Updated November 14, 2016

One of our favorite unofficial, free sources for dates of birth, Birthdatabase.com, is currently once again unavailable is back online. After an absence of approximately three months, the site's search form is once again became active in November 2016 and retrieving birth date results.

The URL now points to a "parked domain" type page with no original content or information.

The post Is Birthdatabase.com Gone Forever? | Update – Back…And Now Gone Again appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

We recently wrote this overview of our current favorite pay investigative research database TLOxp for the Attorney at Work Website.

The day it was published, we learned about this new "Relationship Report" that TLO offers.

The post Every Lawyer’s Investigative Research Database – TLOxp appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Previously, we've offered some more detailed tips for creating more effective searches via Twitter.

When you enter a search keyword preceeded by the hash symbol, Bing will suggest hashtags that have been used on the social networking site to categorize posts.

When you begin your search with the @ sign, Bing suggests popular users (mostly celebrities) that match your input.

Not every existing user is included in the suggestion list (even if you type in a complete user handle). however, any valid user name used as a search term will be retrieved in the search results.

The suggestions are presented in a drop-down box that appears beneath the search box - the same way Bing (and Google) already suggest search terms based on other popular searches that match the characters you have typed into the search box.

Based on our test searches, it appears that Bing is simply acting as a front-end to submit searches via the existing Twitter search structure. Searches for hashtags like #ABATECHSHOW yielded the same results whether we ran the search using Bing or Twitter's own search box.

Twitter's own internal search has also long been criticised for it shortcomings targetting older tweets and searching for specific date coverage.

PC World addressed these shortcomings in its coverage:

What's less clear, however, is whether or not users will be able to use Bing to plumb the murky depths of historical tweets. One of the problems with Twitter is that, while it has been easy to discover current tweets and trending topics, it's much more difficult to go back to say, the last World Cup four years ago, and re-discover what fans were talking about. And that apparently won't change.

The post Bing Launches Twitter Hashtag Search | But Is It An Improvement? appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

The search can be run independently or in tandem with other searches if the “Social Media/Run Search” Icon is displayed. TLO explains that for the price of $1.00 per hit (no hit, no charge), your search results might include: name, age, gender, potential online profiles for a subject that link directly to external social websites, and profile photographs (see next image).

In these results, for example, if you click on the Facebook result displayed for Carole’s email address (https://www.facebook.com/carole.levitt), Carole’s timeline is displayed to you (see next image), but with very limited information if you are not logged in. Even then, unless you are her Facebook friend, you won’t see much information because of Carole’s privacy settings. However, you will at least be able to verify that she has a Facebook account and can ask a judge to order her to turn over the account if you can show the judge that the information is relevant to the matter at hand.

For those who have a “User Groups” account with TLO, your administrator will need to activate the Social Media Search feature, but for all other TLO customers, it will be available automatically. The search is only available on a transactional basis and not included in flat rate or per seat pricing plans.

But, Just How Useful is This New Search?

Searching by email address does not assure that TLO’s results will be complete, even for public profiles, because users on some social media sites (e.g., Facebook) can suppress their email addresses or use a “throw-away” email address that you are not aware of. Even assuming you are using your subject’s correct email address, if your subject has created a private profile or a restricted profile, you might not retrieve a complete view of your subject or any view at all.

Nevertheless, we think the TLO search is useful because it will at least save you time (and thus money) by searching 145 sources simultaneously.

Is There Another Way To Do This Same Type of Search For Free?

We don’t know of another site that scours 145 social media sources simultaneously, but Rapportive (http://www.rapportive.com) does something retrieve some results similar to the TLO social media search. However, it only returns information from the major social media sources (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Twitter). Rapportive is a free browser plug-in for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox and for MacOS’s Mailplane app (which works with GMail or Google Apps domains). Rapportive was developed as a business relationship management tool to display, in the margins of your GMail inbox, information about the person who emailed you by matching their email address to their public social networking profiles.

However, you can use Rapportive to accomplish some of the results of TLO’s Social Media search. To do this, type your subject’s email address into the “To” field of a new Gmail message – but don’t send the message. Instead, just hover over the recipient’s email address and Rapportive will display the social network information it can locate for that address in the right-hand margin of the composition window. If Rapportive detects any social media profiles tied to that address, a link will be displayed, as shown below.

The post Automated Social Media Search at TransUnion/TLO appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Now, you can retrieve older tweets more easily, within a range you define, using the newly added "Dates" limiter on Twitter's Advanced Search page.

Simply add a beginning and ending date to the "Dates" limiter to define your date range.

You can also "mix and match" the search criteria on the Advanced Search page to create more targeted searches. For example, you could search for tweets "From these accounts" (searching by username), with "Any of these [key]words," and limit the date range during which the tweets were posted.

The post Twitter Makes Searches Better | Adds Date Limiter appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Access to the site is free. A free account is required to save searches for future retrieval.

While the collection does include some limited law-related materials, the majority of resources cover more general-interest topics.

The collection is full-text searchable by keyword/topic. The search box on the homepage recognizes some of the same search limiters as Google, including phrase searching by enclosing your entire search phrase in quotation marks (e.g., "lemon law") and the exclusion of a keyword by preceding the keyword with a minus sign (e.g., -Massachussets)

Education librarian/consultant Linda W. Braun has produced the following screencast for School Library Journal walking through the process for searching the Digital Public Library's collection.

The post Digital Public Library of America Offers Free Access to Millions of Digital Resources appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

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The following is a list of the currently available legal ethics opinions and guidelines:

• The New York State Bar Social Media Ethics Guidelines of the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section (2019)
• The Professional Ethics Committee of the State Bar of Texas - Opinion 671 (March 2018)
• DC Bar Association Ethics Opinion 371 (November 2016)
• The Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee Formal Opinion 127 (September 2015)
• The State Bar of California Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct Proposed Formal Opinion Interim No. 11-0004 is now The State Bar of California Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct Formal Opinion No. 2015-193
• Florida Bar Proposed Advisory Opinion 14-1 [Affirmed as modified by the Professional Ethics Committee on June 25, 2015.]
• Pennsylvania Bar Association Formal Opinion 2014-300
• Philadelphia Bar Association Professional Guidance Committee Opinion 2014-5 (July 2014)
• Massachusetts Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics Opinion 2014-5 (May 2014)
• American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility Formal Opinion 466
• State Bar of California Proposed Formal Opinion Interim No. 11-0004
• New York County Lawyer's Association Formal Ethics Opinion 745
• Oregon State Bar Association Formal Opinion 2013-189
• New Hampshire Bar Association Ethics Committee Advisory Opinion #2012-13/05
• Kentucky Bar Association Ethics Opinion KBA E-434
• New York City Bar Association Formal Ethics Opinion 2012-02
• New York County Lawyer's Association Formal Ethics Opinion 743
• San Diego County Bar Association Ethics Opinion 2011-2
• New York City Bar Association Formal Ethics Opinion 2010-02
• New York State Bar Ethics Opinion #843
• Missouri Bar Association Informal Opinion 2009-0003
• Philadelphia Bar Association Ethics Opinion 2009-02
• Oregon State Bar Association Formal Opinion 2005-164

For a more detailed discussion of Philadelphia Bar Association Ethics Opinion 2009-02 see our article, "Social Networking Sites are Valuable Tools For Lawyers: But Beware the Ethical Pitfalls."

For a comparison of New York State Bar Association Formal Ethics Opinion 2010-02 and Philadelphia Bar Association Ethics Opinion 2009-02, see our article, "New York State and Philadelphia Bar Association Legal Ethics Opinions Address Lawyers' Use of Social Media Sites for Investigative and Background Research."

Also see our collection of cases related to attorneys' use of social media for investigative and background research  in various court jurisdictions.

The post Legal Ethics Opinions Related to Attorneys’ Use of Social Media Profiles for Investigative and Background Research appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

LexisNexis' Decade-Long Free Case Law Research Experiment Comes to an End

Free, current case law research has disappeared from LexisNexis Communities. All links and access to the database formerly known as lexisONE have been removed. The deep link that previously led to a functional free case law search form on the LexisNexis Communities pages now displays only a message announcing where one can pay to access LexisNexis' case law databases.

LexisONE, originally launched in July 2000 as a free legal portal by Lexis, was re-launched in December 2008 as LexisONE Community, and relaunched again in September 2011 as LexisNexis (LN) Communities (http://www.lexisnexis.com/community/portal). Explaining the change,  at the time Lexis stated,  “LexisNexis Communities have replaced the lexisONE Community to provide you with access to more innovative, up-to-date content and resources across multiple practice and professional areas. Even though lexisONE Community will no longer be available, you will still be able to access the same Forms and Free Case Law [emphasis added] which were offered through lexisONE, but now through a broader extension of our Communities” (http://www.lexisnexis.com/ COMMUNITY/WORKERSCOMPENSATIONLAW/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/ CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/Documents/lexisONE-community- FAQ.doc).

On February 24, 2012, as we were revising the 12th edition of The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet, we noted a dramatic change to the LexisNexis Communities site -- the removal of any links to what we considered the highlight of the portal’s free resources: its full-text searchable case law database. Although there has been no announcement from Lexis, at the time, the home page pointed to the demise of the free case law search. At that time the homepage read, “Even though lexisONE Community will no longer be available, you will still be able to access the same Forms which were offered through lexisONE, but now through a broader extension of our Communities.” Despite the lack of any mention of providing access to case law, the free case law search form was still available at http://linkon.in/sRr0mt. 

While the searchable database was still accesible when this post was originally published, it would have taken a cybersleuth to find it. To access the search form from the LexisNexis Communities homepage you had to you click the Browse through State Courts for free or Browse through Federal Courts for free (at the bottom of the page). Even then, you would have seen that no cases had been added to the browseable list of cases since December 2011. It is unclear if the database will be kept online. We suspect not since the links to it have been removed and it is no longer an up-to-date database. As late as 3/29/2012, searches could still retrieve recent cases. That is no longer the case.

Within days of this post going live, LexisNexis removed access to the database entirely. Now, instead of accessing the the free case law search form, the page at http://linkon.in/sRr0mt displays the following message: “Thank you for your interest in case law offered by LexisNexis^® through LexisNexis Communities and lexisONE. Our case law collection is now only available through a subscription to Lexis Advance^™ or lexis.com^®.”

There is no longer any doubt. Free case law research from Lexis is most certainly dead - quietly killed off. 

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Lawyers can claim their free trial membership in the American Bar Association (and one Section) by clicking here.

For those who once relied on the free case law at LN Communities, try these other free options (all of which are described in detail in The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet book):

• Casemaker or Fastcase (check your state or local bar’s site to see if they offer it free as a member benefit)
• Google Scholar
• Justia
• FindLaw
• Cornell Legal Information Institute
• LexisNexis California Cases
• The Public Library of Law (PLoL)
• FindACase Network

Other Changes at LexisNexis Communities

Another dramatic change at Lexis, for which there was an announcement, is the demise of the “pay by credit card” ad hoc use of Lexis and Shepard’s.

So, What’s Left at LexisNexis Communities?

The following services are available (accessible from tabs listed beneath the Featured Content column on the left of the home page as noted in the above illustration):

• News (headlines from Mealey's^TM Legal News and other sources)
• Blogs
• Forms
• Podcasts
• Videocasts
• Emerging Issues
• Top Cases

Before clicking any of the tabs noted above, select the Practice Areas dropdown arrow beneath the Visit Other Communities By and select a practice area (see above illustration). Then, when you click a tab from the Featured Content column, such as News, Podcasts, etc. it will be customized to your chosen practice area.

In the Visit Other Communities By section, there are two other communities besides Practice Areas: the Global and the Professional. For those interested in legal news from Australia, Hong Kong, or Japan, select one of those countries from the Global tab.

The Professional community tab is divided into a few professions, (such as Academic and Legal and Corporate Information Professionals) and there is also a link to Martindale.com.

Other services can be accessed by scrolling down the home page, such as Lexis Web (a “search engine that delivers free web content specifically from legal sites validated by LexisNexis^® attorney editors”) and Forms (ranging from over 6,000 free forms from Matthew Bender^® to interactive pay forms) Users can customize their LN Communities page by clicking Add Content to My [Page]. To use the portal registration (free) is required (even to use the free portion).

The post What’s Missing From LexisNexis Communities? Free Case Law appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

LexisONE, originally launched in July 2000 as a free legal portal by Lexis, was re-launched in December 2008 as LexisONE Community, and relaunched again in September 2011 as LexisNexis (LN) Communities (http://www.lexisnexis.com/community/portal). According to Lexis, “LexisNexis Communities have replaced the lexisONE Community to provide you with access to more innovative, up-to-date content and resources across multiple practice and professional areas. Even though lexisONE Community will no longer be available, you will still be able to access the same Forms and Free Case Law [emphasis added] which were offered through lexisONE, but now through a broader extension of our Communities” (http://www.lexisnexis.com/ COMMUNITY/WORKERSCOMPENSATIONLAW/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/ CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/Documents/lexisONE-community- FAQ.doc).

On February 24, 2012, as we were revising the 12th edition of The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet, we noted a dramatic change -- the removal of any links to what we considered the highlight of the portal’s free resources: its full-text searchable case law database. Although there has been no announcement from Lexis, the home page now says, “Even though lexisONE Community will no longer be available, you will still be able to access the same Forms which were offered through lexisONE, but now through a broader extension of our Communities” (http://www.lexisnexis.com/community/portal/ content/lexisonelandingpage.aspx). Notice the reference to “Free Case Law” no longer exists. Although the database is still online, it will take a cybersleuth to find it (or just use this URL: http://linkon.in/sRr0mt). If you click the Browse through State Courts for free or Browse through Federal Courts for free (at the bottom of the page), you will see that no cases have been added to the database since December 2011. It is unclear if the database will be kept online. We suspect not since the links to it have been removed and it is no longer an up-to-date database.

Share this article:       
  

Lawyers can claim their free trial membership in the American Bar Association (and one Section) by clicking here.

Another dramatic change at Lexis, for which there was an announcement, is the demise of the “pay by credit card” ad hoc use of Lexis and Shepard’s. For those who once relied on the free case law at LN Communities, try these other free options (all of which are described in detail in The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet book -- see http://www.netforlawyers.com/products):

• Casemaker or Fastcase (check your state or local bar’s site to see if they offer it free as a member benefit)
• Google Scholar
• Justia
• FindLaw
• Cornell Legal Information Institute
• LexisNexis California Cases
• The Public Library of Law (PLoL)
• FindACase Network

So, what’s left at LN Communities?

The following services are available (accessible from tabs listed beneath the Featured Content column on the left of the home page as noted in the above illustration):

• News (headlines from Mealey's^TM Legal News and other sources)
• Blogs
• Forms
• Podcasts
• Videocasts
• Emerging Issues
• Top Cases

Before clicking any of the tabs noted above, select the Practice Areas dropdown arrow beneath the Visit Other Communities By and select a practice area (see above illustration). Then, when you click a tab from the Featured Content column, such as News, Podcasts, etc. it will be customized to your chosen practice area.

In the Visit Other Communities By section, there are two other communities besides Practice Areas: the Global and the Professional. For those interested in legal news from Australia, Hong Kong, or Japan, select one of those countries from the Global tab. The Professional community tab is divided into a few professions, (such as Academic and Legal and Corporate Information Professionals) and there is also a link to Martindale.com.

Other services can be accessed by scrolling down the home page, such as Lexis Web (a “search engine that delivers free web content specifically from legal sites validated by LexisNexis^® attorney editors”) and Forms (ranging from over 6,000 free forms from Matthew Bender^® to interactive pay forms) Users can customize their LN Communities page by clicking Add Content to My [Page]. To use the portal registration (free) is required (even to use the free portion).

The post What’s Missing From LexisNexis Communities? Free Case Law appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

ProPublica, the "independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest," has created a searchable database of payments made by pharmaceutical companies to doctors - usually as compensation for presentations the doctors make that discuss the companies' drugs. While this information is not part of the public record, some pharmaceutical companies have begun posting this information on their own Web sites. ProPublica has gathered this information from these various sources to create its searchable database. The database is searchable by doctor's name. It can also be filtered by state.

Knowing whether the opposition's expert witness (or one you're considering) has received payments from a particular drug manufacturer could be invaluable.

Beginning in 2013, Federal law requires pharmaceutical companies to report this payment information. It will then be listed on a government sponsored Web site. Until then, ProPublica will update its database periodically.

The post ProPublica Provides Database of Payments to Physicians by Pharmaceutical Companies appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.