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  • InsideTrack
  • August 26, 2010

    LawBrain: Findlaw's legal wiki

    Earlier this year Findlaw launched a legal wiki, LawBrain. This collection of editable articles on various legal issues can be a good starting point for gathering background on an unfamiliar area.
    Bev ButulaBy Bev Butula, manager of library services, Davis & Kuelthau

    Sept. 1, 2010 – Most legal professionals are familiar with Findlaw. Many of us use the site to obtain statutes, case law, and sample documents. Findlaw has numerous other sections including marketing tips, job prospects, and legal technology information. Its lawyer directory is also a commonly used feature. Findlaw routinely introduces new functionality, so it was not surprising when it launched a legal wiki called LawBrain earlier this year.

    What is a wiki? A wiki is a website that allows individuals to work collaboratively and participants can edit material on the site. A well-known example of a wiki is Wikipedia.

    What is LawBrain?

    LawBrain is “a collaborative forum to pool legal knowledge and create an interactive online space for discussion of legal topics and terms.” Simply, it is a collection of editable articles on various legal concepts, cases, legislation, news, and individuals. The FAQs page offers additional background on the site and instructions for submitting documents.

    Articles found on LawBrain commonly include an overview of the topic, key cases, references used, and external links for expanding your research. If the article deals with new or pending legislation, one may also find analysis of bill amendments or speculation on the overall impact of the law.

    The site supports a basic search engine for keyword queries. If there is no article in the wiki for the concept searched, LawBrain asks if the user is interested in creating one. This is what occurred when I searched the term “marital property.” There was no primary article dealing with this issue, but the search generated 10 relevant results ranging from community property to alimony to property settlement.

    An alternative method of searching LawBrain is via its A-Z Index. The index allows the user to browse the hundreds of topics found on LawBrain. Another site feature is a legal dictionary with nearly 2,000 terms. I randomly selected several terms; definitions for those words ranged from single-line statements to several paragraphs of discussion. Most definitions included links to related words or concepts.

    As with all online information, verify the information before relying on it. The site, however, can be a good starting point for gathering background on an unfamiliar area.

    About the author

    Bev Butula is the manager of library of services at Davis & Kuelthau, Milwaukee. She is a past president of the Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin. Bev has written articles and spoken to numerous groups on issues such as effective Internet research, evaluation of Web sites and legal research. Prior to obtaining her Master's Degree in Library Science from UWM, Bev was a litigation paralegal.

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