The Power of the Internet

I never cease to be amazed at the vast richness of 
informaton on the Internet.  Allow me a brief story to 
illustrate the point.

When I was first admitted to the Bar, I wrote the brief in 
a case that was argued in the Fourth Circuit.  The brief 
was submitted in late June or July and the case argued 
in late September or early October.

There was a case from the Ninth Circuit on a virtually 
identical issue that had been decided in the early spring 
and with respect to which cert had been requested in 
the Supreme Court.  On the day our case was argued in 
Richmond, the Supreme Court vacated and remanded 
the Ninth Circuit case for reconsideration in light of an 
opinion issued by the Court in the previous term.

The Supreme Court's actions were not immediately 
known by either the litigants or the Fourth Circuit and an 
opinion was handed down that did not mention the 9th 
Circuit case or the case decided in the previous term.  

That would not have happened today.  Today, all of the 
parties would have followed the 9th Circuit case as it 
progressed before the Supreme Court and would have 
known within 24 hours of the Court's disposition of that 
case.

With that in mind, I note that SCOTUS Blog has links to 
virtually all of the amicus briefs in the Pledge of 
Allegiance case now before the Court.  The blog link 
can be found here:

http://www.goldsteinhowe.com/blog/archive/2004_02_0
8_SCOTUSblog.cfm

or here:

http://tinyurl.com/2j4y2

I have commented previously on the similar trends in 
the fields of medicine and basic science.  And, of 
course, as the recent seminar concerning search 
engines on this list makes clear, the ability to gain 
access to information will only increase dramatically in 
the near future.

I would be interested in receiving comments from others 
on this list as to what this trend means for the business 
of the practice of law. My sense is that the field will grow 
more narrow, with non-lawyers researching the 
questions that they formerly directed to their attorneys.  

***************************************
Stuart Levine
Fisher & Winner, LLP
Baltimore, Maryland  21201
Telephone:            410.385.2000
Telecopier:            443.927.7075
Cellphone/Pager:  410.802.5817
[email protected]
weblog:  http://taxbiz.blogspot.com
http://www.taxation-business.com
*********************************************




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There is a read/write Web page with resources that will be linked there and used during the Seminar on PDFs for lawyers and legal applications:

http://Network-Lawyers.org/PDFLinks

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