulations (which came into force on 15 December)
and other news items relating to this topic can be found
here.
Last updated on December 11th.
Latest legal blog.....
Neil Cadwallader Property Law draws together
useful legal and other information of interest to property professionals of all kinds, especially those based
in the North West: lawyers, surveyors, property managers, developers, and landowners.
Neil is a commercial barrister specialising in property law from Exchange Chambers in Manchester and he
updates the blog every dya or two. There will apparently also be material relating to ADR, mediation and arbitration
soon.
Last updated on December 5th.
WorkingRights is a useful new site on employee rights
for employees and employers. It covers an individual's rights at work, from discrimination through to
what action someone can take when faced with losing their job. There are articles on enforcing your rights,
industrial action, privacy issues, the minimum wage, training and qualifications, unemployment benefit and many
other topics.
It is a public interest website funded by
PTS plc a property and content development company.
The company has been behind several other information sites such as well, in particular,
safecosmetics.co.uk,
safealternativemedicine.co.uk and
www.safemedicinecabinet.co.uk.
Employment Tribunal Claims (etclaims.co.uk) is a blog from Naomi Cunningham
which supports and updates the book Employment Tribunal Claims: tactics & precedents (2nd ed. LAG September 2007) by
her and Michael Reed. (The Book can be purchased on-line from the
Legal Action Group.
You can also download the first chapter and the contents list.)
The blog contains a continuing supply of up to date articles on these topics including
a complete collection of the discrimination questionnaires.
According to Naomi, these were surprisingly hard to track down and there seems to be no (other) single
site that collects them all in one place.
Last updated on December 2nd.
Anonymous Assistant which has
featured as a column in The Times/Times Online for several years has launched itself
as an independent blog. It is a fictional account of a junior litigation lawyer, Helen Bailey,
and her friends as they struggle to assert themselves amidst the egos and eccentricities of a large City law firm.
It is written by a real lawyer working in the litigation department of a City law firm who uses experiences
gleaned from several firms as the basis for the ongoing story.
Last updated on November 27th.
Latest info on HIPs
The Government site on HIPs provides a press release
with the information that all homes marketed for sale from 14 December 2007 in England and Wales will need a
Home Information Pack (HIP). The HIP must be commissioned before the marketing of the property
can begin. According to the site:
HIPs are taking on average 7 to 10 days to prepare
The majority of property, and drainage and water searches, are being delivered within 5 days
Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are being prepared on average within 2 to 4 days
On average, a HIP costs between £300 and £350.
Additional information from major HIP provider
The Partnership indicates that
the requirement to actually deliver a complete HIP before a property can marketed has been delayed
until June 1st 2008 and that, for leasehold properties, only the lease will be required to be included by then.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
also covers this latest news. According to the Law Society's news service, the RICS
believes that up to 300,000 properties
will be taken off the market in advance of the extension of Home Information Packs to all properties on December 14.
An RICS survey in October indicated that the supply of larger homes, already affected by HIPs, had fallen
by 75% in the southwest and 72% in the West Midlands.
Another indication of a flagging housing market is that the number of new mortgages approved by banks fell
from 54,000 in September to 44,000 in October – the October figure being 37% less than a year earlier.
Last updated on November 25th.
Is this the first Web 2.0 site from a legal publisher in the UK?
Company Law Forum is a new site from LexisNexis intended
to provide a Web 2.0 environment for the legal and business community to share thoughts, useful links, and have
discussions on company law related issues. The content of the site is free to access although
you have to register for it. As it says on the site "The new website offers users the opportunity to
discuss and debate current issues such as the implications of sections covering proxies for FTSE100 companies
and the problems of the 48-hour deadline for appointment. Other topics include the delay of the final
raft of commencements until 2009, the impact of potential derivative actions on D&O insurance and how the
changes to directors’ duties interact with the duties on insolvency through a Web 2.0 interface."
There are several substantive articles on these topics already.
There is a directory of registered users which allows users to contact each other privately. (Tip - if you
want others to know who you are and to contact you, use your real name as the user name, complete with capital letters).
Apparently there will also be News and current awareness headline feeds.
Tax Planet is a global network of legal and accounting
professionals focusing on tax (domestic and international). International tax work without a global team
of professionals is virtually impossible, even for SMEs and individuals.
Tax Planet strives to achieve a global presence in numerous countries with the size of the team in
proportion to a country's size, complexity and international impact.
The site has a research section containing mainly tax and tax-related links and information on countries,
international organisations and global issues. There are many deep-links to selected pages with
useful contents to facilitate research work.
Last updated on November 19th.
CPDcast is a new CPD company which delivers audio material (podcasts) for current
awareness and CPD training online. All podcasts consist of mini 'radio' programmes in a question and answer format,
recorded and edited to broadcast quality. Each CPDcast lasts 30 minutes and can be downloaded to any device
that plays MP3s or listened to directly from this website. You can listen via a PC, iPod, BlackBerry or Mobile.
Topics include Company Law, Family Law, Employment, Negligence, Human Rights, Insolvency, Trusts and Civil Litigation.
Each 30 minute podcast costs £25.
Last updated on November 18th.
Richard Susskind's series of
extracts from his upcoming book The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services continues in Times Online.
The fourth excerpt, this week, looks at the effects that outside investment may have on legal firms, once alternative
business structures are allowed. Will external business organisations really want to run their firms in the same way
as they are run now, or will they perhaps just buy the name and then build a new firm from the ground up? Do not miss
this series.
A legal award won by Suffolk County Councils is good news for their case management software company, Tricostar
Suffolk Councils at County,
Borough and District level, have worked together to develop a series of shared legal services and have won
a Public Servants of the Year award for the level of services to the local community.
Tricostar have provided their web-based Time Case Management software across these
councils to provide a uniform technology backbone.
Last updated on November 14th.
The Murray Stable of Scottish advocates is one of the very few
Scottish stables to have their own web site (most rely on the
Faculty of Advocates web site for their marketing).
The Murray Stable is now the first stable in Scotland to put its head
above the parapet and publish a Client Care Statement. They have also added a substantial “News & Articles” page
which is attracting a lot of attention. The articles are covered by a Creative Commons Licence, meaning
broadly that the material can be quoted for non commercial purposes without permission or fee.
Help With Law Exams is a free resource for students and
teachers of law. It is maintained by Clive Dunkley, a law teacher at King Edward VI Sixth Form College in Nuneaton
and an examiner for OCR for the AS Law papers. There is legal news extracted from current newspapers
and other sources, expressed in a straightforward manner, descriptions of the Court Structure, how to become a
solicitor or a barrister, information on police powers, magistrates, Alternative Dispute Resolution,
Civil Law, Criminal Law and many other topics, all refreshingly free of jargon.
Last updated on November 9th.
Get a useful new media blog and a donation to "Children in Need" will be made on your behalf!
Laurie Kaye's blog is well worth viewing in its own right
if you are interested in digital media law. Now there is an extra incentive in that, if you sign up to receive
the blog RSS before Christmas, Laurie will make a donation to the
Children in Need appeal on your behalf.
Last updated on November 8th.
Practical Conveyancing is a site presented by Legalease
for property lawyers. It contains thousands of articles, case notes, practice points, and weblinks to other
important material. The articles come from major law firms (such as Allen & Overy and Lovells) as well as
journals like The Property Law Journal, The In-House Lawyer, and The Practical Lawyer.
Much of the material is free although some is subscribers-only.
The site can also be used as a modestly-priced source of CPD points.
Last updated on November 7th.
Lovells have become the first UK firm of solicitors to set up an
exhibition area on the 3D online world of
Second Life.
The exhibition area relates to the pro bono work done by the firm and highlights some of the organisations for
whom Lovells have done pro bono work. The exhibition can be seen
here. (You have to sign up for Second Life
before you can see this - whilst it is free, it takes quite a few minutes to do - choosing your
avatar's name for example - and also involves downloading and installing about 30 MB of
special Second Life programs. However, why not now? You will want to get to know Second Life sooner or later).
The exhibition uses a "SLurl" - a location-based link.
Last updated on November 4th.
New edition of an important book on Internet law
Internet Law & Regulation
by Graham Smith of Bird & Bird, published by Sweet & Maxwell, is now in its fourth edition, the original
book having come out in 1986. Reflecting the cross-border nature of the Internet, it
offers a comparative approach to themes that have arisen in multiple jurisdictions, as well as providing detailed
coverage of English law.
The book addresses key areas of contention such as copyright, trade marks and domain names,
cross-border liability, internet payments, online contracts, advertising, defamation and data protection in
an international context. Newer emerging areas are also covered including encryption, obscenity, freedom of speech,
tax and competition law. The book costs £195 and can be ordered from the site above or by phone on 0845 600 9355.
Are many individual firms offering HIPs? Please let me know.
Berwins LLP have been providing a Home Information Pack since 1st August.
As they say on their site "Because the Berwins' Home Information Pack is prepared by qualified legal staff who
work every day with the technical legal information that feeds into the pack and the I.T. behind it we believe
that we are better placed than anyone to assemble and deliver the pack.
We are working in partnership with only accredited fully insured domestic energy assessors and all
the top local estate agents." The cost of providing a Home Information Pack on a freehold property
is £450 inclusive of VAT and Berwins are offering 10% off residential sale conveyancing charges when the
client buys a Berwins' HIP.
Latest firm to have set up multiple marketing sites
MSB Solicitors of Wavertree and Allerton
have set up 4 new marketing sites:
The accident solicitors (www.theaccidentsolicitors.co.uk)
The Employment Solicitors (www.theemploymentlawsolicitors.co.uk)
The Conveyancing Solicitors (www.theconveyancingsolicitors.co.uk)
The Net Solicitors (www.thenetsolicitors.co.uk).
All the sites have a similar design and all make the connection to the actual firm of solicitors very clear
(I am often surprised that marketing sites seem to want to hide the fact they are "really" solicitors).
All stress that the firm can handle legal matters nationwide
(giving examples of Manchester, Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Devon and Cornwall). All provide
extensive (free) information on the relevant topics including recent news articles
and all offer a free assessment of the case with a form for the viewer to fill in, with details of the situation.
It looks like good marketing to me.
Last updated on November 1st.
Life and Death and Taxes is a new blog from barrister Leigh Sagar,
of New Square Chambers. Leigh is also an attorney, admitted in New York. The blog includes substantial case
reports, features, news and discussions on topics in taxation and family law.
Last updated on October 26th.
www.registry.asia (DotAsia Organisation Ltd.) is the new
Registry Operator for the .ASIA Generic Top Level Domain. Its primary aim is
"To sponsor, establish and operate a regional Internet namespace with global recognition and
regional significance, dedicated to the needs of the Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific Internet community."
The European equivalent
eurid.eu, the European registry for .eu, is available to 490 million Europeans
in 27 countries. This was the first top-level Internet domain for a broad, multi-country region and there are
now 2.6 million domain names registered although not so many are actually in use - to some extent, it has
been a defensive resigration process, with companies wanting to make sure that nobody stole their
existing domain names in the new european web space.
Last updated on October 24th.
The End of Lawyers?
is the title of a new book (to be published in a few months by Oxford University Press) by Richard Susskind
and about which there is a series of extracts going into the Law Section of The Times and Times Online.
In a rather unusual move, Richard is asking for a debate on the topic *before* the book is published,
and where some of the comments (or presumably at least the "drift" of the discussion) will be included in the book.
As Richard says "The book points to a future in which conventional legal advisers
will be less prominent in society than today. I argue this is where the legal profession will be taken by
two forces: by a market pull towards commoditisation and by ongoing development and uptake of information
technology. I also argue that new and different roles in the new world will emerge for adaptable lawyers."
You can read Frances Gibb's introductory article, as well as Richard Susskind's first extract, at the web address
given above, and you can leave a comment (and see others' comments so far) at the end of his article.
Further extracts, and opportunities to comment, will be appearing over the next 5 weeks.
To actually see other peoples' comments, you have to click "Will lawyers exist in 100 years? Join the debate"
at the top of the page given above. If you just follow other links to the article, you do not seem to be
able to see the comments already submitted.
Richard's earlier book, The Future of Law, published in 1996, was the first exposition of the view that
legal services will change dramatically due to IT in general and the Internet in particular.
Last updated on October 17th.
A new service of case reports
CaseCheck offers registered users free access to a continually
updated archive of Scottish Court case summaries and also summaries of UK Employment Appeal Tribunal cases.
Presently the archive contains summaries dating back to 2005.
The archive is split up into a number of clearly defined categories and each case summary links directly to the
full, original judgment. The content of the site is user generated and the current reports are drafted
by an advocate, an employment lawyer and a professional support lawyer.
Registered users can add comments and can also receive a weekly email bulletin with details of recently
added reports.
The service builds upon and takes over the Intersettle Scottish Courts Newsletter which was a
subscription only service and was delivered to approximately seventy firms in Scotland. It is also interesting
because it is built as a "Web 2.0 service" using an open source blog platform and should become, in time,
something of a wiki. RSS is available.
A handy summary....
The Ministry of Justice covers the following areas:
- The National Offender Management Service, i.e. prisons and probation, including the Youth Justice Board,
the Parole Board, Inspectorates of Prison and Probation, Independent Monitoring Boards and the Prison and Probation Ombudsmen
- Criminal, civil, family and administrative law: criminal law and sentencing policy, including Sentencing and the Law Commission
- The Office for Criminal Justice Reform working with the Home Office and Attorney General's Office
- Her Majesty's Courts Service: administration of the civil, family and criminal courts in England and Wales
- The Tribunals Service: administration of tribunals across the UK
- Legal Aid and the wider Community Legal Service through the Legal Services Commission
- Support for the Judiciary: judicial appointments, the Judicial Office and Judicial Communications Office
- The Privy Council Secretariat and Office of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
- Constitutional affairs: electoral reform and democratic engagement, civil and human rights, freedom of information,
management of the UK's constitutional arrangements and relationships including with the devolved administrations and the Crown Dependencies
- Ministry of Justice corporate centre: focused corporate centre to shape overall strategy and drive performance and delivery.
There is a detailed breakdown of all these areas with an alphabetic listing and direct links to the relevant part
of the web site under the heading
What we do.
Last updated on October 16th.
Employment Tribunal Press (warned)
and Daily cause lists from the 25 Employment Tribunals in England, Wales and Scotland,
are now available on the Courtserve Legal Information website. This is the page to
sign up for the full subscription version, but there is also a free version available on the page (although you
do have to register with the courtserve web site for this).
Last updated on October 13th.
JUSTICE is the well known and respected human rights and law reform charity
and now there is also a
JUSTICE student human rights network. Launched a year
ago, the group is aimed at creating a lively, interactive
network for all those studying the law who are interested in human rights. The mailing list for the network
now apparently stands at 855, many of whom forward the emails and bulletins onto other students, friends, colleagues, etc.
They have now published four electronic bulletins, held four very successful seminars at the Guardian Newsroom and
have two more planned for November, and they are also aiming to put on a big conference in the spring of next year.
The latest bulletin, sent out this week, is
here. One particular feature of the site is a very
comprehensive list of links to resources and organisations involved with human rights and covering Asylum, Criminal Justice,
Equality, EU Justice and Home Affairs, Human Rights, International Human Rights, Legal systems and Privacy.
Last updated on October 10th.
A free question service relating to probate matters
Probate Helper provides a free "ask a question"
email service on probate topics. There is also a jargon buster and other information about probate and wills on the site.
They also offer access to 75 probate solicitor panel members around England, Wales and some parts of Spain.
Last updated on October 8th.
Chambers as such are still rare in Scotland, since most advocates are still operating as traditional "stables"
within the organisation of the Faculty of Advocates. However, there are now three new chambers operating on the
English model!
Axiom Advocates is a new group comprising many of Scotland's
leading advocates who have acted in the majority of significant commercial and public law cases over the past 30 years.
They embrace a commercial approach to best practice and were the first in Scotland to define
themselves and their operation along lines of specialist expertise in commercial and public law.
Compass Chambers offers advocates with expertise across a broad
spectrum of litigation, with core strengths in reparation and regulation.
Members of Chambers specialise in personal injury, professional negligence, property damage, insurance law,
contract and commercial litigation, judicial review, defamation, fatal accident inquiries, professional
disciplinary proceedings, and regulatory crime: in particular corporate financial, environmental and health
and safety prosecutions.
Oracle Chambers is a new small chambers, consisting of just two advocates so far,
John Campbell QC and John Carruthers. They work in the following areas:
Medical Negligence, Agriculture, Environmental, Personal Injury, Planning, Professional Negligence,
Family Law, Property, Law Fatal Accident Inquiries (FAI), Commercial Law, Competition Law and Regulatory Compliance.
Last updated on October 3rd.
The Lawyers continues to improve and upgrade its web site. Various sections
include the latest legal news, opinion, features, jobs, events and reports. There is also a guide to the top 200 firms,
a regular podcast, and a student section. You can also subscribe to various free emails relating to news, jobs and events.
Last updated on September 16th.
My fellow editor Nick Holmes and I are so convinced of the importance of "Law 2.0" (Web 2.0 for lawyers),
that we are changing the name of our bi-monthly Internet Newsletter for Lawyers to
Internet Newsletter for Lawyers & Law 2.0.
See the full press release
here.
The first company supplying Energy Performance Certificates that I have come across
EPC Assessments Ltd are providers of Energy Performance
Certificates (EPCs) for Home Information Packs. They apparently have a team of fully qualified
Assessors throughout the UK, all of whom have had basic CRB checks by the Criminal Bureau Agency.
They are looking to work with Solicitors, Estate Agents, HIP and Mortgage Providers.
Last updated on September 11th.
A new blog
Laurence Kaye on Digital Media Law comes from
Laurie Kaye, of Laurence Kaye Solicitors, an acknowledged expert on digital media.
He says that he will be examining whether whether the world of 'Law 2.0' has distinctive features and, if so, what the
messages are for the media industries and business generally. He starts with a list of what he thinks are the 'Top 10' issues
and features of digital media law that he will be exploring.
Last updated on September 8th.
Malcolmson Law is an Irish firm with an interesting and attractive
new web site. It contains a lot of information, particularly in the field
of health law, covering many detailed topics. There are also news items featured which are not just recycled news
from somewhere else, but short articles written by lawyers at the firm covering the legal aspects of current political, social
and health related developments. It is also bright and clear with good graphics (but not overwhemingly picture-laden).
As an example of a sensible and realistic concept, well executed, it is worth a look.
StatCounter is a very useful site for people with their own web site
who do not have access to good web site statistics - or want some additional detail in their statistics.
This organisation provides them for free (within limits). All the recording and analysis is done remotely
(on StatCounter's web site) - you do not need to download any software yourself.
StatCounter is an Irish firm whose founder, Aodhan Cullen, has recently won Business Week's Young Entrepreneur competition.
Statcounter apparently now has .5 million users. You register quite simply, providing a
user name and a password and setting up a "project" which can be
one or more web sites. You also define, within any one of these, additional pages in which you are particularly
interested and you insert a little chunk of code (provided) for each of these. You can set the code to show the number
of visitors to people visiting the site or not to show it; that is up to you (you may not want people to know this!).
There are no adverts showing on YOUR pages although some are presented to YOU as you access the statistics.
Then, you get an online report which builds up into a seven day report, indicating the number of
page loads, the number of unique visitors, and the number of returning visitors, for the site as a whole.
For the individual pages, you get the number of page loads for each page within the last 500 page loads and full
details of the "path" of each visitor. 500 is the limit - after 500 page loads,
the space is re-used and the details of the visits are not retained (although the overall totals are retained).
You can of course pay a few dollars a month to get extra
data retention facilities; it looks quite modestly charged.
JustCite 2.0 is a multi-source legal search engine and citator service from independent publisher
Justis. It is the only provider-neutral service that
links to content from a range of publishers and includes extensive links to full-text material on leading
online services, including BAILII, Casetrack, Informa Law, Justis, LexisNexis and WestLaw.
Further information on the facilities provided by the new version JustCite 2.0 can be found
here.
There is a free version of JustCite 2.0 (designed to be genuinely useful whilst not provided so many resources in the
search as the full version) below.
And if you have a site of your own.....
Link popularity is a site which will give you
a quick way to see how many sites link to *your* site from Google, MSN, Yahoo and Altavista.
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