1. RESEARCH TOOLS YOU
MAY NOT HAVE HEARD
ABOUT IN RWA
by Assoc. Dean Bobbie Studwell
June 29, 2013
2. A Few Print Tools You May Not
Know About
Practice Manuals for the Newer Attorney
The Florida paralegal : essential rules,
documents, and resources / William P.
Statsky, et. al.
Trawick's Florida practice and procedure.
Forms / by Henry P. Trawick, Jr.
Florida Pre-trial Practice
Florida Causes of Action
3. More Print Tool Finders
AMSL
AMSL Library
http://www.avemarialaw.edu/
A to Z List
http://www.avemarialaw.edu/Library/Databases
Aquinas Catalog
http://aquinas.avemarialaw.edu/
Research Guides (LibGuide series)
http://avemarialaw.libguides.com/
4. Career Tools Available in the
Library
Almanac of the Federal Judiciary (Reference)
Lawyer’s Almanac (Reference)
Directory of State Court Clerks and County
Courthouses (Reference)
Leadership Directories series http://0-
lo.bvdep.com.aquinas.avemarialaw.edu/defaul
t.asp?curp=1
8. Low Cost Alternatives to
Bloomberg, Lexis, & Westlaw
FastCase – very low cost tool for Bar members
and students – in FL www.fastcase.com
Other states may make one of these available
to you at a low cost:
Loislaw www.loislaw.com
Casemaker www.casemaker.com
VersusLaw www.versuslaw.com
10. Free Alternatives
Florida specific tools:
Florida Law Online www.floridalawonline.net
Florida Statutes www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes
Florida Appellate/Supreme Court
www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/opinions.s
html
Ethics
www.floridabar.org/tfb/TFBETOpin.nsf/Ethicsindex
?OpenForm
Administrative Law www.flrules.org
11. County Codes & City Ordinances
www.municode.com/library
www.Amlegal.com/library
www.Generalcode.com/codification/ecode/libra
ry
12. How many of you have relied on a free
Florida resource or a Municipal Code?
Q & A time
13. Other Free General Alternatives for
Starting Legal Research
Zimmerman’s Research Guide
http://law.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmermans/
Cornell Legal Information Institute
www.law.cornell.edu
FindLaw www.findlaw.com/casecode
Justia www.justia.com
LexisNexis Communities
http://www.lexisnexis.com/community/portal/
14. Other Free Specific Sources for
Specialty Topics
Business Resources
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission –
EDGAR
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
Findlaw for Corporate Counsel
http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com
Intellectual Property
United States Copyright Office
http://www.copyright.gov
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Why the practice manual? What were your first days on the job like in your externship? I imagine most of you started to understand why the Rules of Civ Pro and Evidence were important as a part of your law school curriculum.
The Library may be one of the best resources you never knew you had… Avow commercial
Your next step after your externship may be to start your career path. How can the Library help?Variety of tools to help you locate people and positions – some you may not have even been aware of.Almanacs are useful in supplying background facts about a person you might be interviewing with. i.e. the Fed Judiciary.Lawyers Almanc noted here shows practice rules in other state. Specifically CLE requirementsState Court Clerks Directory – if you aren’t in FL – may give you a better idea of who to go to for what in another state settingLet’s take a quick look at the Leadership Directory which you can access from on and off campus while you are a student! (Use the barcode on your ID card when prompted from off site) Call and ask a Librarian if you have trouble.Let’s say you want to interview with or contact Senator Rubio Point out the best contact information for himLet’s say you want to interview with some of the best corporation in the US. Click on Explore Organizations and then on Leadership 1000 2012. Another way to do this for other entities is to look at the One Click lists. Let’s say you want to locate the HR contacts at some of these firms - Click on Human Resource ContactsPLEASE come back and Play with this resource, it is VERY powerful.
I assume most of you are taking advantage of Lexis use over the summer. You may have also submitted your names to Westlaw as an extern entitled to use their research tools as well. Pricing for the BIG TWO is steep and a new kid on the block, Bloomberg is trying to get into the game.Click on the CSU guide. Look at the pricing schemes briefly. Depending on the file you select, you could be paying over $130/hour for research. Your firm will be much happier with your and your services if they can bill at a much reduced rate. Come back to this LibGuide and explore this information a bit more as you decide when, where, and how you are going to either set up your own shop or to use in interviews you have with a potential employer. Your knowledge of costs and ways to effectively save the firm research dollars could put you over the top in getting that job!Mention the low Cost and Free Websites links as places to come back to that offer much more information than I can give you in a mere hour!I can’t teach you Bloomberg Law in a few minutes. They are on campus to do some training this fall. Before that, take a look at their Summer Associate vidoe Series. I particularly like their Career Insights section of their Law School Resources – some really good tips here!Notice the SUPER SEARCH Bar in the upper right. Acts just like the Westlaw Next or Lexis Advance, with a few differences. Notice as I type Insurance Stempel, the search engine tries to give me Google-like clues. Mention their strongest feature – docket tracking. When an attorney asks you about getting new information on a case from Pacer, ask her if she knows about the docket feature on Bloomberg. Go to Litigation and Dockets tabSelect Search Court OpinionsSelect FLSelect Dist Courts of AppealSelect 2nd District - notice the Information helpSearch Keyword “Harris” describe the document found a bit
Describe the tools that they can use in court for quick look-ups. Notice their training webinars and their Iphone apps.Click on What is Fastcase?Then click on Pricing and sign Up. Scroll to Alreay a subscriber through your Bar… then click on FL Bar and look at the member benefits.
Who told you about it?
Save money and time! If you knowhow to research effectively, you cansave valuable time. Furthermore, if youcombine effective research with costeffectiveresearch, you can also saveyour client money.
When and Why you will use them.Let’s look at the municode library and you can look at the other later.Click on the state and then start to look for your county or city.Notice that both the Naples city code and the Collier county code are available and free for online viewing. Click on Naples – they are searchable. Search for parking.
We’ll just look at 2 of these as well and leave the rest for you to explore later.Zimmermans Research Guide is a wonderful souce you’ve probably never heard of. A MUCH better starting point for topics than Google! Let’s say you have a client who needs to file a FOIA request and you don’t know what form to use. - Search for the narrower term – privacy.Let’s try the same search in the LII in their Wex encyclopedia – different perspective in the two resources, but valuable information in each!
public company reports and filingsFindLaw - : sample mergers, consulting, LLC and other agreements
