Wisconsin State Law Library

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WSLL @ Your Service October 2013

 

What’s New – Connie Von Der Heide

WSLL Tours

Library staff has been busy the past few weeks leading orientation sessions for new court law clerks and fall interns. If your court department, law office, agency, or other organization is interested in learning more about what’s in the library and on our web site, please contact us to schedule a guided tour. Tours generally last about an hour and are conducted during regular library hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Rare Book Room Rare Book Room

Rooms for Rent

Are you in need of a place in downtown Madison to hold a meeting or training session? Perhaps one of the rooms at the Wisconsin State Law Library would suit your needs. Check out our Room Rentals web page for rental information and some brand new photos of our conference room, training room and Rare Book Room – all of which may be rented by the hour. Rooms are generally available for use during regular library hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Upcoming Classes

We have a great lineup of legal research classes taking place this fall, in both Madison and Milwaukee.

Introduction to Research on WestlawNext
Tuesday, October 22, 12:00 p.m. to 12:50 p.m.

Advanced Legal Research with WestlawNext
Tuesday, October 22, 1:00 p.m. to 1:50 p.m.
Location: Milwaukee Public Library Meeting Room 1, 814 W. Wisconsin Ave.

The Milwaukee Legal Resource Center, located in Room G10-1 of the Milwaukee County Courthouse, offers free access to WestlawNext on all three of its public computers. WestlawNext is an electronic research database that simplifies legal research by using search techniques similar to Google.

In the introductory session beginning at Noon, learn basic search strategies to retrieve case law and statutes not only for Wisconsin, but also for all other states and the U.S. The advanced session, beginning at 1:00 p.m., will focus on more advanced search techniques and some of the special features available to persons with their own WestlawNext subscriptions, including customizable features, the creation of folders, and the WestlawNext iPad app.

You may register for either or both of these FREE sessions. Each one offers 1 CLE credit for attorneys. For registration information, please see the Milwaukee Public Library – Central’s Schedule of Events for October, or call 414-286-3011.

Ethics Research via Westlaw
Wednesday, November 6, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
Location: Wisconsin State Law Library Training Room, Madison

During this hands-on class you’ll have an opportunity to learn and practice searching techniques while reviewing and discovering Westlaw’s many legal ethics research databases including ABA opinions, case law, and Restatements.
Fee: $35.00. 1 Ethics CLE credit for attorneys. Registration is limited to 8. Register online or print and submit the registration form.

Wisconsin Briefs Online
Thursday November 14, 9:00-10:00 a.m.
Location: Wisconsin State Law Library Training Room, Madison

This hands-on class is an introduction to locating Wisconsin appellate briefs that are freely accessible on the Internet. Learn how to search for appellate briefs available in WSCCA and through the UW Law Library's Wisconsin Briefs webpage.
Fee: $35.00. 1 CLE credit for attorneys is pending. Registration is limited to 8. Register online or print and submit the registration form.

HeinOnline: The Information Source You Need, Where You Need It
Tuesday, November 19, 12:00 p.m. to 12:50 p.m.
Location: Milwaukee Public Library Meeting Room, 814 W. Wisconsin Ave.

The Milwaukee Legal Resource Center, located in Room G10-1 of the Milwaukee County Courthouse, offers free access to HeinOnline on all three of its public computers. Authorized State Law Library cardholders also have free, 24/7 access to HeinOnline on any internet-equipped device. (Some restrictions apply.)

In this lecture-demonstration format class, you’ll discover and learn how to search the wide array of full-text materials available through HeinOnline, including law reviews and bar journals, selected primary federal law, Congressional and federal agency documents, sources of federal legislative history, and more. This database is too good to be missed! Learn what HeinOnline has to offer and how you can access it.

Hollie ThompsonFREE class. 1 CLE credit for attorneys is pending. Registration will open when the class is listed on the Milwaukee Public Library – Central’s Schedule of Events for November.

Staff News

WSLL welcomes Hollie Thompson, part time Library Assistant in the Wisconsin Collections office and at the Circulation Desk. Currently in her 2nd year of the UW-Milwaukee School of Information Studies online master’s degree program, Hollie previously worked as an academic department associate position in the UW-Whitewater Economics Department, and she has also held positions at Madison College and the Eau Claire Children's Museum. Welcome, Hollie!

We also bid “partial” farewell to Bob Lopez, part time Library Assistant at the WSLL Circulation Desk. We’ll miss having Bob here at WSLL every morning, but we’re very pleased that he’s continuing in his other part time Library Assistant position at the Dane County Legal Resource Center. All the best, Bob!


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This Just In… – Pete Boll

New Title! Principles of Appellate Advocacy by Daniel P. Selmi.
CCH Inc., Wolters Kluwer Law and Business, 2013.
WSLL Call Number KF 9050 .S45 2013

Appellate attorney and professor Daniel Selmi concentrates exclusively on a few rules and principles that are essential to writing clear appellate briefs and oral arguments. Designed for law students preparing their first appellate arguments as well as practitioners who struggle with the writing process, this concise text helps readers identify the core principles at issue, frame their arguments from an appellate judge’s perspective, and write clear, compelling briefs and oral arguments.

Features include:

  • Students and attorneys learn how to derive, rather than just state, essential principles. Emphasis is on learning to identify the issue that must be resolved before developing a written or oral argument that responds to that issue.
  • “Thinking like a judge” is a unifying theme – throughout the text, students and attorneys are consistently challenged to put themselves in the appellate judge’s shoes.
  • The writing process is separated from the analytical process – i.e. students and attorneys are guided through the dual process of writing a brief while confronting difficult questions about the substance of the law by first creating an outline, and then moving on to the actual writing.
  • Includes a DVD featuring real judges presenting dos and don’ts for appellate argument.

New Edition! Intellectual Property Deskbook for the Business Lawyer: A Transactions-Based Guide to Intellectual Property Law, 3rd ed. by Sharon K. Sandeen, editor. American Bar Association, 2013.
WSLL Call Number KF 2980 .I63 2013

This Deskbook is a “go-to” reference for general practitioners, business lawyers, and corporate counsel who need to quickly learn and understand IP issues that arise in various business contexts. Each of the twenty short, readable chapters focuses on a particular transaction and includes a “Traps for the Unwary” section with practice tips provided by over 50 experienced attorneys, two law professors, and a judge.

Last published in 2009, this third edition boasts two new chapters as well as updates in all the others to reflect recent and significant changes to the law - including the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. A comprehensive bibliography allows readers to quickly expand their understanding of identified issues.

 

New Titles RSS Feed
See our latest New Titles list for a list of new books and other resources.

For assistance in accessing these or other resources, please contact our Reference Desk.

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Tech Tip in Brief – Heidi Yelk

Get ready for new top level domains

The landscape of web suffixes (dot com; dot org) is poised to change as new domains such as .shop, .game, .mail are approved by Icann, the organization charged with overseeing Internet naming and addressing.

In 2011, Icann decided to allow any word to be used as a top level domain – as long as the word and the entity bidding to register the domain makes it past the $185,000 application and approval process. The approval process can take up to 18 months which is why the Internet has yet to see many new top level domains released. Amazon’s bid to gain control over “dot amazon” was recently rejected by Icann after South American countries made a compelling argument to disallow the use by Amazon.

Meanwhile, New York City and Las Vegas are among the first cities in the United States to secure their own domains – dot nyc and dot vegas. In both cases, the goal is to allow businesses, organizations (and residents) within the geographic area to register domain names that positively identify their tie to the region.

It’s been reported that Google spent over $18 million submitting applications for over 100 top level domains. Winning control over a top level domain will allow an applicant to open the domain up to public registration or have exclusive use of the suffix. A searchable list of applicants and proposed top level domains is available on Icann’s new gTLD website.

Whether new domain names catch on or fizzle remains to be seen. Early on, the Federal Trade Commission came out against the new system, citing concerns for consumers. Other experts have pointed out that lesser known top level domains, such as dot biz and dot name have been on the market but not widely adopted for use.

For more information, see Icann’s fact sheet and website on new top level domains.

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WSLL Recommends: Bohr’s Social Security Issues Annotated

Bohr's Social Security Issues Annotated is a 2 volume loose-leaf set that is updated annually. This set is geared towards the drafting attorney practicing in Social Security law. The author, Susan Bohr, is an appellate attorney who has specialized in Social Security law for 30 years. The checklists, issue specific sample briefs, and summary of cases have all been developed from her real world expertise.

This set comes with a companion CD that allows you to search and access the full-text of the book, as well 120 model briefs (not included in paper). This tool makes incorporating the text of persuasive pattern arguments in your own writing both quick and easy. While the James Publishing Search program feels a little clunky, it does facilitate a comprehensive review of your topic throughout the set. The text of the briefs can be found in a separate folder on the CD. Unfortunately, they do not appear to be searchable through the main search program.

You will find an examination of common errors in ALJ decisions and a checklist of issues that can be raised in the Appeals Council, as well as federal courts. There are also detailed case surveys for sequential evaluation, assessment of disability, specific impairments, non-disability issues, administrative review, federal courts, attorneys' fees, and source of law issues. In addition, the author focuses on 44 specific disability issues, including several specific impairments. For these issues you will find summaries of the applicable statutes, regulations, rulings, POMS (Program Operations Manual System), cases, and practice pointers.

Look to this set if you are writing a brief for your next SSA case or drafting a SSA appeal. If you are looking for more of a primer on Social Security law, you might be better served by a title such as Handling a Social Security Disability Case (NBI).

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Odds ‘n’ Endings – Amy Crowder

HeinOnline Legal Classics – of All Kinds

W.S. Gilbert's ca. 1890 illustration for "Now, Jurymen, hear my advice," from the Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera Trial by Jury. Print source: The Babs Ballads, with which are included Songs of a Savoyard, by W.S. Gilbert. London, MacMillan & Co., Ltd., 1920. Online source: Wikimedia Commons

HeinOnline’s Legal Classics library offers over 3,000 full-text classics including Joseph Story’s Commentaries, Blackstone’s Commentaries, and works by Benjamin Cardozo, Louis Brandeis, and Jeremy Bentham, to name just a few. While most are noteworthy titles written by great legal minds, a few of them are a bit lesser-known. For example, while adding the Legal Classics titles to our online catalog, WSLL Cataloger Devin Rogers recently discovered Legal Laughs: A Joke for Every Jury, authored by Gus C. Edwards and published in 1915.

In this classic compilation of legal humor, Edwards endeavored to “eliminate the stale and futile anecdotes and to put in only those [jokes] which possess laugh-producing qualities sufficient for the purpose.” I’ll leave it for the reader to decide whether Edwards succeeded. Here’s an excerpt:

"’You say your automobile didn't touch this man, and yet he was dead when you picked him up?’ shouted the prosecuting attorney.

‘That's my claim,’ coolly retorted the prisoner. ‘My machine didn't touch him.’

‘And you were driving not over 12 miles an hour?’

‘Not over 12 miles, and-‘

‘And you saw this man start to cross the street?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did you blow your horn?’

‘I did.’

‘What sort of a horn is it?’

‘One of those newfangled clatterboxes that create a sound that is a cross between a shriek and a dying wail.’

‘That explains it. You simply scared the man to death.’”

(Cue the rim shot!)

Legal Classics and the many other full-text databases included in our HeinOnline subscription are available for use on the public computers in all three of our libraries. Authorized State Law Library cardholders can also access HeinOnline remotely, through the link on our Articles & Journals page. To learn more, watch our brief video tutorial, Accessing HeinOnline from your Office or Home Computer. If you don’t have a State Law Library borrower card and are eligible for one, you can register during your next visit to any of our three libraries or fill out our online Library Card Application.

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