CD-ROMs
Forms
Legal Research
Practice Specific

The product was initially distributed to public libraries throughout the United States by Macmillan Library Reference USA of Macmillan Publishing for use by the general public.

With the CD up and running, you start by selecting a particular state jurisdiction (assuming you have purchased more than one state). You then select a particular legal topic. Lawchek currently covers the topics of Bankruptcy, Contracts, Corporations, Criminal Law, Domestic-Family Law, Education, Intellectual Properties (Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks), Landlord/Tenant, Real Estate, Taxation, Trial/Litigation, and Wills/Estates. Most of these topics have "Questions and Answers" screens that contain commonly asked questions and their answers relating to a particular topic. There are also state-specific forms available to help you with a particular legal action you may wish to take. Forms are presented in Adobe Acrobat format.

There is a "Federal Directory" component to Lawchek that gives you basic contact information for the Judicial, Congressional and Executive branches of government. The information found in these categories is mostly names, addresses and telephone numbers. For example, in the Executive category you will find contact information for the office of the president down through various cabinet and executive departmental positions.

Judicial offices covered include the U.S. Supreme Court, International Trade Court, U.S. Claims Court, U.S. Tax Court, the 12 Circuit Courts (the states represented in the region are included), and an alphabetical listing of each state's Federal District Courts.

The Congress category contains contact information for the Senate and House of Representatives.

Contact information is also available for such Independent offices as the CIA, Civil Rights Commission, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

There is a "Letter Pro" function in Lawchek that gives you access to a variety of commonly used letters. Letters are grouped into categories, such as Auto, Medical, Business, Home, Insurance, and School. You click on an icon to see a list of available letters for each category. For example, under the "Medical" category there are letters covering such topics as Request for Medical Records, Bill Clarification, Patient Waiver and Transfer of Records. Select a letter from the list and you are taken to the letter editor where you can edit, save, and print your letter.

Some screens include "Find" and "Find Next" options which allow you to search for a keyword in the document you are viewing. Choose "Find" to enter the keyword to be searched. After the first search has been executed, the "Find Next" option may be used to find the next occurrence of the keyword. You can print out any of the information you retrieve as part of a search.

Lawchek also has a partial listing of attorneys provided by the Academy of Law and the Campbell's Attorney Directory, and a primer on selecting an attorney.

Lawchek has a Web site where you can find all the same information that's contained on the CD-ROM (www.lawcheck.com). However, at the Web site you pay to download specific sections of text ($1.95 per download) and forms ($4.95 per form).

Can Lawchek help you in your law practice? If you're looking for summaries of the law in different jurisdictions, and you can use the contact information offered by Law-chek, maybe so. Otherwise, the Lawchek "Quick Refe-rence" CD-ROM may be a costly alternative for information you can easily obtain elsewhere.

$300

Reviewed by Arlin P. Neser, Esq., business, tax and probate attorney, Orange County, Calif.

Feb/Mar '98 Issue

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Updated 09/19/01
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