UW Law School students will help Dane County homeowners facing foreclosure take their cases through a mediation process with their lenders, reports UW-Madison News.

Beginning in February, Dane County Circuit Court will require lenders to tell homeowners they have an option to mediate their foreclosure cases and notify them of available resources, including a clinic staffed by UW Law School students.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 10:21 AM to UW Law School | Permalink | Comments(0)

CaseLaw Express is free weekly email service from the Wisconsin State Bar which lists all decisions handed down by the Wisconsin Supreme Court and Court of Appeals during the previous week. To subscribe, see the State Bar web site.

Subscribers must reconfirm their interest in receiving this service each year. If you are a subscriber who hasn't verified your subscription yet this year, you must do so before Feb. 14 to avoid service interruption.

Source: WisBar Inside Track

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:57 AM to Courts | Permalink | Comments(1)

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin has published new local rules effective Feb. 1, 2010.

Note in particular new Civil Local Rule 7 (j) governing citations to unpublished materials. It appears below along with the committee comment.

(j) Citations.
(1) With the exception of the prohibitions in Seventh Circuit Rule 32.1, this Court does not prohibit the citation of unreported or nonprecedential opinions, decisions, orders, judgments, or other written dispositions.
(2) If a party cites an unreported opinion, decision, order, judgment or other written disposition, the party must file and serve a copy of that opinion, decision, order, judgment, or other written
disposition.

Committee Comment:

Civil L. R. 7(j) addressing "unreported" or non-precedential authorities is also new. The provision clarifies the Court's existing practice of allowing the citation of authorities in addition to those reported in printed national reporters, with the exception of orders whose citation and consideration is prohibited by Seventh Circuit Rule 32.1. Civil L. R. 7(j) additionally requires a party relying on such an authority to file a copy of that authority and serve it on all parties.

Notably, with the exception of orders subject to Circuit Rule 32.1, the new provision does not bar the citation of decisions or orders even if a rule would bar the citation of the decision to the court that issued the decision or to any other court. The Court may take limitations on the authority's use before other courts, as well as the "unpublished" or "non-precedential" nature of the authority, into consideration when deciding the weight, if any, to be afforded to the authority.

Hat tip to Barbara Fritschel, US Courts Library

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 3:13 PM to Courts | Permalink | Comments(0)

U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim has written a thoughtful piece about PACER for The National Law Journal. Tunheim has been closely involved with PACER as longtime member and chair of the Judicial Conference's Court Admini­stration and Case Management Committee.

In the article, the judge responds to recent questions and criticism's about PACER's fee structure, functionality and privacy protections. Although I encourage you to read the full article, his conclusion offers a summary of his views:

The infrastructure to provide a secure network for all federal court documents is costly. Those costs are borne by PACER's users, not by all taxpayers. Without a stable revenue base there would be no system, as the countless failed attempts to offer public access in other court systems have demonstrated. The bottom line is that, although PACER can and will improve, it already is a safe and vibrant system that makes federal court documents the most readily available in the world.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 8:47 AM to Courts | Permalink | Comments(0)

FDsys.gov, the Government Printing Office's replacement for the aging GPO Access website, continues to grow. It now covers the following:

• Congressional Bills, 103rd Congress (1993-1994) to present; BILLS
• 104th Congress (1995-1996) to present; CCAL
• Congressional Committee Prints, 100th Congress (1987-1988) to present; CRPT
• Congressional Directory, 104^th Congress (1995-1996) to present; CDIR
• Congressional Documents, 104^th Congress (1993-1994) to present; CDOC
• Congressional Hearings, if available from committee, 105th Congress (1997-1998) to present; CHRG
• Congressional Record (Bound), 1999 to 2001; CRECB
• Congressional Record (Daily), 103rd Congress, 2nd session (1994) to present; CREC
• Congressional Record Index (Daily), 1983 to present; CRI
• Congressional Committee Reports, Senate Executive Reports (includes conference committee reports), 104th Congress (1995-1996) to present; CRPT
• History of Bills, 1983 to present; HOB
• Precedents of the U.S. House of Representatives (Hinds, Cannon, Deschler); GPO
• Public and Private Laws, 104^th (1995-1996) to present; PLAW
• Statutes At Large, 2003-2006; STAT

According to a recent article in LLRX, migration is now expected to be complete in April 2010 with a full switchover to FDsys in Summer 2010. See the article for more info, as well as some advanced search tips.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 8:37 AM to Legislation & Regs | Permalink | Comments(0)

From Bev Butula's Wisconsin Law Journal blog:

The Marquette Law Review, in full text, is available online from its inception in 1916. The researcher is able to browse by volume or conduct a keyword search. There is a nice summary of the database available on the Marquette Faculty Blog.

There is also an RSS option for researchers to be notified of "newly published" articles "tailored to your interests."

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 1:41 PM to Legal Publications | Permalink | Comments(0)

According to Law Librarian Blog, PreCYdent - one of the free online legal search services - is no longer available. Apparently it folded due to lack of funds.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 1:38 PM to Data & Databases | Permalink | Comments(0)