Government (dot gov) Websites

There are many new federal government websites (and some that appear to be official government websites but are not, though they can be very useful too - just be aware of the difference). Here are some U.S. government websites I’ve visited recently:

1) U.S.A. dot gov: the red, white, and blue of government websites

2) Data dot gov: for the statistician within

3) Recovery dot gov: for some monetary stimulation

4) Pandemicflu dot gov: guess

5) My Money dot gov: if you don't take care of it, who will?

Research tip: When you want just dot gov sites in your search results:

From many search engines (though it can be frustrating to figure if the one you are using does this), you can add the following to your search terms if you want just dot gov websites: site:.gov (that is, type: site colon dot gov (no spaces needed))

Or, use the search engine’s Advanced Search feature, which also isn’t always easy to find. I noticed on Bing recently that you don’t get an “Advanced Search” button until after you run your search. I would ask why, but it’s pretty clear why. I just want it to stop.

You can use a similar search syntax for educational sites, e.g. if you want a dot edu domain, use the search syntax: site:.edu

Oregon Supreme Court Case Limiting Mandatory Measure 11 Sentences

The Oregon Supreme Court case that limited mandatory measure 11 sentences and that garnered a lot of headlines and commentary in September, was:

STATE OF OREGON v. RODRIGUEZ / BUCK (SC S055720), filed September 24, 2009:

The decisions of the Court of Appeals are affirmed in part and reversed in part. The judgments of the circuit courts are affirmed.

De Muniz, C. J., concurred in part and dissented in part and filed an opinion in which Gillette and Walters, JJ., joined.

*Appeal from Washington County Circuit Court, Nancy W. Campbell, Judge. 217 Or App 351, 174 P3d 1100 (2007).

*Appeal from Linn County Circuit Court, Rick J. McCormick, Judge. 217 Or App 363, 174 P3d 1106 (2007).

Excerpt from the summary:

“… These two criminal cases, which we consolidated for argument and disposition, require us to interpret and apply the requirement in Article I, section 16, of the Oregon Constitution that "all penalties shall be proportioned to the offense."(1)

Veronica Rodriguez touched a 13-year-old boy when, standing behind him in a room with 30 to 50 other people, she brought the back of his head into contact with her clothed breasts for about one minute. Darryl Buck touched a 13-year-old girl when the girl, who was sitting next to him while she was fishing, leaned back to cast her fishing line, bringing her clothed buttocks into contact with the back of his hand and Buck failed to move his hand; that happened one or two more times. When they stood up, Buck brushed dirt off the back of the girl's shorts with two swipes of his hand. Each of those touchings was unlawful because a jury in Rodriguez's case and a judge in Buck's case found that they had been for a sexual purpose -- a fact that brought the physical contact within the definition of first-degree sexual abuse. ORS 163.427(1)(a)(A). Rodriguez and Buck were both convicted of that crime.

First-degree sexual abuse carries a mandatory sentence of six years and three months (75 months) in prison, under Ballot Measure 11 (1994). In each of these cases, however, the trial judge determined that the mandatory sentence was not "proportioned to the offense" committed by the defendant and therefore was unconstitutional under Article I, section 16. The trial courts imposed shorter sentences -- 16 months in the case of Rodriguez and 17 months in the case of Buck.(2) The state appealed the trial courts' sentencing rulings, and Rodriguez and Buck cross-appealed their convictions. The Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions, but agreed with the state that the trial courts should have imposed mandatory 75-month sentences. State v. Rodriguez, 217 Or App 351, 174 P3d 1100 (2007); State v. Buck, 217 Or App 363, 174 P3d 1106 (2007).

Defendants filed petitions for review, which we allowed. For the reasons that follow, we affirm defendants' convictions. However, we reverse the decisions of the Court of Appeals as to sentencing and affirm the sentences imposed by the trial courts. We conclude that the imposition of the mandatory 75-month sentence for first-degree sexual abuse, as applied to the facts of Rodriguez's and Buck's offenses, would violate the constitutional requirement that the penalty be proportioned to the offense….” (Read the full case.)

Veterans Pro Bono Program: Training for Oregon Attorneys: Oct 26, 2009

The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program fall trainings are co-sponsored by the Veterans Law Section of the Federal Bar Association and supporting law firms. The trainings will be in Portland OR, Salt Lake City UT, Phoenix, AZ, and Washington, DC.

(The Portland, Oregon, training will be on Monday, October 26, 2009, at Perkins Coie LLP.)

There is specific information about these daylong trainings at the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program website.

Volunteer lawyers provide pro bono representation to a veteran (or family member) before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. All cases involve an appeal from a denial of VA benefits. Each lawyer agreeing to accept one case receives free training, a veterans law manual, a pre-screened case, and on-going access to a mentor.

Oregon veterans and attorneys: Don’t forget your county veterans offices (e.g. in Washington County) and the Oregon State Bar (OSB) veterans programs: the Military Assistance Panel for attorneys who want to offer their legal assistance and for veterans who need them.

The Law of Engagement Rings (with a side of ring-flingers and Oregon cows)

Is the engagement ring yours, mine, ours, or theirs (e.g. creditors or charities)?

This post is for those who want or need to resolve the Engagement Ring Dispute by delving into the Law (mostly Oregon), which, given what I’ve unearthed, isn’t that far from simply asking oneself, “What would Miss Manners (or Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, or even George Mitchell) Do?”

Warning: Do not expect An Answer, at least not a simple one. But you may find your answer in all of this (or at least another view of the “marriage catastrophe” a la Zorba).

Engagement Ring Law seems, unlike a lot of law (how's the financial meltdown treating you?), more like the Law of the High Road, the Side of the Angels, the Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters "law" and the Code of the Woosters (what, what). Maybe we want to keep it that way.

Saying there isn’t a lot of published or authoritative information on the Oregon law of engagement rings is a gross understatement. However, we did dig up some possibly useful information on our own and from talking to Oregon attorneys. Some of this may be similar to the Engagement Ring Law (so to speak) of other states.

Engagement rings can be many things, apart from declarations of love. They can be gifts, promises, contracts, marital property, displays of wealth or questionable judgment, or a not entirely principled way to keep the alimony payments current without quite having to keep living the solitary life.

Here are some of the engagement ring reference questions that are asked:

1) Before a marriage, does an engagement ring have to be returned if the engagement is broken off? If not, are there any circumstances where it does have to be returned? For example, does it matter who broke off the engagement?

2) What if the ring is a family heirloom?

3) Who does it belong to during the marriage? (E.g. can it be sold, with impunity, to pay a divorce attorney?)

4) Who does it belong to after the marriage ends? One party, both?

5) If an Oregon engagement ring ownership dispute makes its way into Small Claims Court (SCC) rather than Circuit Court, might the SCC's greater "court of equity" powers lead to a different result (assuming of course the value is less than $7,500)?

Engagement Ring Legal Research So Far:

When someone asks us (in the law library) about Who Gets the Engagement Ring, we usually preface our responses to our non-attorney patrons with those timeless words "it depends."

Other than In re Domestic P'ship of Ewing 206 Ore. App. 478 (A124309) (2006), there is not much case law. Alas.

Judges in Oregon have not taken the opportunity to wax poetically on Oregon Engagement Ring Law, but that doesn’t mean you leave empty-handed, or fingered.

Oregon appellate courts (as opposed to trial courts) are mostly silent on the subject of engagement rings, but inside and outside Oregon it appears that an engagement ring is by its nature a conditional gift, based on the mutual contemplation of marriage. If the marriage does not take place, the condition fails, and the gift must be returned. (Judges can (but don't have to) look at case law outside their own states for how other courts have resolved some disputes, but they are not required to follow any law other than their own state’s laws. See, e.g. mandatory authority.)

Some cases take "fault" into consideration, but most courts stayed away from making that determination and applied a contract theory. There seems to be some authority in Oregon that once the marriage has taken place, the engagement ring belongs to the wife—e.g., the condition was met.

More from lawyers:

1) In some states, you may need to give the ring back because it's not a gift. It is consideration given for a promise to marry - it creates the necessary "consideration" for a contract between the parties. If the contract is broken, the consideration must be returned.

2) Another lawyer tells us about rules of etiquette, those that “dictate that if you are the one who breaks up with the other, you have to return your engagement ring to her/him and not ask for anything in return. If, on the other hand, you are the one broken up WITH, you get to keep the ring, sell it, etc., without giving anything to your ex for it.”

3) As I recall, the old contracts adage “if marriage doesn’t happen, the consideration fails” I think has been changed in some states by whose fault it was. I.e., if the man cheated and the woman broke it off, should she have to give the ring back? Perhaps the consideration on his side failed – that he would be a faithful husband.

4) And, as one of our attorneys says so eloquently spoke to us about the nexus between law and manners:

“This is actually consistent with my understanding of the rules of etiquette. I believe the consensus among etiquette experts (Miss Manners, Emily Post, etc.) is that one returns the ring when the engagement is broken, no matter who broke it. The general idea is that a lady wouldn’t want anything more to do with the symbol of a love that has proved to be something less than she thought it was…or a gentleman who has proved to be less than she thought he was. If memory serves, in those situations in which the gentleman has behaved particularly badly, I believe that “returning it” can properly be defined to include flinging it at him….”

On the Oregon Small Claims Court front, keep in mind that Oregon Small Claims Courts are courts of equity and the judges have more room to work with parties on coming to an agreement than they would have in Circuit Court, where all the rules of court must be observed.

A Small Claims Court judge or mediator could consider whose “fault” the break up was. If it was no one’s fault, the judge could order that the ring be returned. But an heirloom would likely still go back to the family, regardless of fault.

How about that Wedding Ring?

Take a look at Mallorie v. Mallorie, A120473. (In how many cases do you see the phrase "a large number of cows" in the same sentence with "wife's wedding ring", and also containing the memorable line, “[b]ut once the cow’s dead, she's dead”?)

“… wife appeals and husband cross-appeals from a judgment of dissolution of marriage. Wife asserts that the trial court erred in making its award of spousal support, in treating a large number of cows leased to the family's dairy as husband's premarital assets, in treating wife's wedding ring as a marital asset, and in taking into consideration certain alleged tax ramifications of a business arrangement with the family's dairy in setting wife's spousal support and in valuing husband's cows.” (Read the full case.)

Or course, sometimes you may not want the rings back. See Ash v. State, 139 Tex. Crim. 420, 141 S.W.2d 341 (1940): “... The officers were investigating the loss of two diamond rings. The officers received information that defendant was trying to dispose of the rings at a pawn shop. The officers saw defendant place an object in his mouth, which they took to be the rings. Defendant refused to open his mouth, and the officers observed defendant swallow....”

Consumer Sleuth: Engaging the Nancy Drew or Hardy Boy Within

While you are channeling Your Inner Sherlock Holmes, you can also engage your inner Consumer Self-Help resourcefulness.

The Oregonian’s Complaint Desk had an excellent story of how you can resolve a consumer mystery and find your missing mo-ped, by following the trail of a missing-in-action company, aptly named Knuckle Head (but still nice guys and not out to harm anyone - librarians love happy endings!).

A bit of online sleuthing brings mo-ped reunion, from the Sunday Oregonian (print) and online, September 20, 2009.

From the Oregon Secretary of State's office, to the Attorney General’s office, and onward … [excerpt]: “… Then came the fun part: Individual online searches of the full business name, owner's name, phone number and address. This is where consumers must think like detectives, busting out the skills picked up from all those late-night "Law & Order" reruns. Open any link that sounds as if it could have something to do with the business you're looking for….” (Read full article)

My previous OLR blog post about the Oregonian’s Complaint Desk.

Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines: New Edition

Unshelved Comic Strip (published Sunday, September 27, 2009) features the book “Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, 12th edition.”

Don't you love it when you learn from comic book? (And, how about a comic book on copyright law, which I blogged about here.)

Oregon Public Records and Public Meeting Manual: Online or Not?

Records flap has ironic twist: Activists publish the state’s public records manual on the Internet over the Justice Department’s objections, by David Steves, The Register-Guard, appeared in print: Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009.

Excerpt: “Right-to-know advocates are defying Oregon’s attorney general by putting a restricted government document on the Web for everyone to see.

But the document at the center of this dispute isn’t a sensitive record such as a list of Oregonians’ Social Security numbers or names of concealed-handgun-permit holders.

Rather, it’s the state’s Public Records and Meetings Manual — a bland legal guide updated by the state every two years to help the public and the media gain access to government documents and attend public meetings. The state Justice Department, which publishes the 11/2-inch-thick paperback book, doesn’t want it posted on the Internet by others.

Until now, the only way to get the guide has been to buy it from the state for $25….” (link to full story)

This “flap” is reminiscent of the one over the ORS, which was resolved by the Oregon Legislature in 2008 after a hearing. Other OLR blog posts on the subject of the Oregon Public Records Manual.

Where are the 2009 Oregon Revised Statutes?

Just a reminder that the 2009 Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) will not be available in print or online until 2010.

But you can still read the 2009 Oregon laws enacted by the Legislature and the Governor.

(Note: Oregon "Effective Date of Legislation": "In accordance with ORS 171.022, "Except as otherwise provided in the Act, an Act of the Legislative Assembly takes effect on January 1 of the year after passage of the Act.")

1) 2008 Oregon Laws: You can read the Oregon Laws through the 2008 Special Session, online and in print.

2) Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS): The Oregon Laws have been codified through 2007 and you can read them in print and online. (The superseded ORS editions are not online at the Legislature's website.)

3) The 2009 ORS (i.e. the codification of the 2009 Oregon Laws) will not appear online or in print much before February 2010.

4) See also the websites for the Clerk of the House and Secretary of the Senate for more information.Previous Oregon Legal Research blog posts on Oregon law making under the labels: Codification, Oregon Laws, Oregon Revised Statutes, Oregon Legislative Counsel, and more. Legal research may not be rocket science, but it still takes a bit of work and finesse to learn and understand how all the pieces fit together (or not, as the case may be).

How to Find Missing Documents: Channeling Your Inner Sherlock Holmes

It’s been a busy season for people (and librarians) wanting to find missing documents, from policies and certificates last seen 40 years ago to ones misplaced last month, from trusts, insurance policies, case files, and beyond.

So, here are some important tips:

1) Don’t panic, not now, and not as you keep crossing possibilities off your list.

2) Start a notebook or just keep a list. Write down your search strategy or at least a list of the places and people you can contact. This list will grow and fill with notes.

3) Keep track of your ideas, the places you’ve checked, the dates you did so, the people you talked to, and the organizations and phone numbers you called.

4) If you’ve hired a lawyer to assist you, please don’t careen off into another direction without first checking if it will harm the search strategy your lawyer has implemented. (And if you’re not happy with your lawyer’s search efforts, deal directly with that too.)

5) Remember: Not all legal documents have to be somewhere, that is, not all legal documents had to have been retained, recorded, or otherwise stored by anyone other than the person who created it.

6) Lawyers don’t always (or necessarily) keep copies of all your important documents, though always ask. (To find the papers from offices of deceased lawyers, contact the Oregon State Bar or the state licensing bar of the state where the documents were filed or recorded.)

7) Where to begin looking, but let your imagination and your intelligence be your guides:

a) Personal Storage: Relatives, home safes, files, friends, neighbors, mattresses, refrigerators, bookshelves, etc.

b) Other: Safe deposit boxes, bank records, lawyers, accountants, title companies, named trustees or beneficiaries or executors or personal representatives, holders of asset records, etc.

c) Official/recorded: County Clerks, for titles and related filings, Courthouses (if there was a case filed), credit reports, business records, etc.

d) Contact a lawyer who can recommend other places to search: Oregon State Bar Information and Referral Service (and read #4 above).

Public Video-Conferencing Sites in Oregon

I recently gathered information about where to find public video-conferencing sites around the state, for use by government and non-profit organizations. I’ve posted my list at the Washington County (Oregon) Law Library website.

Look for the link to the guide under What’s New or under Other, at the bottom of the Legal Research Guides webpage.

Gorgeous Hubble Image Galleries

If you want to put your life, your very existence, into perspective:

Hubble Site Gallery
Hubble Site Wallpaper Gallery
Hubble Heritage Gallery Images
Planetary Society Blog

Database of Social Media Policies

Database of Social Media Policies (thanks to iLibrarian for the lead)

See also: U.S. Government social media policies

Previous OLR blog post on public servants and social media policies.

Oregon Attorney General Public Records Manual

I’ve been grousing for a while about the online absence of the Oregon AG Public Records Manual and others have done more than grouse!

Open Up Oregon has links to PDFs for the full manual and the story behind their efforts. Hurrah!

Thank you to Professor Harbaugh (and Carl Malmud) for his (their) efforts and for bringing me up to date.

Law Librarian Advice to Researchers:

1) Always check the date of the publication you are consulting (on or offline) and make sure you are using the law that is in force (assuming you need the most current law - sometimes one needs superseded law!).

2) Finding out the other side (and the judge, as the case may be) has updated the law being relied upon and you have not would be an unpleasant surprise, to put it nicely.

Dangerous Ideas: Criminals and Victims of Crimes

Librarians are in favor of giving everyone a fair hearing (and reading). Let’s hope for more conversation and debate, however vigorous or passionate, and no shouting:

1) Sometimes the Victim Is at Fault, Argues Rutgers–Newark Law Professor Vera Bergelson in New Book on Comparative Criminal Liability, September 10, 2009

2) Justice Stevens and the NRA

Thanks to Law in the News for the heads-up on these news stories.

Other Dangerous Ideas.

Oregon Legislature: New 2009 Laws

The August/September 2009 issue of the Oregon State Bar Bulletin (OSB) had a useful list of recent legislative bills that passed this past Legislative Session. It's a list that will come in handy until the full session summary reports roll in.

This OSB list includes bills on estate planning (e.g. small estate limits), debt collection, elder law, and many other topics.

To find the full text of all bills, visit the Oregon Legislature’s website.

Name Changes in Oregon: Fictional and Non-fictional (i.e. Real Life)

Real Life Name Changes:

1) Your Oregon County Circuit Court is the best place to begin if you need or want to make an actual name change. Many have name-change forms online or for sale at the Courthouse.

2) For example, in Washington County, visit the Washington County Circuit Court webpage on Name Change for forms and information.

3) In Lane County, use the Lane County Law Library research guide (look for Name Change in the alpha list), with links.

Checklist?

Do you need a Checklist of all those places and people you need to contact when you change your name? There are a lot of Name Change Checklists on the web. But figure out if you want wedding, divorce, or other type of name-change situations, though there is obviously some overlap. Try search words: name change checklist divorce (or wedding or marriage)

Fictional Name Changes, or variations on the theme:

If you are just contemplating the idea of a name change (recreating yourself or creating a fictional character, maybe?), there are other places to visit and books to read, though don’t skip the real life ones mentioned above, assuming you want to go for verisimilitude in your prose:

1) Nolo Press Name Change FAQ
2) How to Disappear Completely (book)

If you’d rather have your character fake a disappearance rather than changing a name, consider how people (and fictional characters) through the ages have experimented with pseudocide.

Constitution Day 2009 in Oregon

Constitution Day is Thursday, September 17, 2009. I won’t be celebrating in my usual way, but will acknowledge the day by giving out free pocket U.S. Constitutions at the Washington County Law Library, in Hillsboro.

For more information about Constitution Day:

1) Constitution Day is Every Day, at the Law Librarian Blog.

2) Library of Congress, Constitution Day

And if you want to read about the proposals (and struggles) to revise, rewrite, and reorganize the Oregon Constitution, here are a couple of articles:

1) Oregon State Bar Bulletin, May 2009 on “An Oregon Constitutional Convention?” (and a Letter to the Editor, from Randall Kester, in the August/September 2009 issue).

2) Oregon Law Review, vol. 87, #3, 2008: “Should the Oregon Constitution be Revised, and If So, How Should it be Accomplished,” by Robert F. Williams. (Article will eventually be available online at the OLR website.) (Entire symposium issue is entitled: “150 Years of Oregon Constitutional Law Reflecting Back and Looking Forward”)

Wordstock, Oct 11-13, 2009, at the Oregon Convention Center

Save the date:

Wordstock will be held October 11-13th, 2009, at the Oregon Convention Center, in Portland.

Meet your favorite writers, visit the Book Fair, buy books, and sample the neighborhood restaurants (and find Portland neighborhoods further afield).

Washington County (Oregon) Increases Jail Visiting Hours

We not only admire civil servants who come up with creative solutions that save taxpayers money, we especially love it when managers ask and listen to their front line staff members who often have the best ideas on how to improve service and save money!

From the Washington County Sheriff’s Office

"Expanded Jail Visiting Schedule: Social and Professional Visits - Effective September 1

In an effort to stretch budget dollars during the economic downturn, the Washington County Jail implemented a new staffing schedule. Normally having fewer deputies available would mean fewer visiting hours for the public and professional visitors. However, thanks to innovative ideas from our jail staff, we implemented a series of schedule changes to meal times and other programs, so we are actually able to increase the number of available visiting hours from 36 to over 49 hours per week!"

And pay a visit to the Sheriff's Office's Can You ID Me? webpage.

The Eddie Haskell Lawyer

This was worth passing on, even though there is no obvious Oregon connection. We have all heard about these types of lawyers (and other Eddie Haskells in our lives).

From the Ralph Losey E-Discovery Team blog:

Court Catches On To Feigned Attorney Cooperation and Client Pays the Consequences

Excerpt: "...In case you are not familiar with the great Eddie Haskell character from the classic TV show Leave It To Beaver, here is one of his signature lines:

Wally, if your dumb brother tags along, I’m gonna – oh, good afternoon, Mrs. Cleaver. I was just telling Wallace how pleasant it would be for Theodore to accompany us to the movies.

An Eddie Haskell lawyer type talks a good line of cooperation when in front of the judge, but it is just a charade; they are really just sneaking around and not cooperating at all. We have all run into opposing counsel like that. What is really irritating is when the judge falls for it and cannot see through the lies; even worse is when the judge thinks you are the one being uncooperative by trying to point out the truth. Still, the Eddie Haskell litigation strategy, if you can call it that, rarely works in the long run. The parent figures, the judges, eventually catch on and then you are cooked. This appears to be what happened in Spieker...." (link to full blog post)

Thanks to Law in the News for the lead!

Multnomah County 2009 District Attorney Audit

OregonLive, and other news outlets, reported on the recent Multnomah County District Attorney 2009 audit: Audit: Multnomah County DA's Office could communicate better with public, by Anne Saker, The Oregonian, September 14, 2009

You can find a full-text copy of the audit: Multnomah County District Attorney: Data, Technology, and Communication with the Public, September 2009, and other documents, at the Multnomah County Auditors website - and here is a direct link to the report.

The Multnomah County homepage.

Oregon Court Fees to Change October 1, 2009

Please read the information at the Oregon Judicial Department website (click on the What’s New link) and your county Circuit Court website for updated court fee information as quoted below:

"Notice of State Court Filing Fee Changes - Effective October 1, 2009

Notice of State Court Filing Fee Changes
Effective October 1, 2009

Legislative changes in 2009 that become effective October 1, 2009, will significantly change some state court filing fee amounts. (HB 2287, ch. 659, Oregon Laws 2009).

Before filing papers in a state court on or after October 1, 2009, please check the court's website or contact the court for correct fee amounts.

Fee questions?

For appellate court fees, click here.

For circuit courts, there is no single circuit court fee schedule, because circuit court fees vary by county depending on local fee assessments. Please check the website for the court where you plan to file. If the court has not posted its fee schedule on its webpage, then contact the court directly for information. Click here to find a directory with contact information for all circuit courts and links to circuit court websites."

Tattoos: The Art, Craft, Business, and Oregon Law of Tattoos and Tattoo Artists

Tattooing is an art and a craft and a service and a profession. In Oregon, it is regulated.

1) Advisory Council for Electrologists, Permanent Color Technicians and Tattoo Artists for Laws & Rules and Forms pertaining to the Tattoo Arts.

2) There is an Oregon Health Licensing Agency (OHLA) and they have lots of information about piercing and tattooing safety.

3) If you are thinking about getting a tattoo, approach the event as a smart consumer would approach the purchase and “consumption” of any other service, whether it is for health care, construction work, or artwork:

4) Check for current licenses and safety records:
a) Find out what you do if you are injured or have another complaint.
b) Call the regulatory agency if you have any lingering questions.

The Art and Craft of Tattoos:

1) When you get a tattoo, you are contracting for, or commissioning, artwork, so plan to do some homework. Since you will be deciding what the artwork will look like, which artist you want to “paint” the art, and where the artwork will be displayed, so to speak, you will want to talk to the artist(s) and to other people who have commissioned that artist(s)' work.

2) Even if you see some of the artist’s work and you like it, make sure that artist still works in that style. Great, and not so great, artists change as they grow. (Don’t we all!)

3) If you’re new to the tattoo arts, it talk to people (who have tattoos) about the process (and the removal of tattoos). Ask about pain. Talk to someone you trust, not someone who you know wakes up every morning not sure what happened the night or day before. Ask about how long it takes to heal, and what type of care needs to be taken during healing (it can vary). Ask about tattoo artists' hands-on styles. Does s/he have a heavy hand? Watch a tattoo artist at work!

4) The process of talking to tattoo artists and deciding on the artwork is interesting and fun. Why rush it? The design you thought you wanted at the beginning of your research may not be the one you still want after reading and talking to tattoo artists. (And, check out the tattoo books at your local library or bookstore.)

Other:

If you’re wondering about animal tattoos, visit the ODA Animal Health and Identification Division or the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association.

Public Access to the Oregon Courthouse, Court Room, and Court Records

"Are open-court efforts waning?," by The Editorial Board, Oregonian, September 09, 2009

Excerpt:

"In Oregon, news organizations still fight for public access, aided by the constitution

The New York Times reported recently about the seeming decline in the efforts by news media organizations and others to keep the nation's courts open to the public.

"The days of powerful newspapers with ample legal budgets appear to be numbered," Gerard Kleinrock, a Georgia public defender, wrote recently in a Supreme Court brief. "Will underfunded bloggers be able to carry the financial burdens of opening our courtrooms?"

It's hard to dispute Kleinrock's observation, and it's hard to suggest that the answer to his question, generally speaking, would be anything except no.

That's not to suggest that news organizations have lost interest and others shouldn't be interested in open courtrooms. For that matter some, the American Civil Liberties Union in particular, have remained stalwart in putting their money in the pot to advance the cause. But, as anyone knows who's been involved in a court fight over principle, things get expensive fast, the courts move glacially, and nobody in the news media has extra money lying around. …

.... Earlier this summer, Oregon Attorney General John Kroger launched a review of Oregon's open-records and open-meetings laws, with an eye toward proposing revisions. It's a worthy effort and one that does not come a moment too soon." (link to full article)

Business Directory Scams

We hear they are at it again (or even still), so put your shields up - and alert anyone who answers the telephone for your business.

FTC Sues to Halt Three Cross-Border Business Directory Scams

“The Federal Trade Commission has filed suit to halt the illegal operations of three telemarketing boiler rooms in Montreal, Canada. The agency alleged that the telemarketers bilked thousands of small- and medium-sized U.S. businesses and non-profits, including churches, schools, and charities, out of millions of dollars by deceiving them into paying for listings they never ordered in worthless business directories….” (link to FTC story)

Sample Better Business Bureau scam warnings here and here.

Susskind’s End of Lawyers: Annotated with Links

Law librarian colleagues brought a Legal Informatics Blog post to my attention: Susskind on the End of Lawyers.

There are a zillion links to commentary on the book. I found Carolyn Elefant’s 3/24/09 My Shingle blog post and Comments particularly interesting - and practical: And what it means for solos.

Free Directory Assistance Numbers (and Texting)

Jim Calloway blogs about 3 free directory assistance numbers to program into your phone.

I’ll add at least one more: your public library’s quick reference line. It will be useful only during those hours your public library has reference hours, but in some places that’s a lot of your working hours. You could also just plug a Library per Time Zone into your phone.

My own favorite local library reference line is:

Multnomah County Library Reference: 503-988-5234 (they have an amazing, and enviable, offline quick reference collection too, though I usually phone for an address or phone number or directions, or a book title I can't quite remember)

Some libraries now also have a text message service, for those times you can’t speak up, e.g. the Washington County (Oregon) Cooperative Library Service InfoQuest service.

Best Canadian Legal Research

Legal Research Plus has a blog post: Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research (September 3, 2009, by Sergio Stone) that links to the, uh, Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research webpage.

I’m the last person ever to agree that a self-selected “Best” designation is of any use or value, except of course to put the cynics amongst us on guard from the start, but you can decide for yourself if the Best Guide … really is “The Best.” But it is always useful to have a starting place for any specialized research.

Land Use, Oregon, and the U.S. Supreme Court

This National Law Journal article about the case, Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida (S. Ct. Docket number: 08-1151) caught my eye:

"Setting boundaries for property rights: The Supreme Court will decide whether Florida ran roughshod over beachfront landholders," by Timothy Sandefur, August 31, 2009

Excerpts: 'The U.S. Supreme Court surprised many when it decided it would review an unusual Florida property rights dispute this fall. That case, Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida, involves some of the most profound questions about the judiciary's role in protecting private property rights.
...

But the U.S. Constitution also guarantees every American's right to due process of law and to protection of private property. If state judges can arbitrarily rewrite a state's property laws, those guarantees would be meaningless. More than four decades ago, Justice Potter Stewart warned that, without a constitutional limit on the states' power to determine the nature of property, states could "defeat the constitutional prohibition against taking property without due process of law by the simple device of asserting retroactively that the property it has taken never existed at all."

In 1993, Stewart's fears came true when the Oregon Supreme Court unexpectedly announced that waterfront property owners could not exclude the public from private beaches. Although federal courts refused to intervene, Justices Antonin Scalia and Sandra Day O'Connor objected. "As a general matter, the Constitution leaves the law of real property to the States," they wrote. "But just as a State may not deny rights protected under the Federal Constitution through pretextual procedural rulings, neither may it do so by invoking nonexistent rules of state substantive law."…' (link to full article)

The Oregon case referred to is Stevens v. City of Cannon Beach, at 317 Ore. 131, 854 P. 2d 449 (1993), which went on to the U.S. Supreme Court, where you will find the denial of certiorari opinion at 510 U.S. 1207 (1994). (You can find the U.S. Supreme Court case posted online at various sites using this search string: stevens cannon beach oregon supreme court. The Oregon Supreme Court case is not at any free, public online database. Contact a law library for a copy.)

More blog posts on the Florida case, at Property Profs blog and the Florida Legal Blog, among others.

Oregon Debt Collection Research Guides

I recently posted about the King County (Washington State) debt collection research guides and woefully neglected to link my readers to the excellent OREGON debt collection legal research guides at the Lane County Law Library. Use their Research Guide Index to find Debt Collection and many other useful guides.

Beware the Fill-in-the-Blank Power of Attorney Form, Please

If you’ve read the recent (last week, last year, last decade, last century) stories about relatives, caregivers, and others who are charged with theft, elder abuse, and other crimes against the fragile or elderly people they are allegedly caring for …,

If you ever wondered why public law librarians and lawyers go pale when people use Fill-in-the-Blank forms for things like Powers of Attorney and Advance Directives, to name only a couple …,
Here’s an excellent article from the Oregonian’s Brent Hunsberger’s It’s Only Money column (Sunday, 9/7/09, Business section, p. D-1) that will explain why.

It also has some valuable tips on how to protect yourself and loved ones. (Oregonlive version: Protect yourself now against elder financial ripoffs, Posted by Brent Hunsberger, The Oregonian September 05, 2009.)

Action Now Can Protect You from Elder Abuse

Excerpts:

“The 83-year-old recovered from severe medical complications to find a cousin and niece had sold off her home and raided her bank accounts, even prepaying her funeral.

Elder safeguards

It might seem like an extreme case. But to estate planning attorneys and professional fiduciaries, it's all too familiar.

"I could write a book," said Mary Hansen, president of the Guardian/Conservator Association of Oregon and a longtime court-appointed manager of vulnerable people's finances.
…
Best to plan ahead and avoid a crisis that ends up as a newspaper headline.

Speak with an elder-law attorney. This advice comes not from a lawyer but Mark Sanford, interim public guardian/conservator of Multnomah County. His office manages some 150 cases in which a publicly financed conservator was needed to manage a vulnerable elder's financial affairs.

Discussing whom to appoint as power of attorney, trustee or conservator takes some careful considerations of family dynamics and individual trustworthiness, as well as laws and pitfalls pitfalls….” (link to full article)

The article’s sidebar links to these resources (and includes live links):

· To help protect elder's financial security: Report abuse: in Oregon, call 800-232-3020
· For legal advice: Contact Oregon State Bar's lawyer referral service at 800-452-7636
· Or you can find a partial list of elder lawyers at www.osbar.org/sections/elder/ElderLaw.html
· For financial guidance: Find a certified conservator or professional fiduciary at the Guardian/Conservator Association of Oregon, www.gcaoregon.org, or the national Center for Guardian Certification: www.guardianshipcert.org
· For additional help: Call the Multnomah County Public Guardian/Conservatorship 503-988-4567 (link to full article)

The article doesn’t address the problem of the financial institutions and other businesses that accept without question some power of attorney forms that should raise eyebrows if scrutinized, but you can be sure the prosecutors and plaintiffs attorneys will do that investigation in an effort to recover stolen money.

But your best best is prevention, which starts at home.

Previous OLR post on Power of Attorney forms.

Legal Research Database Metrics: Jumping Over Recalcitrant Vendors

Many years ago a teacher of management reminded his students that the people least in the loop, the ones who don’t know what is going on in their companies (or government agencies), are the ones at the top, its managers and directors. He, of course, had many excellent examples of this.

No one on the front line of any business operation, or any consumer for that matter, is surprised to hear that those at the top “haven’t a clue” what systems and procedures work (or don't work), but it is hard to know who to fault when the information that CEOs (and the rest of us) need to have is just not available.

A law librarian colleague brought this Law Technology News article to our attention and it provides another example of the problem:

Law Librarians: 'No More Sacred Cows,' by Alan Cohen, The American Lawyer, September 3, 2009

Excerpt: "... Still, librarians have become tougher, more successful negotiators when it comes to renewing contracts with publishers -- thanks in no small part to the metrics they get from new tracking software. For a long time most vendors were unable, or unwilling, to provide the level of detail that would let firms truly understand their usage patterns. And there were just too many resources -- often hundreds -- to track. But now there's commercially available tracking software -- like Onelog, from the U.K.-based company Info Technology Supply Ltd., and Advanced Productivity Software LookUp Precision.

These products can provide in-depth metrics for all those many, many resources. For law librarians, this is hot stuff. In written comments accompanying their surveys, five librarians said that Onelog or LookUp Precision were new tools that made their job easier; four more were planning to implement one of the packages this year; another 18 said they would use it if they had the budget for it. (A third package mentioned by some library chiefs was Research Monitor from Priory Solutions.)

"The technology has only now developed to the point where a large law firm that wants to monitor 1,000 resources can do so," says Steven Lastres, the director of library and knowledge management at Debevoise & Plimpton, which has been testing Onelog for the past six months. "We can see who is using a database and how long they are using it, how many views a newsletter is getting," he says. The tools "will alert a lawyer that there may be a more cost-effective alternative than the resource they selected," Lastres adds.

These systems don't come cheap...." (link to full article)

Oregon Small Claims Court, TurboCourt, and eCourt

Some (maybe all?) Oregon courts are offering TurboCourt online document preparation for Small Claims litigants. I haven’t seen TurboCourt in action.

Visit the Washington County (Oregon) Circuit Court website and their TurboCourt link. Or, visit your own county's Circuit or Justice Court to find out if they too have TurboCourt.

In the future, however, Oregon Judicial Department’s eCourt may be where document filing will take place. Here’s a press release on the rollout, which started in Yamhill County in June.

Debt Collection Lawsuit Research Guide

The King County (WA) Law Library has an excellent: Debt Collection Lawsuit Research Guide. The state law links are to Washington State laws, but the other information and federal law links apply to everyone. There is also a podcast with additional information on this subject.

Excerpt from the research guide: “What is a Debt Collection Lawsuit?

A debt is a sum of money owed by one person to another. A lawsuit is a legal action by one person or entity against another person or entity, which is decided in a court of law. A debt collection lawsuit is started in a court by a “cause of action” as the particular amount of money owed. The person or entity starting the lawsuit is the plaintiff. (Definition from: http://dictionary.law.com/).

A debt collection lawsuit is initiated when a summons (notice that a lawsuit has been filed and an explanation of how to respond) and complaint (initial request or plea to a court in a civil matter) are filed in a court. The summons and complaint are served (that is, delivered) to the defendant (person who is being sued)….” (link to full research guide)

Visit the King County Law Library Blog, KCLL Klues.

A Public Speaking Scam?

From the Great Public Speaking blog, news of a scam (September 1, 2009, post):

Public Speaking Scam: Beware of this email letter, **This letter is being emailed to numerous public speakers. The church knows of none such person or event. Please beware!**

Curious.

Book Binding in Oregon: The Monk Way

Libraries don’t bind their own books and journals anymore, at least most of us. (Some rare book libraries do - book conservation and preservation is super-specialized and skilled work.)

If you ever wondered about who does bind books (other than creative types who do it themselves), here’s a great story (from Oregon Business dot com) about a popular bookbinding operation for Oregon libraries and beyond: O Clients, Where Art Thou?

Finding U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs

You might think that these are all online, but they are not! Here are the briefs research guides I use:

1) Tried and true, if you are near a library with this print set: Gerhard Casper and Kathleen M. Sullivan, eds., “Landmark Briefs and Arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States: Constitutional Law”

2) Library of Congress guide

3) Official U.S. Supreme Court website has several links to sources of briefs.

4) Guides: LLRX Supreme Court Web Guide (including a section on briefs)

5) Run a Clusty, Dogpile, and/or Google search using the name(s) of the parties and the words supreme court briefs.

There are other guides, but these are the ones that have worked well for me in the past.