Talking online: chat groups and discussion lists.

Technology has provided lawyers with two new ways to communicate with each other about legal issues: online chat groups and discussion lists.

Chat groups

Chat groups allow users to communicate in "real time" -- seeing a message as soon as it is sent rather than having to receive and open e-mail. Originally, users could communicate only with others who had the same online service, such as America Online or CompuServe. Now, users can download software from the Internet and install it on their computers, enabling them to chat with users of another service.

Chat software opens a window on the user's screen that is divided into two sections. The top section, seen by all chat-group participants, displays dialogue and identifies each contributor. The bottom section, seen only at a user's individual computer, is for composition of messages before sending them.

Some law-related chat "rooms," such as Law Office Legal Chats at www.thelawoffice.com/chat and LegalChat at www.legalnet/chat.htm, have scheduled events and guest participants.

The Mass Tort Claim Chat Room at www.cvcsc.com/chat.htm is a feature found on the Connecticut Valley Claims Service Company's Web site that is billed as a chat group for "mass-tort/environmental claims attorneys, defendants, insurers, plaintiffs, and CVCSC staff, focusing on mass tort litigation."

Legal EZ at www.legalpad.com has chat rooms for lawyers in general and specifically for prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, and judges.

Discussion lists

An e-mail discussion list, often called a listserv, enables you to post questions or comments to the other participants in a group interested in a specific topic. To subscribe, users are directed to send a message (typically "subscribe") to the list's e-mail address.

ATLA members can find numerous discussion groups on ATLA NET by going to www.atlanet.org/groups/discusmm.htm. The groups include several caucuses and divisions, forums on topics such as expert witnesses and law office technology, and all 18 ATLA sections.

Other discussion groups that attorneys may find interesting include:

Admiralty Law 

address: [e-mail] message: ADMLPROF your name

Civil Procedure

Appellate Practice address: [e-mail] message: subscribe appellate-l your name

Civil Procedure List (federal rules) address: [e-mail] message: subscribe civprocedure-l your name

Conflicts of Law List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe conflicts-l your name

Civil Rights Law

American Civil Liberties Union Legislative Network address: [e-mail] message: subscribe action

Americans with Disabilities Act address: [e-mail] message: subscribe ada-law your name

Americans with Disabilities List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe awd_your_e-mail_address

Elder Law List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe elderlaw-l your name

Free Speech Law address: [e-mail] message: subscribe clspeech your name

Poverty Law Discussion address: [e-mail] message: subscribe povertylaw-ly

Commercial Law

Antitrust Policy and Practice List address: [e-mail] message: sub antitrust your name

Bankruptcy Law address: [e-mail] message: subscribe bankrlaw

Blue Skies Law Net (state securities regulation) address: [e-mail] message: subscribe bluesky

Business Law address: [e-mail] message: subscribe bizlaw

Coalition for Networked Information's Copyright & Intellectual Property Forum address: [e-mail] message: subscribe cni-copyright yourfirstname yourlastname

Collection Lawyers List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe collection attorneys-l your name

Commercial Law League of America address: [e-mail] message: subscribe clla

Patent Law address: [e-mail] message: subscribe patent-l your name

Public Utilities/Telecommunications Law address: [e-mail] message: subscribe pubutilstelecom-l your name

Real Estate Lawyers' Discussion Group address: [e-mail] message: subscribe

Securities Law List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe securitieslaw-l your name

Trademark Law address: [e-mail] message: subscribe trademarks-l your name

Uniform Commercial Code address: [e-mail] message: subscribe ucclaw-l your name

Criminal Law

Criminal Justice Discussion List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe cjust-L your name

Death Penalty List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe deathpenalty your name

DWI/DUI Lawyers List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe dwiduiattorneys-l your name

Estate Planning Law

address: [e-mail] message: subscribe estateplanning

address: [e-mail] message: subscribe estplan-l

Evidence address: [e-mail] message: subscribe evid-l your name

Expert Witnesses

address: [e-mail] message: subscribe (in subject header)

address: [e-mail] message: subscribe expertwitness your name topic (use four key words)

Family Law

Adoption Reform address: [e-mail] message: subscribe adoption-reform

Domestic Violence Law address: [e-mail] message: subscribe dvclinic your name

Juvenile Law List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe juvenilelaw-l your name

U.S. Family Law address: [e-mail] message: subscribe familylaw-L your name

Feminism and Law

Feminist Jurisprudence address: [e-mail] message: subscribe femjur your name

Health Law

AIDS/H1V Legal Advocacy Discussion List address: [e-mail] message: subscription request

Health/Legal Issues List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe healthlaw-L your name

Immigration Law 

Legal Aspects of Asylum and Refugee Status address: [e-mail] message: subscribe asylum-L

International Law

address: [e-mail] message: subscribe forintlaw your name

Labor and Employment Law

Employment Law Forum address: [e-mail] message: JOIN

Labor Law List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe worklaw your name

Workers' Compensation Law Forum address: [e-mail] message: JOIN

Working People Issues address: [e-mail] message: subsingle your e-mail address

Law Firm Administration

address: [e-mail] message: subscribe lawfirmadmin-L your name

Legal Employment

address: [e-mail] message: subscribe lawjobs-L your name

Paralegals/Legal Assistants

address: [e-mail] message: subscribe paralegals your e-mail address

Personal Injury Law

Civil Justice List (Ralph Nader's Essential Information Project) address: [e-mail] message: subscribe civil-justice firstname lastname

Personal Injury Law Forum address: [e-mail] message: JOIN

Trial Lawyers List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe trial-lawyers your name

Planning, Zoning, and Land Use Regulation

Land Use address: [e-mail] message: subscribe landuse

Land Use Law address: [e-mail] message: subscribe landuselaw-l your name

Products Liability Law

address: [e-mail] message: subscribe productliability your name

Solo Practice 

address: [e-mail] message: subscribe solosez

Technology and Law

Bioethics Law List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe bioethicslaw-L your firstname lastname

Cyberia (law and policy of computer communications) address: [e-mail] message: subscribe cyberia-l firstname lastname

Intellectual Property and Computer Law address: [e-mail] message: subscribe computer-law

Law Office Technology address: [e-mail] message: subscribe (in subject header)

Lawyers and the Internet address: [e-mail] message: subscribe netlawyers your name

New Legal Web Sites List address: [e-mail] message: subscribe announce-new-law-websites your name

Technolawyer Listserver address: [e-mail] message: subscribe listserver

Technology and the Law address: [e-mail] message: subscribe tech-law

More extensive compilations of legal lists can be found on the Internet, provided by Lyonette Louis-Jacques of the University of Chicago at www.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/law-lists, Margaret L. Christiansen of Regent University School of Law at www.regent.edu/lawlib/lists/list-law.html, and Washburn Law School at lawlib.wuacc.edu/washlaw/listserv.html. An archive of over 100 law-related lists is provided by FindLaw at www.legalminds.org. LegalMinds allows you to search its archive by date, author, or subject.

General lists of e-mail discussion groups can be found at Catalist, www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html, Liszt,www.liszt. com, and the Guide to Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, www.neosoft.com/internet/paml/index.html.

Peter C. Quinn is managing editor of the ATLA Law Reporters. He can be reached at peter, [e-mail].