The ZRG Blog

Bye for now

zimmermansguide — Sat, 04 May 2013 06:24:02 +0000

I wanted to let you know that The ZRG Blog is going on a long-term hiatus. Things have been busy, and I think it’s best to focus my time on writing Zimmerman’s Research Guide rather than writing about it. Thank you for following the Blog. I will let you know if I start blogging again. Regards, Andy Z.

Fourth Circuit jury instructions

zimmermansguide — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 14:05:59 +0000

The Federal Fourth Circuit does not have court-approved pattern Jury Instructions, but there is a privately published set called Horn’s Federal Criminal Jury Instructions for the Fourth Circuit by Carl Horn III.

New entry on Federal enclaves

zimmermansguide — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 13:53:41 +0000

Federal enclaves are real property ceded to the Federal government by one of the states. Think military bases, national parks and Federal courthouses. The new entry covers how property becomes a Federal enclave, how to tell if a particular property is a Federal enclave and where to look for more about Federal enclaves law.

Lexis creates huge archive of municipal codes

zimmermansguide — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 02:07:37 +0000

Lexis has been adding hundreds of municipal codes each month, and they say they now have nearly 3,000 online, by far the biggest collection anywhere. To make the deal even sweeter, Lexis will be keeping the old codes starting with the 2012 editions, creating a huge historical archive of online local laws.

Sacré bleu! Good scoop on French businesses

zimmermansguide — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 01:10:11 +0000

You can look up French company registration records (for free) and retrieve filings (for a fee) from Infogreff. Even the free records tell you the company’s annual sales and the number of employees.

Finding DOL ALJ decisions

zimmermansguide — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:54:22 +0000

I spent half an hour looking for cases cited as 2009 FRS xx this week. Bieber’s said “FRS” was the Federal Rules Service, but the cases turned out to be U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Law Judge decisions. ”FRS” stands for the “Federal Rail Safety Act” because the DOL cites its ALJ decisions based on the underlying Act, rather than calling them something obvious like DOL ALJ. There are currently 75 of these three-letter abbreviations. I added them all to the United States Department of Labor entry so that, if I someday search for a CER (CERCLA) or an SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act), I will know what I am looking for and where to find it.

Sites collecting FOIA Documents

zimmermansguide — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 14:56:19 +0000

Another aspect of working in DC is the increased need for Federal agency materials not readily available to the public. Two sites that help are FOI Services, which collects FOIA documents from the FDA, and Government Attic, which collects FOIA documents from the DOD, DOJ and several other agencies. I added FOI Services to the Food, Medical Devices and United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) entries. I added Government Attic to the Government Documents, Military Materials and United States Department of Justice entries.

New database of Title VII consent decrees

zimmermansguide — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 19:10:29 +0000

It’s not that often we see an entirely new database, but the Title VII Class Action Consent Decree Repository by Cornell ILR is the first source I know to collect Consent Decrees from Title VII race and sex discrimination class action cases. I found out about the database when an attorney asked me to find even him more Decrees than he found in the database. I did, but not before I added the Cornell database to the Employment discrimination entry.

Another place to find CRS Reports

zimmermansguide — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 21:38:40 +0000

Bloomberg Law has a handy collection of Congressional Research Service Reports. The collection goes back only to January 2011, but it is easy to search, and there is no charge to pull the report (once you have a Bloomberg Law subscription).

Good press from the WNE School of Law Library

zimmermansguide — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 15:16:18 +0000

The Western New England School of Law has a thoughtful review of Zimmerman’s Research Guide in their Spot-On Legal Research blog. Click here if you’re interested.