Legal Resources Online provided by firms of Solicitors
Introduction
Many firms of solicitors provide useful legal information on their sites but in most cases, it is information aimed at a
particular type of potential client - those with injuries who are considering a claim, individuals considering divorce,
companies trying to collect debts, employers and employees with employment problems, and so on.
The resources have not been generalised to provide a free-standing legal resource but are really created as
an aid to marketing the skills of the firm in question.
The firms on this page have gone beyond a marketing approach to provide a legal resource, without charge, and have often
laboured long and hard to create the resource, and then to keep it up to date. A key element of these resources is that
they would be useful not only to potential clients but also to other lawyers.
There is certainly an element of public service in all these sites.
The Resources
abuselaw.co.uk is a site provided by Abney Garsden McDonald Solicitors based in Greater Manchester.
The site aims to provide easy access to information for child and adult survivors of physical, sexual and
psychological abuse on all aspects of this complex area of law.
The site also aims to offer guidance on and understanding of the legal system of England and Wales for
professionals working for survivors of abuse.
By providing information on the legal rights available to the survivor of
abuse in seeking compensation, an explanation of the civil and criminal
court procedures and a guide to the Legal Aid system and Criminal Injuries
Compensation Scheme, the site aims to offer a greater understanding of the
workings of the Legal system.
Adlex Solicitors advise businesses on every aspect of trading online, website law and internet law.
The firm was founded in 2001 by internet and domain name lawyer Adam Taylor, former partner and head of
E-Commerce and Technology Group at City of London solicitor firm Withers.
He is a Nominet and WIPO domain dispute panelist. The site includes information on:
* the regulations which apply to business trading on the internet
* the UK and EU data protection laws and regulations which apply to online privacy and the collection and use of personal data via websites
* Internet terms and conditions and web contracts
* White label contracts and co-branding contract issues
* web design legal and contract issues
* Website hosting legal issues
* domain name disputes
* domain legal news.
Bhatt Murphy is a firm specialising in human rights issues. They
handle complex and serious cases against state agencies including the police, prison and immigration authorities.
The site offers a series of "timelines" -
these are histories of particular legal areas relating to police misconduct and prisoners rights, indicating the
legislation, political initiatives, campaigns and case law of each area.
There are timelines for Police Misconduct, Tariff Setting For Life Sentenced Prisoners, Deaths in Custody,
Immigration Detention, Parole Hearings and the Prison Disciplinary System.
There is also a very useful set of links to other bodies involved in these issues.
CrimeLine is a major free legal resource for
criminal lawyers. Written by Andrew Keogh, it is
received by over 12,000 criminal lawyers, judges and academics each week.
Each issue digests the latest cases from 30 sources, legislation and news.
Important judgments are often emailed within minutes of being handed down. Cases are linked to
Casetrack or Bailii for full text judgments.
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 Policemans 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.
Disease-i is a site provided by
Weightmans (Birmingham, Leicester, Liverpool, London and Manchester)
which provides practical handling guidance for disease
claims and deals specifically with eight of the most prevalent occupational diseases in a medical, legal
and historical context. The diseases covered in detail are Noise induced hearing loss claims,
Hand arm vibration syndrome, Work related upper limb disorders, Asbestos related claims, Asthma,
Stress and harassment claims, Dermatitis and Silicosis.
The site is designed as an information point for claims handlers, risk and insurance managers
and health & safety professionals to use in their day to day work.
The aim is to reduce the inherent complexity of disease claims by offering practical claims handling tips and
guidance on how to approach the most common issues such as causation, foreseeability, breach of duty, limitation,
quantum and apportionment. The site will be updated on a quarterly basis and there is also an email update available
for new information.
Parts of the site are only available on subscription but there is a great deal of basic information available for free.
DPA Law (Data Protection Act Law) is the website of the Privacy and Information
Law Group at European Law firm
Field Fisher Waterhouse.
This site contains a great deal of free information about data protection, privacy and confidentiality law, including:
* The A-Z of data protection and privacy, a glossary of key words and phrases in data protection law with links to relevant resources.
* Links to core European data protection and privacy laws, including legislation and court cases.
* Links to worldwide regulatory bodies and public authorities that have responsibilities for data protection and privacy.
* Articles, briefing notes and legal analysis written by lawyers at the firm.
Elborne Mitchell
provides case reports and commentary on a large number of Insurance & Reinsurance
Shipping, and Commercial & Employment judgments. There are several quarterly newsletters
on these topics to which the viewer can subscribe.
elexica is a free online legal resource from leading
international law firm
Simmons & Simmons.
elexica offers registered users an extensive range of legal information including practical guides,
checklists, current awareness articles, legislative updates,
case reports, detailed legal analysis, training modules (with CPD hours), a current
awareness email alerting service and an extensive library of categorised web links.
All of elexica's content is provided by lawyers based in Simmons & Simmons international
network of offices, and covers a variety of topics, jurisdictions and languages.
Law-Now is the free online information service for businesses from
CMS Cameron McKenna. Law-Now, which covers both national and international legal topics,
can be viewed online or taken as a
personalised email service - there are around 30,000 subscribers to this service. All major legal areas
are covered by this information service. With a recent relaunch
of the CMS Cameron McKenna website, Law-Now is much more tightly integrated with the firm's site - previously,
it had been possible to access Law-Now without being really quite sure where it came from. Now the two
sites are closely linked both ways - which is sensible really.
Gamble and Ghevaert LLP provide an impressive site on fertility law
and parenting law in all its manifestations.
Overall, the site includes legislation (including the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (HFEA)),
case law, useful links and 30,000 words of detailed written guidance on the
law broken down for different situations. It has been designed as a free resource on this complex area of law,
providing reliable information accessible to everyone. As well as having unrivalled information on this topic, the site
uses attractive colours and photographs. The site includes a blog of current news and comment.
Malcolm Johnson & Co, of Surbiton, Surrey, specialise in legal matters
relating to child abuse. They provide over 300 pages of legal information on their site,
made up of case reports and synopses that they have written as well as notes on relevant statutes, both historical
and current, relating to child abuse. They are developing the statute and case law database as a real resource
for students and practitioners working in this difficult area.
Manches provides
detailed information on topics like tax, financial orders, pensions splitting,
the Hague Convention relating to children's custody, forum shopping, pre-nuptuals, co-habitation, human rights and generally
topics far removed from 95% of "normal" divorces. There is information on relevant statutes, and the site
could be a good resource for solicitors meeting slightly more unusual
situations as well as people divorcing.
Mewburn Ellis LLP
is one of the UK's largest firms of Chartered Patent Attorneys, European Patent Attorneys,
European Trade Mark Attorneys and European Design Attorneys.
They cover the full range of intellectual property issues: Patents, Trade Marks, Designs, Industrial Copyright and
related matters. There is a large amount of information on each of these topics, designed in a systematic way,
which would be of use to lawyers and individuals alike.
Morgan McManus - Clones, Co. Monaghan and Enniskillen, Co.Fermanagh
(so, practising both sides of the border)
have developed a specialist site on Accident Claims Law and employment law claims.
This is not "just" a site about making a claim but deals with such claims from the perspective of both the Plaintiff
and the Defendant (the Claimant and the Respondent), the employer and the employee and all other persons who have
an interest in ensuring that they are fully informed when they are faced with claims of this nature.
This website will be of benefit to a Respondent who is being sued, to the employer who faces a personal injury
claim in respect of a factory accident and the employer who is obliged to deal with a grievance or disciplinary
matter in the workplace.
out-law.com is an extensive information site provided by
Pinsent Masons.
There are 10,000 pages of free legal news and guidance, mostly on IT and e-commerce issues, with many
new items posted every day. There are also a large number of quite detailed "Guides" on technology and
laws for the technology sector.
About Cookies is another site set up by Pinsent Masons as a guide
to deleting and controlling cookies and (for web site owners) assistance in staying the right side of the law
Pierce Glynn are London-based solicitors specialising in
public law, discrimination law and human rights. They work with campaign groups and advice agencies, as well
as individuals, particularly relating to judicial reviews. They have set up a resource
on their site relating to judicial review including case studies on Post Office closures, access to healthcare,
playground redevelopmentand the Hounslow Language Service. There are also two guides: one explaining when judicial
review may be relevant, and the other providing an overview of judicial review procedure.
Wiki Mental Health is an internet resource on mental
health law in England & Wales, primarily for mental health practitioners, to which anyone can contribute.
The site has been set up by a mental health solicitor.
There are three sections to this website:
i) Caselaw; regularly updated commentaries on the cases, with links to the full text judgments on Bailii (around 500 categorised cases plus other Bailii links)
ii) Legislation; The full text of, and commentary on, the Mental Health Act 1983, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and related legislation
iii) General articles to explain the concepts and terminology used in the caselaw and legislation sections and practical guidance for lawyers.
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 35,000 "members", which for a relatively new, UK based
site is pretty good going. There is also a bookstore and a "find a solicitor" section.