User talk:Erichaim

A bit about me. I am a practicing attorney and independent legal scholar. At UC Berkeley I obtained my J.D. from Boalt Hall (1987) and my Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy (1990). My dissertation was "Jurisprudence and Adjudication in the Civil Restraint of the Mentally Ill." My current areas of research are in American Constitutional theory, history and law, specifically theory (political theory of the Constitution, theories of Constitutional interpretation), history (Constitutional history of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, war powers), law (free speech, war powers, civil commitment). My law practice is civil litigation in California, primarily in real property and commercial law disputes. I am a new contributor as of December 2011 so I am greatly appreciative for any tips and advice on how to improve my editing skills.

Case Page template
On the pages on specific Supreme Court decisions, there is a standard box graphic on the right (very nicely down IMO) for providing key case information. The template is called an "infobox". At the most general level, you can read about templates at Help:Template. At the next level, for these types see Help:Infobox. And for the specifics of the ones you are seeing, the template itself, with documentation, is at Infobox SCOTUS case. Some related infoboxes are Infobox COA case and Infobox high court. A good way to learn how to use is look at a good example of a template in use. If you open up Roe v. Wade for example, and click "edit this page" at the top, you'll see the code for the template as follows:
 * As you can see it's basically a form in which you fill in set parameters which then formats as the graphic and information you see at the top of the article. This stuff can look a bit like a foreign language until you become familiar with it. If you run into trouble, you can always drop a note at the help desk 24/7. You can also always ask me a question directly on my talk page and I'll try to help. Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:05, 13 January 2012 (UTC)