Information Gathering.

      Just as the description of the parameters of the first box, the parameters of this second box are multifaceted. One of these limiting boundaries is the restricted source of information used by lawyers to develop and write their work-product. Many of these lawyers are producing their written motions, pleadings and briefs from form books, seminar materials and previous cases only by changing the style of the case of the canned or recycled material. The parameter that deals with this antiquated method of producing written documents will be identified as Information Gathering.

       All lawyers know the pricey legal databases such as Lexis, Westlaw and many of their want-to-be competitors. Few lawyers know of the lexis One free service for national state case law and federal case law research for cases within the last five years. This lexis One free service is at

 http://www.lexisone.com/legalresearch/lrfreecaselaw.html.

       The real challenge in gathering information is harnessing the use of the many wonderful search engines that are available. The University at Albany has a great description of the best search engine to use for each occasion. Selecting a search engine is not a one-size-fits-all decision, although Google comes close. Other search engines can found under the “Web Searches” column title at our http://www.goextranet.net/ or http://www.millardfarmer.com/.