Today’s Tip FWIW: Understand the Acronym.

Robert Fulford, from the National Post, wrote about acronyms in his article When Words Die yesterday when he had to use acronymfinder.com to decipher FWIW.

Thanks for the link Robert. For what it’s worth, I was happy that you spelled out FWIW for me in your post.

Acronym Finder has the search benefit of a search for either and acronym or a phrase translated into an acronym with their ‘word in meaning’ search. Since, as Robert’s article points out, acronyms are making their way to common media, rather than just texts and twitter, it …

Ah proclamations. I am sure it isn’t just Alberta where a coming into force section of an act can look like this:

Coming into force
98(1) Sections 77, 78, 79 and 85(a) and (b) come into force on January 1, 2011.
(2) Sections 31, 34, 35, 39, 41, 43 and 49 apply with respect to the next election that is held at least 6 months after the coming into force of this section, and subsequent elections.
(3) Sections 21, 54, 76, 83, 84, 86(b), 87, 88 and 94(b) come into force on the day that a writ is issued under

Thanks to David Paul of Paul & Co in Kamloops who wrote a great article for Canadian Lawyer recently called Useful Google tips and tricks for lawyers for today’s tip.

As Mr. Paul put it:

daterange provides documents that have been modified in the given interval. Unfortunately, Google requires that dates be entered in Julian format, e.g. charter scc daterange:2451193-2455757. Click here for a Julian date converter.

How is this useful for legal research? When you have a inexact facts that you need to verify. Perhaps you want to find information about a motor vehicle accident in Edmonton in January …

Today’s Tip is an expansion on my post to Slaw.ca yesterday. In Tip language, my post would have said “do not panic if a commercial legal research site is down, there are other ways to find decisions.”

Anyone who has ever talked to me about case law research has (been forced to) listen while I wax poetic (or pedantic) about my true belief that the best and fastest way to retrieve the most usable copy of a judicial decision is by using an electronic research source. We are blessed in Canada to have many roads to Rome with commercial …

Today’s Tip: Learn what you have access to.
This pithy statement could be read a couple of different ways in the context of legal research.

One meaning is to remember to search your library catalog – in your firm, at your local courthouse or law society library, at your nearest public library, at your local law school. Even law librarians who help fill the shelves should remember to look in the catalog. Favorite sources are great, but other sources should not be overlooked. Searching a library catalog will remind you that there are additional sources to refer to.

Another meaning …

Today’s tip involves following up.

When your research is initially prepared, you will likely find new items, or pending legislation. These future things may change the landscape that your initial research analysis paints.
Today’s simple tip is to diarize. Everything.

I use my Outlook calendar to diarize either recurring daily or weekly checks for things (like expected orders in council; court of appeal decisions, the expected publication date or comment deadline for draft regulations, etc.) It is very simple to create a calendar appointment that will popup a message to check for something on a future day. I use calendar …

Today’s tip: Find a trusted source.

This is a bit of a repeat, but also wisdom from my daughters.
Dominique (15) says: I don’t use Wikipedia first because it can be changed.
Genevieve (16) says: When we do research at school, all the kids bolt for the computers and I go to the encyclopedias because they are cross referenced.

Whether, like Gen, your trusted source is a printed text, or like Niq, your trusted source is your Mom, you should find your trusted source.
There will be more than one. It will be the top of your link list, your …

Editor’s note: Thanks to Karen Sawatzky of the Tapper Cuddy Library in Winnipeg for today’s tip. Follow Karen on Twitter, read her column at Slaw.ca or her posts at Library Technician Dialog or visit her at LinkedIn.

I got a request to find the top 5 London law firms, and then find the lawyers in a particular practice area.

I sent a message via Twitter to a London law librarian I know only from Twitter, and he replied immediately with the info I needed. It cut my research by several hours.

The point I want to make is …

Today’s Tip: Go to the source

What I mean by go to the source is this:
If you have exhausted the traditional places to look for something (case law databases – both free and commercial; journal article sources; local libraries that you may borrow from; a general web search) and have not located a specific item that you need, go to the source.

Who authored the work?

• Phone the arbitrator
• Call the judge’s assistant
• Email the news reporter

People are amazingly helpful and willing to share what they have or what they know if you ask, infrequently and politely of …

Today’s tip is for the watcher. Quite often a court proceeding of interest will be reported in the media as the case is heard. Decisions, especially in civil cases, usually come down at some future time. There are a couple of ways to virtually ‘watch’ for decisions of interest.

• Try a Google News alert – if the case was media worthy when it was being hear, there may be a media report of the decision which a Google alert will send to your email inbox.
• Create a CanLII RSS feed for a search of the decision – even if a