Financial Services Fact Book

Reputable, essential, unique--Financial Services Fact Book 2009 is an online book for the times. With the current economic downturn, the "financial services industry," an umbrella term that includes banking, mortgages, insurance, securities, consumer finance, and related services, is at center stage. Financial Services Fact Book 2009, jointly produced by the Insurance Information Institute (III) and the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR), provides recent commentary along with comparative statistics and attractive graphs and charts covering all categories of the financial services industry for the period 2003-2007. This is a user friendly resource for reliable background and data about an important law-related sector of the economy. Bookmark the web page, or link from LEXICAT, the library catalog.



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Coming in March . . .

With February coming to a close, watch this space and your email for the Top 10 workshops from the Library. These workshops are designed to help you brush up your research skills as you head out for your summer or permanent job.

Our first workshop - on Wednesday, March 11 - will feature two law firm librarians who will lead a discussion and answer your questions on cost efficient research and offer some law firm survival tips.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Catalog Of U.S. Government Publications

The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications is a finding tool for federal publications. It includes descriptive records for historical and current publications, and provides direct links to those that are available online. Users may search by authoring agency, title, and subject, as well as by general keyword. There is also an advanced search option.



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Searching the Deep Web

The phenomenon of the "invisible Web" or "deep Web" is not new, yet information remains hidden from search engine crawlers. Alex Wright discusses recent attempts to capture this data in Exploring a 'Deep Web' That Google Can't Grasp.




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Forensic Science: reality v. television

You may have heard of the CSI Effect that is a reference to the phenomenon of popular television shows raising peoples real-world expectations of forensic science and especially crime scene investigation. Sensible people acknowledge that television takes dramatic license with science, but we tend to think that there is at least a reasonable basis for the techniques and procedures shown.

A report recently released by the National Academy of Sciences depicts a forensic science system badly in need of overhaul. From the report, "with the exception of nuclear DNA analysis ... no forensic method has been rigorously shown able to consistently, and with a high degree of certainty, demonstrate a connection between evidence and a specific individual or source."

Hofstra Law School's Prof. DiFonzo has written on the many problems with DNA crime labs. Not the science used, but how the evidence is handled.

Lawyers who work with scientific evidence - used in criminal investigations, products liabiality, medical malpractice, etc. - need to be aware of these issues.

It seems that the forensic science shown on televison may be more fantasy than we thought.



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Leash Laws

Do you need to find the leash laws for your state? Take a look at the Animal Legal and Historical Center's overview of state leash laws. It provides a handy table where you can look up your state's leash laws. Do proceed with caution--while the site does give information on statewide leash laws, many municipalities also have ordinances concerning dogs. For more information about the municipal leash laws, look here.



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Blogging Jurors

A recent article in the Fulton County Daily Report points out the new problems, and opportunities, attorneys are faced with as jurors sign onto blogs and social networking profiles to complain about the cases they are deciding. It might be possible not only to find out if a juror is commenting during trial, but also to use information culled from social networking sites to tailor a presentation to specific jurors.



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Licensed to Practice?

Finding out if an attorney is licensed to practice law in a particular state is the topic of a recently updated research guide and directory, "A Compilation of State Lawyer Licensing Databases," provided by the legal research and technology site, LLRX. This guide is a real time-saver with direct links to each state's online database of attorneys and the relevant telephone number that is sometimes needed to be certain that an attorney's registration is current. If you encounter a dead link in this guide, tryLegalDockets.com, which provides links to attorney registration, disciplinary, and lawyer referral sites for states and for some individual counties. Both are worth bookmarking for future reference.
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Guide to the Stimulus

Plan on buying a car this year? Wondering what your tax bill will look like for 2009? Get a guide to the new Stimulus package enacted into law at the NY Times. This guide lets you get information on the stimulus by categories such as Tax Cuts for Individuals, Energy, Housing and many others. Here you will see the basics of the tax incentives for buying a car and many other measures.



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New Credit Crisis Victim: Bar Loans

Law.com is reporting that the newest victims of the credit crisis are some law students who seek bar exam study loans.  Criteria for obtaining a bar study loan has apparently tightened, causing more applicants to be denied than in the past.  The WSJ Law Blog has also commented on the article. 



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