A snapshot of the type of content provided by the Newsletter in its early days is reproduced below from an old page on Delia’s site, retrieved courtesy of the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine. It is notable that the range of topics covered is similar to today’s mix. The main difference is that the internet was all very new back then and there was more of a focus on new sites. Delia’s Newsletter served as an essential guide to the emerging wonders of the (legal) web.
November/December 1999 issue
Here are the stories covered this time …
1. 400 Free Forms Available on the Web
A new site called EveryForm provides 400 forms – and more to come – on the web, for free. Income will be generated by users taking out a maintenance contract to keep up to date – but it’s still a pretty amazing offer.
2. Get Yourself an Email Policy, by Jeremy Holt
Commercial Lawyer Jeremy Holt describes some of the mischiefs that employees can get up to, using email – and how a firm or company can protect itself against these. He discusses the pros and cons of monitoring emails and says that disclaimers are not the answer. He describes what should appear on an email, as a company letter.
3. Internet Shopping – Contractual Implications, by Jacqui Gilliatt
The recent Argos case – where TV’s were offered for £3 by mistake – raises several importance issues of when and how a contract is made over the Internet. Will Argos have to fulfill the orders which customers have placed?
4 Free Legal Information for Individuals, by Delia Venables
Most articles in this newsletter concentrate on the free legal information available for lawyers but there is a great deal “out there” available for individuals as well. Much of this has been provided by firms of solicitors and there are even 30 firms who are willing to provide free initial advice by email.
5. A Tale of Two Mailing Lists… by Darius Whelan, Irish Law List, and Daniel Barnett, Employment Law UK Mailing List.
In separate articles, the two authors describe how they set up a mailing list, and the satisfactions – and problems – of doing this. Most legal participants are rather passive it seems, and do not send a lot of emails to the list. Why? Daniel describes also a number of Email Newsletters provided by major firms – not quite the same thing.
6. The Welsh Assembly on the Web, by Carolyn Kirby
Carolyn is the Law Society council member for Mid and West Wales and she has acted as co-ordinator of the Law Society’s devolution sub-committee since it was formed in January 1998. She describes the trials and tribulations of the new Assembly web site.
7. Do You Want an Intranet? by Mark Garnish, of TFB
There is a lot of talk about Intranets but there are not as many as you might think actually on the ground. Mark describes how you set up an Intranet, from the very simplest variety (just an area of disk space on a network and a simple page of html) to a more complicated one (with full web server software).
8. How to Become an Electronic Lawyer, by Mike Gilpin, of KnowHow Systems
Mike’s company developed the Blue Flag system for Linklaters. He cannot give away commercially sensitive information but he does describe the general techniques behind collecting, organising and managing information in a form which can then be provided as online advice.
9. More New Web Sites
Delia describes the sites offered by the Legal Aid Board, the Home Office, the Criminal Justice System, the Bar Pro Bono Unit, Case Reports involving the Police, Criminal Law Week, Victim Support, the Scottish Area on the SCL site, Charles Christian’s New Media Lawyer, a site called Marketing Law, two Sports Law sites, Lawrite (Employment Law Solutions for Business), Harassment Law, Legal Week and Lex Millenniale.
