Government compliance with the Freedom of Information Act appears to be deteriorating in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a Society of Environmental Journalists report released today, A Flawed Tool – Environmental Reporters’ Experiences with the Freedom of Information Act.

The SEJ interviewed 55 reporters, finding that excessive…

A Web site launched Friday, Help Katrina Lawyers, aims to pull together volunteers and resources to help Gulf Coast law firms with issues relating to legal technology, practice management and disaster/data recovery. Spearheaded by Ross Kodner at Microlaw and Dale Tincher and his staff at Consultwebs, the site came about through the…

I wondered earlier this week how law firms are responding to Hurricane Katrina. Here is part of the answer.…

If you want to apply for disaster relief online through FEMA’s Web site, don’t try to use any browser other than Internet Explorer. As this page explains, only IE 6.0 or higher will work for FEMA’s online registration.

[Via The Register.]…

A conference today at Seton Hall University School of Law was to debate how quickly and to what extent court records should be made available over the Internet, according to a report in the Star-Ledger.…

A generous gesture from Kevin O’Keefe and company at LexBlog:

“In response to the natural disaster that has befallen the gulf coast region, LexBlog would like to help by making our services available for free to both those law firms impacted by the hurricane and the various groups and agencies lawyers are supporting through

Two South Texas College of Law professors are providing first-hand accounts of the treatment of black victims of Hurricane Katrina through their blog, White Washing the Black Storm: We Are Watching. The two, Tracy McGaugh and Kathleen Bergin focus on conditions in the Houston Astrodome, where they visit daily and post first-hand…

Via CyberJournalist.net, I learned that LexisNexis is offering a page of news stories about Hurricane Katrina free to non-subscribers. Says CyberJournalist: “This is a fantastic resource. The site pulls from more than 4,000 U.S. and international news sources.”…

On NPR’s Morning Edition yesterday, U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), chair of the Republican Conference, suggested that volunteers are not able to help with hurricane relief efforts “because they were afraid to be sued.”

Today, Ken Suggs, president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, responded, saying in part: …

The latest installment of Coast to Coast, the weekly legal news podcast cohosted by J. Craig Williams and I, is now available. Recorded earlier today, the program, titled Roberts’ Rocky Road, brings together a formidable panel of guests to discuss the Roberts nomination and the future of the Supreme Court. Joining Craig and…

In his comment to my earlier post, Ted Frank takes issue with any suggestion that he endorses “unbridled, vigilante street justice.” He writes:

“My argument was simply that the early and judicious use of force by competent law enforcement, including shooting looters, would save lives in the long run, something that has been empirically

I found myself wondering how the nation’s 10 highest-grossing firms are responding to the tragedy in the Gulf. Using The AmLaw 100 list, I visited the Web sites of the top 10 firms. I found only one that had a reference of any kind to Katrina — an offer by Jones Day to…