Jersey Legal Information Board Newsletter: Summer 2010

Introduction
Having been the Jersey Legal Information Board Programme Director for five months now, I would like to report progress on current additions to the Jersey Legal Information Board’s website www.jerseylaw.je and to give you advance information on forthcoming plans in the next few months. www.jerseylaw.je  provides a valuable resource for all who live and work in the Island, and is used extensively by both business and legal communities as its first port of call for legal information. Analysis shows that usage is growing and the number of page views will soon reach 2 million per year. We expect that rate to rise as the website is developed and adapted to meet user needs and extend the user base.

Legal Library
At the end of June the Jersey Legal Information Board published online all 26 volumes of Oeuvres complètes de Pothier, nouvelle edition, 1821 having scanned them in from the Institute of Law’s rather fragile collection. This not only ensures that all registered users have instant access to Pothier but also reduces handling of the originals which should assist in their preservation. In the coming months we will be publishing texts such as Le Rouille - droit coutumier de Normandie, Basnage, Domat and others in a project that will extend until autumn. We look forward to receiving feedback on this service.

Daily Update Service
We introduced recently a daily update service to notify users when a new item appears on the website. All you have to do is put your email address in the subscription box on the ‘What’s New’ Page and when any item is added to the What’s New Page you will be sent an email with a hyperlink to the new item.

Annotated Laws
The Annotations project is ongoing and has been well received by the profession. As I explained in my last newsletter reported cases are annotated against the individual articles of Laws with hyperlinks to the Jersey Law Reports and Jersey Judgments.  This also includes a hyperlink direct to the specific reference within the judgment as a whole.  We are pleased to announce that in addition to Chapters 4 Civil Law and 13 Financial Services, we have recently added Chapter 7 Courts and Legal Services. More annotated Laws will follow although as you will appreciate this is a painstaking project that has to be thoroughly researched and checked and so it takes months of work before a new chapter is ready to be published. Every time there is a Law revision the annotations will be revisited and at present they are revised to the end of December 2009. To those who responded when we appealed to you to recommend Laws as candidates for annotation, thank you, we now have a list to work from, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late for any other recommendations, we would be happy to hear from anyone else who feels that there is sufficient case law in a particular area to warrant annotation.

Changes to the security model
Towards the end of July there will be a change in the way you log on to the restricted areas of the website. We have brought in the changes in order to update and improve the security of the site. We will write again shortly to each user to ask you to re-register for the website using the new registration system. There may be one or two of the larger law firms who have a different method of accessing the website and the Webmaster will be in touch with those firms to ensure there is a smooth transition to the new system.

Jersey Judgments
The Jersey Judgments series, which predates the Jersey Law Reports, is gradually being published on www.jerseylaw.je  and we will shortly be loading 1978. Users will be notified via the ‘What’s New’ page and the Daily Update for subscribers.

Developing Citizens pages
Work is progressing to develop the range and quality of advice and guidance on the Citizens pages. Following the current trend on other government websites, the pages will be divided up into ‘Life Events’ areas and information placed in them. In September the JLIB will hold an evening seminar, part of which will be to look at the opportunities these changes could bring to the legal community.

Other Changes
There are other initiatives planned for the autumn to improve the quality and depth of legal resource available to online subscribers, which will also be discussed in September’s seminar. Details of the seminar will be sent to you in August.

I would be grateful if you would pass this letter on to your partners and/or fee earners as we would be delighted to receive any feedback from them on any aspect of the website.  Please send any comments to s.dufeu@gov.je.

Yours sincerely

Sue du Feu
Programme Director
Jersey Legal Information Board