eBench

The New Zealand Law Society site has a news item on eBench, technology that will significantly reduce the court's reliance on paper.
I'm guessing that all over the country, lawyers will be adding eBench to their word processor's dictionary, and customising their grammar checker to accept sentences that start with lower-case letters.
eGad!

Principles of clear drafting

The Parliamentary Counsel Office's site includes a section on principles of clear drafting. Their concern is legislation but there is good advice here for everyone: make sentences simple and logical; use the simplest word that conveys the meaning; get to the main point (from the reader’s point of view) early.
Definitely worth a look. The document is easy to read - proof that they know what they are talking about.

HeinOnline just keeps getting better

Originally they were a great source for older material - they still are - but they are now getting much more current content, including the Harvard Law Review and all the Georgetown law journals. Apparently 84% of their journal titles are now available with current full-text content. And they index the remaining 16%, so you know about it even if they don't yet have it.
Their recent blog post makes it all clear.
They also index external content, which they describe thus:

The External section type contains links to law review articles that do not reside inside the HeinOnline database. These are electronically published law review articles, usually not distributed in print format and only made available online via the web. As these articles do not fit the typical structure of a bound book with pagination, they do not work within the HeinOnline database model. Therefore, we have included links to these articles in the search results in order to provide you with even greater access to resources that supplement the content available in HeinOnline. Providing links to external law review articles allows you to conduct your research in one place and on one website.

 Get to HeinOnline via the quicklinks on the Law Subject Guide. Definitely worth taking the time to discover what's there, and definitely worth looking at the guides in their Help pages.

Thesis information

The Library has updated its Thesis information page.
It now looks like a subject guide, but you'll find it via the same pathway to the old thesis info page: Library homepage>Research>Thesis information.
Lots of practical information there, from getting started to submitting, with everything in between.

LexisNexis NZ training this week

LexisNexis trainer Trish is here this week, offering free training on the LexisNexis NZ databases. She'll show you things you want to know, with special emphasis on using online looseleaf services like the Family Law Service.
Thurs 24 May, 2-2.50 and Friday 25 May 12-12.50, in the Law Library seminar room (come in to the Law Library & go down to the 6th floor). No need to sign up, just turn up.