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CounselWeb would encourage all lawyers who sign up for these discussion lists to read these FAQs. They are not long, and they contain useful information about the lists.
What Are CounselWeb's E-Mail Discussion Lists and How Do They Work?
What Are The E-Mail Addresses of CounselWeb's Discussion Lists?
How Do I Subscribe To A CounselWeb List By E-Mail?
How Do I Subscribe To A CounselWeb List On the Web?
How Do I Unsubscribe From A CounselWeb List By E-Mail?
How Do I Unsubscribe From A CounselWeb List On the Web?
Do I Have To Be A Member of A CounselWeb List To Send A E-Mail To It?
Why Are There So Few Messages on Some of the Lists?
Which CounselWeb Lists Should I Sign Up For?
Which CounselWeb List Should I Send E-Mail To?
How Do I Know If My Message Was Sent?
What's The Problem With AutoResponders?
Can I Find Out Who Else Is On A CounselWeb List?
What Are CounselWeb's E-Mail Discussion Lists and How Do They Work?
E-mail discussion lists are a great way to communicate with other people who share a common interest. The lists are located at a particular e-mail address. Each interested person can subscribe to one or more lists. (Details on how to do this are provided below). Anyone subscribed to a list can then send an e-mail to the list. That e-mail is automatically forwarded to everyone else on the list. Other people can respond, and those responses are also forwarded to the list.
The result is an e-mail "conversation" with many people spread out over distance and time.
CounselWeb has set up over 2000 of these e-mail discussion lists, covering 52 major areas of the law. Most of these areas of the law have a general discussion lists and 51 state discussion lists (covering the 50 states and the District of Columbia). Some of the lists are subdivided in different ways. For example, the appellate law lists contain a general list, 51 state lists, one list for each federal circuit court (including the federal circuit), and a U.S. Supreme Court list. The bankrtupcy law lists do not contain separate state lists (since bankruptcy is governed exclusively by federal law), but do contain separate lists for Chapters 7, 9, 11, 12, and 13.
What Are The E-Mail Addresses of CounselWeb's Discussion Lists?
Each CounselWeb list has three e-mail addresses:
The complete list of regular e-mail addresses for CounselWeb's 2000+ discussion lists is on a separate page, but here is the general form of these names.
The regular e-mail address for a general discussion list is
discussion@[domain name]
where [domain name] is one of CounselWeb's legal-related domain names (like litigation.net, appellatelaw.net, businesslaw.net, etc.) For example, the e-mail address of the general bankrutpcy law discussion list is
discussion@bankruptcylaw.net
The regular e-mail address for a state discussion list is
discussion.[state]@[domain name]
where [state] is the standard two-letter postal abbreviation for the state. For example, the e-mail address of the New York tax law list is
discussion.ny@taxlaw.net
The complete e-mail addresses of other specialized lists are contained on a separate page.
Each list has its own administrative e-mail address where administrative commands like 'subscribe' and 'unsubscribe' may be sent. This address is
request.[regular e-mail address of discussion list]
For example, the administrative e-mail address of the New York tax law list is
request.discussion.ny@taxlaw.net
How Do I Subscribe To A CounselWeb List By E-Mail?
There are two ways to subscribe by e-mail.
First, you can send an e-mail to the administrative e-mail address of the particular list you want to subscribe to. The subject line can say anything. The body of the e-mail should say
subscribe
and nothing else. This will subscribe you to that list
Second, if you want to sign up for multiple lists, you can send a single e-mail to discussions@counselweb.com. The subject line can say anything. The body of the e-mail should say
subscribe [list name]
where [list name] is the name of the list (as discussed above) that you want to sign up for. Click here for complete e-mail sign up instructions. You may sign up for multiple lists, but each subscribe line should be on a separate line. For example, to subscribe to the general appellate law list and the California family law list, the body of your e-mail should read
subscribe
discussion@appellatelaw.net
subscribe discussion.ca@familylaw.net
You will receive an e-mail confirming that you have subscribed. Save this e-mail; it contains important information you may need later.
How Do I Subscribe To A CounselWeb List On the Web?
Click here and follow the directions.
How Do I Unsubscribe From A CounselWeb List By E-Mail?
The same way you subscribe to a list (see above), but use the command unsubscribe instead of subscribe.
You will receive an e-mail confirming that you have unsubscribed.
How Do I Unsubscribe From A CounselWeb List On the Web?
Sorry, but you can't.
Do I Have To Be A Member of A CounselWeb List To Send A E-Mail To It?
Yes. The lists will reject e-mail sent by a non-member. We set the system up this way to prevent spammers from sending junk e-mail to the lists.
Because there are so many states and areas of the law.
The biggest problem with most legal discussion lists is that they are too broad. If lawyers in West Virginia are discussing a recent West Virginia employment law case, lawyers on the list from the rest of the country will probably not be interested. And West Virginia lawyers who do not practice employment law will probably not be interested. But by providing separate lists for different practice areas, and then separate lists for each state within most of those practice areas, lawyers will be able to discuss state- and practice-specific topics with only those lawyers who would be interested.
By having so many lists, we have hopefully set up a system where most of the e-mail you receive from the lists will be of at least some interest to you.
Why Are So Few Messages Posted on Some of the Lists?
Some of the lists are in less prominent practice areas. Other lists are in less populous states. And some lists, for whatever reason, simply have very few subscribers. Many of these lists have been dormant even since they were set up. But others have quite an active discussion going.
The lists are only as active as the members themselves make them.
Which CounselWeb Lists Should I Sign Up For?
There are three things to consider when choosing which lists to sign up for.
First, you obviously should pick legal areas that you practice in, or at least that interest you.
Second, you might consider signing up for the litigation lists and the appellate law lists. These lists deal with procedural issues and evidentiary questions.
Third, within each practice area, we recommend you sign up for the general list and your particular state lists. (If you practice in multiple states, you should sign up for the state lists for all of these states.)
Of course, these are only our recommendation; you are of free to sign up for any lists you wish.
Which CounselWeb List Should I Send E-Mail To?
Before sending an e-mail, it helps if you take a short amount of time to consider which list would be most appropriate.
The first consideration is the area of law the e-mail concerns. Please do not send e-mail on substantive issues to the litigation lists or appellate law lists. E-mails sent to these lists should be limited to procedural issues, evidentiary issues, discussions about particular courts, and discussions about trial court litigation or appellate litigation in general.
Where appropriate, you may send a single e-mail to two or more lists. For example, if you had a post about the constitutionality of certain tax exemptions for religious groups, you might want to post that to the general tax law list and the First Amendment - religion list.
Once you have picked an area, you should decide whether to send it to the general list or one of the state lists. If your e-mail would be of interest to lawyers practicing in that area regardless of their state, you should send it to the general list. If not, it should go to the state list. It is probably a bad idea to send the same e-mail to both the genenal list and the state list. Virtually everyone on the state lists is also signed up for the general list. You will not reach significantly more people by sending the message to the state list as well, and most of the people on the state list will get your e-mail twice.
It is not uncommon for state lists and some of the general lists to stay dormant for a long time. But sooner or later someone sends a message, and the discussion gets going.
How Do I Know If My Message Was Sent?
Everyone on the list, including you, will receive your message. If you receive a copy of your message, you know it was sent.
Our list server usually sends out the message to everyone on the list in under a minute. However, the list server (as well as the internet itself) occasionally gets very busy. Also, some e-mail providers are currently overwhelmed, and the turnaround time on sending and receiving e-mails is quite long. However, with most e-mail providers, you should typically receive a copy of your message within a few minutes.
The return address for messages from the list is automatically set to the e-mail address of the list itself. To reply to a message, simply press the reply button on your e-mail brower, compose your response, and send it.
What's The Problem With AutoResponders?
Autoresponders are programs that send an automatic reply to an e-mail. People usually set up an autoresponder when when they go on vacation or will be gone for a long time. The reply message usually says somthing like "I will be out of the office until X. If this is an emergency, please call my secretary at ..."
The problem with autoresponders is that they will respond to messages sent to the list, and this could start an infinite loop of messages. For example, suppose Lawyer 1 is on vacation and turns on his autoresponder. Lawyer 2 then sends a message to the list. This message goes to everyone on the list, including Lawyer 1, whose autoresponder sends back a reply message. This reply message goes to everyone on the list - including Lawyer 1 - whose autoresponder generates a second response, which gets sent to the list, etc. This turns into an infinite loop, with everyone on this list getting another autoresponse message every few minutes.
We have set up our system to scan incoming e-mails for certain taboo key words or phrases and bounce e-mails that contain them. Among these words are "autoresponse" "autoresponder" "out of the office" and "call my secretary". If you subscribe to the lists and have an autoresponder, please make sure that at least one of the words or phrases is in your autoresponse message.
Can I Find Out Who Else Is On A CounselWeb List?
Not really. The system is set up so that it will not tell users who is on the lists. We did this to prevent spammers from signing up for the lists, downloading the list of users, and adding everyone to their spam list.
If for some reason you have a legitimate need to know who is on a particular list, send us an e-mail, and we will be happy to provide you with that information.
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