March 2006

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WikiCrimeLine

24 March 2006 in Wikis | 1 comment

WikiCrimeLine is a new project, set up as part of the CrimeLine family of free updating materials. Publisher and WikiCrimeLine Administrator Andrew Keogh says:

I wish to take CrimeLine one step further and gather up the extensive knowledge base that exists with our almost 8,000 members. This is your unique opportunity to share your knowledge of the criminal justice system with others, for the greater public good.

The challenge to start a project like this was laid down by Professor Susskind in a speech given to The Society for Computers and Law [see earlier post] – I am sure that we can rise to it!

It is but a week old, with only a few contributors so far. But at least someone is giving it a go. Good luck.

What is a wiki?

A wiki is a website that allows users to add content and also allows anyone to edit the content using a standard web browser. The word also refers to the collaborative software used to create such a website. The name is based on the Hawaiian term wiki wiki, meaning “quick” or “super-fast”. The most ambitious wiki project to date is Wikipedia, a free encyclopaedia in over 50 languages (with currently over 1 million articles in English).

OPSI discussion forum

24 March 2006 in Public Sector Information

OPSI has added a Discussion Forums area to its website. The first to be set up is “Website Help” which is for discussion of problems, issues and tips on using the OPSI website.

They may regret this! Half of the posts so far are from members of the public seeking advice about specific statutory provisions:

  • Act Enactment
    “Can someone please tell me when part of the 1996 Housing Act came into being?”
  • Road Vehicles( Construction and Use)
    “im still confused as to wether a Bike exhaust needs a Bsa mark or not”
  • Education (Fees and Awards) Regulations 1997
    “Does the term ‘parent’ include stepfather and stepmother, and the term ‘child’ include stepchild?”

Web-enabled document management system

22 March 2006 in Information management

An innovative and unique new online document management service, General Counsel Direct, has just been launched. GCD allows businesses to upload all crucial documentation so that officers, advisors and business partners and relevant employees can retrieve it with a web browser. By establishing user privileges, specific workgroups can collaborate through the internet on clients or projects simultaneously. For example, directors might have access to all documents whilst the HR department might have access only to employment contracts; business partners and advisors could also have access to documents relevant to them. Hard copies can be scanned, whilst typical business documents such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files are saved to the virtual directories.

The system is designed to mirror real world structures and relationships, rather than the dated ideas of virtual drives and online filing cabinets. It automatically alerts users to any changes made to the files they are working on via email. It provides audit trails for all key documentation and so meets a host of compliance, archival and risk management requirements. In this way, it becomes a network and collaboration platform for people on different technical platforms and in different locations.

Louis Plowden-Wardlaw, Managing Director of General Counsel Direct was struck by the lack of transparency, accessibility and structure which existed in private practice and in-house document management and decided to develop the GCD system which would enable individuals to file, share and access the documents that make up the business across an organisation regardless of location.

Users pay a subscription based on the amount of information stored and the complexity of structure as opposed to user licences. This means that clients pay for what they use, enabling individuals or multinationals to use the system regardless of size.

Blog comings and goings

16 March 2006 in Law blogs

Since January Jolyon Patten of Halliwells has been blogging on insurance and reinsurance matters at Re Risk. This is a continuation of his former blog for Elborne Michell, iNews: Lex in the City. Elbornes appears to have expunged the blog from their site. Not so the Wayback Machine which retains archives to March 2005.

Diary of a Criminal Solicitor is a blog, going since May 2005, from a solicitor doing purely criminal defence work: “I often find myself in utter amazement or red faced with anger working at Police Stations, Magistrates Courts, Crown Courts and even my office. You will find me ranting and raving in this blog about anything and everything that gets up my nose.”

Thanks for the above link to What about Clients? from Dan Hull, a San Diego litigator and lobbyist, who keeps a keen eye on happenings this side of the pond.

There must be many law students blogging. New on my radar is Diary of a law student, blog of “a second year English Law student’s trials through the University of Reading, UK, trying to get that elusive LLB.”

Blogs may come and go, but some just stall; perhaps they have moved on or are just tired of blogging: Feedmelegal last posted November 2005; Sur Mesure (on the intersection of English/French law) last posted October 2005.

Today we Googled “the man on the Clapham omnibus”

10 March 2006 in Miscellany | 2 comments

Question. I have been seeking for a long time now the details of the case where a reasonable man is defined as “the man on the Clapham Omnibus”.

Answer. First use of the phrase is attributed to Lord Justice Greer, in Hall v. Brooklands Auto Racing Club (1933) 1 KB 205, at p 224. The facts of that case were that a racing car shot into the air over the kerb and the grass margin and into the railing, killing two spectators and injuring others; the racing club was held not liable as the accident was unforeseeable.

Source. Many sites refer to the case and a few attribute it to Lord Justice Greer, but Asif Tufal’s a-level-law provided the facts (at Negligence – Breach of Duty – Cases).

Asif Tufal is Head of Law at a Sixth Form College in Essex and a Senior Examiner for a major exam board.

The Next Ten Years according to Susskind

8 March 2006 in Future of law

In his SCL 2006 Lecture Richard Susskind predicted that the pace of development in the coming decade will be more profound than during the last. Emerging technologies would enable transformations in the nature of legal service, the way lawyers work, relationships between lawyers and their clients, legal training and learning and dispute resolution.

He sees an evolutionary path to the commoditisation of legal service, through standardisation and systemisation, fuelled by explosions in processing power. Lawyers’ methods of working and their working relationships will see major changes influenced by second-generation KM and by technology which encourages and requires greater collaboration and an appreciation of the importance of online communities. Wikis, blogs and webinars carry enormous potential for changing working methods – for example, a partner in charge of a major transaction might keep a daily limited-access blog and would thereby create a more powerful KM tool than could be contemplated by existing techniques.