Louisiana is a civil law state, as many lawyers know (hopefully all of them in Louisiana know this!). And to lawyers outside Louisiana it invokes unease, mostly because the terminology is often different. Google has not tweaked its translator tool to include a “common law to civil law” converter, and probably won’t anytime soon. So what’s a poor civil law lawyer to do?
Well, you can buy the Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary, which was created by two Louisiana attorneys: Gregory Rome and Stephan Kinsella. It’s $25 from Amazon, and worth it for Louisiana attorneys and those who are trying to understand the lingo used by Louisiana attorneys. It’s even available in a Kindle edition for just under $10, which is handy if you want to have it on your iPhone or iPad.