Judge Lebovits isn’t your run-of-the mill housing court judge: he’s a legal writing expert who’s published over 100 articles on the subject (as well as numerous articles on other topics). He’s also a popular legal writing professor and CLE presenter.

Now you can download his Advanced Judicial Opinion Writing: A Handbook for New York State Trial and Appellate Courts (as well as all of his other articles) from the Social Science Research Network.

The first half (roughly) of the Handbook focuses on judicial opinion writing, while the second half addresses legal writing in general. Nevertheless, I strongly urge you to read the entire manual for two reasons. First, much of the material in the first half is just as applicable to brief writing as to opinion writing (for example, “briefs” could easily be substituted for “judicial opinions” in the section entitled “What Readers of Judicial Opinions Hate: the Top 30 Vices”). Second, understanding how and why judges write opinions, as well as the different types of opinions, will add a whole new level of meaning to the opinions you read.

I’m sharing this information with you for two reasons. First, I’ve long believed that studying judicial writing manuals can make lawyers better writers. Second, I’m honored to call Judge Lebovits a colleague and friend: among other things, we co-authored (along with Alifya Curtin) a law review article entitled Ethical Judicial Opinion Writing, and we’ll be presenting Powerful Writing Techniques to Help You Persuade Judges and Win Clients at the ABA’s National Solo & Small Firm Conference in October.

Finally, I can’t pass up this opportunity to respectfully urge all members of New York’s Appellate Division, Third Department (or at least Justices Yesawich, Mikoll, Crew, Spain and Mugglin) to review the Handbook. I make this suggestion after reading that court’s opinion in Krouner v. Krouner, 267 A.D.2d 575, 699 N.Y.S.2d 220 (3d Dep’t 1999), which, although brief, is rife with errors (noted in red in the following quotation from the opinion):

By this proceeding, petitioner Leonard W. Krouner [footnote omitted] (hereinafter Krouner) seeks, inter alia, to have respondent deposit funds in a segregated account to repay a college student loan obtained by their son Kenneth Krouner (hereinafter Kenneth). Krouner and respondent (hereinafter collectively referred to as the parties) [As if we couldn't have figured that one out ourselves . . . .] were divorced in 1986. A stipulation defining their child support obligations was incorporated but not merged into the divorce decree and, despite modifications since its inception, the stipulation is silent with respect to the parties’ responsibilities to pay for Kenneth’s college education. Petitioners appeal Supreme Court’s dismissal of the petition.

In dismissing the petition, Supreme Court concluded that because Kenneth was over the age of 21 it could not compel respondent to contribute to his college education. Notwithstanding the absence of language in the stipulation as to the parties’ obligation to provide for Kenneth’s college education expenses and the fact that he has attained the age of 21 and payment for such expenses is not required by statute (see, Domestic Relations Law § 240[1-b][b][2] ), such payment may be enjoined if special circumstances exist (see, Domestic Relations Law § 240[1-b][c][7]; see also, Hapeman v. Hapeman, 229 A.D.2d 807, 810, 646 N.Y.S.2d 583; Smith v. Smith, 174 A.D.2d 818, 819, 571 N.Y.S.2d 127; Haimowitz v. Gerber, 153 A.D.2d 879, 880, 545 N.Y.S.2d 599). Inasmuch as each parent has a postgraduate degree and Kenneth has demonstrated academic ability (see, Hutter v. Hutter, 112 A.D.2d 543, 544, 491 N.Y.S.2d 480), whether special circumstances obtain turns on respondent’s ability to provide the necessary funds (see, id., at 544, 491 N.Y.S.2d 480). And, as to that, although petitioner has proffered various documents purportedly indicating that respondent has the wherewithal to help defray Kenneth’s education expenses-a premise vigorously disputed by respondent-[these should be em-dashes, not hyphens] the parties’ submissions on this issue are not sufficiently developed in the record to enable us to pass on this aspect of the petition. Accordingly, a hearing must be held at which testimony and evidence is [subject/verb disagreement] to be produced as to respondent’s financial ability.

(The commas after the introductory signals and id. are not required by the Tanbook, which dictates citation format in New York State Court documents.)

While you’re there, check out my guest post, The Road Less Traveled: Working as a Contract Lawyer.

Also, make sure you read this post for more details about a free Attorneys in Transition Seminar that Law Bulletin Publishing Co. will be presenting on May 8 at John Marshall Law School in Chicago’s Loop.

Joan is now offering a free ebook that includes 24 of the best publicity tips from her free ezine, “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week” from 2008.

As detailed on Joan’s website, this year’s book includes:

• A fast, inexpensive way to catch the attention of journalists in your community
• A clever way to get onto the morning TV talk shows . . . most people who are pitching aren’t doing this
• A place where you can connect daily with journalists who are looking for sources. And it won’t cost you a penny
• What to do when you’re tempted to strangle a reporter for wasting your time interviewing you, and then leaving your name out of the story
• A news story that appears several times a year in almost every community and is PERFECT for piggybacking onto
• 9 ways to use video to pull more traffic to your website, sell more products, generate publicity, and build word-of-mouth publicity about your product, service, cause or issue
• 11 ways to use a paid or unpaid assistant to help with publicity-related tasks
• How to make your local Chamber of Commerce one of your biggest promoters
• A free tool that tells you whether your press release gets a passing grade or a big, fat F
• How to use a popular social networking site to snoop on your competitors legally and ethically
• What writers can learn from a beloved dog’s obituary
• How to claim the Number 1 spot on Google
• A publicity mistake that most companies make, and it kills their chances of ever getting covered

There’s also a link at the bottom of the page to her free tips books from 2005-2007.

You can get the free e-book at Joan’s website.

For more fantastic advice from Joan, check out PR 101 for Lawyers: How to Write Direct-to-Consumer Press Releases That the Media Will Also Love.

Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works. Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The project tries to make these as free as possible, in long-lasting, open formats that can be used on almost any computer.

Project Gutenberg currently has over 27,000 items in its collection, the vast majority of which are in English.

With my busy schedule, I rarely have time to read actual books these days, so Project Gutenberg hasn’t really been at the top of my mind. However, an e-mail I received earlier this week prompted me to re-visit the site, and to share what I learned with you.

It turns out that Project Gutenberg, and its partners and affiliates, offer free e-books that you can read on your cell phone or PDA, as well as on your computer. They even offer audiobooks!

While some of the available works are obscure, many are classics. At the Project Gutenberg site, you can browse by author, title or format. You can also view lists of the top 100 e-books and authors over various periods.

Project Gutenberg affiliate ManyBooks.net offers many of PG’s works in a dizzying array of formats, from JAR (a common Java file format readable on
nearly all mobile handsets) to Plucker (an offline web and free eBook reader for Palm OS® based handheld devices, Windows Mobile (PocketPC) devices and other handheld PDAs) to large print PDF and, yes, even Kindle (assuming, of course, that you were able to get your hands on one before they sold out, or that you’re patient enough to wait 3 months to get one). Check out the Special Collections page for helpful recommendations.

The MobileBooks.org interface isn’t as nice as the one over at ManyBooks.net. Still, with over 20,000 e-books available, the site is nothing to sneeze at.

The Mobile Library offers a very limited selection of well-known titles in JAR formats.

You can download free audiobooks from the Project Gutenberg site, as well as from Librivox.org. LiteralSystems.org offers a very limited selection of audiobooks, but most are popular titles, and the production quality appears to be very high, with dramatic readings and even appropriate background music.

Finally, a new format called PG Mobile will soon be available. According to a Project Gutenberg news release,

PG Mobile is a software that transfers the plain text format provided by Project Gutenberg onto small handset screens—together with all the features known from physical books like turning pages, page numbers and bookmarks. Just download the PG Mobile version of any eBook and read it on your phone: All Project Gutenberg mobile eBooks will soon be available for download as an additional file format in the download section of each Gutenberg title on Gutenberg.org.

With all of these free e-book options, you’ll never be at a loss for reading (or listening) material.

Which free e-books have you downloaded from any of these sites? Which ones do you plan to download in the future?

**Update 12/24/08: A helpful Kindle-owning friend pointed out that, although the Kindle can’t read .txt files, you can convert a .txt file to PDF and then e-mail it to your Kindle. Presto: enough e-books to keep your Kindle busy for a loooong time!**

The webinar was presented by Stetson University College of Law. The panelists are Kirsten Davis, Associate Professor of Law and Director of Legal Research and Writing at Stetson; Raymond “Tom” Elligett, Jr. of Buell & Elligett, P.A.; and Tracy Raffles Gunn of Gunn Appellate Practice, P.A.

The webinar, which is 1 hr. 16 min. long, has been approved for one hour of CLE credit in Florida.

If you’re serious about legal writing, I highly recommend that you join Scribes.

Update: Congratulations to contest winner Kathleen St. Onge of Halloran & Sage LLP in Hartford, Connecticut. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest!

As you may know, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and legal writing guru Bryan Garner recently co-authored Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges Now, you can enter the LRWP Making Your Case contest for a chance to get legal writing advice directly from the horse’s mouth (although some would argue that anything from Scalia would be from the horse’s other end).

Putting politics aside, who wouldn’t want a chance to win a ticket to hear Scalia speak about legal writing? On August 9, he’ll be speaking in New York City at the annual meeting of Scribes-The American Society of Legal Writers. I’ve got an extra ticket to the event (which includes lunch), and I look forward to sharing this special opportunity with the lucky contest winner.

The winner will also receive a copy Making Your Case, so you’ll be ready for the book signing following Justice Scalia’s remarks.

As if that weren’t enough, when you enter the Making Your Case contest, you will receive a copy of the Legal Research & Writing Pro Legal Writing Resources List, which features free and low-cost resources to help you improve your legal writing skills. To enter, simply fill out the brief form below.

The winner will be chosen at random in a drawing held at 5 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, August 6. If you’re the winner, we’ll notify you by e-mail (and by phone, if you have provided a telephone number).

So, download the chapter now, and don’t forget to buy the book!

P.S. Check out the cool Grammar Girl Challenge widget in the sidebar of this page (you may have to scroll down).

Grammar Girl’s new book, appropriately entitled Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, will be available July 8. In honor of the release, GG has released a 40-page chapter called “Dirty Words.”

Get your minds out of the gutter! “Dirty Words” tackles a host of words that GG considers particularly difficult to use correctly. Of particular interest to legal writers, the chapter contains sections on the proper use of assure versus ensure versus insure; i.e. versus e.g.; pled versus pleaded; and (gulp!) hanged versus hung.

So, why are you still hanging around here? Download your free chapter now!

Grammar Girl (a/k/a Mignon Forgarty) is a freelance technical writer and editor who writes a blog and produces a podcast about—you guessed it—the fine points of English grammar.

According to her About page, “Grammar Girl believes that learning is fun, and the vast rules of grammar are wonderful fodder for lifelong study. She strives to be a friendly guide in the writing world. Her arch enemy is the evil Grammar Maven who inspires terror in the untrained and is neither friendly nor helpful.”

Here’s a video of an interview with GG herself:

As a subscriber to the Legal Writing Journal, you’ll receive an e-mail every so often with short abstracts of the newest articles. Whether or not you subscribe, you can browse or search the archives, which currently contain 90 articles.

Some of my favorite articles include Homer Simpson Meets the Rule Against Perpetuities: The Controversial Use of Pop-Culture in Legal Writing Pedagogy and [Insert Song Lyrics Here]: The Uses and Misuses of Popular Music Lyrics In Legal Writing. Next up on my reading list: The Lexicon Has Become a Fortress: The United States Supreme Court’s Use of Dictionaries . I’m sure the authors’ appendix of terms defined by the United States Supreme Court will come in handy someday.