A review of Web sites related to litigation.
By Erik J. Heels
First published 9/1/1997; LegalResearcher.com; publisher: New York Law Publishing Company
While the Internet is not the be-all and end-all of legal research, it can assist researchers who are unfamiliar with a particular legal topic in getting up to speed quickly on that topic.
In Part I of my article on litigation research, I gave an overview on how to get started researching topics on the Internet. Here, I’d like to focus on practical uses of the Internet for litigators – specifically, factual research on the Web. There are several interesting sites that can be used for factual research, whether it concerns a company or an individual. As you would expect, those with the most to gain as consumers of litigation-related Internet resources – trial lawyers and their staff – are also frequent producers of compelling content.
A few years ago, it was safe to assume that organizations or publications that you were looking for would not be online. Today, there is a high probability that you’ll find those organization and publication are on the Internet.
A Few Gems:
Aviation: Check out AIRbase ONE (http://www.airbase1.com/) and AIR – Aviation Internet Resources (http://airlines-online.com/), both of which are comprehensive sites related to aviation. Airlines, airports – it’s all here.
Business Information: BigBook (http://www.bigbook.com/) is a searchable yellow pages director – plus a whole lot more. From the home page, click on “Business Profiles and Credit Ratings” to purchase (for about $3) a credit report on selected businesses. This service is provided in conjunction with American Business Information, Inc. Once you have found the company you are searching for with BigBook (and there are many ways to get there from here), you find out all sorts of helpful information, such as driving directions.
Economic Statistics: The White House’s (http://www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/esbr.html) Economic Statistics Briefing Room (ESBR) is the best compilation of current Federal economic indicators. Another example of Tip 6 (OK, government and education organizations aren’t all that bad).
Information on Individuals: Yahoo, in conjunction with Four11 Corporation, allows you to search for individuals by name (http://www.yahoo.com/search/people/). You can find their e-mail address, postal address, and phone number.
Newspapers: United States Newspaper List (http://www.n-net.com/). It’s not sexy, but if you’re looking for your hometown newspaper, this is a great place to start.
Transportation: Princeton University’s Transportation Resources (http://dragon.princeton.edu/~dhb/) contains anything and everything you’d want to know about the transportation industry worldwide.
