On March 14 weapons screening will be implemented in the Hennepin County Government Center.  To gain access to either set of public elevators, members of the public must pass through airport-style weapons screening.  Briefcases, laptops, purses and other parcels must be placed on a conveyor belt and pass through an X-ray machine.  Metal items from clothing and pockets must be removed and jackets must be removed if they have metal zippers.  Shoes should be removed if they contain any metal. Government Center employees will pass through a separate line in order to speed up the process.

February 1 marked the day HCLL stopped offering the West CD-ROM product, Premise.  We replaced our Premise databases with free access to Lexis and Westlaw, both of which provide information that is broader in scope, extends further back in time, and is always up to date (find out more about HCLL's Lexis and Westlaw offerings in the January-February HCLL Alert).

Eliminating Premise allowed us to simplify the user menu of the public workstations. It is our hope that the new menu design will be easier to understand and use.

Minnesota Practice does cover a range of topics, including annotated commentaries on the general rules of practice, on the rules of civil, appellate, and juvenile procedure, and on the rules of evidence.  The set also includes the civil and criminal jury instructions, and the Methods of Practice title remains a concise introduction to all areas of Minnesota law.  Herr’s and Haydock’s Civil Practice Forms provides model forms for a variety of pleading and practice situations, and the series has included specialty titles on criminal law, family law, and employment law for several years.  More recently, West has added titles on administrative practice, corporation and other business transactions, insurance, probate, real estate, and collections to the series.  HCLL owns all of them and has both circulating and reference copies.

Lexis does not ignore the needs of the Minnesota practitioner either.  They have taken over from the old Michie Company a full range of useful and practical titles:  Employment in Minnesota; The Drinking Driver in Minnesota; Minnesota Adoption Law and Practice; Minnesota Misdemeanors and Moving Traffic Violations; Minnesota Limitations Manual; the Minnesota Family Law Practice Manual; and Minnesota No-Fault Automobile Insurance.  Lexis has recently begun to publish a new edition of the classic Stein on Probate, and their third edition of McFarland’s and Keppel’s Minnesota Civil Practice remains the standard for civil procedure in Minnesota.

HCLL selects materials from some of the programs held by the Minnesota Defense Lawyers Association and the Minnesota Trial Lawyers Association.  But these two local associations have also published some significant and very useful titles that we also own.  Among these are the Minnesota Motor Vehicle Insurance Manual and the MDLA Release Deskbook from the Defense Lawyers Association and the Cause of Action Manual and the Practitioner’s Guide to an Efficient Family Law Practice from the Minnesota Trial Lawyers Association.

For several years we have been purchasing selected Minnesota titles published by the continuing legal education provider National Business Institute, based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  A few weeks ago we entered a standing order with NBI for all their Minnesota titles published in 2005.  We expect to receive from them soon publications on commercial evictions, contracts for deed, discovery techniques in dissolution cases, and family-owned businesses.

For more information, see the Federal Trade Commission’s web page, "Your Access to Free Credit Reports".