Introducing the Digital Education Nook!

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Harris County Law Library’s newest learning opportunity brings on-demand video content to all within steps of the Harris County courthouses in downtown Houston.

A Digital Content Access Point for Everyone

The Digital Access Nook is an access point for digital collections from the Law Library’s Legal Tech Institute, the Harris County Attorney’s Office, and the Texas Office of Court Administration. Content covers a variety of topics, from self-help videos to help you work with your attorney or represent yourself in court, to legal technology videos on cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Bring your headphone or use ours and immerse yourself in one of more than 40 videos focused on legal topics. With a variety of content in a fully accessible space, there is something for everyone in the Digital Education Nook!

Visit the Digital Education Nook webpage for details.

Google, Privacy, and You

Attribution: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/logo-google-color-2650941/

The subject of a recent opinion piece in the New York Times discusses the “privacy paradox,” a sort of cognitive dissonance that compels us to share information about ourselves on every available platform while simultaneously cursing the technology that makes our compulsive sharing habits so addictive. That paradox can have wide-ranging implications for the legal community, which now has an ethical obligation to “remain competent in the practice of law, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.” The ubiquity of Google makes it necessary for lawyers to understand the impact it can have on the clients being served. For example, when Google periodically pings your device to track your location even when your device-location feature is turned off , it might implicate jurisdictionally-specific privacy rights or contract law, as a recent investigation by the attorney general of Arizona suggests.

Mapping a device’s location is only one tracking method commonly employed by prominent tech companies. Google tracks you in all sorts of ways through apps, it’s Chrome browser, and more. The information is used to facilitate marketing efforts, including sales to third-party marketing firms, and to integrate your online experience. A recent New York Times op-ed by Google’s CEO provides the company’s view on protecting data privacy while using the data collected to create a more customized economy. At its annual developer conference just weeks ago, Google reinforced its commitment to privacy with the launch of two new efforts — better cookie controls and guards against fingerprinting. Additional trust-building measures are likely in the works (including security features in the redesign of Gmail), especially as increasing numbers of users defect from Google to alternative browsers like Brave and Vivaldi.

The takeaway for legal professionals: Follow news about Google and keep reminding clients who find themselves in a privacy paradox about how information is used in the information economy.

UELMA? Why, Yes, We Do!

On May 25, 2019, Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 402 into law, making Texas the 22nd state to adopt the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act or UELMA. The record of this hard-won achievement is forever documented in the House Journal as seen here.

The Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act or UELMA has been adopted in Texas! On Friday, May 25, 2019, Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 402 into law, adding Texas to the list of 21 other states that have officially committed to the preservation and authentication of public legal information. Further, by adopting UELMA, Texas has made clear its intention to provide trustworthy, reliable access to online legal content that is permanently available in unaltered form and offered to the public free of charge whenever possible.

Navigating the legislative process over several Congressional sessions to finally secure the necessary votes and the signature of Gov. Abbott was long and difficult, and Texans, especially those who championed UELMA throughout this process, deserve a chance to celebrate. Passage of UELMA in Texas would not have been possible without the determination and perseverance of government relations advocates, especially the indefatigable Barbara Bintliff, Director of the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, who began her UELMA journey nearly 10 years ago when the Authentication and Preservation of State Electronic Legal Materials Act, as it was originally called, was drafted at the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.

There are many next steps to work out in the implementation of UELMA in Texas — the law does not take effect until September 1, 2019 — but once fully realized, this legislation will introduce changes to the ways we all access legal information, the ease with which we find that information, and the confidence we have in knowing that the information is official, reliable, and authentic. This is definitely a win for the people of Texas and for those who champion open and equal access to justice for all.

New On-Demand Video CLE: Practical Cybersecurity for Lawyers

The Legal Tech Institute at the Harris County Law Library has just released a new video CLE. Practical Cybersecurity for Lawyers is the latest addition to our Learning On-Demand CLE library, where you can earn CLE credit in Texas while staying up to date on legal tech. Visit the Law Library's Legal Tech Institute page for more on our legal tech learning opportunities. 

2019 UNT Open Access Symposium: Is Open Access an Answer for Access to Justice?

This year’s topic for the University of North Texas Open Access Symposium was Is Open Access an Answer for Access to Justice?  Held this past weekend at the UNT Dallas College of Law, the symposium drew speakers and attendees from a variety of backgrounds including academia, legal aid, law librarianship, and the judiciary. Joe Lawson, Deputy Director, and Heather Holmes, Assistant Law Librarian at the Harris County Law Library, were fortunate to be in attendance and also to appear as speakers on a panel called Engaging the Public.

For their contribution, Joe and Heather presented a program called Minding the Gaps, an exploration of the barriers to access that self represented litigants, especially those of low and modest means, encounter when interacting with the justice system. Joe and Heather also discussed the important role that trusted intermediaries, such as legal aid attorneys and public librarians, play in mitigating the impact of barriers to justice. Citing the work of others in the field who have written on the limitations of techno-optimism and over-reliance on digital resources, Joe and Heather presented a model for providing access — supplemented by support and guidance from trusted information professionals — to reliable, authoritative sources of legal information that pro se litigants can use to effectively engage with the courts and achieve just outcomes for their civil legal needs.

Concluding the two-day symposium was an interactive workshop called A2J By Design: Prototyping Innovative Legal Solutions with Open Legal Information. The workshop was conducted by Kelli Raker and Casandra Laskowski, librarians at Duke University School of Law. For the activity, two teams used design thinking principles to devise creative solutions for providing access to justice. Pictured here, Joe Lawson and his teammate, Jason Sowards, Law Librarian at the Nevada Supreme Court Law Library, explain their team’s project idea, an interactive kiosk for legal aid services at senior centers.