Starting a law firm is all about gathering information and being aware of what other solos attorneys are doing. In that respect, it is very helpful to review a lot of different lawyer blogs to get information, new ideas on networking and marketing, and (for me) to know that there are other lawyers out there doing what I’m doing. I have a number of great blogs on my Google Reader list that I review daily. Sometimes the posts are not that great, but often I find some very helpful information on running my own practice.
In light of this, The Connected Lawyer had a great legal post about the use of public domain citations in Illinois. The gist of the change, as I understand it, is that the Illinois Supreme Court has adopted a public domain system of citation for appellate court cases in Illinois that have been filed on or after July 1, 2011. Rather than exclusively using the traditional court reporter citation with a year and page citation, the Illinois courts are now allowing the use of a public domain citation system. This is counter to what I would guess everybody learns in law school in the United States.
Ok, why does this matter? It matters because, in the view of Bryan Sims at The Connected Lawyer, and also in my view, the law should not be held in the hands of giant corporations – i.e.: Lexis Nexis or Westlaw (Thompson West). I would also guess that this is something that other states may start to change to. If one state does it, you can be sure that other states will take note. When I start a law firm in Minnesota, I hope Minnesota takes note.
Why does this matter to learning how to start a law firm? To me, it matters because a lot of solo lawyers cannot afford or, at the very least, don’t want to pay for expensive Westlaw and LexisNexis subscriptions. It cuts into overhead, something that all solos are keenly aware of. As a lot of other blogs have addressed, there are many other ways to conduct necessary legal research: Google Scholar, your state’s judicial and legislative websites, Findlaw, Cornell Law School website, the Library of Congress, Hieros Gamos, Public Legal, and many others. Are these websites as good as Lexis Nexis and Westlaw? No, not really. But, the law is the law and it can be found in places other than with big corporations. I will admit that I have difficulty sheperdizing cases with these free resources. Although, I do remember a reading somewhere that there is a way to sheperdize cases for free on the net. If anybody knows of a link, please post a comment here.
Learning how to start and run a law firm is difficult. There are so many different choices that must be made and a budget to stick to. Legal research is something I don’t want to have to think to hard about – I just want to be able to do it as quickly and as cost effectively as possible. Furthermore, I get irritated when I think about how the law is supposed to be accessible to everyone and yet that accessibility is greatly diminished due to the hording of it by two monopolistic corporations.