The Social Law Library in Boston, MA, provides a variety of services of interest to Massachusetts attorneys.
By Erik J. Heels
First published 5/5/1998; LegalResearcher.com; publisher: New York Law Publishing Company
Note to The Social Law Library (http://www.socialaw.com/): please also register sociallaw.com, which is what I always (incorrectly) guess for your domain name.
So, not-guessable domain name aside, The Social Law Library in Boston, MA, provides a variety of services of interest to Massachusetts attorneys, including a mirror of the Louise Woodward site (the nanny murder case that drew national attention).
Massachusetts Appeals Court and Supreme Judicial Court slip opinions are available online, but only about 500 total documents. How do I know this? Because my search for “Internet domain” in each of these two libraries produced “0 documents from 146 searched” and “0 documents from 367 searched.”
Also, searching is only available to library members, and there was no way to become a library member online. When I tried, I got a DNS error trying to connect to their registration server (http://www.sll.net/registration.html). Although my experience with this site was a bad one on the day I visited, everyone has a bad day. The Social Law Library has a well-earned good reputation, and they provide a valuable service to the Massachusetts legal community. Their Web site is a good example of how local services can supplement traditional online research services such as Lexis and Westlaw.
