Recent recommended articles and resources relating to personal injury settlement planning:
From Sabrina Pacifici on beSpacific
1. Government Benefits - Press release: "GovBenefits.gov is a free, on-line resource that helps citizens determine their potential eligibility for benefit programs. The site provides information and links to nearly 1,000 federal and state benefit programs, including the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, the Community Food and Nutrition Program, Emergency Food Assistance Program, Food Stamp Program, Housing Counseling Assistance Program, Low Income Home Energy Assistance and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families."
2. Online Library of Scientific Articles - HighWire Press is the largest archive of free full-text science on Earth! As of 12/01/04, we are assisting in the online publication of 785,108 free full-text articles...and 1,972,541 total articles." [Link]
For background and comments from the site's publisher, see this article from ManagingInformation.com
From Nancy Stinson on the Stark County Law Library Blawg:
1. "Helping Clients Settle" - Carolyn Elefant writes: "Some clients are risk takers while others aren't. And sometimes it's easier for clients to "let it ride" when it's your time, not their money on the table. But even in those cases, settlement may offer clients the best deal in the long run. This article, Getting To Yes: Helping Reluctant Clients See The Benefits Of Settlement, Elaine McArdle, Lawyers Weekly USA (11/2004) offers up tips on bringing clients around to settlement. As the article discusses, some clients simply need time to accept that settlement might be optimal; for others, an explanation of financial benefits or talk with an impartial third party like a mediator or another lawyer may work. But of course, there are always those cases where clients will do nothing but go forward and where lawyers have no choice but to go along and hope for the best." From the e-newsletter: “This site should be a permanent part of your People Finder/Address Book websites. Here you can find the telephone number to just about any federal government office in the country. Just select the state, city (or area code), and the type of information you're seeking. You'll just get the phone number, but that's what you expect out of a phone book, isn't it?” Source: MyShingle, 13 November 2004
2. Expert Depostion Transcripts Online - From the blog: "Want to check on an expert's history before you retain him? Many of you may aleady know about the extensive database of judicial decisions on expert testimony, available at reasonable prices, via the "Daubert Tracker" at mdexonline.com. Now we've learned of a new online service -- CrossExam.com -- that wants to be the place you go when you need to review an expert's deposition transcripts from prior litigation. Of course, there's always TrialSmith, but to use TrialSmith, you have to be a plaintiffs' lawyer, and there's a nontrivial subscription fee.
The key to any service like this, naturally, is the database, and the folks at CrossExam.com have developed an interesting strategy for building theirs. Right now, the site lists about 300 transcripts available for download. The list is searchable by case name or expert name, and also browsable by expert field. You can download a transcript by paying a fee of about $2.50 a page. Or you can become a registered user and earn credits toward downloads by uploading expert transcripts of your own. But that's not their most ingenious idea. The service is also encouraging court reporters to upload transcripts, even old ones, for $2.00 a page.
One way or another, the time is surely approaching when someone will do for expert testimony what Lexis and Westlaw have done for the corpus of decisional law. The savvy expert will recognize that fact now, and will assume that any testimony he offers may be preserved, syllable by syllable, for the ages -- in readily accessible form." Source: Blog 702, 25 November 2004
3. U.S. Government Blue Pages - From the e-newsletter: “This site should be a permanent part of your People Finder/Address Book websites. Here you can find the telephone number to just about any federal government office in the country. Just select the state, city (or area code), and the type of information you're seeking. You'll just get the phone number, but that's what you expect out of a phone book, isn't it?” Source: Internet Legal Research Weekly
4. Workers Compensation - From the e-newsletter: "If you've been injured on the job, you may have questions about the workers' compensation system. If so, the Workers' Compensation section of FindLaw's Accident and Injury Center provides information and resources on workers' compensation -- including tips on what to do after your injury, an in-depth look at the workers' compensation claims procedure, and special considerations for railroad employees and construction workers who have been injured on the job. Click on the link below to get started."
http://injury.findlaw.com/workers-compensation/
From Bruce H. Stern on Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer
1. "Textbook of Traumatic Brain Injury" - The long-awaited publication of the "Textbook of Traumatic Brain Injury" edited by Jonathan M. Silver, M.D., Thomas W. McAllister, M.D. and Stuart C. Yudofsky, M.D. has finally been published. This text thoroughly updates and expands the editors previous 1994 text, Neuropsychiatry of Traumatic Brain Injury. The book has been expanded to forty chapters organized into seven sections that address epidemiology/pathophysiology, neuropsychiatric disorders and symptomatologies, special populations and social issues, and treatment and prevention.
Where the 1994 predecessor included just one chapter on neuropsychiatric assessment, the updated version has separate chapters addressing structural imaging, functional imaging and electrophysiologic techniques. The chapters are written by top experts in the field of traumatic brain injury.
The textbook sells for $99.00. However, there is a special prepublication price of $79.20 through December 31, 2004. This book can be purchased online here. I strongly recommend it to all interested in traumatic brain injury.
From Jeff Drummond at HIPAA Blog
1. HIPAA Answers - New Link: Just added a new link on the left for HIPAAnswers, a large full-purpose, web-enabled provider of HIPAA compliance tools. If you're looking here for general guidance, there are quite a few links on the left that you just may find helpful. If you're wanting to get linked, just email me. As an editorial note, I don't endorse any of the pages I link to, but I also won't link to anyone.
From Cindy Chick on LawLibTech
1. Research Tools - Just so you know, the Internet Librarian PowerPoints have started to appear on the InfoToday site. If I spot presentations for any of the programs I've covered, (I haven't yet), I'll go back and link to them.
It's time to start winding up my coverage of Internet Librarian 2004. We're almost there! But I can't fail to mention "Research Tools: Turning Search into Research." Speakers Marydee Ojala, Darlene Fichter and Sebastian Gard discussed a variety of different tools available to help you manage all that useful information you find out there on the web. Just a few tidbits.....
"Post-processing" tools that will help you store, organize and present your research are very popular right now. Among the software discussed by Marydee Ojala was:
Onfolio
AskSam's Surfsaver
Catchtheweb
ContentSaver
HTTrack
Keepoint
Netsnippets
Darlene covered "social bookmarking" web tools such as:
These sites help you organize your bookmarks by category, search them, and also view sites saved by others with similar interests. Because they're web based, you can access your saved bookmarks from any computer. FURL has been my particular favorite of late, and probably deserves a more detailed entry at some future date.
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