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Legal Software & Web Sites Archives

January 13, 2007

FedCirc.us


FedCirc.us is a portal of patent caselaw information built on a foundation of timely, accurate and considerate reviews of appellate level court decisions. Content is organized to provide quick updates on the latest developments in the law and to facilitate focused legal research. Red flags point out cases overturned and statutes/ regulations changed.

http://www.fedcirc.us/

GimmeTen! feature provides a place where patent professionals can quickly scan the ten latest case reviews. See something interesting? Just follow the link provided and you'll jump to the full case review. You can always go straight to the GimmeTen! feature by entering the following URL in your browser: 10.fedcirc.us

Youth Law Center

The Youth Law Center is a public interest law firm, based in San Francisco, that works to protect children in the nation's foster care and juvenile justice systems from abuse and neglect, and to ensure that they receive the necessary support and services to become healthy and productive adults.

Several publications and training media are available for download.

The resource links cover the nation.

Paint.NET

Paint.NET is free image editing and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.

Ask City

Ask City is a new (about a month old) mapping product on the Internet. Key categories are Businesses and Services, Events, Movies, and Maps & Directions. The three pane interface allows users to conduct multiple searches, revise itineraries, create multi-point driving or walking directions.

Advanced features include multipoint directions and annotation tools that allow you to draw and write on a map before forwarding to friends. Available aerial photos seem more up-to-date than other similar services.

January 30, 2007

Citizendium

Main Page - Citizendium Pilot

The Citizendium (sit-ih-ZEN-dee-um), a "citizens' compendium of everything," is an experimental new wiki project. The project, started by a founder of Wikipedia, aims to improve on that model by adding “gentle expert oversight” and requiring contributors to use their real names.

WebCite®

WebCite

WebCite® is an archiving system for webreferences (cited webpages and websites), which can be used by authors, editors, and publishers of scholarly papers and books, to ensure that cited webmaterial will remain available to readers in the future. If cited webreferences in journal articles, books etc. are not archived, future readers may encounter a "404 File Not Found" error when clicking on a cited URL.

A WebCite® reference is an archived webcitation, and rather than linking to the live website (which can and probably will disappear in the future), authors of scholarly works will link to the archived WebCite® copy on webcitation.org

WebCite® is an entirely free service for authors who want to cite webmaterial, regardless of what publication they are writing for.

February 6, 2007

Todoist

Simple todo list manager: Todoist

Todoist is a simple, efficient and dynamic todo list manager.


The main focus of the application is to help you get organized!


It's a perfect fit for Getting Things Done people.


Sign up now, get organized and become more productive!

February 15, 2007

VYEW

Vyew.com - FREE Anytime Collaboration and Live Conferencing™

Vyew provides a virtual space to share information and work together.

Get your point across visually. Host live conferences and interact in real-time. Post documents and presentations for review and commenting anytime.

100% web-based

Collaborate on Any File Type: PPT, DOC, XLS, PDF, JPG, +

Share Your Desktop or Screen Captures

Whiteboard, Annotate and Comment

Text-chat and Tele- conference

Free version and premium version both available.

Vyew integrates several useful tools while being 100% web-based = no installation hassles. It’s incredibly easy to learn and works similar to other applications such as MS PowerPoint. It’s safe, reliable, and you don’t need to install or configure anything. All you need is a web browser (IE 6+, Firefox, or Safari) and an Internet connection (high-speed recommended).


February 17, 2007

TimeToMeet

Find a meeting time the easy way: TimeToMeet.info

TimeToMeet is a simple, web-based tool for finding a common meeting time with other people. It works for meetings of two people and for group meetings. TimeToMeet can manage time zone differences, so it's also useful for scheduling international phone calls.

How does it work?

When you create a meeting with TimeToMeet, every participant receives a personal link that they use to access TimeToMeet and respond to your request.

Using a simple scheduling interface, TimeToMeet will ask everyone for times when they are available, meaning: when it's most convenient for them to meet.

As everyone replies, TimeToMeet calculates the overlap and notifies you so that you can confirm a final time.

Try it out: Create a test meeting and invite yourself.


TimeToMeet is web-based, which means that your participants only need a web browser to respond to your requests. They don't even need to be registered with TimeToMeet.

Their regular service is free and there are no costs, no matter how much you use it.

When you sign up your free account, you also receive all the additional features of their Pro Accounts during the first month; you can decide later if you find them useful.

Blawgs.fm


Justia Blawgs.FM

This site features links to the most popular Blawgcasts; i.e., pod casts on legal issues, many done by other lawyers.

Blawgcasts are sorted by category and the site is searchable.

Blawg Post tags and a "cloud" for recent search terms give this site a very Web 2.0 feeling.

Direct links to the most recent blawgcasts keep you current.

February 18, 2007

Vox

Vox - Your world online. Start a FREE personal blog today!

A new service, Vox (www.vox.com), offers free personal blogging sites where you can decide who will see each posted item. If you post pictures of your children, for example, you can mark them for family-member-only viewing. But if you write a book review, you may mark it for friends as well as family, or even for public viewing.

Featured in today's Sunday NYTIMES here.

February 20, 2007

Yugma

Yugma : FREE Web Conferencing, Online Meetings and Web Collaboration: about

Yugma is a free web conferencing service that enables people to instantly connect over the internet and to collaborate using any application or software, using both Windows and Mac. Businesses can connect on-demand and real-time with clients, prospects or employees whether they are across the city, nation or even the globe.

Popular uses include presenting sales proposals, product demonstrations, conducting training, project management, customer service, team reviews, remote support and troubleshooting, and collaboration by web communities such as Skype, Jotspot and Salesforce.com.

Yugma is reliable and secure; adapting to organizational security models like AD or LDAP.

The name Yugma is a word from the Sanskrit language meaning "the state of being in unified collaboration." Yugma, Inc. is a privately held venture-backed company headquartered in Minnesota, USA and has offices in Minneapolis and India.

February 22, 2007

LinkedInABox

LinkedInABox: Unleash Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedInABox™ is a simple widget that can be embedded on any web page and provides a summary of your personal profile, as presented in your LinkedIn account.
Your log-in details will not be stored and will be used only to retrieve your profile details.

February 23, 2007

VESID Resources for Impartial Hearing Officers

NYSED Certified IHO


VESID
(the Vocational and Educational
Services for Individuals with Disabilities)
and the University at Buffalo Law School
have partnered to provide you with the
training and resources you need as an
Impartial Hearing Officer

New Postings & Alerts

Laws & Regulations

State Review Officer (SRO) Homepage

Commissioner of Education Decisions

Court Decisions

Impartial Hearing Reporting System (IHRS)

VESID Special Education Publications

February 25, 2007

ExpressPDF

ExpressPDF :: Convert online Word, Excel, Web pages to PDF Free !

ExpressPDF is an online service that lets you convert your Microsoft Office documents to PDF.
This service can also convert Web pages to PDF !

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Hat Tip to Tom Mighell--Inter Alia

February 26, 2007

Special Education Law Blog

Special Education Law Blog


A special education legal resource discussing case law, news, practical advocacy advice, and developments in state and federal statutes and regulations.

Postings include insight and sometimes humor from Charles P. Fox, a Chicago, Illinois attorney who is also a parent of child with special needs, and other guest authors.

February 28, 2007

Clipmarks

Clipmarks | Firefox Add-ons | Mozilla Corporation

With Clipmarks, you can clip the best parts of web pages. Whether it’s a paragraph, sentence, image or video, you can capture just the pieces you want without having to bookmark the entire page.

Save what you clip, post it to your blog, send it to friends or share it with everyone on the Clipmarks site.

Works with: Firefox1.5 - 2.0.0.*ALL

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Via TechCrunch:

Their CEO, Eric Goldstein, was a lawyer who was fed up with cutting and pasting citations into a Word file only to discover that the 100 page mess became unreadable and unusable. He and his team launched a first iteration of the product, which Marshall looked at months ago, but the latest version is considerably more fully-featured and quite interesting.

Ning

Robert Scoble has filmed an excellent demo of Ning from CEO Gina Bianchini.

...

Why should I, as an attorney, care about "social networks"?

If you substitute "solo practice" and/or "small firm"and your clients for each time you hear "social network", you will begin to get some idea of the possible uses.

You can do your own highly sophisticated, 2.0 web site, for free (ad sponsored) in a few minutes. Just watch the demo to see how easily you can do this yourself.

Child Welfare Information Gateway: Adoption

Adoption

Resources on all aspects of domestic and intercountry adoption, including adoption from foster care. Includes information for prospective and adoptive parents; information about searching for birth relatives; and resources for professionals on recruiting adoptive families, preparing children and youth, supporting birth parents, and providing postadoption services.

...

Child Welfare Information Gateway consolidates and builds upon the services formerly provided by the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse and the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information. The information and resources from the former NAIC website and more are available here.

March 1, 2007

vLex.us

vLex.us

Introducing vLex.us

An ever-growing resource of information for legal professionals, including all Supreme Court Cases since independence, Federal Law and Regulations and a search engine for open-acess web journals.

March 3, 2007

JAJAH


JAJAH - web-activated telephony

JAJAH is an innovative and simple way to make cheap phone calls using the Internet without headphones, microphones or having to install any software at all. JAJAH connects two standard telephone machines, whether they are landline or mobile, local or anywhere else in the world, regardless if the owner is connected to the Internet or not. JAJAH is just like using your regular phone, only a lot cheaper!

JAJAH works from your web browser and no installation of any kind is necessary.

The calls made through JAJAH WEB are phone-to-phone, which means you don’t need a headset, a microphone or a special phone to use it, so you don’t have to be tied to your computer. JAJAH WEB also uses the web browser, so you don’t have to download or install any kind of software to use it.

You can try JAJAH for 5 minutes to any landline destination for free. If you want to keep using JAJAH after the trial, you will need to register.

A call made by JAJAH is exactly like a regular call – you use your regular telephone device (i.e. regular or mobile) and not a headset connected to a computer. JAJAH only initiates your call.

Making a call is very simple. In trial mode simply go to the JAJAH web site at http://www.jajah.com/. You will see that the screen is divided into two main sections: "my phone number" and "my friend's phone number." In "my phone number," you can see your country is already selected for you. All you have to do here is enter your area code and phone number (for example: 098 7654 321). The second stage is to select your desired destination number - first choose the country to which you want to call and then enter the area code and phone number. Now click the CALL button. Your phone will now ring. Pick it up and hold while JAJAH connects your call. If you have already registered, all you need to do is select one of your source numbers, enter your desired destination number (or pick it from your address book) and click the CALL button.

...

The Online Books Page

The Online Books Page is a website that facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. It also aims to encourage the development of such online books, for the benefit and edification of all.

Long Time Lost

Long Time Lost

Long Time Lost is a free "service" that allows you to create a "search" for someone you lost touch with. That "search" is then indexed by Google (and other search engines) and then when that person you are looking for (or someone who knows them) does a "Vanity Search" (the process of searching for one's own name on Google)... they find your "search" and can respond to you and reconnect. All information is handled through the system so your private information like your email address isn't out there on the net.

It's new, it's Web 2.0, it's powered by Google, it's Ruby on Rails... and it's FREE... so check it out.

March 7, 2007

New York City Civil Court: Contact Held Insufficient to Sue eBay Seller


Law.com - Contact Held Insufficient to Sue eBay Seller

Mark Fass
New York Law Journal
March 7, 2007

In a case of apparent first impression, a Staten Island, N.Y., judge has ruled that a single eBay transaction between a New York buyer and an out-of-state seller is insufficient to establish personal jurisdiction in a breach of contract action.

One sale, "without more, does not constitute sufficient purposeful availment to satisfy the minimum contacts necessary to justify summoning across state lines, to a New York court, the seller of an allegedly non-conforming good," Richmond County Civil Court Judge Philip S. Straniere held in Sayeedi v. Walser, 10610/06.

...

(read full article on law.com)

March 9, 2007

My Yahoo! is All New!!

My Yahoo!

A fresh new look

Newly designed Yahoo! modules
New page colors and themes

More flexibility and control

Drag and drop modules anywhere
See more stuff with a new four column layout

Save time with fewer clicks

Read articles without leaving your page
Get quick overviews with the editable Personal Assistant

Plus more...

Share your page with friends
Choose what you see with advanced settings

March 10, 2007

Waxxi

Waxxi : About Us

Waxxi is a presenter and producer of live and archived interactive podcasts.

Waxxi’s Interactive Podcasts are open to anyone who wants to be a part of the experience, and have the chance to ask their guests a question, or comment on something relative to the topic. Hundreds globally will participate.

Their inaugural event brings people from Slovakia to Sweden, New Zealand to the Netherlands, China to Chicago, Brazil to Boston, Tokyo to Texas, and beyond. It is truly a global conversation.

Waxxi will also launch a business-focused global social network. The groups will be formed around the interactive podcast topics, such as business blogging, Web 2.0, Investor Talk and so on. Groups will also be formed by the demand, or suggestions, of members.

Waxxi's business model is to provide organizations and corporations a ‘private label’ service in building and customizing interactive podcasts and social networks.

...

Join them for a global conversation with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

When: Thursday, April 5, 2007 from 1:30PM-2:30PM EST.

March 12, 2007

scanR


Scan, copy and fax with your camera phone or digital camera

Turn your camera phone into a scanner, copier, and fax. Clean photos of documents, whiteboards and business cards. Extract any text and contact informationStore, search and share online

Try scanR for free now.

...

Hat Tip to Rick Georges a Florida solo attorney and author of Law.com's Future Lawyer blog. You may contact him at rgeorges@futurelawyer.com.

March 13, 2007

MEDICARE DRUG PROGRAM (PARTD)-PLI Newsletters

TRAINING OUTLINE
Valerie J. Bogart
David Silva
Selfhelp Community Services, Inc.

PLI has some of their very useful training materials available online for free. For example, here is a 50-page "outline" of Medicare Part D, with specific references to NY plans, including EPIC.

If you would like to sign up for PLI's free newsletter(s), click here.

March 15, 2007

Ms.JD

What is Ms. JD? | Ms. JD [beta]

Concerned by the rates at which women opt out of the legal profession, the lack of representation of women in the highest courts and echelons of the legal community, and the role of gender in the progression of many women’s legal careers, a group of female law students from Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley), Cornell, Georgetown, Harvard, NYU, Stanford, UCLA, UT Austin, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and Yale came together and created Ms. JD. Serving women in law school and the legal profession, Ms. JD will be an online community that provides a forum for dialogue and networking among women lawyers and aspiring lawyers.

...

Ms. JD will launch at a national conference co-hosted by Yale Law Women at Yale Law School on March 31, 2007.

Legally Female: What Does It Mean To Be “Ms. JD”? is a collaboration between Yale Law Women and the national blog, Ms. JD, that explores the status of women in the legal profession. The conference will spark collaboration to improve the standing of women in legal careers and law schools. Panels will stake out common grounds where women in law can connect across boundaries of geography, institutions, and practice areas. Legally Female’s goals are (1) to foster professionally transformative alliances through new communications technologies, and (2) to share tools and strategies to enhance the experiences of women in law.

Conference participants will discuss the evolution of women’s positions in the legal profession and the ways that technology is changing what it means to be a woman attorney. The conference will also harness the amplifying power of the Internet by uploading speaker content and inviting live bloggers to share panelists’ insights across the web. Most importantly, conversations and projects begun at the conference will grow and expand online after the conference ends.

For more information, email ms-jd@legallyfemale.org .

...

Hat Tip to Carolyn Elefant of My Shingle.

March 16, 2007

PERSONAL INJURY. PUNITIVE DAMAGES--3rd Dept

Defendant, a pharmacist, plead guilty to criminally negligent homicide by causing the death of a two year old child by leaving narcotics unsecured near the child, who ingested them. After default, court awarded at inquest $75,000 (wrongful death/pecuniary loss), $250,000 (conscious pain and suffering) and $1,000,000 (punitive). On appeal, punitive award was set aside and remitted for new determination, with redetermined award of $750,000 being affirmed. Grossly negligent, or wanton or reckless conduct, indicating a conscious disregard of the rights of others, warrants punitive damages.

Appellate Division noted that punitive award was less than three times the awards for wrongful death and conscious pain and suffering, an acceptable ratio under State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Co. v. Campbell, 538 US 408 (2003).

Guariglia v. Price Chopper Operating Co., Inc.

March 17, 2007

Cooliris Previews

Cooliris Previews - Discover More...

Cooliris Previews is a free browser add-on that lets you preview links without clicking or leaving your current page. Now you can browse faster than ever!

Cooliris Previews currently works for links on Google (Web, Images, News, Groups, Froogle), Yahoo!, AOL, Ask, Flickr, Newsvine, BBC News, CNN News, Craigslist, eBay, Del.icio.us and RSS feeds. They are working on a version which will support all websites.

It works with Firefox; Flock; Safari; and IExplorer.

CoolIris is easy to install and use, very fast, and will speed your browsing.

UPDATE: I noticed some slowing in my browser, Safari, and some hanging of windows; i.e., not closing, together with multiple visits from the SPOD (for non-Mac people--"Spinning Pizza of Death"), indicating slow operation. I deleted CoolIris and things are back to normal. I can't recommend it for Macusers at this stage of its development. Your milage may vary.

March 23, 2007

LLRXCourt Rules, Forms & Dockets

LLRX -- LLRXCourt Rules, Forms & Dockets

This site includes links to over 1,400 sources for state and federal court rules, forms and dockets.

...

Our old friends at LLRX are still around and keeping up with our research needs, as is expected from Law Librarians. This unique, free searchable database is maintained and continually updated by Margaret Berkland.

...

Hat Tip to Sabrina I. Pacifici, founder, editor, and publisher, whose free newsletter, bespacific is well worth a look.

SeaMonkey

The SeaMonkey Project

Web-browser, advanced e-mail and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and HTML editing made simple -- all your Internet needs in one application.

This version is compatible with computers running Mac OS X 10.2 and newer or Windows 95, 98, 2000, and 2003, as well as Windows XP. Themes, extensions, and plugins are available to customize your new browser.

...

Editor's Note: Some of us are of an age to remember the Sea Monkeys" ads on the last page of our comic books. Just add water!!

March 26, 2007

IRS e-News Subscriptions

e-News Subscriptions

The IRS offers fifteen (15) free e-Newletters on various topics. Subscribe here

My personal favorite is e-News For Tax Professionals., which provides the latest national news for the tax professional community, as well as links to resources on IRS.gov and local news and events by state.
It also includes the former IRS Digital Dispatch.

March 27, 2007

Litigation Articles & Legal Research Collection

Litilaw Legal Research & Litigation Related Articles

You'll want to review this free collection of hundreds of recently published articles of interest to litigators and related legal professionals. All articles are full-text, written by lawyers and have been published as part of continuing legal education (CLE) seminars, in legal journals, or are of similar quality.

...

Hat Tip to Bob Ambrogi

March 30, 2007

The Legal Talk Network

The Legal Talk Network - The Misconceptions of E-Discovery

Today, e-discovery has become vital to attorneys and to their law businesses, however, some misconceptions exist such as Microsoft Vista’s effect on e-discovery. On Lawyer 2 Lawyer, Bob Ambrogi talks with the experts, Stephen D. Whetstone, Esq., VP of Client Development & Strategy for Stratify and Attorney Craig Ball, trial attorney and computer forensics examiner, to weigh in on the misconceptions of e-discovery and what the future holds for e-discovery. Co-host and attorney Craig Williams will be back on the next Lawyer 2 Lawyer show!

***

This is an excellent example of the materials available on The Legal Talk Network.

March 31, 2007

ABI Bankruptcy Exchange

ABI Bankruptcy Exchange

The ABI Bankruptcy Blog Exchange collects several blogs about bankruptcy into one convenient site.

...

This is an excellent resource for those of us who don't do bankruptcy, as well as those who still do.

Eyejot

Eyejot


Eyejot is the first, comprehensive, client-free online video messaging platform for both personal and business communications. It offers everyone the ability to create and receive video messages in a self-contained, spam-free environment. With no client to install, you can start using Eyejot immediately with any browser, on any platform.

Eyejot easily works with all of the popular Web browsers on Windows and Mac OS X. Chances are, you already have the Adobe Flash Player installed so there is nothing more for you to install (for more information see system requirements)

April 20, 2007

Loki

Loki - You Can Get There From Here

Find out exactly where you are. With just one click, Loki will pinpoint your location on a map.

Loki is an Internet local search and location sharing application that lets you automatically use the most important variable when looking for information your current physical location. Think about it....when you shop, check for news, check traffic, look for social events, think about things to do, search for a movie - in almost every case the answer depends on where you are.

Location sharing means that you can tell others where you are. Loki lets you do this two ways. First, you can click the 'Email' button and instantly send your location to anyone through your preferred email program. Second, you can send your location to mobile phones via text messages by using the SMS button. Finally, you can automatically share your location through various 'friend finder' programs such as Frappr or Where.com.

Once you've registered your account in the Loki options, your location will be automatically updated at the time interval you choose and your friends, family and colleagues will be able to see where you are. Check out Features and to learn more about how it works.

Loki is for Windows XP and IE6 or Firefox. Sorry, no Macs-yet; but Mac OS X and Linux are coming.

Download

April 24, 2007

Atticus Graduate Top 10 Calls

Atticus Online - Audio

To commemorate its 100th Graduate Network call, Atticus has selected their Top 10 picks of those calls and they are available for you to download - FREE. These calls were selected as the most popular by their graduates.

Subjects range from how to get away from the billable hour, to using technology more effectively, to innovative marketing ideas, and to basic practice management. Enjoy these free audio programs.

Atticus is a leading practice management education and training organization for attorneys.

...

Full Disclosure: The poster was a presenter in an Atticus conference call on technology in 2005 and received a very nice fruit box of pears and apples as a gift.

May 4, 2007

New York State Civil Service: "How to Conduct a Job Interview"


How to Conduct a Job Interview サ Department of Civil Service

A job interview provides a valuable opportunity for you and the candidate to learn more about each other. Learning more about candidates will enable you to predict more accurately how each candidate might perform in the specific position to be filled. Candidates also have a right to learn about the job for which they are interviewed.

You can get the most from the interview by carefully planning in advance what you want to learn from candidates as well as what they will need to learn from you.

This very practical site has lists of questions you may not ask as a matter of law and questions you should ask to find the best person for the position. There are also helpful forms and checklists, sample interviews and advice on documentation.