Web Logs Now Part of Litigation Landscape

Michael Jackson has one. Martha Stewart paid top dollar for hers. And the Justice Department got one as a gift in its antitrust trial against Oracle.

Web sites dedicated to a specific trial are ushering in a new era of client service, said Denise M. Howell, a Web log booster and intellectual property litigator who is of counsel to the Los Angeles office of Reed Smith.

"Not only is it critical to know who will try your case," Howell said. "It's important to consider who will 'blog' it."

The Web log that sparked Howell's enthusiasm is devoted to a civil case, the Department of Justice's antitrust action against Oracle Corp. in San Francisco.

Running the Oracle trial Web log is Gary Reback of Palo Alto, Calif.'s Carr & Ferrell, who represents PeopleSoft Inc., the object of Oracle's hostile takeover that DOJ is trying to block. At his client's request, Reback is "blogging" the proceeding, sitting in the trial all day, taking notes, and filing an account on PeopleSoft's corporate Web site.

"Perhaps I can give some balance to Oracle's artful spin," Reback writes at the start of the blog, titled "View from the Court."

More here from The National Law Journal. (And congrats to Denise Howell, who runs Bag and Baggage and contributes to The Blawg Channel.)