Hat tip to Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites, there’s a new legal app in town for the iPhone. Black’s Law Dictionary, that venerable tome that decorates many a new associate’s desk, is now available in portable format on the iPhone. The 8th Edition of the Dictionary, edited by famed legal grammarian Bryan A. Garner, is the version featured on the app. Garner himself is quite taken with the concept:

The idea that you can have a very full, elaborate, complex and richly textured book like Black’s available at your fingertips is fantastic…. I myself am stubbornly in favor of print sources, but I like to watch my daughters use their iPhones. And I know that there’s another generation of people who really prefer the electronic medium at their fingertips.

What is the plus feature of the iPhone version. Well besides the more than 43,000 definitions from all walks of jurisprudence, the definitions include hyperlinks to related references and even an audio track to assist in the pronunciation of difficult terms. Wonder how that voice sounds?

The app is not exactly cheap at $49.99, but it is more than functional and could prove quite helpful on the fly. Better than carrying the big black book around. Hit the jump to LawSites for a video featuring the app’s developers, if you are interested in more information. Or check out the news release on West’s own blog here.

Hooray for more legal information and law-related apps for my favorite smartphone!

Hat tip to Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites, there’s a new legal app in town for the iPhone. Black’s Law Dictionary, that venerable tome that decorates many a new associate’s desk, is now available in portable format on the iPhone. The 8th Edition of the Dictionary, edited by famed legal grammarian Bryan A. Garner, is the version featured on the app. Garner himself is quite taken with the concept:

The idea that you can have a very full, elaborate, complex and richly textured book like Black’s available at your fingertips is fantastic…. I myself am stubbornly in favor of print sources, but I like to watch my daughters use their iPhones. And I know that there’s another generation of people who really prefer the electronic medium at their fingertips.

What is the plus feature of the iPhone version. Well besides the more than 43,000 definitions from all walks of jurisprudence, the definitions include hyperlinks to related references and even an audio track to assist in the pronunciation of difficult terms. Wonder how that voice sounds?

The app is not exactly cheap at $49.99, but it is more than functional and could prove quite helpful on the fly. Better than carrying the big black book around. Hit the jump to LawSites for a video featuring the app’s developers, if you are interested in more information. Or check out the news release on West’s own blog here.

Hooray for more legal information and law-related apps for my favorite smartphone!

Truth be told, mapping the environmental risks near one’s home is a little bit scary and sometimes ignorance is bliss. But I have to give props where props are due and the EPA is due for their fantastic mapping interface. Just enter the zip code of the area you are interested in and quickly receive a screen full of information (arguably too much information) about the reporting sites and cancer risks in your area. The code entry box is found to the left of the USEPA’s page here and looks like this:

Enter your Zip Code and pull up a map of sites in your area reporting to the USEPA that looks like this:

The page displays other salient information as well, such as cancer risks, UV Index, Radon and Ozone, Superfund sites, cleanups and water quality information. These added tabs and boxes look like this:

Beautifully done and scary all at the same time.

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Remember the news last week about the two law professors, David Rudovsky and Leonard Sosnov, outraged at the quality of a pocket part to their treatise on Pennsylvania law and West’s false implication that the professors were the authors of it? According to The Legal Intelligencer and Shannon P. Duffy, the professors may have lost their first sortie, but ultimately may win the war. The Senior U.S. District Court judge issued his ruling on Thursday, April 23 denying the professors’ request for an injunction forcing West to affirmatively advise purchasers that the professors had not written the pocket part and offering a refund to any disatisfied customers. Fortunately, for West, the judge denied the request. Unfortunately for West, the judge’s reason was that the harm had already been done.

The judge intimated that the professors likely had viable claims under the Lanham Act and defamation laws. And the judge himself opined that the pocket part was not up to standard and that the professors were entitled to some form of remedy. Ouch! But since the harm had already been done, an injunction was of little point.

West’s one-line comment: “We’re pleased with today’s result.” Really? I wouldn’t be.