For a while now I’ve been at work on a project which will be of interest to many readers of this site, and I’m happy to say I can now divulge its general outlines. A few months ago the Manhattan Institute (with which I’m associated as a senior fellow) asked me to develop, launch and edit an entirely new website under its auspices (unlike Overlawyered, which is freestanding). The site’s mission: to take a more in-depth look at our legal system and how it might best be fixed.

The need for such a site is plain. Overlawyered can keep up with only a small portion of readers’ hunger for information about the legal system. Many find the mix here of mostly shorter items, some entertaining and some serious, to be exactly to their taste. Others wish we went into more depth about the “big picture” — the statistics and studies, the history, the wider debate about whether society is too litigious and what can be done about it. Overlawyered runs only a small sampling of news and analysis on reform efforts that aim to bring more fairness and rationality to the litigation system; many readers would like to see much more.

PointOfLaw.com will make a logical first stop for readers interested in both the big picture and the details of legal reform. It will draw on the work of a variety of contributors, including some names familiar to readers of this site and others that aren’t. Among its highlights will be a multiperson weblog; newly written articles; dialogues arising from friendly disagreement; reprints of unusually illuminating articles from law reviews, policy journals and elsewhere; guides to research and more. It will be driven by database software, making for more powerful tools of search-by-category, search-by-author and so forth.

No definite launch date yet — it’s probably still weeks off — and the site isn’t operational for visitors yet. But there are already ways in which you, the prospective reader, can help. Since we’re looking for publishable new work, those of you with a background in research (academic or otherwise), policy analysis or law practice should not hesitate to contact us about ideas for new articles/studies/content. No matter what your background, you can alert us to research articles and studies appearing elsewhere that we might want to link to or summarize. Write me at editor – [at] – overlawyered – [dot] com (for now). And watch this space for more updates. (& welcome Howard Bashman readers, Heritage Policy Weblog (which also says nice things about this site)).

Filed under: legal blogs, Manhattan Institute