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Finding Goverment Documents on the Internet

Online, Participatory MCLE for

California, New York and Arizona Attorneys

 

INSTRUCTIONS: Read the Web site descriptions and the fact patterns in the column on the right. Answer all of the following questions for one hour of MCLE credit. Use the hyperlinks included in the questions to find your answers.

State Bar of California, New York, or Arizona MCLE Certificates of Completion will be issued after the quiz materials on this page are completed by the Attorney and returned to Internet For Lawyers with appropriate payment.

CALIFORNIA: Internet For Lawyers certifies that this activity has been approved for MCLE credit by the State Bar of California in the amount of 1 hour of general participatory credit. Internet For Lawyers is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider.

ARIZONA: The State Bar of Arizona does not approve or accredit CLE activities for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirement. This activity may qualify for 1 hour of "interactive" credit toward your annual CLE requirement for the State Bar of Arizona, when used in conjunction with materials available on this site to actively search the Internet for exam solutions. This includes ZERO hours of professional responsibility.

WEST VIRGINIA: As a member in good standing of the Association of Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA), Internet For Lawyers is recognized as an "Approved Provider" by the West Virginia State Bar. This activity qualifies for 1 hour of credit toward your annual CLE requirement under the West Virginia Rules for Mandatory Continuing Legal Education. No more than half of the mandatory continuing legal education requirements (6 hours) may be satisfied by video/audio tape or online instructions.

State Bar of California, New York, or Arizona MCLE Certificates of Completion will be issued after self-study materials are completed by the Attorney and returned to Internet For Lawyers.

If your browser does not support filling in this type of form, you may print out these questions and write your answers in by hand and mail the completed quiz to our postal mail address at the bottom of the page.

USA.gov

USA.gov is the federal governmentís portal that allows you to search through every word of millions of pages of federal, state, local, tribal, District of Columbia, and U.S. territories documents. Many of these documents would not be found anywhere else. This is especially true of those government documents that are posted in file formats other than HTML, such as PDF (e.g. tax forms) and Microsoft Office Suite file formats. Firstgov uses a search engine powered by MSN Search. In addition, FirstGov offers jurisdictional and agency directories that link to government Web sites.

1. When you don't know an agency's URL, click on the link on the right-hand side of USA.gov's home page (http://www.usa.gov/), which is labeled "A-Z AGENCY INDEX." Find the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrationís URL by clicking on the "N" link and scrolling down the page.

Enter your answer here:

2. Using the URL from your answer above, visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website and use their internal search engine (the search query box is found on the left bar of the home page) to answer this question:

Your client's child was injured in a large school bus (over 10,000 lb GVWR) vs. large school bus crash. One school bus had seat belts and one did not have seat belts. Find a May 2006 report to learn whether seat belts in a large school bus (over 10,000 lbs) are required by the federal government.

Select One: Yes, seat belts are required. No, seat belts are not required.

3. Using the information found in question 2, can states or school districts place seat belts in a large school bus?

Select One: Yes No

4. USA.gov has an advanced search function that you should know about. Go to http://usasearch.gov/ and click on the "Advanced Search" link (located to the right of the search query box). To find a federal government report that is in the Portable Document Format titled "Large School Bus Safety Restraint Evaluation," type in the phrase: "school bus safety restraint" (without the quotation marks) into the search box labeled "Return Results With This Exact Phrase," scroll down to "File Type" and from the drop-down menu select "Adobe PDF." You'll see a number of PDF documents returned in your results list, but the full name of the Report will let you know which document to click on. When you click on the link, you should be able to view the PDF version of the Report.

Who are the three authors of the report?

5. Like most government reports, this one has a "Recommendations" section that summarizes its findings. Does this report make any specific recommendations regarding seat belts in school busses?

Select One: Yes No

6. Another useful feature at USA.gov that you should know about is that when your list of search results is returned, you can narrow them down further: By Topic, By Agency or By Source.

Go to http://www.usa.gov/ and enter these words into the search query box on the top right corner of the home page: school bus injury recall seat belt. You will receive numerous results that can be narrowed down by looking on the left side of the page to the column labeled, "By Topic," "By Agency" or "By Source." "By Topic" will be the default. Look down the list of topics and notice a plus sign to the left of each of the narrower topics.

When you click on the plus sign what happens?

Select One: You are taken to the most relevant Web Site More sub-topics are listed.

7. Another useful feature at USAsearch.gov that you should know about is that you can limit your search to documents from a particular jurisdiction by scrolling down to the bottom of the search page and selecting from the drop-down menu (to the right of Search in): All Government Domains; Non-Federal; Tribal; or US Territories. You can also select one specific state. Oddly missing is the ability to search Only Federal Government Documents. (This is a feature that was available when the site was known as Firstgov.gov.)

In a school bus crash, you discovered that the seat belts were tied in knots to shorten them for small children. To find a federal document that discusses whether this is a safe use of seat belts, go to http://www.usasearch.gov/ and click on the "Advanced Search" link (located to the right of the search query box). Type in the words: school bus knots shorten belt into the "All of these words" search query box and then scroll down to the bottom of the search page and select "All Government Domains" from the drop-down menu to the right of "Search in" to conduct the broadest possible search.

According to the National Highway Transportation & Safety Administration document with the title that begins "Proper Use...", is it acceptable to add one knot to make a seat belt shorter?

Select One: Yes No

(Note: If you knew before-hand that you were looking for a document from the National Highway Transportation & Safety Administration, you could have limited your results to that particular government agency by entering its URL [nhtsa.dot.gov] in the "Limit to These Sites" box.)

FindLaw's LawCrawler

8. To limit search results to law related websites, try Findlawís Lawcrawler (http://lawcrawler.findlaw.com/more.html). To find out if the Department of Transportation in 1999 recommended that school buses for pre-schoolers have Child Safety Restraint Systems, enter these words: school bus child safety restraint system pre-school 1999, into the "U.S. Federal Government Search" box and select "Dept. of Transportation" from the drop-down menu.

Select One: Yes, the Department of Transportation in 1999 recommended that school buses for pre-schoolers have Child Safety Restraint Systems.

No, the Department of Transportation in 1999 did not recommend that school buses for pre-schoolers have Child Safety Restraint Systems.

9. The Canadian government has also been discussing the use of seat belts in school buses. To find out what the Canada Safety Council says about seat belts on school buses, try the Country Search at Findlawís Lawcrawlerís (http://lawcrawler.findlaw.com/more.html). Enter these words: school bus seat belt, into the "Country Search" box and select "Canada" from the drop-down menu of countries to limit your results to documents generated by Canadian goverment sources.

Is the following True or False (be sure to scroll past the ads on the results page): In a pamphlet titled "The Seat Belt Issue," The Department of Educaiton of the Province of New Brunswick indicates that they are the only province to require seat belts in school busses.

Select One: True False

Google Advanced Search

10. Google can also be an excellent source for locating documents from specific sources. Suppose that you need some general information on "the great school bus seat belt debate" and the concept of "Compartmentalization" - you might want to consider using Google.

Go to the advanced search menu of Google (http://www.google.com/advanced_search) and enter the word compartmentalization into the "with all of the words" search box and enter the phrase great seat belt debate into the "with the exact phrase" search box. Then, limit your search to http://www.stnonline.com by entering that URL into the feature on the advanced search page labeled: "Domain: Only return results from the site or domain." (Be sure to then click on the "Google Search" button located towards the top of the Advanced search page, to the far right of the "with all of the words" search box.)

Is this statement True or False? According to School Bus Transportation News "compartmentalization" was coined by UCLA researchers and refers to the design of a seat compartment that should absorb the force of a crash and protect the child. However, the seats currently installed in school buses are different from those recommended by UCLA researchers.

Select One: True False

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