NAELA News August, 1999 - National Academy of Elder Law ...

NAELA News ● August 1999
Internet Corner
Using the Internet Can Make
You a Better Elder Law Attorney
by David Goldfarb, Esq.
The Internet has become an indispensable
tool for elder law attorneys. It
provides immediate access to up-to-date
information—although verifying the accuracy
of the information
is up to you. It also
provides a means
of communication
with other
attorneys and
clients.
What You
Need
You of course
need a computer,
Internet access, an e-mail
program, and a Web browser. Today,
it is almost impossible to
buy a computer that does not
have everything you need to
get started using the Internet.
Since surveys show that
most people who buy a computer
for the first time identify
accessing the Internet as a major
reason for their purchase, most
computers make it easy to get online.
So if you have yet to take the plunge in
accessing the Internet, there’s no longer
an excuse not to get online! In this article,
we’re going to show you what the
Internet has to offer the elder law attorney,
and how the Internet can make you
a better elder law attorney.
What You Get
The World Wide Web
The “content” accessible over the
World Wide Web includes government
information, law school libraries, case
databases, and commercial information
sites. Normally you would have to resort
to search engines on the Internet to
locate the material you want to find. But
many legal sites now provide lists of
“links.”
For example, Cornell Law School’s
Legal Information Institute (LII) has a
comprehensive list of many Web resources.
The LII collection of state legal
materials compiles, state by state,
Internet-accessible sources of the constitutions,
statutes, judicial opinions, and
regulations for the 50 states plus
D.C. and the U.S. territories and
affiliated jurisdictions. It is at
http://www.law.
cornell.edu/states/. LII
also provides the United
States Code, Code of
Federal Regulations,
and a method
to search all federal
Circuit Courts of
Appeal. See http://
www.law.cornell.edu/.
American Law Source hosts
ALSO! at http://www.l awsource.com/
also/ that provides a comprehensive
listing of links to
state laws, judicial
opinions,
forms, sources
of commentary
and practice aids.
Here are just
some of the sites on the
Web that are useful to elder
law attorneys.
Information Provided by the
Federal Government:
● Health Care Financing Administration
Information on Medicaid
and Medicare at http://
www.hcfa.gov/
● HCFA’s State Medicaid Manual
for Download in WordPerfect
format at http://www.hcfa.gov/
pubforms/stmcaid/mcaidtoc.htm
● Social Security Administration’s
Handbook at http://www.ssa.gov/
OP_Home/handbook/ssa-hbk.htm
● The IRS home page with
downloadable tax forms and
publications at http://
www.irs.ustreas.gov/plain/
State Specific Material:
● Cornell LII State Specific Material
at http://www.law.cornell.edu/states/
● American Law Source ALSO! at
http://www.lawsource.com/also/
● State Search Service of the National
Association of State Information
Resource Executives (NASIRE) at
http://www.nasire.org/ss/
● The State Court Locator of The
Villanova The Center for Information
Law and Policy at http://
www.cilp.org/State-Ct/
● State Web Locator of The Villanova
Center for Information Law and
Policy at http://www.cilp.org/State-
Agency/index.html
● Municipal Codes Online from
Seattle Public Library at http://
www.spl.org/govpubs/
municode.html
● State Tax Forms from the Federation
of Tax Administrators (FTA) at http:/
/www.taxadmin.org/fta/
FORMS.html
Court Decisions:
● A finder for federal court decisions
is at http://www.law.emory.edu/
FEDCTS/
● The State Court Locator of The
Villanova The Center for Information
Law and Policy at http://
www.cilp.org/State-Ct/Law schools
● ABA List of Law Schools at http://
www.abanet.org/legaled/
ALPHA.HTML
● USC Law School Locator at http://
www.usc.edu/dept/law-lib/librarys/
locators.html
● The University of Kansas School of
Law provides the Kansas Elderlaw
Network (KELN) at http://
www.ink.org/public/keln/
Organizations That Provide
Elder Law Related
Information:
● National Academy of Elder Law
Attorneys at http://www.naela.org/
● National Health Law Program at
http://www.healthlaw.org/
● National Association of Social
Security Claims Representatives at
http://www.nosscr.org/
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