10 Tips for Better Legal Writing

Bryan Garner has a post up at the ABA Journal on legal writing.  We especially like tip number 2:

2) Don't rely exclusively on computer research. Combine book research with computer research. Don't overlook such obvious resources as Corpus Juris Secundum and American Jurisprudence. Look at indexes, digests and treatises to round out your understanding of the subject matter. And when it comes to computer research, don't forget Google Books (especially the advanced-search function): It can open up a great variety of fresh resources in addition to what you find with Westlaw or Lexis.

The Law Library has several books by Garner and on legal writing in its collection.

Treatise Spotlight: Law of Electronic Commerce, 4th

Title:  Law of Electronic Commerce, 4th
Author:  Jane Kaufman Winn and Benjamin Wright
Publisher:  Aspen Publishers
Last Update:  2014-1 supplement


Description: 

The volume of trade done through electronic media continues to skyrocket, and the law evolves at a staggering rate. To keep pace with all the new cases, statutes, proposals, commentaries, and model laws, there is no better resource than the Law of Electronic Commerce - your guide to the implications of communications technology for commercial law and transactions.

 

The Fourth Edition has been completely revised to reflect the explosive growth of the internet and the one-to-many network model that has replaced older forms of electronic commerce. You'll find practice pointers and in-depth, up-to-the-minute analysis of:

• Electronic contracting
• Electronic Payments and Lending
• Intellectual property rights and rights in data
• Privacy and collections of data
• E-business regulation, including antitrust, trade practices, securities and banking
• Taxation of electronic commerce
• Computer crime and computer security
• Electronic records in litigation, including authentication and the best evidence rule
• Employer liability and electronic communications in the workplace
• Developing a records management program
• Liability of service providers
• and much more

(description taken from publisher's website)

Treatise Spotlight: Disputed Paternity Proceedings, 5th

Title:  Disputed Paternity Proceedings, 5th

Author:  Nina M. Vitek
Last Updated:  June 2013

Description:  A comprehensive analysis of paternity-related litigation issues emphasizing topics that transcend state lines, offering tightly focused coverage of contemporary issues.

(description taken from publisher's website)

Treatise Spotlight: Handling Federal Tort Claims



Handling Federal Tort Claims


Title:  Handling Federal Tort Claims: Administrative and Judicial Remedies, 3d
Author:  Lester S. Jayson and Robert C. Longstreth
Publisher:  Matthew Bender
Last Update:  July 2013

Description:  A three-volume treatise detailing the process of seeking remedies from the federal government for injuries caused by the tortious conduct of its employees. The treatise can be used as a reference by both claimants’ and government attorneys. The treatise is heavily annotated with discussions of relevant cases and includes numerous regulations and forms.

Description from first volume.

Treatise Spotlight: Callmann on Unfair Competition

Callmann on Unfair Competition

Title:  Callmann on Unfair Competition, Trademark and Monopolies, 4th
Author:  Louis Altman and Malla Pollack
Publisher:  Clark Boardman Callaghan
Last Update:  2013-1

Product Description:

Multivolume set provides a comprehensive analysis of the law of unfair competition as it relates to trademarks (registrability and infringement), passing-off, trade secrets, misappropriations, price discrimination, predatory pricing, and monopolies. Coverage also includes suggestions for protection against unfair competition, and acquisition, transfer, and abandonment. Other topics include government and business competition, interference with a competitor’s contractual rights and bargaining possibilities, interference by trade boycott and marketing restrictions, unlawful exploitation of competitor’s effort, confusing similarity, patent misuse, and covenants not to compete.

Features

• Helps you examine all aspects of anticompetitive behavior in-depth
• Suggests ways to protect oneself against unfair competition
• Strategies for dealing with government and business competition
• How to draft not-to-compete covenants
• Provides general principles for product simulation
• Gives you a complete reference to all matters involving trademarks
• Includes text of important statutes and regulations as well as a Table of Trademarks, Trade Names and Slogans

Description from publisher's website.

Treatise Spotlight: The Complete Understanding Series

The Nevada Supreme Court Law Library subscribes to the Complete Understanding Series by LexisNexis. This series gives the reader an expansive and thorough high-quality, well-organized analysis and discussion on over 50 different law subjects. Whether it's Torts or you're struggling to understand Secured Transactions or Trusts and Estates or Evidence or Lawyers’ Ethics, etc. you'll find explanations from subject matter experts and well-known scholars and professors at some of the world's most prestigious institutions.

Titles in the Complete Understanding Series are ideally formatted to provide the reader with the essential foundation for a full and clear comprehension of the subject area, and are designed to provide an organized and accurate presentation of the material, including more in-depth treatments for particularly challenging areas. An index and glossary allow you to quickly find the material you need and look up key terms that are unique to a particular field.

To browse the books in the Law Library's collection type: http://lawlibrary.nevadajudiciary.us/

Click on Catalog and in the Quick library search box type: Understanding series.

The Library holds over 40 of the 50 titles.

Legal Drafting: A Beginner's Guide

There is an informative post on legal drafting on the Library of Congress' In Custodia Legis blog. 

Legal drafting is a very structured method of writing that can prove intimidating to the uninitiated. In this Beginner’s Guide, we will recommend some sources that will help you excel in the legal drafting process.

The Nevada Supreme Court Law Library subscribes to several of the form books listed, as well as to many others.  To browse the form books in the Law Library's collection, go to our online catalog and type:

forms (law) united states

into the Quick Library Search box and click on the Subject icon.  Or, you could just click on this link. 

For Nevada-specific forms, follow the instructions above but replace the words united states with nevada, or click here. 

Additionally, the Law Library subscribes to HeinOnline's Spinelli's Law Library Reference Shelf, which includes an extensive collection of Legal Dictionaries. 

Treatise Spotlight: Automobile Liability Insurance 4th

Title:  Automobile Liability Insurance, 4th

Author(s):  Irvin Schermer, William Schermer
Publisher:  Thomson West
Edition:  Fourth
Last Update:  November 2012 (semiannual supplement)

Description:  Automobile Liability Insurance offers a thorough analysis of substantive law, practice tips, and expert guidance, cutting through complex issues of automobile insurance law. The comprehensive coverage of caselaw and statutes from each state lets you handle practice issues from the initial claim for insurance benefits through every phase of litigation.

This all-encompassing resource is organized to give you instant access to answers on any question about automobile liability insurance. It suggests ways to enforce no-fault claims, explores conflicting laws on automobile liability, and probes issues of bad faith. It contains thorough treatment of:

• Coverages and exclusions

• Bad faith/refusal to settle

• Refusal to defend

• Discovery

• No-fault and PIP

• Medical examinations

• Arbitration

• Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage

• Stacking of coverages

• Subrogation

• Conflict of laws

It also includes state-by-state no-fault summaries. 

 

(Description taken from publisher's website.)

Treatise Spotlight: Epstein on Intellectual Property

Title: Epstein on Intellectual Property

Author: Michael A. Epstein
Publisher: Wolters Kluwer (Aspen)
Edition: Fifth Edition
Last Update: 2012 Supplement

Description: Packed with insightful analysis, expert guidance, and clear, practical examples, this key resource provide up-to-date, integrated coverage of the law of trade secrets, copyright, trademarks and patents, ideas, and noncompetition agreements.

Epstein on Intellectual Property, Fifth Edition covers the latest legal developments in such hot areas as biotechnology, intellectual property, due diligence, software protection, copyright infringement, ownership of employee inventions, and more.

You will consult this reference for expert answers to questions such as how to:

• Prevent the unauthorized use and disclosure of your company's trade secrets
• Determine what types of materials and information are covered by the copyright laws
• Apply for and enforce patents
• Reduce the risk of claims under the "law of ideas"
• Make effective use of noncompetition agreements
• Deal with the unique problems of biotechnology

(Description taken from publisher’s website)

Treatise Spotlight: Legal Opinion Letters: A Comprehensive Guide to Opinion Letter Practice

Treatise Spotlight:  Legal Opinion Letters: a Comprehensive Guide to Opinion Letter Practice

 

Title:  Legal Opinion Letters: A Comprehensive Guide to Opinion Letter Practice

Author: M. John Sterba

Edition: Third

Publisher: Wolters Kluwer
 

Description: Legal Opinion Letters provides comprehensive coverage not only of the standard corporate and securities third-party opinion letters, but also real estate opinions, tax, intellectual property, bankruptcy, letters to auditors, international opinions, and liability just to name a few. Special attention is given to exposure to liability, an area of great concern to the opinion practice attorney. It also examines the current content of actual letters used to address these topics. All of this valuable information is provided in light of current case law, the ABA Legal Opinion Report, The TriBar Report and several excellent state bar reports.
 

It is a contributed work with introductory chapters by M. John Sterba, Jr., and additional chapters by a host of other expert practioners. Description from publisher’s website.

Part of Treatise Spotlight, an occasional series highlighting publications in the law library's collection.

Treatise Spotlight: Law of Defamation

Title: Law of Defamation, 2d

Author(s):  Rodney Smolla
Publisher: West
Last Release:  November, 2012   

Description:  Law of Defamation offers a comprehensive analysis of defamation law, useful to legal practitioners and other professionals, including professors, publishers, and media industry experts. Updated every year, this two-volume set provides step-by-step guidance to all the legal and business complexities posed by modern libel law and addresses topics, such as:

• Definition of public employee
• Corporate speech
• Recipient approach to determining defamatory character of words
• Criminalization of mere “lies”
• Preliminary injunctions and the “Occupy Wall Street” protests
• Right of publicity and the First Amendment
• Public figure/private figure dichotomy
• Fault requirements
• Defamatory meaning
• Truth as a constitutional defense
• Opinion and fair comment
• Special harm
• Libel and slander rules
• Common law privileges
• Damages and other remedies
• Invasion of privacy
• Emotional distress
• Injurious falsehood
• Negligent publication
• Litigation
• Counseling and strategy
• Defamation in the workplace

 

(description from publisher's website)

 

Part of Treatise Spotlight, an occasional series highlighting publications in the law library's collection.

 

Treatise Spotlight: State and Local Government Employment Liability

Title:  State and Local Government Employment Liability

Author:  John E. Sanchez

Publisher:  Thomson Reuters

Last update:  October 2012

Description:  State and Local Government Employment Liability provides the vital information you need to deal with the employment liability issues that arise in the public sector, such as:

• Hiring and firing
• Laws governing the terms and conditions of employment
• Pension plans
• Areas of public and private employment that are governed by the same federal statute

(description from publisher's website)

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From the Treatise Spotlight series, highlighting treatises in the law library's collection.

Treatise Spotlight: Brady on Bank Checks : the Law of Bank Checks

This is the first of an occasional series of posts highlighting treatises in the library's collection.

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Title: Brady on Bank Checks and Funds Transfers

Author: Hagedorn, Richard B.

Publisher:  A.S. Pratt

Edition: Revised edition

Last update:11/2012

Description: Brady on Bank Checks and Funds Transfers provides comprehensive commentary and guidance to bankers and practitioners concerned with the complexities of Uniform Commercial Code Articles 3, 4, and 4A as they relate to bank checks and funds transfers. This authoritative treatise addresses the issue, transfer, collection, and payment of checks; the return of unpaid checks; substitute checks; electronic checks; electronic funds transfers; and forgeries and alterations. (Description from publisher.)