Beyond E-Mail:
Using The
Internet For Your Law Practice
Internet Research Sites for ‘practise’ in the new millenium
Extreme Family Law Makeover!
The Bright Shawl
Mark I. Unger, Esq.
JAE, Inc.
10010 San Pedro,
T: 210.366.9676
F: 210.366.0412
*To request a downloadable version of this document with ‘live’ links, please email the author at the above listed email address.
“Isn’t it strange
That Princes & Kings and Clowns
Who scamper in sawdust rings
And common people like you and me,
Are builders for eternity
For to each is given a sack of tools,
A shapeless mass & a book of rules
And he must make,
Ere life has flown,
A stumbling block or a stepping stone.”
Anon (quote courtesy of Stewart Gagnon)
I.
Introduction
II.
Search
Engines/All topics
III.
People
a. Phone/Address Finders
b. Data Searches on People
IV.
Property Searches
a. Real
Property
b. Corporation
Tax Search
c. Bexar
d. Personal
Property and Corporate Filings
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
Legal Research Sites
a.
b.
c.
d. Texas
Rules of Civil Procedure (revisions):
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
Private Legal Sites for
IX.
Issue
Specific/Practice Area Specific Websites
X.
Miscellaneous
I.
Introduction
|
ex·treme
|
k-str
m
)|
di·vorce
To obtain a divorce. |
rs
As lawyers practicing family law, we are often called upon to take situations, which are extreme (at least to our clients) and act accordingly. As the definition of ‘accordingly’ will vary from case to case and lawyer to lawyer, what will vary less is how we might perceive what ‘Extreme Divorce’ might mean to our actions. Dictionary.com defines the two terms above and, by this writer’s interpretation, might be combined as follows:
Extreme Divorce =
Being in or attaining the greatest or highest degree in a complete or radical
severance of closely connected things.
In other words, our job, should we choose to accept it, and try and do it well is that of performing at the highest level in the complete division of persons and things. Not exactly appealing to the empathetic, it’s process is dictated by the ability to acquire information and use it to save or protect our client from the other side. In that vein, all tools at our disposal that helps us do that at some point will become expected. The Internet, in its current form is a tool that can do one of two things—it can either level the playing field or it can provide an advantage to one side. It’s use will become ever more of an integral extension of our practice. It’s key is our ability to embrace it and make it an automatic part of our mental process in preparing for the extreme, or not so extreme divorce.
This paper is a basic
introduction to conducting research on the internet, primarily focusing on some
of the most basic and widely used websites for locating people, places, and
things, as well as pursuing legal research and information. Most of these sites are free and easily
accessible to the public, however some have been
restricted and are intended to conform to recent movements in privacy law and
the legitimate purposes for such research.
Many of the search engines and websites listed herein contain a certain
amount of crossover or overlapping of topics or information. Although I have tried to limit the number of
sites in this paper, only trying them out will result in which one best suits
your practice and personal taste.
II.
Search
Engines/All topics
These sites are
generically based and are intended to search for keywords that are registered
as “metatags” with the particular search engine/website, returning a list of
sites that match as closely as possible the words for which you searched.
A.
Google: www.google.com
--my personal favorite; download the toolbar directly to your
computer for 24/7 searching capability without having to go to the website;
toolbar also includes automatic ‘popup’ blocker; expanded to include map searching for local
restaurants or businesses, shopping (called “froogle”) and image searching
(that’s picture searching via the internet), and currently in beta testing for
email service.
B.
Dogpile: www.dogpile.com
C.
AltaVista:
www.altavista.com
D.
Excite: www.excite.com
E.
Yahoo: www.yahoo.com
F.
www.searchengines.com --
Outstanding resource site listing all major search engines, and listings for
search engines by topic (including legal), area of interest or region
G.
Craig
Ball’s Meta-Search Engine: http://www.craigball.com/searchcentral.html
III.
People:
A.
Phone/Address
Finders:
1.
State Bar of
(includes disciplinary records):
This site, further updated in functionality also allows for online-video CLE, checking your CLE requirements,
2.
Martindale-Hubbell:
http://www.martindale.com/xp/Martindale/home.xml
3. Anywho: http://www.anywho.com/
Finds
businesses or people by name, Yellow Pages, White Pages, Reverse Lookup,
Toll-free numbers, and International pages; in conjunction with AT&T.
4. Smart Pages: http://www.smartpages.com/
SBC/Ameritech’s
comprehensive version of nationwide searches for businesses and a whole lot
more; consumer
oriented.
5. US Search: http://www.ussearch.com/wlcs/index.jsp
Search backgrounds of people, criminal histories, identity theft and various court records, for a fee.
4. Switchboard.com: www.switchboard.com
Outstanding and comprehensive free way to find a lot of people.
5. Area Code Listings
Searchable Database, which lists cities, and State covered
6. ATT reverse phone lookup
7. Yahoo People Search: http://people.yahoo.com/
This pay site,
merely repackages and utilizes USSearch.com but offers three different packages
depending on how much information you want on the person.
B.
Data
Searches on People
1. Birthdays:
http://anybirthday.com/search.htm
2. Search Systems: http://www.searchsystems.net/
Public
Records locator by State;
some for free, some for fee.
3. Virtual Gumshoe: http://www.virtualgumshoe.com/
Great list of investigative tools, extremely comprehensive portal
for investigators and investigation.
4. PublicData.com: www.publicdata.com
Outstanding
portal for locating driver’s license and criminal records; fee-based, but not that
expensive. Not as up to date as some
others, this site is very user friendly, as reprinted below—
