Ask The Law Librarian.

• Author: Silverman, Mitchell L.

As a Florida lawyer and research librarian, I enjoyed Helen Jay's article in the March/April 2023 Florida Bar Journal, "Concurrals, Dissentals, and this Commental." Details like hers--that denials of and even concurrences with en banc review have their own nomenclature and dynamic--warm my magpie librarian heart.

It is unfortunate, however, that Ms. Jay, as a student at Florida Law, didn't know the importance of consulting a librarian, or realize how quickly one of us would have been willing and able to help her. She used free, un-vetted websites for her etymology points. This is tantamount to researching caselaw using Google Scholar--doable, but very inadvisable. (The Florida Bar's free Florida Fastcase benefit is an excellent alternative.)

A librarian would have directed her to Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, or to the Oxford English Dictionary. He or she also might have explained the importance of using authoritative sources, as with legal research itself.

In his column in...