Legal Information Buyer's Guide and Reference Manual 2010

The Legal Information Buyer's Guide & Reference Manual is the leading and most comprehensive consumer guide to legal information in print. This edition, which is anually updated, includes updated information on thousands of legal information products, including reviews of over 1,400 legal treatises and specialty titles (including dozens of new titles). The book contains current bibliographic and pricing information on over 1,600 state primary law and secondary titles, and hundreds of additional products, including federal statutes, state and federal digests, legal encyclopedias, annotated reports, citators, administrative codes, legal newspapers, CD-ROMs, and much more.

This book was primarily written to address the needs of the solo practitioner and the attorney in the small or medium-sized law firm operating without a law librarian, but will also serve as a valuable resource in a variety of law, academic and public libraries. It is based on the assumption that while lawyers are highly educated people, sophisticated in their knowledge of the law, they often lack even the most rudimentary understanding of the ways of legal publishing and the marketing techniques which unnecessarily siphon away their hard-earned dollars.

It has been estimated that the average lawyer spends more than $4,000 per year on information, a figure greater than that of any other professional and more than six times that of the average doctor. A major portion of that $4,000 is wasted, either because many of the materials are poorly selected, are never or rarely used, are ill suited to the lawyer's specialty, or are overpriced. With the help of this book the average practitioner could reduce his or her expenditures for legal information by 50% without any essential loss of utility or currency. Applied judiciously, the information and strategies presented in this book will save you thousands of dollars in unnecessary expenditures over the course of your legal career. SHOW LESS READ MORE >

1. Introduction

2. A Brief History of Legal Publishing

3. Taking On the Legal Publishers: the Making of the FTC Guides

4. Building and Maintaining Your Law Library

5. Evaluating Legal Materials

6. The Question of Supplements

7. Unsolicited Shipments, Telemarketing and Other Practices

8. Used Law Books: The Economical Alternative

Part II: Categories of Legal Publications

9. State Statutes

10. Federal Statutes

11. Regulations

12. Municipal Ordinances

13. Case Reporters

14. Annotated Reports

15. Digests

16. Citators

17. Legal Encyclopedias

18. Looseleaf Services

19. Legal Periodicals

20. Legal Newspapers

21. Legal Newsletters

22. General Law-Related Reference Titles

23. Legal Acquisitions Toolbox

24. Legal Resources on CD-ROM

25. Computer-Assisted Legal Research

26. Finding Law on the Internet

27. Legal Treatises: Administrative Law to Zoning (253 Pages)

Administrative Law
Admiralty and Maritime Law
Agency Law
Antitrust Law
Arbitration
Arts, Entertainment and Sports Law
Automobile Law and Practice
Banking Law
Bankruptcy Law
Civil Rights
Commercial Law
Constitutional Law
Contract Law
Copyright Law
Corporations
Criminal Law
Disabilities Law
Education Law
Environmental Law
Equity Jurisprudence
Evidence
Family Law
Federal Practice and Procedure
Gambling Law
Immigration Law
Indian Law
Insurance Law
Jury Instructions
Labor and Employment Law
Legal Forms
Legal Profession
Medical Jurisprudence
Military Law
Municipal Corporations
Nonprofit Corporations
Patents, Trademarks and Intellectual Property
Products Liability
Real Property
Religion and the Law
Restatements of the Law
Securities Law
Social Security Law
Statutory Construction
Taxation
Tort Law
Trial Practice
Trusts and Estates
Workers Compensation Law
Zoning and Planning Law

28. State Publications: A Practicioner's Guide (major legal publications for each state) Alabama to Wyoming (including the District of Columbia)

Appendices

A. Leading Legal Publishers: Their History, and Product Lines

B. Legal Publishers: Addressees and Telephone Numbers

C. Used Lawbook Dealers: Addresses and Telephone Numbers

D. State and Local Legal Newspapers

E. Representative Used Lawbook Prices

F. AALL Guide to Fair Business Practices for Legal Publishers

G. A Selective List of Looseleaf Services

H. Treatise Costs Spreadsheet

I. Historical Coverage of Online Appellate Court Decisions

J. Cost Saving Tips

K. Bibliography

Index

Cited by Legal Information Alert (Sept. 2004) as one of the 20 Top Innovations and Services in the field of legal information in the past ten years.

"This monumental resource is the product of rare expertise and scholarship by a respected expert in the field of legal literature...For those attorneys without the benefit of the assistance of a professional law librarian, Svengalis' book is a godsend."
Donna Bausch in Law Practice Management

"Surely the most comprehensive, single-volume guide to legal information resources available today."
David Bachman in Law Books in Review

"I personally have not encountered the type of cost-conscious analysis in any other publication of this type. I would recommend this book to anyone who simply wishes to become better informed with regard to legal bibliography."
Jack Montgomery in Against the Grain

"The first serious attempt to provide lawyers with the information they need to bring the costs of legal information under control...I know of no other publication like it."
Joe Stephens in the Oregon Bar Bulletin

"Svengalis has now written a book...which details all he knows--and he knows a lot--about to get a quality collection of legal materials at the least possible price."
Fritz Snyder in Legal Information Alert

"The Guide provides not only cost-saving strategies in the selection and purchase of legal materials, but also serves as a valuable reference for analyzing the quality of an existing collection or starting a new one."
Julius Marke in the New York Law Journal

"This is a very accessible reference work which should be consulted by every lawyer who is concerned about the costs of maintaining an up-to-date legal library at a reasonable cost...By writing this book, Mr. Svengalis has performed a signal service to legal publications consumers throughout the country."
Caroline Cornwell in the Rhode Island Bar Journal

"The author gives expert advice on saving costs while at the same time having an effective law library, and provides specific information on how to do so."
New York State Bar Journal

"All in all, this book provides lots of money-saving advice, can help you or your law librarian assess the quality of your existing collection, and might prove useful if you want to add a practice area to your collection and need guidance about obtaining the proper research materials."
Bottom Line Management

"...His book has already become popular with law librarians who recognize Svengalis as a leader in the profession an a prophet who has the courage to speak the truth about legal publishing."
-Georgia Briscoe in The Colorado Lawyer