Blogs as Legal Research Tools
While you might enjoy bite-sized legal information updates on social media, if you are looking for a more substantial answer to legal questions, consider searching for legal blogs (sometimes called blawgs) on your topic. Top lawyers, law professors, courts, and librarians write blogs on a variety of legal subjects. Blogs are often a great starting point for finding out how legal professionals discuss legal topics. Reading a blog post can be a good way to learn that divorce is often called dissolution and an eviction is unlawful detainer.
Here we point you to some tools for finding legal blogs and highlight some Washington specific blogs, but before we get there we have to share a legal blog that always makes us chuckle. The Legal Geeks blog explores legal topics in popular media. The posts answer questions about responsibility for clean-up costs after a Godzilla rampage or the enforceability of oral contracts in the Mandalorian. Check it out if you need a good laugh!
Finding Legal Blogs by Topic
You can find blogs on legal topics by searching Google. Just try adding the word blog to your search. Click Tools below the search bar to select a date range for your search results. You can limit to the past month or year, or a custom date.
There are several websites that list blogs by legal topic. Each of these sites allows you to see the latest headlines for most of the blogs listed, aiding in knowing which blogs are posting new information. Check out these blog directories:
American Bar Association Journal Blawg Directory
The ABA Journal no longer ranks the top 100 Blawgs, but they still maintain a directory of several thousand law blogs that you can review by topic and region.
Law-Related Blogs in Washington State
University of Washington Gallagher Law Library’s list of legal blogs in our state was updated as recently as December 2020. The list is organized by topic.
More than 4,000 blogs are indexed at the Justia BlawgSearch website, including more than 80 in Washington State.
LexBlog’s Channels page aggregates top law firm blogs in more than 50 legal areas. Robert Ambrogi, a 2017 ABA Journal Legal Rebels Trailblazer, is publisher and editor-in-chief of the site.
Washington Legal Blogs
Here are some Washington specific legal blogs worth checking out:
Gallagher Blogs — the blog of the University of Washington Gallagher Law Library
“Gallagher Blogs is intended to provide [the library] community with news, tips, and information about resources helpful for legal research.” The blog currently features an excellent series of posts called Diverse Voices about diversity in the legal profession and legal scholarship.
NWSidebar — the blog of the Washington State Bar Association
“NWSidebar is a blog for and by the multiple and varied voices from all segments of the WSBA membership and the broader supporting legal community.” NWSidebar accepts submissions from bar members, staff, and legal professionals on a broad range of topics. Recent posts include a retrospective view of the practice of law during the pandemic and domestic worker rights in Seattle.
Columbia Legal Services
Columbia Legal Services blogs about their advocacy efforts for those with restricted access to legal services and also posts information useful to those communities such as this recent post about benefits for people without immigration status during COVID (in English and Spanish).
MRSC Insight Blog — the blog of the Municipal Research and Services Center
“MRSC Insight delivers [MRSC] staff’s research, knowledge and insight into issues that local governments in Washington State are grappling with every day.” The MRSC provides legal and policy guidance to local governments in Washington. It is this work that MRSC staff draws upon in writing on varied topics such as local government response to protests and the roles of local elected and appointed officials.
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts Blog
The blogging arm of the University of Washington School of Law’s Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts, this blog “analyzes key emerging legal issues in IP, technology, commerce, and the arts.” With posts on topics such as the constitutional concerns over facial recognition technology and the use of video recordings of police interactions to pierce the shield of qualified immunity the blog is highly relevant to today’s legal issues. (WB)
