Newspaper Articles

This collection of articles was published in the Detroit Legal News from 1995-1997. All were written in the infancy of the modern Internet, before the landscape surrounding Internet legal and business issues began to develop. Access to the Internet largely consisted of dial-up connections on a 14.4 kbs modem or slower. Both the technology and state of the law have evolved considerably since these were first published.

Using the Internet for Legal Research

Originally published June 12, 1996

Legal research can be a mundane and time-consuming process, both on the Internet and through traditional techniques.

Calling a colleague knowledgeable in a practice area or who has dealt with a particular issue is a common alternative to independent research. The Internet offers a modern variation of "ask someone who knows" through topic specific electronic discussion groups and mailing lists.

Not every issue confronted by lawyers and their clients requires in-depth legal research. The amount of information and support needed on a given issue is a function of, among other things, time, cost and relative importance.

In addition, attorneys constantly seek diverse views on issues. Tapping into the experience or knowledge of others, discussing problems to confirm suspicions and soliciting suggested approaches to a given matter are integral parts of the practice of law for many attorneys.

The Internet offers several unique tools that allow attorneys to engage in discussions on legal issues, communicate new or important rulings, network and engage in interactive exchange of public and private messages.

The principal devices for this convenient form of electronic dialogue are e-mail, listservs or mailing lists and newsgroups.

E-mail messages are a simple, but effective, resource for engaging in information and idea exchange with Internet connected colleagues on particular issues of interest. Using e-mail to keep an associate or client up to date on a particular issue or elicit information is quicker, cheaper and more convenient than traditional mail or telephone calls.

The message can be sent to multiple parties at once, generally with a few simple keystrokes or mouse clicks. Unlike a telephone call, the message can be viewed and responded to at the recipient's convenience.

Importantly, long-distance phone charges, printing letters and envelopes, copying, and mailing, all of which take longer and use significantly more resources, are eliminated.

E-mail messages are generally private and sent in a limited party environment. On the other hand, simple e-mail information exchange, like traditional communications, it is limited by the number of available contacts. If you don't know someone with knowledge in an area, your options (particularly cost effective ones) are limited.

Listservs and mailing lists fill the relationship void by offering private and public forums for the exchange of information and ideas. As the name implies, listservs and mailing lists send information directly to your e-mail.

The information may consist of group discussions on particular topics, newsletters, legislative highlights or summaries, meeting and seminar postings, etc. The nature of the information communicated is limited only by the imagination of the participants.

Subscribing to a publicly available mailing list is typically done by sending an email message to an automated server. In most instances, the only words in the text of the e-mail message are "sub" or "subscribe," the name of the list and the subscriber's name. Many legal Internet sites have hyperlinks to mailing lists that provide specific subscription instructions.

For example, to subscribe to a mailing list tailored to professionals involved in federal income taxation and accounting, I would send the following e-mail message to listserv@shsu.edu: subscribe fed. tax-L Gary Kendra.

Many mailing lists are available to anyone with Internet access. There are also private mailing lists where the discussion participants are limited to particular parties.

Lexis Counsel Connect (http://www.counsel.com) and other attorney-related services offer practice-specific, attorney-only mailing lists as part of their member services.

Mailing lists are convenient way to gather information, ideas or resources on particular topics. Participation can be active or passive; mailing list voyeurism without ever contributing is common and widely accepted.

When using mailing lists, a few words of caution are in order. First, be selective when subscribing to a listserv or mailing list; do not subscribe to every mailing list you might have an interest in. If you don't read your e-mail for a few days, you may find your mailbox filled with literally hundreds of messages. Sorting the useful from the useless can be a time-consuming challenge.

Also, when subscribing to a mailing list, make sure you know how to "unsubscribe." Particular lists may not be what you are looking for in terms of content, resulting in 21st century junk mail cluttering your mailbox and system.

Newsgroups are similar to mailing lists, however, postings are viewed rather than delivered via e-mail. Newsgroups are typically accessed through the world wide network of Usenet (a/k/a Netnews) sites. Although many sites are connected to the Internet, there are also a number of Usenet groups accessed directly from resident computers. Participants post articles or messages to a group site, rather than to specific individuals.

Many newsgroups (and mailing lists) are in the form of discussion threads. A thread is simply a series of responses or dialogue (typically not moderated) on a particular topic relevant to the newsgroup. The various parties engaged in the discussion add to the thread by posting their thoughts or views on the issue at hand.

One innovative service, offered by Court TV Law Center and Lexis Counsel Connect, illustrates the potential of interactive electronic information services. Users of the service, known as the "legal backgrounder," submit queries on law-related topics which are answered by attorneys practicing in a particular field (see http://courttv.com/back-grounder/index.html). The threaded responses are compiled in what is referred to as a "legal backgrounder" and emailed to the client for a fee.

As more attorneys jump on the Internet and the mailing lists, newsgroups and content contributors geared toward practicing attorneys grow correspondingly, engaging in electronic dialogue with "someone in the know" may become a common component of the everyday practice of law.