Emily Marcum of Lightfoot of Franklin & White, LLC recently conducted a study comparing the pricing models of WestlawNext v Westlaw Classic.

Although the full study is not available, the abstract from SSRN appears below:

WestlawNext and Classic were each used exclusively in transactional mode for eight days. Cost to the client was assessed using a discount off retail model. Classic was found to be 51.6% cheaper. This difference was so stark that the experiment was terminated early and only two days of each platform in hourly mode was completed.

It's very unfortunate that the full study isn't available. Eye raising findings such as these deserve some closer investigation.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:14 AM to Data & Databases | Permalink

From WisBar's InsideTrack:

A state rule of appellate procedure that allows attorneys to cite unpublished Wisconsin Court of Appeals opinions as persuasive authority will continue unchanged, the Wisconsin Supreme Court recently concluded....

Under Wis. Stat. section 809.23(3)(b), only unpublished opinions issued on or after July 1, 2009, which are authored by a member of a three-judge panel or by a single judge under section 752.31(2), may be cited....

Because an unpublished opinion cited for its persuasive value is not precedent, it is not considered binding, and a court need not distinguish or otherwise discuss an unpublished opinion. No party has a duty to research or cite unpublished opinions under the rule....

But according to the Hon. Richard Brown, chief judge for the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, more unpublished opinions are being cited, at least in District II. He estimates that one in every 20 appellate briefs contains citation and discussion of unpublished decisions, which is a lot considering the number of cases handled by appeals court judges annually.

"Not only that, when reading the circuit court record in our cases, we see that unpublished opinions are being cited to the trial courts," Chief Judge Brown said. "Whether an unpublished opinion is 'persuasive' is literally a case-by-case determination."

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 8:07 AM to Courts | Permalink

Law School Transparency is a legal education policy organization. Their mission is to improve consumer information concerning the value of legal education and to usher in consumer-oriented reforms to the current law school model.

They have recently released a graphical database of employment statistics for all ABA-accredited schools, including Wisconsin.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 12:36 PM to Law Students | Permalink

Congrats to WisconsinEye on its fifth anniversary. WisconsinEye brings gavel-to-gavel, C-SPAN-style nonpartisan coverage of state government and politics to Wisconsin.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 2:11 PM to Legislation & Regs | Permalink

Take a look at what life is like at UW Madison and particularly the Law School.

The Law School contributed a number of posts to the #UWRightNow campaign, a collaborative multimedia project coordinated by University Communications to chronicle 24 hours at UW-Madison -- midnight to midnight on Wednesday, April 18, 2012.

You can see them at https://twitter.com/#!/WisconsinLaw You can see posts from the whole campus at http://uwrightnow.wisc.edu/.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 8:44 AM to UW Madison | Permalink

My UW Law Library colleague, Jenny Zook, has recently published a very well written article in this month's AALL Spectrum. The article entitled, Retirements in the Age of Economic Uncertainty, offers an insightful look at how librarian retirements have and have not affected retirees and law libraries.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 1:27 PM to Libraries & Librarians | Permalink

The Wisconsin State Journal has compiled an interactive online voter guide for the spring general elections in Dane County.

It allows Dane County residents to type in their address and call up a ballot with only those races that apply to their address. Then the ballot shows the candidates, their races, and their own statements about their candidacies. Readers can use this for research only, or can create a customized ballot with notes and indications of which candidates they wish to choose.

Read this article for more. Thanks to my law school colleagues for sharing the information about this site.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:36 AM to Life | Permalink