Several months have passed since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act became law. The impact of the stimulus has remained a key focus of politicians, commentators and citizens. That piece of legislation has spawned myriad journal articles, news, legislation and rules at both the state and federal levels of government. There is a lot to keep track of if you are interested in how the Act is impacting the economy.
To simplify things, Westlaw has released several new databases to help cut out the clutter and help you focus on Stimulus Plan information. There are databases for news (STIMPLAN-NEWS), journal articles (STIMPLAN-LAWREV), proposed state and federal regulations (STIMPLAN-FR and STIMPLAN-ADC) and proposed state and federal legislation (STIMPLAN-BILLTXT).
For example, if you want to search for articles about job creation, run the search JOB /3 CREAT! in the STIMPLAN-LAWREV database.
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Within the current economic context, the mortgage industry continues to be an area of major concern – from participants in the sub-prime market to those concerned with how regulators are dealing with things now.
Home foreclosures and mortgages have been frequent news topics in the past year. The Obama administration has been working on plans to help with the housing crisis, including the ”Making Home Affordable” plan (also known as the “Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan”). This plan attempts to keep homeowners in their houses by making it easier to refinance or modify mortgages.
While these are not formal in the way we usually think of governmental plans – there isn’t a statutory or regulatory proposal guiding them – there are several documents available that outline the goals of the Obama administration relating to Making Home Affordable. Similarly, there aren’t pending bills or newly proposed rules available in traditional sources, but some of these documents are available on Westlaw.
If you run the search “HOMEOWNER AFFORDABILITY AND STABILITY PLAN” or “MAKING HOME AFFORDABLE” in the FADMIN-ALL database on Westlaw, you will get several transcripts and “key facts” pages outlining the government’s agenda.
In addition, the Mortgage-Backed Securities volume of the Securities Practice Series was recently updated to include discussion of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. For example, to learn about Fannie Mae’s role in sub-prime mortgages, do a search of “fannie mae” /p sub-prime in the MORTSEC database.
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It’s a clichéd scenario: someone you know went to happy hour after work, had a few cocktails, then attempted to drive home, only to have a local police officer intervene. Not a smart move on their part and one fraught with many consequences. They want to curtail as many of those consequences as possible.
They call you because, well, you’re a lawyer. Unfortunately, you don’t know anything about the procedural and substantives issues to help them. What can you do?
If you are going to take the case, start by going to the DUI Practitioner tab on Westlaw. This page is loaded with resources that will help you give your client the best advice possible.
For example, you can quickly access the Handling Drunk Driving Cases treatise (the database identifier is HDRUNKDR), which will guide you through the process of advising your client through the criminal process.
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This morning, about 5 weeks after Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection, General Motors voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. While some in the media are speculating that Chrysler will emerge from bankruptcy court soon, it doesn’t look like that pace will be replicated with GM. Given the complicated nature of the proceedings, those wanting to keep track might want to consider tracking the docket that is available on Westlaw.
To do that, access the Alert Center on Westlaw, go to the Docket Alert category and click Create. From there, you will want to create a Docket Track and choose the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court. The docket number for the case is 1:09-BK-50026. With a Docket Track, you will be regularly notified of new events within the case. (Note: if docket tracking is not part of your Westlaw subscription, there will be a fee to track dockets.)
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Given the relatively low turnover on the United States Supreme Court, whenever an opening occurs, it is a big deal. So when President Obama nominated 2nd Circuit Justice Sonia Sotomayor, people took notice.
And, questions immediately started rolling in to the West Reference Attorneys.
People wanted to find out how often her opinions were appealed and how often the Supreme Court reversed her. Knowing the influence she would have as a Supreme Court Justice, everyone was interested in her position on every possible issue that could come before the Court.
With so many documents in so many different places, Westlaw has created a new database for subscribers - SOTOMAYOR-NOM - that contains opinions, law reviews, and other legal documents written by or about the nominee.
A current resume of Judge Sotomayor by West’s Profiler is included, as well as her biography from the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary. Congressional documents related to the nomination process also are included.
For billing information, access the Westlaw subscriber information database.
Andrew Mushett
Consultant
West Reference Attorneys
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What’s in a word? The Black’s Law Dictionary, 9th edition from Thomson Reuters can provide both definition and pronunciation through a new Android App. When the word of the day isn’t a word you know, Black’s mobile applications is ready to find that content on your Android.
Black’s is available as an Android App and also [...]
Pangea3 CEO David Perla was a member on the panel for Legal Process Outsourcing 2.0 at the ACC Annual Conference in Denver recently.
With the rapid growth surrounding LPOs in the legal industry, the panel addressed numerous topics and issues ranging from: how each company addresses the relationship with the LPO differently to the best way [...]
We’ve got a great podcast this month to kick-off the New Year featuring an interview segment with attorney Yar Chaikovsky about monetizing patents and the forthcoming impacts of patent reform.
Then in our “On the Blawgs” segment we learn about one blogger’s top five social media tips for businesses.
In our “Chaos in the Courts” segment, we [...]
