Res Ipsa Blog

Bluebook Rule 18 specifies how materials available in electronic formats should be cited. However, merely proving an "available at" citation does not ensure the content you are referencing will be available at the URL on a later date. In the past, printing a hard copy of the URL or saving an image of the site a PDF documents have been the preferred methods to preserve the content being referencing. Now there is a better way to ensure a website is available ... Read More

One factor that is often considered in determining a law school's ranking is the number of scholarly articles published per year by the school's faculty. Since larger schools have an advantage in this regard, a more equitable measure of publication rates is a comparison based on the number of papers published per full-time faculty member.  This offers a better measure of how often professors are being published. For example, under the traditional measure the University of Texas would come out ahead in ... Read More

Texas Tech University School of Law announced today that it will be hosting United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia this Fall as he takes center stage for the Sandra Day O'Connor Distinguished Lecture Series. The Series, which started last year with the attendance of former United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is the result of the continuing efforts of Dean Walter Huffman and distinguished alum Mark Lanier to bring much deserved recognition to the law school. On a related note, ... Read More

In reponse to a 465-page lawsuit filed in his court, U.S. District Judge Roland Leighton in Tacoma, Washington had this to say regarding the lack of a "short and plain statement showing the plaintiff [wa]s entitled to relief:" Plaintiff has a great deal to say, But it seems he skipped Rule 8(a). His Complaint is too long, Which renders it wrong, Please re-write and re-file today. The Seattle Times reports that the title alone covered eight pages, and it took another 18 pages just to identify the parties. The lawsuit includes 37 ... Read More

In Part I of my review of PreCYdent, I described how PreCYdent outperformed both WestLaw and Lexis in "natural language" searches. In Part II of my review, I'll cover the limitations of this new service, as well as some user-driven features that are unique to PreCYdent. PreCYdent seeks to provide lawyers, law students, and the general public with free and easy access to legal authority. While WestLaw and Lexis are used primarily by paid subscribers, PreCYdent seeks to provide anyone who has ... Read More

The University of North Texas and the City of Dallas have selected a location for the proposed University of North Texas College of Law. On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council agreed to spend over $16 million renovating the old Dallas City Hall to make it the home of the "first pubic law school in North Texas." Built in 1914, the building served as the Dallas City Hall until 1978. It is in the parking lot of this building that Jack Ruby ... Read More

Today in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down the ban on handguns in the District of Columbia. At issue in District of Columbia v. Heller was whether the Second Amendment protected the right of individuals to bear arms, or whether it applied only to the collective rights of states to maintain militias. In the majority opinion written by Justice Scalia, the Court held that the individual right to possess a firearm is unrelated to service in a militia, and instead, was ... Read More

Early last week, I wrote a post about the CCRAA loan forgiveness program in which I noted that it was still unclear whether loan forgiveness under the CCRAA would trigger tax liability. Paul Caron of the TaxProf Blog reported on Friday that the IRS handed down Rev. Rul. 2008-34 "which clarifies that law school public interest loan forgiveness programs qualify for the § 108(f) exception (and, as a result, students need not report the forgiven interest as discharge of indebtedness income). " ... Read More

With more and more attorneys adopting Macs throughout their offices every day and the business world raving about the cost effectiveness of Mac OS X, today Macs are an accepted and feasible alternative to Windows in the legal community. Having recently made the switch to a Mac myself, I've put together a list of the top ten free Max OS X programs that made switching from a PC to a Mac a breeze. 1. Quicksilver Quicksilver is a program launcher that uses simple commands ... Read More

According to the ABA, 87% of law students borrow money for their law school education. The average law student at a private school graduates with over $83,000 in student debt, while those who graduate from public schools have, on average, over $54,000 in debt. In 2007, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA) was signed into law by President Bush. (Public Law 110-084). The CCRAA provides for the forgiveness of federal student loans after i) 10 years of public service work, or ... Read More