Articles Posted in Justia News

Here is a rundown of August’s highest scoring lawyers on Justia Legal Answers, along with a look at which Onward blog and Facebook posts readers viewed the most.

Justia Legal Answers’ Top 10 Legal Answerers for August 2011

1. Francis M. Boyer, 2,311 points, 48 answers
2. Mark A. Siesel, 801 points, 16 answers
3. Terrence Rubino, 775 oints, 24 answers
4. Milan Marinkovich, 600 points, 12 answers
5. Robert Neal Katz, 551 points, 11 answers
6. Andrew Bresalier, 400 points, 8 answers
7. Dheeraj K. Singhal, 330 points, 14 answers
8. Andrew John Hawes, 310 points, 7 answers
9. Cynthia Jean Nelson, 250 points, 5 answers
10. Donald Joseph Quinn, 250 points, 5 answers

Here is a rundown of July’s highest scoring lawyers on Justia Legal Answers, along with a look at which Onward blog and Facebook posts readers viewed the most.

Justia Legal Answers’ Top 10 Legal Answerers for July 2011

1. Mark A. Siesel, 11,600 points, 232 answers
2. Burton A. Padove, 10,195 points, 215 answers
3. Terrence Rubino, 2,805 oints, 72 answers
4. Robert Neal Katz, 1,545 points, 33 answers
5. David Philip Shapiro, 1,020 points,22 answers
6. Cedulie Renee Laumann, 850 points, 17 answers
7. Andrew Bresalier, 650 points, 13 answers
8. Stephen J. Plog, 552 points, 11 answers
9. Gojko Kasich, 510 points, 13 answers
10. Christopher Gilreath, 500 points, 10 answers

I wanted to make sure that all of our readers are aware that Justia recently launched the new legal commentary site Verdict.  Have no fear, the Onward backbenchers will still post here, but each weekday, you’ll also be able to catch original and informed analysis of breaking news and developments in the law written by a great group of columnists over at Verdict.

Verdict columns cover a broad range of legal subjects, including constitutional law, international human rights, new technologies, discrimination, family law, law and economics, defamation, consumer issues, child sexual abuse and animal rights. Check out recent articles on such breaking legal issues as the debt limit controversy, cell phone hacking by Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World and health care.

Verdict’s team of ten columnists includes nine former law clerks—among them four U.S. Supreme Court clerks—seven law professors and the director of a new college-level human-rights program, all currently teaching at eminent schools.  We’ve set up a twitter feed @verdictjustia if you’d like to follow Verdict there, or you can also subscribe via RSS to make sure you’re staying on top of all these great columns.  Stop by and check it out!

Here is a rundown of June’s highest scoring lawyers on Justia Legal Answers, along with a look at which Onward blog and Facebook posts readers viewed the most.

Justia Legal Answers’ Top 10 Legal Answerers for June 2011

1. Albert Pettigrew Jr, 1,300 points, 26 answers
2. J. Richard Kulerski Esq., 830 points, 17 answers
3. Mr. Andrew T. Bodoh Esq., 550 oints, 11 answers
4. Cedulie Renee Laumann, 550 points, 11 answers
5. Robert James Reynolds, 530 points, 11 answers
6. Nicholas Leydorf, 450 points, 9 answers
7. Andrew Bresalier, 350 points, 7 answers
8. Matthew Lee Spiegel, 330 points, 7 answers
9. Cynthia Jean Nelson, 300 points, 7 answers
10. Craig Orent, 300 points, 6 answers

All of us at Justia – human and pup alike – would like to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July!

Given what we do here, it shouldn’t be any surprise that we’d also like to declare this Free Law Independence Day. To paraphrase Richard Henry Lee’s famous resolution,  and with a little help from our friends at Law.gov, let it be resolved:

That Law is, and of right ought to be, free and independent. That it should readily be available to all without allegiance to any one publisher, and that all connection to direct fees for dissemination of primary legal materials should be totally dissolved.

We told you about our nice free case law summaries. Then we blogged that we were adding more. Well, today, my friends, we are done. We have all fifty states!

Now you can sign up and receive free summaries of court opinions for all state supreme courts, the US Supreme Court and all Federal appellate courts. Just go to http://daily.justia.com to register and sign up!

We also have over 60 practice area digests to choose from.

Tomorrow is national Take Your Dog to Work Day^®, a phrase trademarked by a pet sitters’ industry group.

At Justia, however, every day is take your dog to work day, where the in-house dogs keep hounding us for more free law.

They:

• Help us chase laws
• Sit for Supreme Court opinions, and
• Rollover for recalls,
• Seek TROs for tummy rubs, and
• Sleep sua sponte.

Continuing and growing our effort to provide legal research tools for people interested in laws and legal issues throughout Latin America, I’d like to introduce Justia Brasil (or “Brazil” para los norteamericanos). This is Justia’s first website in Brasilian Portuguese.

So, pretend you’re from Ann Arbor. Ever since you were a little boy (and we’re talking the Dark Ages . . . you know, the 1970s) you stood tall in your bell bottoms and Bobby Brady striped t-shirt against the surrounding swarm of Detroit Red Wings fans, forever dreaming of a Stanley Cup win by your favorite team, the Vancouver Canucks.  You spent years in the wilderness and suffered through Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals.  Recently, you’ve experienced the raised eyebrows of work colleagues as you amassed a collection of Canucks’ swag and made friendly t-shirt wagers with our resident San Jose Sharks super-fan @caminick.

Last week, Justia had the distinct pleasure of helping the Massachusetts Bar Association celebrate its centennial year during the Bar’s two-day annual meeting in Boston.  A variety of events took place to highlight the Bar’s century of commitment to public service and the legal profession.  I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Centennial Ball, which included a keynote speech by US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.