Legal Research
Now on the Web: IL Legislative Debates Back Through 1971
Scanned text-searchable transcripts of the Illinois House and Senate floor debates going back to 1971 are now available on the legislature’s website. Before February 2007 the transcripts available online only went back to 1997. This is a significant development that will assist attorneys and other interested persons better understand the context that existed when […]
Copy Protected General Assembly Transcripts?
Here you can access transcripts of the Illinois House and Senate floor debates going back to 1997 1971 (change noted here). The transcripts are in PDF format. On occasion I include an excerpt from a transcript in my work. But I can’t copy and paste from the PDFs because they are set […]
How to Proofread Perfectly
Answer: Don’t read it… let the computer do it.
I find the best way to perfectly proofread a document, legal memo, or even an email is to have the computer read it back to me using a text-to-speech program while I follow along looking at the text. I currently use a free utility called […]
Illinois Has One Appellate Court
I am surprised at the number of Illinois attorneys who do not know that Illinois has one appellate court. Yes the appellate court is divided into districts, and the first district is further divided into divisions. But the Illinois Supreme Court has long held that all the divisions and subdivisions should be seen […]
Research Tip: How to Quickly Find (for Free) Cases Supporting a Rule of Law
Often when writing a legal memo I come to a point where I want to recite a widely accepted rule of law, like a canon of statutory interpretation. For example, when interpreting a statute the court must determine and give effect to the intent of the legislature. I know there are hundreds of cases […]
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