One trend during the economic downturn seems to be a lower number of divorce filings. However, some say that this trend has nearly run its course. We get a fair amount of calls on division of assets in a divorce but have not noticed an increase one way or the other based on research requests. If you’re interested in tracking current legal trends or expanding your practice, this may be an area you want to watch and monitor.

To search for articles on the topic of divorce during a recession, try the following search:

Database: JLR

Query:ti(divorce (dissolution /2 marriage) “family law” & down-turn economic! recession) & DA(AFT 2008)

Number of Results: 6

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We frequently get calls from summer associates who have been given the task of researching cases that are interpreting a particular statue or rule. Usually, the best way to start, is to do a Find by Citation to the particular statute or rule.  Then, click on the link to the “Citing References” on the left.

Once you are in the Citing References, you can click “Limit KeyCite Display” at the bottom of the screen to apply various limitations to sort the results.

For example, let’s say you are researching Florida cases interpreting prohibited acts under the Family Medical Leave Act (29 USCA § 2615).

Currently, there are over ten thousand citing references for this statute. However, after clicking “Limit KeyCite Display,” you can first limit the list to just cases. Then, you can click “Jurisdiction” on the left to limit it further.

The “Jurisdiction” page lists the federal cases on the left, and the state cases on the left. From this list, we can tell that there are 53 U.S. District Court cases from Florida and just 1 state court case citing to this statute. By checking those two options and clicking “apply,” we’ve gone from over 10,000 to just 54 Citing References.

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Interested in monitoring discussion of the oil spill in the Congressional Record? Try running the following search:

Database: CR

Search Query: te(B.P. “british petroleum” (oil /4 spill! & gulf)) & DA(AFT 05/01/2010)

After running the search, click “Add search to Westclip” at the top of the result list. You can set up a Westclip to get an email with new documents on a daily basis. The database name and search query should be set by default. You can name your search and set a Client ID if necessary. Click “edit” in the upper right corner next to “delivery settings” and click “properties” next to email so that you can make sure your email address is entered.

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Earlier this week passengers aboard a Virgin Atlantic flight from London to Newark, NJ were stranded for over four hours on the tarmac (with no air conditioning) after being diverted to an airport in Connecticut due to bad weather.

Back in December, the U.S. Department of Transportation promulgated regulations governing how long airline passengers can be delayed on an airport tarmac before being allowed to “deplane.” These regulations went into effect in April. To view the regulations, try the following search:

Database: CFR

Search Query: pr(transportation & air! & passenger & “enhanced protection”)

Documents Retrieved: 8

The regulations give a maximum of 3 hours for passengers to be stuck on the tarmac before being allowed to deplane, but unfortunately for Virgin Atlantic passengers, this 3-hour limit does not apply to international flights by foreign carriers.

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One hot topic in many state legislatures currently involves prohibiting texting while driving, and perhaps other cell phone-related distractions while driving as well.

Even Oprah is on board.  For recent legislative amendments on this topic, try the following search:

Databases: LEGIS-OLD-ALL, LEGIS-ALL

Search Query: CELLULAR DISTRACT! TEXT! /4 DRIV! & DA(LAST 3 YEARS)

Documents Retrieved: 35

For Journals and Law Review Articles on this topic, try this search: 

Database: JLR

Search Query: ti(text! distract! cell! mobile phon! telephon! /4 driv!)

Documents Retrieved: 20

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Attorneys for O.J. Simpson argued before the Nevada Supreme Court on Friday, June 11 to reverse Simpson’s conviction of armed robbery (and other similar offenses) from 2008. One of the arguments on appeal is that the trial court judge committed judicial misconduct throughout the trial which prejudiced Simpson.

Here is a link to the Appellant’s opening brief: SIMPSON, Orenthal J., Appellant, v. The State of Nevada, Respondent (2009 WL 3405087).

“the Court again scolds trial counsel. Court: listen folks, the last thing you want me to do as a trial judge is start losing my temper in front of the fine ladies and gentlemen of the jury and having to deal with all of you. You’ve been warned folks.”

To view filings from the trial court from this case, you can do the following search:

Database: NV-FILING

Search Query: TI(orenthal /2 simpson)

Number of Documents Retrieved: 13

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The debate regarding the value of “instant replay” in professional sports is a hot one right now following the events that have transpired in the past few days in Major League Baseball. For one lawyer’s  perspective on this debate, see S. Christopher Szczerban, Tackling Instant Replay: A Proposal to Protect the Competitive Judgments of Sports Officials, 6 Va. Sports & Ent. L.J. 277  (2007).

For more on this topic, try the following search:

Database: JLR

Search Query: ti(replay sport athlet! official referee umpire football basketball baseball hockey M.L.B. N.F.L. M.L.B. N.H.L.) & INSTANT-REPLAY /P OFFICIAL UMPIRE REFEREE /P BASEBALL BASKETBALL FOOTBALL HOCKEY SPORT ATHLET!

Results: 24

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The ongoing sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church in the past took a fascinating turn recently with allegations that now Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, declined to defrock a priest who abused hundreds of boys at a school in Wisconsin.

To view complaints filed on this topic, you can run the following search in FILING-ALL:

(ti(holy-see “vatican city” “roman catholic church” archdiocese) & abus! assault! ) & ((DT(COMPLAINT PETITION) % DT( BRIEF MOTION MEMORAN! REPLY RESPONSE ANSWER COUNTER-CLAIM COUNTER-PETITION CROSS-CLAIM COUNTER-COMPLAINT COUNTER-SUIT)))

For journal and law review articles on the topic, try this search in JLR:

ti(catholic archdiocese pope priest & abus!)

To find similar materials in WestlawNext, from the homepage, click “Secondary Sources” then “Law Reviews & Journals.” Click on the “advanced” icon in the upper right and enter the following query into the title field:

abus! & priest or archdiocese or catholic or pope.

For pleadings in WestlawNext, click “Pleadings Motions & Memoranda” from the homepage. Click on the “advanced” icon in the upper right corner and type the following search terms:

Party Name field: “holy see” OR “vatican city” OR archdiocese OR “roman catholic church”

Document Title field: complaint or petition

Text field: abus! or assault!

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Many practitioners will refer to more ubiquitous federal statutes by the popular name of the act, rather than the citation to the United States Code. For example, how do you access Section 202 of the Americans With Disabilities Act on Westlaw? To find this, you can go to the Popular Name Table for the United States Code, which will list the Act’s section numbers and then the corresponding United States Code citations.

Using the “Americans with Disabilities Act” example, go to USCA-POP and run a search (using either terms & connectors or natural language) for “Americans with Disabilities Act.” You can also go to the Table of Contents in the upper right corner and browse the alphabetical list for the name of the Act.

Once you find the Act, you will see a table listing the sections of the Act on the left, and the United States Code sections on the right. Section 202 of the A.D.A. was codified at 42 U.S.C.A. § 12132. Click to enlarge the image below:

To perform the same task on WestlawNext, click “Federal Materials” from the home page, then click “United States Code Annotated.” The Popular Name Table is linked on the right. Click to enlarge the image below: