(webinar slides) google scholar and free legal research
TRANSCRIPT
Google Scholar and Legal Research Tips#GoogleScholarTIps
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About our presenterCharity Anastasio
‣ Director, Law Office Management
Assistance at Maryland State
Bar Association
‣ Solo Practitioner for 5 years
‣ PMA for almost 4 years
‣ Barred in Washington State
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What we wantLegal research that is
• Accurate
• Current
• Easy to find and follow history, treatment
• Easy to transfer to work product
• Instinctual searches
• Fast searches
• Integrations with office systems
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Presentation Goals• Introduction to certain free products
• Top features of each
• Understand the limitations and counter them
• Find new solutions to legal research problems
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Poll
• Google Scholar
• Casemaker
• Fastcase
• Court sites
• Other
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Which of these have you used?
(choose all that apply)
The warning
•Updates to existing records take, on the short end six months, on the long more than a year
• https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html#coverage
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Google Alerts
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Poll
Google Search
Copy citations
Save to library
Google Alerts
None of the above
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Which Google Scholar features look the most
helpful to your practice?
Casemaker
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Case Treatment
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Citation History
Add content
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Casemaker CiteCheck
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Rules Annotator and TOC
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Casemaker Daily Digest
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Fastcase
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Poll
• Brief cite checker
• Case treatment indicators
• Interactive timeline/charts
• Interactive keyword visuals
• Daily digest
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Which of these features look the most helpful to
your practice?
Public Library of Law (PLoL)
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http://www.plol.org/Pages/Search.aspx
FindLaw
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• http://lp.findlaw.com/
• http://caselaw.findlaw.com/
Court Websites
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PollDo you think any of these may save you time,
money, or heartache?
Yes
No
Maybe
I don't know
I’m hopeful
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What we wantLegal research that is
• Accurate
• Current
• Easy to find and link
• Easy to transfer to work product
• Instinctual searches
• Fast searches
• Integrations with office systems *
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Negotiating the limitations• Use the library's Westlaw or Lexis Nexis account
• Be strategic. Start broad in Google Scholar and narrow in the paid
program
• Shepardizing is a crutch.
• But do the cost benefit analysis and pay where there is too much work
• Be conscious of practice area rhythms, tides and shifts
• Don't have to blindly pay that bill
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Charity Anastasio
http://www.msba.org/LOMA
443-703-3026
MyCase
www.MyCase.com
800-571-8062
Contact Us
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Thank you
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