Resources provided by firms of solicitors

Many firms of solicitors provide useful legal information on their websites, but in most cases it is information aimed at a particular type of potential client – those with injuries who are considering a claim, individuals considering divorce, companies trying to collect debts, employers and employees with employment problems and so on. In other words, it is really marketing information.

In most cases, the resources have not been generalised to provide a free-standing legal resource but are really created as an aid to marketing the skills of the firm in question.

The firms described here have gone beyond a marketing approach to provide a legal resource, without charge, and have often laboured long and hard to create the resource and then to keep it up to date. There is certainly an element of public service in all these sites.

The resources

abuselaw.co.uk is a site provided by Abney Garsden McDonald based in Greater Manchester. The site aims to provide easy access to information for child and adult survivors of physical, sexual and psychological abuse on all aspects of this complex area of law. The site also aims to offer guidance on and understanding of the legal system of England and Wales for professionals working for abuse survivors of abuse. By providing information on the legal rights available to the survivor of abuse in seeking compensation, an explanation of the civil and criminal procedures and a guide to the Legal Aid system and Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, it aims to offer a greater understanding of the legal system.

Bhatt Murphy is a firm specialising in human rights issues. They handle complex and serious cases against state agencies including the police, prison and immigration authorities. The site offers a series of “timelines”: histories of particular legal areas relating to police misconduct and prisoners rights, indicating the legislation, political initiatives, campaigns and case law of each area. There are timelines for police misconduct, tariff setting for life sentenced prisoners, deaths in custody, immigration detention, parole hearings and the prison disciplinary system. There is also a very useful set of links to other bodies involved in these issues.

CrimeLine is a major free legal resource for criminal lawyers. Written by Andrew Keogh, it is received by over 12,000 criminal lawyers, judges and academics each week. Each issue digests the latest cases from 30 sources, legislation and news. Important judgments are often emailed within minutes of being handed down. Cases are linked to Casetrack or BAILII for full text judgments.

Criminal Solicitor Dot Net provides criminal practitioners with news (frequently updated) and resources on criminal law and criminal contracting. The site offers access to forums to discuss criminal law and contracting issues and provides a case law updater and legislation updater to keep members aware of impending or recent changes in criminal law. You have to register to be a “member” but it is free. There is also a weekly email newsletter on which free CPD (1 hour a month) can be earned. The site also incorporates several blogs and newsfeeds – Diary of a Criminal Solicitor, The Law West of Ealing Broadway, and The Policeman’s Blog (all reached via the site as above). These blogs contain the news items available on the site but are “filtered” according to these categories.

Disease-i is a site provided by Weightmans which provides practical handling guidance for disease claims and deals specifically with eight of the most prevalent occupational diseases in a medical, legal and historical context: noise induced hearing loss claims, hand arm vibration syndrome, work related upper limb disorders, asbestos related claims, asthma, stress and harassment claims, dermatitis and silicosis. The site is designed for claims handlers, risk and insurance managers and health and safety professionals to use in their day to day work. The aim is to reduce the inherent complexity of disease claims by offering practical claims handling tips and guidance on how to approach the most common issues such as causation, foreseeability, breach of duty, limitation, quantum and apportionment. Parts of the site are only available on subscription but there is a great deal of basic information available for free.

DPA Law (Data Protection Act Law) is the website of the Privacy and Information Law Group at Field Fisher Waterhouse. This site contains a great deal of free information about data protection, privacy and confidentiality law, including an A-Z of data protection and privacy and a glossary of key words and phrases in data protection law with links to relevant resources. There are also links to key European data protection and privacy laws, including legislation and court cases, and a set of links to worldwide regulatory bodies and public authorities that have responsibilities for data protection and privacy.

Elbourne Mitchell provides case reports and commentary on a large number of insurance & reinsurance, shipping and commercial & employment judgments. There are several quarterly newsletters on these topics to which the viewer can subscribe.

Elexica is a free online legal resource from leading international law firm Simmons & Simmons. The site offers registered users an extensive range of legal information including practical guides, checklists, current awareness articles, legislative updates, case reports, detailed legal analysis, training modules (with CPD hours), a current awareness email alerting service and an extensive library of categorised web links. All content is provided by lawyers based in the firm’s international network of offices and the articles cover a variety of topics, jurisdictions and languages.

Law-Now is the free online information service for businesses from CMS Cameron McKenna. The site, which covers both national and international legal topics, can be viewed online or taken as a personalised email service – there are around 30,000 subscribers to this service. All major legal areas are covered.

Malcolm Johnson & Co specialise in legal matters relating to child abuse. They provide over 300 pages of legal information on their site, made up of case reports and synopses that they have written as well as notes on relevant statutes, both historical and current, relating to child abuse. They are developing the statute and case law database as a resource for students and practitioners working in this difficult area.

Manches provides detailed information on topics like tax, financial orders, pensions splitting, the Hague Convention relating to children’s custody, forum shopping, pre-nuptuals, co-habitation, human rights and generally topics far removed from 95% of “normal” divorces. There is information on relevant statutes, and the site could be a good resource for solicitors meeting slightly more unusual situations.

Mewburn Ellis is one of the UK’s largest firms of Chartered Patent Attorneys, European Patent Attorneys, European Trade Mark Attorneys and European Design Attorneys. They cover the full range of intellectual property issues: Patents, Trade Marks, Designs, Industrial copyright and related matters. There is a large amount of information on each of these topics, designed in a systematic way, which would be of use to lawyers and individuals alike.

Morgan McManus practise both sides of the border in Ireland and have developed a site on Accident Claims Law and employment law claims. This is not “just” a site about making a claim but deals with such claims from the perspective of both plaintiff and defendant (claimant and respondent), employer and employee and all other persons who have an interest in ensuring that they are fully informed when they are faced with claims of this nature. This website will be of benefit to a respondent who is being sued, to the employer who faces a personal injury claim in respect of a factory accident and the employer who is obliged to deal with a grievance or disciplinary matter in the workplace.

OUT-law.com is an extensive information site provided by Pinsent Masons. There are 8,000 pages of free legal news and guidance, mostly on IT and e-commerce issues with many new items posted every day. There are also a large number of quite detailed “Guides” on new media and e-commerce topics. An additional site called About Cookies also from Pinsent Masons, is a guide to deleting and controlling cookies and (for web site owners) assistance in staying the right side of the law.

Wiki Mental Health is an internet resource on mental health law in England & Wales, primarily for mental health practitioners, to which anyone can contribute. The site has been set up by a mental health solicitor. The site covers case law, with regularly updated commentaries on the cases and links to the full text judgments on BAILII (around 500 categorised cases plus other BAILII links). There is also the full text of the Mental Health Act 1983, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and related legislation. There are also general articles to explain the concepts and terminology used in the field and practical guidance for lawyers.

Wikivorce is an interesting site on divorce which uses Web 2.0 facilities to provide an interactive (and wiki-type) experience for those involved in, or considering, a divorce. As well as factual information, e.g. Divorce Guide and Divorce Calculator, there are blogs (several of the existing well known blogs are included), chat rooms and forums. In other words, it is a community based web site where other members of the community do most of the work! It seems to be very popular and already has 35,000 “members”, which for a relatively new, UK based site is pretty good going. There is also a bookstore and a “find a solicitor” section.

If I have missed any key resources from firms of solicitors, please let me know and I can cover them at some future point.

Delia Venables is joint editor of this Newsletter.

Email delia@venables.co.uk.