One difference between going to law school today and going to law school in the Dark Ages concerns the case briefs available for free on the web these days. Lots of students have posted their outlines and case briefs online, and they're all a Google search away. Maybe you don't feel like working your way through the mysteries of Pennoyer v. Neff? Don't worry — if you google Pennoyer v. Neff, Mike Shecket's case summary is the first thing to pop up. If in doubt, just download it to your laptop and bring it to class. If you're called on, you can improvise with Mike's help.

  I want to hear from current law students about how often students rely on such resources, both in and out of class. I have four specific questions:

1. How often to do you either read online casenotes before class, or download them and bring them to class in case you're called on?

2. Roughly what percentage of your classmates do so?

3. How many times in your law school experience has a student been called on for a case, and responded by reading from what you're pretty sure was an online casenote that the student downloaded from the web?

4. When (3) happened, do you think the professor realized what was happening? If they did, how did the professor respond?

  Thanks for the feedback. My special request is for practicing lawyers not to weigh in with comments. I'm sure lots of lawyers have opinions on whether students should rely on such resources, or have fond memories of what it was like to go to law school in the 1980s, but right now I want to find out about today's student practices.