Posted 8:25 PM by Anne Vespry
Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research
Effective strategies and techniques for Canadian legal research, finding and using secondary sources, finding and analyzing cases, updating your research, legal writing, legal research FAQs

Posted 8:24 PM by Anne Vespry
Bryan A. Garner's site
Garner teaches and publishes extensively on legal writing, usage, and drafting. He has written several acclaimed books on the subject, including The Elements of Legal Style and A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage. He is also editor-in- chief of the newly published seventh edition of Black's Law Dictionary.

Posted 8:16 AM by Anne Vespry
The Plain Language Network Organizing a conference that might be useful for Sept 2002

Posted 10:56 AM by Anne Vespry
CBC News: Finance Department launches jargon 'simplifier' OTTAWA - In a move designed to help users of its Web site understand its contents, the federal finance department Thursday unveiled "The Simplifier" – basically a tool that lets users link to a glossary explaining the complex and technical financial jargon the department's site is peppered with.

Posted 9:04 AM by Anne Vespry
Democracy Corner - Write Laws in Plain English - Nolo.com
Reading most statutes is like wading through a swamp. At every step, muddy language pulls at you, and thorny cross-references threaten to tear you from your path. Many people don't know their rights and can't participate in the legal system because they can't understand the laws as they are written.

Posted 7:58 AM by Anne Vespry
Grammar Bytes! Index of Grammar Terms
Below you will find detailed explanations of the grammar terms used in Grammar Bytes! As this section of Grammar Bytes! is under heavy construction, please check back often for new additions.

Posted 7:57 AM by Anne Vespry

Plain language applications in the NAFTA context: a Plain Language in Progress presentation by Nicole Fernbach
Reporter: Bruno LeGal
Ms. Nicole Fernbach, is from the Montreal firm of JURICOM. Founded in 1982, JURICOM is a legal translation agency serving the public sector and private businesses in North America, Latin America and Europe.
Though most people associate plain language concepts with a given language (usually English), it was clear from Ms. Fernbach's standpoint and the views expressed by audience members that the plain language movement is equally at home in a multitude of linguistic contexts. The following summary of Ms. Fernbach's comments is broader than the heading implies and reflects some of the writer's own views on the wonderful world of words. ...

Preferences:

English, French, and Spanish What is sauce for the goose is not necessarily sauce for the gander. Some rules that apply to English do not necessarily apply in French or Spanish. For example:

• French and Spanish are inclined to be more "literary" than English.
• English prefers nouns; French and Spanish prefer verbs, which brings them closer to the plain language style.
• English is comfortable with word clusters, but they should be avoided in French and Spanish.
• Foreign words are equally resented by writers of English, French and Spanish.
• Short words are perfectly acceptable in English. French and Spanish tolerate tri-syllabic (and longer) words more easily.
• English prefers concrete words to abstract ones.
• French and Spanish have a higher tolerance to abstraction and vagueness.
• In plain language, the use of "you" as a form of address makes English more reader-oriented, whereas French and Spanish address others in the third person as a matter of deference. "You" would be too familiar or trivial.
• French and Spanish are as comfortable with the active voice as English, but they have a higher tolerance for the passive voice in administrative prose.
• English uses shorter sentences than French and Spanish, which are more verbose in their style of expression.
• French and Spanish were inspired by the civil law system, English by the common law system where the role of the courts is different.
• Enumeration is used in English but less frequently in French and Spanish.
• All three languages take exception to the use of double negatives.
• Under French and Spanish rules, the masculine gender is considered neuter; there is no need to deal with the awkward sex neutral "he/she" form, for instance.
• Good structure is the same in all three languages; all aspire to a logical order of ideas and a logical flow between ideas. Generally, they use one idea per sentence, except in literary contexts and court cases.
• The graphic presentation of English, French and Spanish is the same now that the use of computer technology is universal. However, pictograms and icons have to be devised for individual language communities. These are very much tied to the local culture.

Posted 7:57 AM by Anne Vespry
Boîte à outils - Rédaction
Principales de règles de lisibilité

• Phrases de structure simple
• Éviter les tournures passives inutiles :
  • "Trois problèmes ont été constatés"
  • "Les méthodes de Bill et Boule (1993), de Tournesol et Haddock (1990) et, enfin, de Star et Treck (1996) seront examinées."
• Éviter les expressions négatives inutiles :
  • "On n'est pas sans savoir que..."
• Éviter les inversions, les enchâssements qui déséquilibrent la phrase :
  • "Le seul problème qui se pose est, comme il a été constaté lors de la dernière réunion et lors des discussions qui en ont résulté, celui de l'espace disponible."
• Employer les phrases énumératives avec disposition verticale :
  • "Nous avons observé les caractéristiques suivantes :
    1. […];
    2. […];
    3. […];
    4. […]."
• Phrases ou segments de phrase courts (18-20 mots)
• Recours aux verbes de préférence aux noms
• Pronoms non ambigus
• Charnières logiques explicites ("en effet", "par conséquent", "c'est pourquoi", etc.)
• Titres et intertitres balisant clairement le texte
• Mise en pages travaillée, visuelle Présentation soignée

Sources : Cajolet-Laganière, Laganière et Collinge, 1997, p. 227-240. Vinet, Chassé et Prégent, 1996b, p. C3.4-C3.7.

Posted 7:56 AM by Anne Vespry
1813 Grammar Sites
GRAMMAR WEB SITES
Here are some interesting grammar web sites. Some are very comprehensive; others deal with only one or two points

Posted 7:55 AM by Anne Vespry
A Web of Online Dictionaries II

Posted 7:54 AM by Anne Vespry
Expert Legal Systems Limited - Visual WorkForm for Windows
An Overview
WorkForm is an expert system that helps you create legal documents very rapidly and accurately on a question and answer basis. Using WorkForm you can create multiple documents simultaneously from the same transaction information. It relegates the mundane and time consuming drafting to the computer, saving you, your clerks or your secretary hours of editing and word processing.

Posted 7:53 AM by Anne Vespry
[1995] 2 Web JCLI
Introduction
Computers have long been utilised in the sphere of law. Basic applications such as word processors, spreadsheets and databases have all found their way into legal offices. Recently, more sophisticated tools such as computerised legal research systems, document drafting packages, and practice management systems have become increasingly common. Most exciting however, has been the prospect of using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to create 'automated legal reasoning systems', computer systems that reason with and apply the law in an effort to resolve legal disputes. Examples of such systems include legal expert systems.
However, the practical benefits of such automated reasoning systems have fallen short of optimistic early predictions; they have not resulted in computer systems that can independently and inexpensively provide expert advice about substantive law.

Posted 7:52 AM by Anne Vespry
ISTITUTO PER LA DOCUMENTAZIONE GIURIDICA RESEARCH DOMAINS: Research carried out at the Institute relates to the study and use of methodologies and techniques specifically oriented towards informatics, logic and artificial intelligence in the field of law.

Posted 7:49 AM by Anne Vespry
ICaR Systems - Information Consulting and Reasoning

ICaR:

• Will consult you, i.e. apply the general knowledge of the Law, and give its opinion on a specific case you describe (consulting function)
• Will let you have a full explanation of all the expert’s opinions (reasoning function),
  OR
• Will offer you to master the laws by yourself, i.e. to read, to understand and to apply correctly the legal texts (information function),

Mission - to put the expert knowledge into a "can" of expert system.

Download ICaR Demo, take a look at the screenshots of consulting and operating ICaR, order it through ComponentSource.

You can start consulting on-line through a page with pure HTML (Active Server Pages), ActiveX or Java Applet.

You can find a description about what is ICaR, how it works and how to operate it - About ICaR and Help.

Posted 7:48 AM by Anne Vespry
ACT Attorney General's - Primary Resources
More Aussie stuff

Posted 7:47 AM by Anne Vespry
Future Legal Products

A number of prototype systems have been developed by the ACT Attorney General's Department under the Legislation Review Program. Each of these prototypes work in a similar way: a person (who may have no knowledge of the law) is asked a series of questions by the computer which exhausts all logical options and provides both a legal conclusion and reasons for the conclusion.

The first prototype system is a rules based system which depends on careful construction of a series of rules by an expert in a field and which are then organised by a computer program. This prototype may be used in the near future to model complex common law areas as an aid to reform processes.

The second prototype system, in early stages of development, is an inference machine which scans in the text of legislation and constructs a series of legal propositions using deontic rules. A third prototype, an amalgam of the first two, seeks feedback from the success or failure of action taken as a result of the advice and can learn from this feedback.

Posted 7:46 AM by Anne Vespry
Australasian Legal Information Institute -- Beta Server
A joint facility of UTS and UNSW Faculties of Law

Posted 7:46 AM by Anne Vespry
NetJustice
Net Justice is an electronic briefcase. It contains Cases, Acts, Treaties and other primary material from many jurisdictions in the world. It provides the facility required by Courts, lawyers and others to discover, classify and collate this information and develop their own internet law library.

Posted 7:45 AM by Anne Vespry
SHYSTER SHYSTER is a case-based legal expert system, developed by James Popple. Details of the design, implementation, operation and testing of SHYSTER are given in his book A Pragmatic Legal Expert System. SHYSTER provides advice in areas of case law that have been specified by a legal expert using a specially developed specification language. It was implemented in a UNIX environment, and consists of a dozen modules written in ISO C. This C source code, and the case law specifications used to test SHYSTER during its development, are available for no charge, and without warranty, on certain terms and conditions. Example output from SHYSTER is also available.

Posted 7:44 AM by Anne Vespry
International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law
If lawyers can't write well, let's get machines to do better!

Posted 7:43 AM by Anne Vespry
Guide to Grammar and Writing
Thorough and sometimes challenging...