The Appealing Internet:

Preparing for the Web

Many lawyers are justifiably wary of the Internet. It is a place where you can get lost easily, where things change daily, and where you may not receive accurate information. Yet the part of the Internet known as the World Wide Web (the Web) holds many useful things for the appellate practitioner. This article will point you to some of them.

To get to these resources you will need to access the Web. To access the Web you will need (1) a Macintosh or IBM-type computer running Windows (a mouse, tracker ball or button is required because you must "point and click"); (2) a software program called a browser (Netscape Navigator/Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are the two most widely used) and (3) an internet connection (through an Internet Service Provider [ISP] or proprietary provider such as America Online or Compuserv). If you are not yet "connected" but are considering becoming a web visitor, you will find a "how to" article in the Spring, 1997 issue of the St. Louis Bar Journal of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, entitled "M>Getting Through the Looking Glass: a Guide to Selecting and Contracting with an Internet Service Provider, by Jeffrey L. Michelman.

While you're on the web, go to http://www.solaw.com/fedappeal.html

This article will be posted there and you can use it to easily "link" to the Web sites mentioned.

The Rules

Rules are extremely important to appellate practitioners. They are located on many different "pages" or "home pages." More and more material is being posted to the web so we can expect access to get better all the time. You can find the federal appellate rules, federal rules of civil procedure and the federal rules of criminal procedure on the Web. In addition, many federal circuit and district courts have posted their local rules on the Web. State rules of appellate procedure are also rapidly being posted to the Web. Some of the courts maintain their own sites. Others, like the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, have an agreement with a local law school whereby the school maintains the Court's website. We'll start with the overarching federal rules of appellate procedure, civil procedure and criminal procedure. From there we'll move on to the U.S. Supreme Court's home page (maintained by Cornell University), then the Eighth Circuit's home page (maintained by Washington University School of Law in St. Louis), and on.

The Federal Rules

Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure have been posted to the Web by the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The site also contains the Rules of the Fifth Circuit and its Internal Operating Procedures (IOP). Related forms are located at the end of the page (Ctrl-End, then cursor up to the form you want). http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/docs/frap-iop.htm.

United States Supreme Court Rules (with 1997 revisions) have been posted to the Web by Cornell University's Legal Information Institute Project. http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/supct/overview.html

Eighth Circuit Rules are on its home page created and maintained by Washington University School of Law athttp://ls.wustl.edu/8th.cir/Rules/index.html. This page lists the rules but is only one of many pages posted to the Eighth Circuit's "home page". To go to a higher level at many web sites, you can try deleting the last group of characters (text or numbers) to the right of the last slash [/] in the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) box (or "Location" box), press enter, and move to the higher level. A court's home page usually serves as a "gateway" to other, associated, pages containing opinions, rules, the court's calendar and other related or "linked" sites. Most pages we will visit are organized this way. The Eighth Circuit's home page is at http://ls.wustl.edu/8th.cir/cindex.html . Once at the "gateway" or "home page," you can find the local rules and other documents by clicking on links. Most links are blue, underlined characters, however, links may be other colors or "in" the pictures or graphics. (You know it's a link if the cursor arrow becomes a "pointy finger" as you move the cursor over the character or graphic.) On a web page, you can usually scroll down that page's scroll bar on the right hand side, select a topic (by moving the mouse and placing the cursor on it), and click the left button of the mouse to "jump" or link to other pages containing information . When you click on the blue word "Rules" on the Eighth Circuit's page for example, you jump (link) to a page listing the local rules of the Eighth Circuit and amendments to the federal rules of appellate procedure. Also available on that page are the Court's "Internal Operating Procedures" (click on the abbreviation "iop") and the Practitioner's Handbook For Appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (click on "handbook.wpd" and download or view the 134 pages in WordPerfect Format). The local rules for the Eighth Circuit's district courts can be accessed through a link at http://www.moed.uscourts.gov/.

Each Circuit has a home page, but not all of them have posted their rules. Here are the World Wide Web home pages of the United States Circuit Courts of Appeal:

Federal Circuit: http://www.law.emory.edu/fedcircuit

First Circuit: http://www.law.emory.edu/1circuit/

Second Circuit: http://www.TouroLaw.edu/2ndCircuit/

Third Circuit: http://www.law.vill.edu/Fed-Ct/ca03.html

Fourth Circuit: http://www.law.emory.edu/4circuit/

Fifth Circuit: http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/

Rules of Fifth Circuit: http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/documents/frap-frame.htm

Sixth Circuit: http://www.law.emory.edu/6circuit/

Seventh Circuit: http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/

Eighth Circuit: http://www.wulaw.wustl.edu/8th.cir

Rules of Eighth Circuit: http://ls.wustl.edu/8th.cir/Rules/index.html

NOTE: Of particular help to the appellate practitioner in the Eighth Circuit is the 1996 "Practitioner's Handbook for Appeals". Go to http://ls.wustl.edu/8th.cir/Rules/index.html . On that page, click on the blue words "handbook.wpd" under "Publications". You will be asked whether you want to open or save it to disk. It is in WordPerfect format.

Ninth Circuit: http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/courts/9th.html

Tenth Circuit: http://www.ck10.uscourts.gov/

Rules of Tenth Circuit: http://www.ck10.uscourts.gov/circuit/rules.html

Eleventh Circuit: http://www.mindspring.com/~wmundy/opinions.html

Rules of the Eleventh Circuit: ftp://ftp.mindspring.com/users/wmundy/rules95.pdf

District Court of District of Columbia: http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/

(Click on the Search Button and type in "Rules"; scroll down to "Circuit Rules" and click on that link)

State Rules

Missouri

Missouri has done a good job of posting many of the rules of its appellate and trial courts. In particular, Judge Richard E. Standridge, Division 25, Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri has created and maintains a website called "Court Rules Central" http://www.courtrules.org/index.htm. Once there, click on the button "Show Me the Rules." From there, you can link to the Missouri Rules of Procedure which govern both civil appeals (Rules 81 through 84, Missouri Rules of Civil Procedure) and criminal appeals (Rule 30, Missouri Rules of Criminal Procedure) in Missouri appellate courts. Forms are posted at the end of the Rules. This site also contains links to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure and Evidence, and, for Kansas City practitioners, the Rules of the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri. The "Notes" to the federal rules are included, but the West annotations (which West Services claims are proprietary) are not. Judge Standridge's site also "links" to other useful sources of legal materials at http://www.courtrules.org/lawlinks.htm.

Missouri Court of Appeals Local Rules. Each of the three districts of the Missouri Court of Appeals have local rules which the appellate practitioner must review: The Eastern District, the Western District and the Southern District.

Missouri Appellate Practice Manual. The "ABC's of Appellate Practice", a practice guide published by the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, is on the Web at http://www.osca.state.mo.us/index.nsf/516c7664fda1528a862565ec00504473/e59818a1fd3f82b886256820005aee4f?OpenDocument. The manual reminds readers that it is not a substitute for careful reading of the rules and applicable court decisions.

Other states' pages (with links to rules if they are posted) can be accessed through the following URL's: http://www.lawsource.com/also/ http://www.courts.net

http://www.findlaw.com//11stategov/index.html

Case law

Federal and state caselaw on the Web

Full text versions (without West editorial enhancements) of selected federal Supreme Court cases since 1937 (and historic decisions before then) are on the Web at both http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/ and http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html . Other federal cases can be accessed from the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals' home pages listed above or a website which links to those pages, such as, http://www.lawsource.com/also/ . Most state courts have posted their opinions only since the early 1990's. Some state appellate courts do not continue to keep all their opinions posted but remove them after a short period of time. For example, at the Missouri Court of Appeals location, http://www.osca.state.mo.us/ (Click on the underlined words: All Missouri Appellate Court Opinions), opinions previously were posted for only three months, then removed. However, responding to requests, the Missouri Supreme Court recently reposted opinions from 1997 to date. Note, however, that many of the locations you "link" to (and in particular, Missouri cases on the Web) will post a notice that the Web version should not be cited or relied upon: ("This document is unofficial and should not be quoted or cited"). So, even if you find the right case, your work is not finished. You will have to verify it and obtain the citation to the West "unofficial" reporter (the Missouri Secretary of State no longer publishes an official version of Missouri's case law). Of course, you will also need to shepardize it.

Two home pages which will quickly get you to other courts' pages (including international courts) are http://www.ncsc.dni.us/COURT/SITES/Courts.htm#state and

http://www.legalonline.com/courts.htm

Constitutions

The United States Constitution has been posted by Cornell at http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html. An annotated version (with hyptertext links to some cases) is published by FindLaw at http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/constitution/

The Missouri constitution may be searched or its table of contents viewed on the Web at http://www.moga.state.mo.us/const/A05010.HTM

Statutes

The U.S. Code, again thanks to Cornell, is posted at: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/

Specific federal statutes and regulations are often posted at the appropriate administrative agency's web site. Here are some of the agencies' home pages, through which you can link to statutes and regulations.

Department of Justice: http://www.usdoj.gov

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: http://www.eeoc.gov

http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-ada.html (Age Discrimination in Employment Act; Equal Employment Opportunity Act; Americans with Disabilities Act)

Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov

(Clean Air Act; Comprehensive Environmental response and Compensation Liability Act; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act)

Department of Labor: http://www.dol.gov

(Employee Retirement Income Security Act; Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act; Family Medical Leave Act; National Labor Relations Act; Immigration Reform and Control Act)

Federal Trade Commission: http://www.ftc.gov (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act)

Housing and Urban Development: http://www.hud.gov (Fair Housing Act)

Occupational Safety and Health Administration: http://www.osha.gov (OSHA)

Social Security Administration: http://www.ssa.gov (Social Security Act)

Missouri statutes: http://www.moga.state.mo.us/homestat.htm. The Missouri General Assembly publishes this web page. The web page gives you three ways to find a statute (on the web page, click on your choice): (1) by a "Keyword search" (for example, by typing in a term like landlord); (2) by a "Statute Number Search" (NOTE: do not use a dot in the number; use a dash [-]. For example, type in 701-450 [not 701.450] to find a gender equity statute passed in 1995); or (3) by clicking on the words "View Missouri Revised Statutes", which takes you to a table of contents to scroll through (the scenic route).

Other

The "Big Two" of commercial online legal research databases, West and Lexis, used only to provide access through their proprietary software. Both have established web sites on the internet (available using browser software alone), from which you can access their vast databases. However, these sites are "fee-based." To use the West or Lexis web sites you need an account and a password. The companies have stated that charges are based on the type of search (not length, so that searching with a slow modem or at a busy time of day does not affect the charge) and are billed to your account or credit card. West's online searchable databases are entered through http://www.westlaw.com/ and Lexis-Nexis' website is http://www.lexis-nexis.com

At the top of Lexis' site is a counter showing the increasing number of documents on Lexis' online database (almost two billion in November, 1998).

There are numerous other web sites which have valuable information for the appellate practitioner. Here are only a few others.

American law sources (including Canada and Mexico). An exhaustive compilation of North American law sources online is at http://www.lawsource.com/also/.

Missouri Lawyers Weekly allows free access to subscribers to its database of archived articles (from 1993 to date) and case summaries (from 1990 to date) at its web site at http://www.missourilaw.com . You must pay a fee if you want to obtain full text opinions. If you place an order over the Internet -- rather than by phone -- it costs less. Many Lawyers Weekly articles are of particular interest to appellate lawyers. For example, the October 20, 1997 edition provided a "quick guide" for handling an appeal in Missouri, and a front page story on November 17, 1997 gave pointers on extraordinary writ practice. To search, you must be a subscriber to Missouri Lawyers Weekly and obtain a user name and password -- an easy matter, accomplished on the web site if you have your account information handy. The parent publication, Lawyers Weekly, provides the same service for its database to its subscribers: http://www.lawyersweekly.com/ .

Legal Writing Tips and Resources. The American Bar Association maintains an excellent legal writing page at http://4.21.247.201/bestpractice_front.asp?issuenum=160, which emphasizes legal writing in "plain English."

Copies of Legal Briefs. "Briefreporter" is a fee-based service through which you can obtain copies of legal briefs. It is located at http://www.briefreporter.com/.

Search Engines. If you have accessed the Web and visited all of the sites listed above, you have come across some which allow you to "search" the database by typing a term or terms in a "query box" (much like Westlaw and Lexis). Such pages use a "search engine." There are also stand-alone search engines, which allow you to search their databases in the same manner. One problem, however, is that you can't be sure whether that database contains the type of information you're looking for. Most web-savvy lawyers do everything they can to avoid using stand-alone "general" search engines. Instead, they develop good lists of sites (called "bookmarks" or "favorite places"), start their research with those, and "link" to other sites. So-called "general search engines" can be real time-wasters. There are hundreds of them, although browsers generally "round up the usual" search engines on their home pages: Yahoo!, AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, HotBot and Infoseek. Each general search engine is different both in what material it contains and how it searches. A general search engine may or may not have boolean search capabilities (allowing "terms and connectors" queries). However, one "general" and one "legal" search engine may be worth trying if your bookmark links fail to lead you to what you need. AltaVista at http://altavista.digital.com/ and FindLaw at http://www.findlaw.com/.. AltaVista is a stand-alone general search engine with "advanced search" features (Boolean logic). FindLaw is the premier (free) stand-alone legal search engine. You will find tips to help you construct good search queries at http://www.findlaw.com/info/helpers/searchhelp.html

The Web will not replace traditional resources such as books and proprietary systems such as Westlaw, but it is a convenient (and cheap) starting point. Just remember that when using the Web for legal research, legal professionals must "trust, but verify" (and update).