The following items included in Legal Web Watch March 2015 have been selected from Delia’s “New” page.

Follow Delia on Twitter @deliavenables and keep up with her “New” page on a regular basis.

Legal Topics with a difference from Justis Publishing

The Justis Blog is well worth watching, with topics which are just a little bit different, for example:

• A legal tour of London: six top spots
• 8 court buildings around the world that are well worth a visit during your summer holidays
• Commonly misspelled law words
• Tips for reading a judgment most effectively
• Seven Steps for Effective Legal Research
• Canada's Common Law: Why is it so important?
• Archaic Irish laws set to be repealed by Bill
• Easy ways to improve your revision strategy

It seems to me that the topics would be very useful for law students, and also for non-lawyers who are interested in the law, and in how history and law are intertwined. Melanie Davidson of Justis says "We’ve recently been trying to change the blog’s focus onto legal research more generally so we have written posts on cases and laws/judgments. It seems that these are proving popular when we consider the number of views they are receiving."

Nottingham Law School has applied for an ABS licence

Nottingham Law School, part of Nottingham Trent University, has applied to the SRA for an ABS licence that would allow it to create a “teaching law firm”. It is one of the largest university law schools in the UK, with over 100 academic staff and 2,500 students. This is the first application made by a university and, if granted, would apply to the law school’s newly expanded Legal Advice Centre which is likely to take on nearly 200 pro bono cases in the next academic year. Cases range from employment to IP and the Centre supports community outreach projects and legal education projects. See Legal Futures for more on this.

Law Society's new Guide to Common Legal Issues

The Law Society has launched a series of guides for members of the public to explain how to get help for problems that commonly arise. The guides are written "in plain English" and there are explanatory videos at various points as well. The guides cover buying a home, making a will, setting up a business, renting a home, renting out your property, getting a divorce, making a personal injury claim, probate, claiming asylum, problems at work, financial matters for older people and setting up home with your partner.

The guides are obviously aimed at persuading people to use a solicitor (well, what do you expect) but in this day and age of multiple sources of competition, this seems a perfectly valid approach for the Law Society to take!

Google+ is taking a back seat at Google

After nearly 4 years of hype and effort, Google+ as a social network is being sidelined by Google, with the emphasis switching to the two other parts of Google+ which are doing well – Photos (which has been very successful) and Streams (a competitor to Facebook). Bradley Horowitz, Google VP and one of Google+’s key architects, is now in charge of “Google’s Photos and Streams products" and agreed that Google+, as we know it, is being phased out. As always, Google's announcements are opaque but commentators are pretty clear as to what is happening. Here are four sources of information (and conjecture): Wired, threepipe, Yahoo Tech and Mashable.

Justis Publishing launches new Offshore Case Law Package

Justis Publishing has brought together the most important cases from key offshore jurisdictions – The Jersey Law Reports, Cayman Islands Law Reports and Justis BVI Cases – for the first time in a new collection for offshore practitioners. The new Offshore Case Law Package contains over 4,700 cases, across these series. This is complemented by the JustCite citator, which currently indexes and links to over 100 other data providers. This enables lawyers to find leading authorities and establish the current status of the law in common law jurisdictions across the world.

Net Neutrality wins – for now at least

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the USA recently passed new regulations to protect the free flow of content on the Internet. This means that internet Service providers (ISPs) cannot favour some sources of information over others. They cannot give priority to companies they are associated with (eg Amazon or Netflix) which might pay them to "speed up" their content ("paid prioritization") or slow down others that they are not associated with. Steve Wozniak, co-found of Apple, said he "had to be there" at the hearings and was pictured in US media applauding enthusiastically. The new rules will become effective in 60 days but there are plans afoot to challenge the legality of these and/or bring in new legisation which would make the new rules redundant. Opponents of the regulations, including many US broadband companies (who would have benefited from the additional source of income from some sources paying for the faster transmission) said that the decision will reduce investment and innovation.

Information on Italian property and inheritance law

De Tullio Law Firm may be 50 years old but it has just launched a spanking new web site. Run by Giandomenico De Tullio, they are specialists in Italian Property and Inheritance Law. Based in Rome, they also have a London branch to serve UK clients. The web site offers extensive descriptions in PDF form of the Italian legal processes involved in buying or selling property in Italy as well as an Italian Succession Guide. There are also helpful video descriptions of these processes and a series of detailed articles on particular topics in these legal areas (all in English by the way). A first consultation is free.

Well presented IP information site

Primary Opinion is a legal news and online legal and business information portal covering intellectual property law including patents, trade marks and copyright. They publish and distribute legal information online from professional advisory firms, including law firms, to sector-specific audiences. Their editorial team have a great deal of experience in the online content and legal services markets. The service is free to read and contribute.

Online dispute resolution should be used by the UK Courts

A new report from the Civil Justice Council recommends that non-criminal disputes of less than £25,000 could be dealt with in a new internet-based court service, to be known as HM Online Court (HMOC). This would not just be a question of computerising existing legal processes, but of using computers, and particularly online services, to completely change the way that the court system operates. The principal author of the report is Prof Richard Susskind and the report has been welcomed by HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

The proposed online dispute resolution scheme would be similar to the one used by online marketplace eBay to diagnose and resolve disputes.

The process is designed to operate in 3 tiers:

• Tier One will help users with a grievance to classify and categorize their problem, to be aware of their rights and obligations, and to understand the options and remedies available to them.
• Tier Two will provide online facilitators, effectively mediators, to review papers and statements and help parties through mediation and negotiation. The process will be supported where necessary, by telephone conferencing facilities. There will also be some automated negotiation, which are systems that help parties resolve their differences without the intervention of human experts.
• Tier Three of HMOC will provide Online Judges – full-time and part-time members of the Judiciary who will decide suitable cases or parts of cases on an online basis, largely on the basis of papers submitted to them electronically as part of a structured process of online pleading. This process will again be supported, where necessary, by telephone conferencing facilities.

The report, from the council's online dispute resolution advisory group, suggests conducting a pilot, ahead of an anticipated full roll-out in 2017.

DPS integrates with iManage for Taylor Vinters

Taylor Vinters is a major firm of Solicitors based in Cambridge, London and Singapore. They use iManage from Autonomy for their document management needs as well as DPS Outlook Office for case management. The firm wanted it all integrated, eg a document created by DPS’s case management software had to be accessed in the normal way but also checked into iManage automatically, without any user intervention. Similarly, Of course, if an iManage user checked a document into the case directly through iManage and outside of DPS, then DPS would need to synchronise the case automatically. Key members of DPS led a team to make all this happen.

On a personal note, this is a success story of two of my old friends – DPS because I have been recommending their software for some 20 years, and Taylor Vinters because my father, John Poole, was the first Senior Partner of the original Vinters in Cambridge (that's considerably more than 20 years ago, by the way). I have had a soft spot for Vinters – and then Taylor Vinters – every since.

Scots Lawyers can keep up to date and guest blog

ScotsLawBlog provides the most recent news relevant to Scots lawyers and businesses both those domiciled in Scotland and those established elsewhere looking to set up or develop their business in Scotland. The blog is written by Gavin Ward, a solicitor, previously employed by a top Scottish law firm, former Citizens Advice Bureau adviser and private law tutor at the University of Glasgow. There is a facility for law firms, lawyers and law students to display their own legal knowledge and skills as "guest bloggers" – an easy way to try out blogging, with the benefit of the extensive social media coverage of this blog, and without the hassle. The blog also deals with academic legal topics, particularly ones related to Scotland.

Ireland claims world first for women solicitors

The Law Society of Ireland has announced that female Irish solicitors now outnumber male solicitors practising in the republic. Ken Murphy, director general of the Law Society of Ireland said: "There were exactly 4,623 female practising solicitors and exactly 4,609 male practising solicitors at the close of 2014." The Law Society of England and Wales said that if average annual growth rates in the numbers of practising certificate holders from the previous five years (2008-2013) remain at 4.1% for women and 1.3% for men, the number of female PC holders will exceed the number of male PC holders by 2017.

My thanks to the Law Society Gazette for this story.

Tikit and Epoq bring their skills together

Tikit has a very long pedigree in the legal computing business, having built on TFB – one of my favourite software systems over many years. Now part of BT, Tikit has financial strength as well as innovative software. Epoq was the original developer of automated drafting systems, long before it became fashionable, and has maintained an innovative technical lead every since. Now these two companies have joined forces to offer a new product called Tikit LawDraft, an online digital drafting and collaboration tool integrated into the tikit software. Tikit LawDraft utilises Epoq’s online document automation technology, Rapidocs® to enable legal professionals to create documents online very efficiently and, in a new development, to enable client and colleague collaboration to co-draft documents for greater speed and accuracy. Accessible online and via mobile devices, Tikit LawDraft includes an extensive library of over 800 up-to-date interactive document and form templates, covering family law, wills, powers of attorney, landlord, employment and business law.

Law Society launches 2015 Diversity Access Scheme

The Law Society Diversity Access Scheme (DAS) aims to increase social diversity in the legal profession by supporting promising entrants from disadvantaged backgrounds or those who face exceptional obstacles to qualification. Successful applicants receive financial assistance through the provision of Legal Practice Course fees, access to relevant high-quality work experience and a professional mentor. In 2015, the Law Society will be offering 10 standard DAS awards. There is a related scheme called DAS PLUS which additionally offers a training contract at a National Law Centre. Applications for DAS and DAS PLUS open on 2 February 2015 and close on 13 April 2015.

Big expansion and change of focus for Hammicks

Hammicks Legal specialise in journals, looseleafs, law reports, books & eBooks for lawyers and related professionals. In a move designed to create one of the UK’s largest book distribution operations, they are moving their operations to an enlarged distribution centre in Southampton and expanding their subscription and customer service team based in Ashford, Middlesex. They will also be creating Hammicks concessions in a number of cities including London, Birmingham and Glasgow.