OF THE LAW SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND - The Journal Online

Journal
Websites
www.scottishlaw.org.uk
The predecessor of this site, Scotslawonline, was
first reviewed in these pages nearly two years ago.
There is little left of that site now, not even the
name. However, the identity of the indefatigable
author remains, Kevin Crombie, an independent
pioneer in Scottish legal websites. So it’s worth
having another look to see whether the aim of the
site, which is to be “the very first place that
anyone with an interest in Scots Law would visit
…on the internet” has been realised. To a large
extent it has. Its home page would be a good
candidate for the default home page of your
browser if you use the web a lot for legal stuff.
Thankfully, the site has now eschewed the use of
fiddly graphics and most other irritating gimicky
stuff (except for pop-up banners: I suppose the
site has to be paid for somehow). The
uncomplicated, simply-designed home page is
Speed ◆◆◆◆
Usefulness to practitioners ◆◆◆◆◆
www.lawreports.co.uk
this is another of the plain vanilla
high-content sites that should find
their way to the top 10 basic sites
of any lawyer interested in what’s
moving in the courts. This is the
website of the Incorporated
Council of Law Reporting which is
responsible for publishing WLR, the
Law Reports and ICR. The mission
of the ICLR is to report those cases
that “really matter”. Much of the
website is devoted, as one would
Advocate Derek O’Carroll picks out a likely candidate
for your home page if you undertake
a lot of legal research online
easy to navigate with the principal sections of the
site accessible from columns on both sides of the
page and a straightforward introduction to the
site down the middle.The author has packed the
site with all sorts of resources.The basic nuts and
bolts stuff (caselaw, legislation, government sites,
other legal links) are found in the first two
sections. The A to Z of law is particularly useful
with annotated links to websites listed under
categories (e.g. A is for Animals, F is for Family and
Z is for Bored.com ). Although billed as the A to
Z of Scots law, that is a little misleading as the sites
cover law from many jurisdictions. Unfortunately,
there are not enough Scots law sites to fill an A to
Z.The site works hard at interactivity so there are
loads of bulletin boards. Most, unfortunately, are
not well used by the public and lawyers which is a
great pity since such features are potentially very
productive.The site also works hard at appealing
to other interests such as law students and
Usefulness to non-practitioners ◆◆◆
Site design ◆◆◆◆
expect, to the promotion of its
wares. But there is more. Usefully,
the site lists all the cases reported in
the current and previous issue of
WLR together with a brief
summary of the content.
Unfortunately, although the most
recent cases reported in ICR and
the Law Reports are also listed, they
contain neither a summary nor a
link to the rubric and headnote. Pity.
It can’t be that difficult especially
since the Law Reports contain a
site of the month:
selection of WLR cases.The best bit
I save till last: hope you are still here.
The Daily Law Notes are a “precise
and accurate summary” of those
cases which will eventually end up in
WLR. Speed is the thing, with the
cases finding their way onto the
website within 24 hours or so of
the judgments being handed down.
The index is a little primitive in web
terms.You can search by court (with
the cases broken down by subject
area), or by date. There is a useful
Derek O’Carroll welcomes comments on the reviews and suggestions for sites to review
May 2002 Volume 47 No 5 40
trainees with news, journal and discussion sites in
these areas.There are fun things to do too: try the
xxx..archive in the Shockwave files section and see
if your mental age is old enough to
continue…(The things a reviewer has to do).The
new Intranet for lawyers is a smaller version of
the main site focusing on practical resources for
lawyers including ancillary tools (such as currency
converters, timetables, on-line forms etc.).
Although the site no longer advises when it was
last updated (a response to the previous review!)
the news section is updated daily and the rest
pretty frequently.The author of this site has put an
enormous amount of work into this ambitious
site.The more it is used, the better it’ll be, which
must be to the advantage of all lawyers.
Subjective Rating (where 5* is excellent and 1*
is poor and no stars indicate that that
category has not been assessed)
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Updating frequency ◆◆◆◆
e:
summary of all cases in the current
and last week. If you only know the
name of the case, the index will not
help and there is no search function.
Still, it’s free and wonderfully clear,
being devoid of fancy web stuff.
Speed ◆◆◆◆
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Usefulness to non-practitioners ◆
Site design ◆◆◆
Ease of use ◆◆◆◆◆
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jlsswebreview@blueyonder.co.uk