Minter Ellison - Infinite information -
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Published on: 2/1/2005
Last Visited: 2/4/2006
But Minter Ellison partner Paul Zawa, who specialises in litigation and intellectual property, says the cost is well worth it."Clearly there is more to go through, but I see that only as an upside," he says.The trick is to know what is relevant and to know how to tailor your searches."You have to give some forethought about what your research is."
There have been vast improvements in the search software over the years, Zawa says, and online services such as Butterworths' Patents, Trademarks and Related Rights are essential for the latest information.But Zawa says he still likes to have a hard copy around.
"Sometimes I like to sit back in my chair and look at it, but in terms of commentary, the [online] search is more helpful than the written index."Still, he doesn't believe hard copy will ever become irrelevant.
"If something is important or interesting I will print it out and read it in the office, at home or on the train.If I am going to absorb something I want hard copy," he says."With several of those things you want to keep them as an important case you might want to refer to, and make notes in the margin."
But on a day-to-day basis, online resources are invaluable.Zawa receives the Federal Court's recent decisions, daily updates from Lexis Nexis (the parent company of Lawyers Weekly) and checks the Australasian Legal Information Institute's website, AustLII, every day.
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Convenience has been the key with this technology, and for Zawa this is the biggest upside of online research."The most useful thing about having research online is that you can jump," he says."In my area of intellectual property I like using Butterworths' commentary on the legislation, which has links as you read the commentary.If there is a footnote on a case you can jump straight to that case.You couldn't do that very readily with hard copies."
This feature, Zawa says, is extremely helpful because it allows you to immediately see the case in question and determine whether or not it is relevant to the issues of interest.In the past, the lawyer would have to physically go and find the case referred to in the footnote, read it and then determine whether or not it was of use."That all takes time.It's enormously helpful to have all that case reference online."
Zawa says the pressure on practitioners has only increased slightly."It's just a matter of checking and seeing if something is of relevance," he says.If he doesn't have time to check something, he has the option of asking an associate to make an assessment and write a case note.Part of keeping the pressure at bay is knowing what is in the pipeline - Zawa has the Federal Court lists emailed to him every day, then keeps an eye out for any judgments in his area.
"Having said that, there's not a lot of earth shattering stuff happening.One thing we are all waiting for at the moment is the Sharman Networks judgement from Justice Wilcox," Zawa says.
"It will have important consequences, but the number of those types of judgements in a year are very few."The majority of judgements in his area can be put on a lower priority, he says, and "the world will not fall apart" if he reads them later in the week, unless they are relevant to a case he is working on.
"You know it's out there and what is being handed down is available more readily, so you probably read it sooner rather than back in the days when you were waiting for the reported judgements," Zawa says.
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