Civil (Involuntary) Commitment in Oregon

OPB’s Think Out Loud had a program this past week on:

Involuntary Commitment, Air Date: Monday, May 24th 2010 (posted By: Julie Sabatier)

“Guests:

1) Sally Fabre: Mother of a man who's been diagnosed with schizophrenia
2) Jean Dentinger: Program supervisor for the involuntary commitment unit of Multnomah County's mental health and addiction services division
3) RoAnna Savage: Daughter of a man who's been diagnosed with schizophrenia
4) David Oaks: Executive director of MindFreedom International and board member of the Oregon Consumer/Survivor Coalition…” (Link to Think Out Loud.)

Illegal Debt-Repair Companies in Oregon

Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) has a website with information about debt-repair (or debt management) companies:

FAQs for consumers about debt management companies:

Excerpt: “If you're looking for help reducing or managing your debt – whether it's credit card debt, a mortgage, or a car loan – you may be considering a debt management company. These companies must be registered by the state of Oregon, and Oregon has many protections in place for consumers who use these services. Before you pay anyone to help you with your debt, it is important to:

1) Check to see if the company is registered in Oregon.
2) Know what services you are receiving and how much they cost. Be cautious of high fees.
3) Understand your rights….” (Link to website.)

Debt management companies must register in order to do business lawfully in Oregon:

Debt Management / HUD Foreclosure Counseling Search

See the Oregonian story:

State wants your help reporting illegal debt management firms, by Brent Hunsberger, The Oregonian, May 25, 2010, and the It’s Your Money Column.

DIY Book Scanners

If you have a long weekend looming, with nothing to do (hard to imagine but some do have lives of leisure), did you ever think about building your own DIY Book Scanner?

Farm Animals and the Law

When we hear about Animal Law Clinics and Projects, or maybe even the work of Temple Grandin, most of us do not think about farm animals and the law:

"Cow Whipping: How violent can a farmer get with his livestock?," by Brian Palmer, Slate, Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Excerpt: "An animal rights group has released a video showing workers at an Ohio dairy farm punching cows, stabbing them with a pitchfork, and beating them with a crowbar. How violent is a rancher or dairy farmer allowed to get with his livestock?

In some states, as violent as he likes. Farmers, for the most part, are merely expected to abide by industry standards—that is, to treat their livestock as other farmers do....
…
Federal law has very little to say about the treatment of livestock. The Animal Welfare Act applies mainly to research animals. The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act requires farmers to knock out livestock with a single blow, shot, or electrical charge before being butchering them, but the law only governs slaughterhouses, not farms. (It also doesn't apply to poultry, which represents more than 95 percent of slaughtered animals. You're free to kill your chicken any way you like under federal law.) The 28 Hour Law of 1873 requires that farm animals get five hours of R & R for every 28 hours of train transport, but few cattle ride the rails these days…." (Read full Slate article.)

(Thank you to Rob at Law in the News for the lead.)

Legal Publishing History: Paul J. Ruskin Dies

Robert Ambrogi notes the passing of a legal publishing legend, Paul J. Ruskin:

The Lawyer Who Took Down West’s Copyright in Court Opinions Has Died

Excerpt: “It now seems almost ludicrous. But until fairly recently, legal publishing giant West claimed that it owned the copyright to federal court decisions. I’m not talking about the headnotes West writes or the key numbering it adds, I’m talking about basic information such as the name of the case, the date of the case, the names of the attorneys who argued it, and the page numbers of the opinions.

That all came to a screeching halt with the 1998 companion opinions of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, both titled Matthew Bender & Co., Inc. v. West Publishing Co., 158 F.3d 674 and 158 F.3d 693. These were the David-versus-Goliath cases in which HyperLaw, then a publisher of Supreme Court and federal circuit cases on CD-ROM, challenged West’s longstanding claim of ownership and won….” (Link to full Law Sites Blog post.)

(Thank you to Rob at Law in the News for the lead.)

Oregon DPSST Criminal Justice Code of Ethics

Did you know the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) has a Criminal Justice Code of Ethics (PDF and webpage with other DPSST documents)?

Librarians are Prestidigiterians

I was reading the Rex Stout novel (League of Frightened Men, with Nero Wolfe) and came across this wonderful, and largely forgotten, word: prestidigitation (see also Word of the Day a few years ago.)

Isn’t this what a lot of us do, especially “digital” librarians (without the deceit, of course)?

Those ones and zeros are powerful things (or perhaps they are utter nothingness or naught-iness)

The word prestigitation also reminds me of this Douglas Adams (of Hitchhiker’s Guide fame) quotation, and who credits computer scientist Bran Ferren with the idea: “technology is stuff that doesn’t work yet. We no longer think of chairs as technology, we just think of them as chairs. But there was a time when we hadn’t worked out how many legs chairs should have, how tall they should be, and they would often ‘crash’ when we tried to use them.”

(It might make a good domain name, prestidigitation, except no one would ever be able to spell it or find it, the ultimate digital disappearing act.)

The West Digest System is Your Friend

Rarely does a day go past without someone coming into our law libraries frustrated as can be: “I just spent #$% hours online and I can’t find what I need.” In the law librarian version of “breathe deeply,” we talk and walk the attorney through the search, more often than not taking them back to the origins of the West Digest System.*

Say what you will about the business-customer (vs. business-shareholder) side of Thomson-Reuters print and online services (and I surely won’t stop you), the legal research premise (or taxonomy, to be more precise) on which the original West Digest System is based is a thing of beauty. (See also West Digest System, from Wikipedia.)

The West Digest taxonomy (as remarkable as Roget’s Five Classes, the periodic table of the elements, and our 26 letters of the alphabet or even the Ten Commandments) is comprised of only seven topics - amazing:

Persons
Property
Contracts
Torts
Crimes
Remedies
Government

No law librarian would give up online databases or the web, let alone Google, but we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater either.

* Oddly, or maybe not, it’s extremely difficult to find on the Thomson Reuters website any history of the beginnings of the former West Publishing Company’s Digest taxonomy, which is to this day one of the core strengths of Westlaw, not an insignificant money maker I dare say for the present parent company.

Lost Census Forms?

Heaven knows I’m no conspiracy theorist and this is not a conspiracy theory post, but I am wondering if a bag of mail (so to speak) containing Census forms was lost recently.

I’m not the only person in my small circle to be visited by a Census worker who says they never got my (our) completed Census form. Yes, we did complete them (and it couldn’t have been easier to complete) and yes, we did mail them.

I’m happy to provide the Census Bureau with the information; after all, I too want for my growing region better roads, public transit, hospitals, schools, parks, libraries, broadband, sewers, and maybe even another legislator.

But why so many missing completed forms? Or maybe statistically it is ok and it only appears as if a lot are missing and that our forms aren't really sitting in some mail truck lost in space. Coincidences do happen and not all clusters are meaningful.

Oregon Writs of Mandamus

Do you need to research Oregon writs of mandamus?

(Related search-words to use when researching writs generally: original jurisdiction, writs, petitions, injunctive relief, mandamus, habeas corpus, quo warranto)

Consult the following primary sources, but take a look also at 1 & 2 for some useful guidance:

1) “OSB Civil Pleading and Practice” manual (looseleaf), which has an entire chapter, including forms, on Writs of Mandamus

2) “OSB Appeal and Review,” chapter on Jurisdiction of Oregon Appellate Courts for information on the court’s constitutional and statutory sources of original jurisdiction

Primary Sources (use indexes and above sources for specific section cites):

Oregon Constitution (Article VII)

Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) (Chapter 34.105 et seq.)

Oregon Rules of Appellate Procedure (ORAP) (Rule 11.05 et seq.)

Public Law Librarians Consulted by Supreme Court Nominee on Eve of Judiciary Committee Hearings

(Not really, but anything is possible in the wild, wacky world of Senate Judicial Committee nominations, so give this post an April First dateline.)

Supreme Court nominees and their (judicial hearing) handlers are mere amateurs when compared to public law librarians who are masters at Answering a Question without Answering the Question.

This is a skill we practice every day, in every way, unlike legislators and judges who are required to give their opinions day in and day out and have a devil of a time not telling people where to go, what to do, and What the Law Is.

Collectively, public law librarians are asked hundreds of thousands of questions about the law every year and each and every time we state some variation on these themes:

Question: “What is your opinion of x?
Librarian: “Librarians (judicial nominees) must serve all parties to a dispute and, therefore, must remain neutral in order to give everyone the full benefit of our knowledge and experience.” (We strive to be the “fair witness” of the legal world, which is why we are pretty good jurors, too.)

Question: “What is the law of x?”
Librarian: “I don’t know the answer to your question, but I can show you how to research it” or “if you read only what is written in the statutes, the cases, and the constitutions you will be absolutely wrong about what the law is.”

Question: “What is the law of x”
Librarian: “It depends. [Repeat as needed.] The law may not be settled; many only appear to be final, but they are not. May I show you research materials that support a variety of possible responses to your question? You will need to decide which ones apply to the specific situation you describe."

Question: “What would you do if you were faced with this x situation?”
Librarian: “Each person’s situation is unique” (See also, above, re librarian fairness and neutrality.) (Sometimes you may need to make this a personal response. “Aren’t you unique? If your neighbor (spouse, employer, etc.) asked this same question, wouldn’t s/he deserve a personal and unique response? You will need to talk to a lawyer who can advise you based on your specific situation (set of facts).”)

Clearly, this sort of Q & A would make for a very dull hearing, but isn’t that the point? (Banking was supposed to be boring too - and then it wasn’t, unfortunately.) Supreme Court nominees have to tread carefully when using the hearing as a “teachable moment,” but it is abundantly clear that some non-lawyer Senators, and even a few lawyer-Senators could use a few lessons in judicial law-making.

(You can also read my post “Judges Don’t Make Law?” (prompted by the last Senate Judiciary Committee Supreme Court nominee hearings) at the LLOPsCited blog, where I guest-blogged this week.)

Legal Newspapers in Oregon

We are often asked about Oregon legal newspapers. The answer depends on the specific question: if one want to post a legal notice, if one is looking for legal jobs, if one wants to track Oregon legal news, if, if, if, ....

The following is an attempt to address most of the “is there an Oregon legal newspaper?” questions, but I’m sure I’ll leave something out for a later blog post.

First things first: There isn’t a “legal newspaper” in Oregon, at least not if one is looking for something like these:

a) Philadelphia’s Legal Intelligencer (and their parent company family of legal newspapers including the New York Law Journal) or the California Daily Journal.

b) The Legal Researcher’s Desk Reference has a complete list of legal newspapers. (And it’s high time for me to order the new edition for my library!)

Second: In Oregon, if you want to follow legal news, you will use a number of sources, but no single one. These include:

a) Oregon Legal Journal
b) Oregon Daily Journal of Commerce
c) Portland Business Journal

d) There are also political, legislative, and law blogs, website news feeds (e.g. Law in the News), and the option to set up your own news feeds, via RSS or your own periodic manual search engine searches like Justia Blawg Search (and don’t forget to Sort (your results) by Date) or by setting up News Alerts, via Google, Yahoo, etc.

e) For other Oregon newspapers, the Multnomah County Library has a list of Oregon state and local News / Media outlets.

Last, but not least: There are people who want to know where to publish legal notices. See if these blog posts are useful:

a) Legal Notices and Service by Publication

b) Legal Notice by Publication

Researching Oregon Employment Law

If you’re researching Oregon employment law, you need to figure out if you want materials on private sector, public sector, collective bargaining, independent contractors, employment discrimination, wage & hour laws, etc.

These are not either/or decisions (though some are). Each person’s situation is unique. You may want consult an attorney who specializes in employment law and who can advise you on your legal, and non-legal, options.

Apart from researching case law, and you’ll need a legal research database or access to your state’s (or the federal) digest to do that, here are some additional legal research resources:

Oregon-specific employment law resources:

1) Book: Knowles, “Oregon Employment Law”

2) Book: "BOLI Wage and Hour Laws: A Handbook for Oregon Employers”

3) Online and book: Oregon Employment Relations Board (see also Public Employer Collection Bargaining Reporter (and Digest))

4) Book: Oregon State Bar “Employment Law” for public and private sectors

5) Online: Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industry (BOLI) (see also Resource Links)

6) Online: Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS)

7) Online: Legal Aid Service of Oregon (LASO) employment law resources

8) Online: Oregon State Bar Information and Referral

General (not Oregon-specific) Employment Law Research Resources:

1) Nolo Press books (and online materials) on employment law

2) "The Lawsuit Survival Guide, A Client's Companion to Litigation," by Attorney Joseph Matthews, Nolo Press

3) Check at your local public library or bookstore for more.

Oregon Employment Law Blogs:

A number of lawyer blogs (aka blawgs) discuss Oregon employment law topics. You can use Justia Blawgsearch, e.g using the search words Oregon employment, employee, etc. (you decide what you are looking for). Don’t forget to “Sort by Date,” after you get your results.

Here are other Oregon employment law (or related) blogs:

1) Oregon Labor Law Blog
2) World of Work Law Blog
3) The Oregon Legal Research blog has posts on some aspects of Oregon employment law.

Law dot Gov Update

For those who are waiting (breathlessly, perhaps) and wondering whatever happened to Law dot Gov, especially given how fast all those other new dot gov sites have popped up, this is for you:

Google Group for Law dot Gov

The Law dot Gov Google Group is comprised of those on the Law dot Gov frontlines, but updates and commentary on the initiative will also appear on a variety of law librarian and lawyer blogs.

Election Day, May 18, 2010: Turn in Your Ballots!

It’s easy to forget during a relatively sleepy primary (though it’s not a sleepy primary for the candidates!):

County election sites and voter registration links.

Public Domain and those "Can I Copyright a 'PowerPoint' Presentation?' Questions

Public Domain:

Just when you think you figured out when a document was in the public domain, and no longer copyrighted, your instincts tell you to keep searching. From the May 8, 2010, LibraryLaw blog: The search for the oldest copyrighted work in the U.S. goes on…

Excerpt: “I knew when I wrote my post speculating as to what is the oldest work still protected by copyright in the U.S. that I was likely to get it wrong. Copyright is just too complicated for anyone to get right the first time around…

In the original post, I noted that the oldest work “would … have to have been published under the authority of the copyright owner (most likely, the estate of the author).” One correspondent noted that this could be a foreign estate, which is true. The earliest example of a foreign estate still exerting copyright of which I am aware is the contested ownership of the copyright in the works of John Clare (1793-1864). The Adams works are still earlier, however, so unless someone can identify another estate, we need to look at John Adams for the earliest copyrighted work....” (Link to full post.)

Digital Copyrights:

We not infrequently get questions like this one: Can I copyright a PowerPoint Presentation?

As you might expect, the answer is “no, sort-of, and it depends.” In our digital age, the medium may not be the message, and vice versa. PowerPoint is proprietary software, which has its own patent and copyright history. Sometimes the question is more along the lines of whether or not one can copyright the content of a PowerPoint presentation. See how complex this can get?

You can always ask an expert, e.g. a lawyer who specializes in copyright law, but short of that, you’ll need to do some research, teach yourself some copyright basics, and determine which laws apply to your specific situation.

1) Circular 66 and Circular 55 are always good starting place, but as you noticed, they don’t and can’t, answer all questions.

2) The information in this eHow, How to Copyright a Digital Image may be useful too.

3) Copyright Clearance Center has a lot of information, too, but you’ll need to spend some time on the website to see if it answers more questions than it raises.

4) You can also write to Nolo Press’s “Dear Rich: Copyright, Patent and Trademark Blog”. He may get similar questions and decide to write a blog post about the subject.

5) The University of Texas has an entertaining online copyright crash course that may be useful and so does the Franklin Pierce Law Center.

6) There are also a number of copyright-law websites and blogs, e.g. Exclusive Rights. They show additional links to yet more copyright law resources.

7) Don’t forget the Electronic Frontier Foundation as another source of intriguing information on copyright law.

8) On the Oregon Legal Research blog, I’ve blogged a lot about various aspects of copyright law, and the “it depends” nature of most copyright law questions.

Oregon Law of the (Searched and Seized) Purse

The Oregon Supreme Court has decided State v. Morgan (CA A134236; SC S057279)

Excerpt: "This is a criminal case in which defendant was convicted of unlawful possession of heroin, ORS 475.854,(1) which a police officer discovered in defendant's purse. Defendant reached into the purse after the officer indicated that he needed to search it for weapons. The officer, concerned that defendant was reaching for a weapon, seized the purse and saw drug paraphernalia inside it. The trial court refused to suppress the evidence found in the purse, and a divided panel of the Court of Appeals affirmed. We allowed defendant's petition for review and now affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals and the judgment of the trial court...." (Link to full case.)

May 13, 2010, Oregon Supreme Court Media Release

(The wags amongst my readers may be heard to mutter something about going to h***in a handbag (or a handbasket).)

Unclaimed Property: A Career Choice?

Every once in a while people ask us about jobs as unclaimed-property brokers.

(Note: As for tracking down your own “unclaimed-property” -- you can do that yourself. The "National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators" (NAUPA) and their state affiliates offer these exact same searching services free. These are government offices, not private businesses. They link you to state and federal government offices that will search for you for no charge.)

There are private businesses that offer, for a fee, to search for unclaimed property, but I’m not sure they have a specific name, job title, or occupational heading. I have heard them called unclaimed-property brokers or asset recovery businesses, but there may be others. These businesses may work with attorneys, debt collectors, law enforcement, or private investigators, among others.

I recommend you start with the Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization (UPPO).

I also recommend you check with your local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau and your state’s Attorney General’s office to find out if there are any licensing or training requirements for people in the unclaimed-property business.

My guess is also that the business of asset-searching is fairly seriously regulated since you would be given access to other people’s personal information and money.

Here are some stories from the Oregon Attorney General’s office about some asset recovery businesses:

1) AG Myers Obtains Judgment Against Unlicensed Investigator & His 'Money Finder' Corporation, May 27, 2005

2) AG Files Agreement With Washington 'Unclaimed Asset' Recovery Business, May 11, 2006

Small Claims Court: Is (Self) Help on the Way?

Anyone who works within the Small Claims Court world appreciates it, but also knows it has a long way to go to be really (self) helpful. In Oregon, for example, self-help litigants could use:

1) Assistance preparing for Small Claims Court
2) Assistance writing demand letters
3) Assistance or advice also with post-judgment collection procedures

I’ve blogged before about Oregon Small Claims Courts so won’t repeat myself, but read the announcement from HALT:

HALT has announced their plans for Small Claims Court reforms in 2010.

Excerpt: “Throughout 2010, HALT will meet with state legislators nationwide to discuss how its model legislation to improve small claims courts can be implemented without an adverse financial impact on state governments. Small claims courts allow people to resolve small money conflicts such as the collection of small debts, property disputes and disputes between landlords and tenants. Studies by HALT, academics and others have shown, however, that these courts often fail to serve the needs of the average citizen...." (Link to HALT and full article.)

What to keep in your employee files: A small law firm's guide

Jim Calloway blogs about and links to his guide: “What to keep in your employee files: A small law firm's guide”

Link to Jim’s homepage for more law practice tips.

Read All About It, Oregon: Government Documents News

Read All About It, Oregon: Government Documents News

“Read All About It, Oregon, is a service of the Oregon Documents Depository Program and the Oregon State Library. The blog’s goal is to provide easy access to Oregon state government documents that are in the news, or relevant to current news topics….” (Link to blog.)

HIPAA and HITECH: Medical / Health Record Privacy Laws

If you follow HIPAA laws, or if you just now want to, don’t forget the February 2009 amendments, known as HITECH, which stands for Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.

You can find more information at the following places (among others):

1) U.S. HHS Health Information Privacy website

2) Oregon Health Information and Privacy website

3) HITECH Survival Guide

4) You might also want to look at this May 3, 2010, post over at the LibraryLaw Blog:

Speaking of privacy - do you know where your medical records are?

Excerpt: “What’s the most sensitive privacy issue for you? Do you know who's looking at your medical records? It is shocking. If you think HIPAA protects you, think again...." (Link to full post.)

17 (plus 6) Things to Do When Your Loved One Dies

An Oregon lawyer blogger has this daunting, but useful list:

What to do when your loved one dies

Thank you to Candice Aiston for the blog post and to Justia Blawgsearch for its easy Oregon blawg search capabilities.

Important Tax Law Reminders for Nonprofits

Oregon nonprofits on the free TACS mailing list may already know this, but if not, here’s a reminder from the IRS about tax exempt organizations:

Excerpt: “…The Internal Revenue Service today reminded tax-exempt organizations to make sure they file their annual information form on time. In 2010 the tax-exempt status of any non-profit that has not filed the required form in the last three years will be revoked.

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 requires that non-profit organizations that do not file a required information form for three consecutive years automatically lose their Federal tax-exempt status. This requirement has been in effect since the beginning of 2007.

A list of revoked organizations will be available to the public, as well as state charity and tax officials on this website.

If an organization loses its exemption, it will have to reapply with the IRS to regain its tax-exempt status. Any income received between the revocation date and renewed exemption may be taxable...." (Link to full notice.)

Additional information about Oregon nonprofits at TACS.

Books to Prisoners (Nonprofit Organization)

Books to Prisoners is a nonprofit, all-volunteer, organization that sends literature to prisoners.

Prisoners across the country write letters requesting titles/genres/etc. The organization tries to match these requests with books received through donations. A family foundation has recently awarded a 2:1 matching grant for donations.

Visit Books to Prisoners online for more information.

Arizona Immigration Law, 2010 SB 1070 (Chapter 113)

For those who want to read the 2010 Arizona immigration law, SB 1070 (Chapter 113) you can link to the summaries and full-text information at the Arizona Legislature’s website.

You can also link to it from the Arizona Governor’s website.

Justice Bedsworth Reveals a Few “From the Bench” Appellate Advocacy Secrets

… in the OC Lawyer Magazine, Criminal Waste of Space column: Carpentry Without Tools, by Justice William W. Bedsworth

Excerpt: “My father was a casketmaker. He taught me not to judge the carpenter if you don’t know his tools. It was just a homey tradesman’s adjuration not to be judgmental, and I remember as a boy being unimpressed by it as a mantra. But I sure appreciate it now. It has helped keep my blood pressure in check for many years.

I think of it often when I encounter an opinion I do not think is the author or panel’s best work. I remind myself that I don’t know how good the briefing was, I don’t know what the record was like, and—perhaps most important—I haven’t sat down and struggled with the cases cited….”(Link to full article.)