Judges in Collin County Texas have pooled their resources to buy a domain (texasjudge.com) where they can maintain Web pages for their individual courtrooms. [via Law.com] By the links on Judge Curt Henderson's site, it looks like eleven of them have taken the plunge. Henderson's Web site, www.texasjudge.com/henderson, provides docket information in civil matters and allows lawyers to get settings in certain kinds of cases and set motions for summary judgment. [Law.com] via [Denise].
Man, I would love it if some state court judges here in New Orleans would do something like this. Actually, I have been plotting to instigate this. I have in mind a judge at the Orleans Parish Civil Court that I plan to try to introduce to Radio/weblogs. She was receptive when I explained the idea to her briefly last Saturday. It would be so easy for a judge (or her staff) to post day-to-day information about scheduling or issuance of orders (like Rory does on his site). Or let's say the judge posts something about a new rule change, or let's say she posts a list of personal preferences for motions, or whatever...
Clearly, there is useful information that trial judges could put out on a weblog that attorneys would crave. And while a normal website is okay, it really needs to be a weblog. And it needs to be XML or RSS. Why?
If it's an XML document or an RSS feed, then I can subscribe to it and have it show up in my News Aggregator. And then I can re-route that post to a category that I upstream into my lawfirm's internal web server. This is so obviously useful (except that those of you who don't use Radio have no idea what I'm talking about). And at $40 bucks a pop (per year) it eliminates the need for RFP's and the whole bureaucratic mess that would normally stifle a good idea like this.
10:03:24 PM
Boston's Ropes & Gray combines high tech mock courtroom with high tech associate training
"To learn the ropes, so to speak, of trial practice, litigation associates go through two 15-hour training courses at the Mock Court. First-year associates learn about pretrial procedures, like discovery. Senior litigation associates conduct a mock trial. They learn the meat and potatoes of trial skills, and they are trained in technology. They learn to videotape their witness examinations so they can critique them later, and do the same for witnesses, Kaufman says. To present evidence at the mock trial -- a will dispute -- they also learn to project evidence, such as charts, and compare deposition transcripts." [Law.com]
I wonder how many other firms are not only using technology but taking active, methodical steps to train young lawyers how to use it? We all have a lot of tech tools, but not many of us take the time to learn the full capability of those tools. And not too many firms make the commitment to train people properly.
I totally believe that Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, however he is witty from time to time, and I have to give him credit for this:
"We have a solution to this Midwest pipe bomber problem. We need to immediately begin negotiations with him, and offer him Nebraska. Land for peace." - Rush Limbaugh
Tackling two cases with billion-dollar implications, the California Supreme Court seemed ready Tuesday to side with sick smokers who say a state law immunizing tobacco companies from suits doesn't close the door on their claims. State legislators repealed that immunity on Jan. 1, 1998. Now the court must decide whether the new statute repealing immunity should be applied retroactively. [Law.com]
"Eldred v. Ashcroft was argued on Monday. The case was real. The judges who heard it were real. But the court was moot. It was the final round of competition for the Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals at Yale. [LawMeme] Via [The Shifted Librarian]
I hope it turns out the same way in the U.S. Supreme Court...
2:32:27 PM
Dave Winer makes me think of Marshall McLuhan, who makes me think of....
Dave writes: "In one model, developers create products and convince us to want them. In the other model, they figure out what people want and compete to sell it to them." [Scripting News]
As I remember it Marshall McLuhan's book The Medium is the Message had a passage about advertising in which he analyzed the car industry. He pointed out that the product development cycle of cars was so long that the manufacturers couldn't afford to wait for the customer to decide what they might want a few years down the line; the manufacturers had to "shape" customer demand in a predictable way to be reasonably assured of recouping investment and earning a profit.
I think developers/manufacturers (perhaps out of fear or a need to control the uncertain future) tend to believe that customer demand needs to be "shaped." And this is true today even where product development cycles are typically shorter. But what about the more passive approach? Well, figuring out what the customer wants is not easy either, as Clayton Christensen explains in his book The Innovator's Dilemma. Sometimes you have to ignore what the customer wants and focus on what he would want if he knew it was available to him. Anyway, as with all things, it's hard to start that fire that spreads the great idea. And that is what the Tipping Point is all about....
