By Senior Editor – Kris Smith (@croncast)

Thanks to the hard work of some folks at Google anyone, especially the legally inclined, can now search caselaw on Google Scholar.

Normally, this would have passed right by me as another Google database filled with an immense amount of data that I might someday need. This time it didn’t thanks to a blog post from Rick Klau that it had launched.

“It’s been a thrill to be part of this project, but most importantly it’s exhilarating to know that for the first time, US citizens have the ability to search for – and read – the opinions that govern our society. Matt DeVries, a law school roommate, has a great overview of what this means for him as a lawyer here. Tim Stanley, a pioneer in this space who I first met when he built a search engine to index the articles published in the law journal I founded, said simply, “Thanks, Google!” and then did a good job evaluating what Scholar does (and doesn’t) do with the opinions. Rex Gradeless, a law student, pointed out that while this may be of interest for lawyers and law students, the real winner here is citizens who’ve historically not had comprehensive access to this information at all.”

The impact of being able to search caselaw isn’t just important to the papered attorney but also to the armchair cohort that needs to research some worthy decisions that could affect their case for downloading pirated Egyptian Musicals that are copyright content and recording of a Brazilian heiress with US citizenship. That will need a Google worthy defense.

Surely, I kid but it is of immense value to all citizens that a database filled with court renderings of similar cases is now available to them. To use this new tool go to Google Scholar and select the “Legal opinions and journals” radio button.

Maybe . . . just maybe . . . if you spend enough time doing research Google Scholar might help you get out of that collection of parking tickets!

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/4