Introduction to West Coast Law Journal

After a few starts and stops, I have finally gone 'live' with this blog. I think that my hesitancy was sourced in some skepticism that I could add any value to an already crowded legal 'blogosphere' combined with a personal inclination toward contrarianism. Everyone these days seems to have a blog, especially lawyers. Some time ago, I also attended graduate school in journalism/mass communication where my head was filled with concepts such as the 'medium is the message' and other viewpoints suggesting that more information may not necessarily be a good thing.

However, I'd like to think that blogging will sharpen my use of information not dull it; but still I wonder about value. Recently, a reporter for the New York Times told about an embarrassed MSNBC anchor who had relied on the sham report of a fictitious McCain policy advisor named 'Martin Eisenstadt' reporting that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent. The story warns about an increase in the inaccuracy of 'news' created by tidbits of information that bounce around the internet often spread by unwitting bloggers. But, in the final analysis I decided to do this, if for no other reason, as an exercise to try and keep pace with our ever rapidly changing world and to create an archive of law that I can return to and use. Hopefully, others will use it too.

When I was a law clerk many years ago, I worked for a firm with a staff of four librarians who maintained a library covering the full floor of a building yet containing only a single computer; a small stand-alone Lexis research terminal. Instead of electronics, the librarians (along with West Publishing) were the primary collectors and disseminators of information, clipping newspaper articles topical to the firm's cases and compiling hard-copy binders of the firm's memoranda and legal briefing. Today, there is more information but gathering and storage is much easier.

In this blog, I am focusing upon litigation and other legal events occurring primarily in California, Washington and Oregon and with an emphasis on disputes concerning issues of products liability and emerging technologies. To the extent that I am able, I will compare and contrast the laws created and applied in these states. I am also interested in writing about the use of technology in law practice and in sharing information about the means by which small firm practitioners are increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of their work in litigation (especially when it involves work in neighboring states).