United State Code (USC) Title 51 (Not to Be Confused with Area 51)

My fellow law librarians reminded me about the new United States Code (USC) Title 51 (which you will actually cite more like this: 51 USC xxx).

That USC Title 51 will (does!) sound strange to us old-timers. (Though not for the same reason it will confuse Area 51 devotees – and Title 51 is about Space Programs - ha ha ha.)

There isn’t yet a codification to find at the Cornell LI site or at the official FDSys United States Code site, but you can still look at the Session Law, P.L. 111-314 (enacted on December 18, 2010): Title 51, United States Code, National and Commercial Space Programs

U.S. Office of Law Revision Counsel brings us USC Title 51 (and main Positive Law website)

Related to this, is a reminder not to confuse U.S. session law (U.S. Statutes at Large) with its codified version (United States Code) or it’s commercial versions, U.S.C.S. (LexisNexis Matthew Bender) and U.S.C.A. (Thomson Reuters).

Previous (and perhaps more aptly titled Miscellany) postings on Positive Law and Codification.

Illinois Supreme Court Decision on Candidate Residency

If you were raising eyebrows over the "Candidate Residency" court battles in Illinois this past week, you’re not alone.

If you want to read the opinion, and share one with a law librarian, you can read the Law Librarian blog post: Rahm Opinion a Bit Uncivil.

Everyone else has an opinion, too. Use your favorite search engine to find them: illinois supreme court rahm emmanual

"Girls under Trees” and Law School Websites

This was hilarious (thus, good for a Friday late afternoon), but also instructive – or it should be instructive to any of us who think we know anything about websites. (Most of us admit to being amateurs – but even the pros make mistakes.)

“Law school Web sites judged; some found wanting,” by Karen Sloan, The National Law Journal, January 26, 2011:

‘There are a lot of law students happily lounging under trees out there — if law school Web sites are to be believed.

A recent empirical study and ranking of the home pages for all 200 American Bar Association-accredited law schools found that 65 included photos of students in or around trees, a phenomenon the authors dubbed "Girls Under Trees."….’ (Link to full article.)

Thank you to Law in the News, which always keeps one informed, with and without Lewis & Clark's “Girls under Trees.”

Law for Real (Oregon) People Blog

Oregon lawyer, John Gear, has started a Law for Real People blog.

You can find links to other Oregon lawyer blogs in this blog’s sidebar: under Blogs: Oregon Legal Topics and also under Blogs: OR Lawyers.

I include links to Oregon lawyer blogs and websites that have useful “content,” i.e. they provide legal information, on a variety legal topics, that might be of value to other lawyers, pro se litigants, and any other Oregonian who has legal questions.

Don’t forget these sites too: Oregon Law Help (from Legal Aid Services of Oregon) and OSB Public Info


OREGON LEGAL RESEARCH BLOG: DISCLAIMERS and REGRETS

We cannot respond to most legal research questions.

Disclaimer: The information provided on this blog is for research purposes only. We do not provide legal advice, nor do we endorse any person, product, or company.

Disclaimer: It is against state law for library staff members to engage in any conduct that might constitute the unauthorized practice of law (ORS 9.160, 9.166 and 9.21). They may not interpret statutes, cases or regulations, perform legal research, recommend or assist in the preparation of forms, or advise patrons regarding their legal rights. They may, however, assist patrons in locating materials or links that would aid in individual research.

Oregon State Bar Job: Referral and Information Services Assistant

Referral and Information Services Assistant (part-time):

Responds to requests for legal information and assistance from attorneys and members of the public.

Required:
1) Graduation from high school or an equivalent GED certificate.
2) At least one year of college, business, or secretarial school desirable
3) more

Responsibilities include the following.
1) Provides professional customer service while conducting confidential and sensitive telephone interviews with members of the public needing the assistance of an attorney or a community resource in Oregon.
2) Uses custom entry-and-retrieval database program to perform attorney referrals according to geographic location and area of law needed.
3) more

Use Groupon to Hire a Lawyer?

A 3 Geeks and a Blog 1/24/11 post asks:

Is it Time for Law Firms to Get Their Groupon?

Who knows? One commenter says it’s been done, but the lawyer licensing boards may need to weigh in.

Oregon Law and Laws Online: Ha Ha Ha

Ha ha ha. I spent time this morning doing the following (fellow public and private law librarians around the state do the same, just about every day):

1) Showing a lawyer and others how to compile a legislative history – this can take an hour or more, depending on how far back and how complex the question is. Ask your Legislator to show you how to do this. Ha ha ha. (They are probably glad we don’t send all our patrons and their questions to their offices!) You cannot do this online for any legislative history before 1995 or if you want any of the Exhibits from 1995 forward. Ha ha ha.

2) Explaining to lawyers that the ORS is not online, EXCEPT for the current year. Superseded ORSs DO exist digitally back to (maybe?) 1997 or thereabouts. But the Oregon Legislature DOES NOT keep previous ORS editions online, even though they could - easily. Ha ha ha. Maybe they don’t know that lawyers and pro se litigants really need to see those old ORSs! Ha ha ha. (You can find some of them here, thanks to our favorite law student, Robb Shecter, and his Oregonlaws dot org website.)

So, the next time someone says, “It’s all online,” do this: ha ha ha (or type the word laughing into Google Images and have a giggle :-).

Here’s my latest list of what legal information is NOT online and/or NOT FREE online (from this Legal Information website).

Searching Oregon Legislative Bills and Flawed Search Engines

While searching for recent 2011 Oregon bills, I found a glitch in their search engine. The bill I knew existed wasn’t showing up, no matter what word or number I used to search for it. I double-checked (against the actual bill) and triple-checked by asking colleagues to see if the problem was me rather than the database. It wasn’t me.

The lesson here is: Be careful about relying solely on the Oregon Legislative bill searching utility, Ultraseek. (You can also reach this search engine from the Legislature’s website. Then, click on Bills/Law, and then click on the year you want to search – and then “Search the bills and laws.”)

Keep in mind also that Ultraseek is not an exception to any search engine reliability rule – and it’s actually not too bad as these sorts of free search engines go. The problem exists for all search engines (and databases); they are all flawed (e.g. Google isn’t perfect either –aren’t you shocked, shocked?!)

Gaps exist in databases, the data isn’t complete or is corrupted, the metadata is flawed, and not all words are indexed. This is normal! Database snags and glitches are to be expected. It is when you don’t expect to find snags and glitches and when you trust too much that you get in trouble.

This is one reason, among many, that librarians and other researchers use multiple search tools, print and online and human, when doing serious research. You surely want your doctor and lawyer to be doing really thorough research when you present them with tough medical and legal problems - don't you?

And you surely listen to your law librarian when she says, “double-check.” Don’t you?

This is well beyond “trust, but verify,” a “quotation” that people still, annoyingly, attribute to former President Reagan, when it originated way before him.

My advice?: Don’t assume and don’t let someone (or something, e.g. a database) else do your research. Double-check. Triple-check if it’s important enough.

John Doe, Operation Death Match, and the Social Security Death Index (SSDI)

If you saw the Oregonian story (or in other news sources):

“John Doe' faces deportation after serving sentence for stealing slain Ohio boy's name," January 28, 2011, by Bryan Denson, you might have read this part of the article:

“…. His fraud was uncovered last year when agents of the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service ran a data search of passport applications against the names and identifications of deceased citizens. The ongoing probe, known as Operation Death Match, spit out the name Jason Robert Evers, which ultimately lead them to Krastev….” (Link to full article.)

To those who don’t know otherwise, this Operation Death Match sounds like serious business – and it is. HOWEVER, you don’t need any special diplomatic, top-secret privileges to do a check of your own employees against a public database of deceased U.S. citizens:

You can look up that employee in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI).

Previous blog post on a related subject: Finding Death Records and Obituaries in Oregon (and beyond)

Other Death Indexes: Here is a gateway to state death databases and there is also this.

Oregon Single-Payer Health Care Conference, January 2011

The Willamette Week has an article about the Oregon Single Payer Health Care Conference, to be held Saturday, January 29, 2010:

Coverage for All: Is Single-Payer Health Care the Cure for Oregon?, by Stacy Brownhill:

“State Rep. Michael Dembrow wants to establish in Oregon what the White House and Congress couldn’t do in last year’s healthcare reform effort: single-payer health care.

And a bunch of like-minded folks are coming to Portland to pitch the same idea—at the Oregon Single Payer Conference this Saturday, Jan. 29, at First Unitarian Church….” (Link to full article.)

Link to the Conference website.

2011 State of the Oregon Judiciary

You can view the 2011 State of Judiciary presentation by Chief Justice Paul J. De Muniz at the OJD website. And you can read the transcript, too.

If the State of the Courts Addresses link does not work, you can also link to it from the OJD News webpage (and then click on What’s New). You’ll see the link to the 1/25/11 presentation by the Chief Justice to the City Club of Salem.

Some legal-research and access to justice related highlights from the Chief Justice's speech:

“… I said then that the courts of the future would rely on technology to remain open and accessible to Oregonians. I am pleased to report that our Oregon eCourt program has been implemented for small claims and landlord-tenant cases in five pilot courts, and those courts have processed nearly 35,000 cases in electronic files. That means we have not had to store, locate, retrieve, and continually update a stack of paper files that would measure about 720 feet tall — which is more than four times the height of our State Capitol. Now we are negotiating with a technology company to bring Oregon eCourt to all trial courts in the state….

... When fully implemented, the public will be able to access any Oregon court, 24 hours a day, seven days a week...." (Read full speech.)

Abortion: “Listening Beyond Life and Choice”

I heard a provocative, and wonderful, interview (with Frances Kissling) on the radio the other day, at On Being, the Krista Tippett radio program that is broadcast on OPB Radio on Sunday evenings, from 7-8 p.m.

I almost turned the radio off, not being much in the mood for “yet another” abortion debate. But then I started listening – and I’m so glad I did.

Listening Beyond Life and Choice: You can read the transcript of the interview or listen to it via download, podcast, and “listen now,” from the On Being website.

Frances Kissling: Blog and Wikipedia

Librarians: State and County Law Libraries: Funding and Governance DRAFT Grid

We've been working with AALL-SCCLL members to update a state-county law library organization and funding grid, but we are still missing feedback from librarians in several states. If you have reason to think the information in the following grid is incorrect for your state, or if you know there is a more accurate way to describe the situation, please let me know:

Washington County (Oregon) Law Library, About County Law Libraries, and click on “1) DRAFT ….”

You can add a Comment to this blog post or email lawlibrary@co.washington.or.us

Thank you!

Oregon Ballot Initiatives: Multnomah County Library “Conversation Project”

Multnomah County Library’s “Conversation Project” (“[t]his series is part of a statewide humanities program that promotes thoughtful discussions about important ideas.”) covers some interesting topics, including this one:

The Voters Have Spoken: Oregon's Controversial Ballot Initiatives, with Jackson Miller, Saturday, March 19, 2–3 p.m. (Troutdale Library)

Oregon Legislative Hearing Minutes: A Reminder

In these opening days of the 2011 Oregon Legislative Session, a reminder is in order, especially for people who know they will likely have to compile a legislative history one of these days:

Public records laws, open secrets policies, public meetings laws are all well and good – and you can see Oregon’s Public Records and Public Meetings Manuals posted at the Department of Justice website - but what do you do if you need a legislative history of a law, including its public hearings?

People use their public law libraries and the State Archives (in Salem) every day to research legislative histories of Oregon laws.

But if you want to see the Minutes to speed up the process, think again.

Back in 2008, the legislature, for budget reasons, stopped recording minutes of legislative hearings. Legislative Administration ran all the numbers and the cost of recording Minutes (by the Legislature) was just not sustainable. So, the costs shift to the people who need to research legislative histories, e.g. advocacy groups, nonprofits, and people who hire lawyers.

This seems like a small matter, and it is most of the time, but, the full force and effect of such a policy may not be clear until:

It is YOUR attorney who needs to find the legislative history, and intent, and the only record of what was said in the public hearing is on audio-tape. So, it might now take 4 hours of billable time rather than 1 hour. Or, how do you include an audio clip in your appellate brief? Do you get the hearing transcribed? How do you do that in a manner that is acceptable to both sides of the dispute? Do both sides have to pay or witness the transcription? Who pays for the transcription and the authentication? Under what conditions will the court accept a transcript? Would a court reporter do the transcription? If so, who pays for it?

What if you are just an interested Oregonian who wants to understand what a particular law means? You, too, can listen to that hearing, assuming you have a computer.

These and similar questions arise with all kinds of litigation or research -- maybe a land use case, a personal injury case, or a criminal case -- so they aren’t really new questions. But make sure you take the extra research or lawyer time into account when you need legislative history.

Law Librarian Named GPO’s Assistant Public Printer

Public Printer Bill Boarman has named Mary Alice Baish Assistant Public Printer, Superintendent of Documents, for the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO).

A proud day for all law librarians! Mary Alice Baish, formerly Director of Government Relations for the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), is a great friend to public librarians, too.

You can read the GPO press release or link to the story at the Law Librarian Blog:

AALL's Director of Government Relations, Mary Alice Baish, Appointed Assistant Public Printer, Superintendent of Documents, GPO

Effective Dates of (Oregon) Legislation and Ballot Measures

One of our local attorneys and I have been having a conversation about effective dates of ballot measures. Effective dates for ballot measures are different from the constitutional and statutory ones for statutes that are enacted by the Oregon Legislative Assembly.

The Oregon Constitution, Article IV, Section 1 (4)(d) says:

“… Notwithstanding section 1, Article XVII of this Constitution, an initiative or referendum measure becomes effective 30 days after the day on which it is enacted or approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon. A referendum ordered by petition on a part of an Act does not delay the remainder of the Act from becoming effective….”

One could wonder what “the day on which it is enacted or approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon” means. Is it the date of the election or the date of the certification or the date of a ballot recount, if there is one? Not to over-think it, which lawyers (and law librarians) do all the time, common sense says that it is the date of the election, assuming the measure passed.

To confirm this, I wandered here and there online (it’s too soon for the Measure in question to be anywhere in print given that it passed just last November), from the Legislature’s website to the Secretary of State, Elections Division, website, and beyond, to no avail.

My next starting point became the blog post I wrote back in 2007: Effective Dates of (Oregon) Legislation

I looked at the most recent Bill Drafting Manual (2008) from the Oregon Legislative Counsel, where they state the “rule,” but they don’t really state the “law.”

For example, Chapter 12 (1), states: “Bills referred to the people by the people via statewide referendum petition also take effect on a date other than the normal effective date. That date is 30 days after the date the people approve the referendum.”

So, we’re left with the common sense reading and assumption is that it’s the date of the election, i.e. “the date the people approve the referendum,” and any subsequent certifications or recounts are merely affirmations of the approval by the voters on election day.

We’ve not heard anything to the contrary so our local attorney and I keep our minds open.

"How an Idea Really Becomes a Law” in the Oregon Legislature

Just a reminder about this terrific resource:

"How an Idea Really Becomes A Law," 36 Willamette L. Rev. 1 (2000), by former Legislative Counsel Gregory A. Chaimov, (or link to it from the Oregon Legislative Counsel website).

There is also a lot of information on the Legislature's website about how to testify before an Oregon legislative committee.

Kip Kinkel Case (Oregon)

The Kip Kinkel case (Kinkel v. Lawhead (A137866),decided by the Oregon Court of Appeals on January 12, 2011, can be found at the OJD website:

Link to full case or to the very helpful Media Releases, where you can find summaries for most Oregon appellate court decisions.

Proposed Oregon Uniform Trial Court Rules (UTCR) Changes

From Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) Media Releases:

“ Notice of Opportunity to Review and Comment on Proposed Uniform Trial Court Rules Changes for 2011 (Then click on "What’s New.")

This notice is made pursuant to UTCR 1.020(3) which requires official notice of proposed changes to be posted on the Oregon Judicial Department website (http://www.courts.oregon.gov), allowing at least 49 days for public comment before final action is taken on the proposals. To review the proposed changes and the process for submitting public comment, click here.

The Uniform Trial Court Rules (UTCR) Committee makes UTCR recommendations to the Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. At its fall meeting on October 15, 2010, the committee made preliminary recommendations on several proposed changes. The committee will make final recommendations at its next meeting on March 11, 2011.” (Link to website – click on What’s New.)

Access to Justice: Ideas and Business Models

The process of creating and implementing new business models, for businesses, for nonprofits, for libraries, and for the legal profession, begins with discussing and examining new ideas.

The new biz model might be a Virtual Law Office or it might be a new idea, or germ of an idea, on providing legal services to people who can’t afford to hire lawyers:

Here’s a suggestion about the latter, and to paraphrase John Gear, if you don’t think that there is great demand for people who need but can’t afford lawyers, hang around a legal aid office (or ask a public law librarian):

Oregon State Bar (OSB) Bulletin, January 2011, "Parting Thoughts: Rethinking Bar Admissions," by John Gear

Excerpt: "...a new website, http://orprobonostudent.org. Jointly created by the Oregon State Bar Pro Bono Committee, Lewis & Clark Law School, the University of Oregon School of Law, and Willamette University College of Law, to:

…help Oregon attorneys connect with students from the state’s three law schools to help with pro bono work. Attorneys receive capable assistance that allows the attorneys to offer more complex legal services for free. Law students receive an opportunity to gain real-world experience while helping the underprivileged obtain desperately needed legal services. Together, attorneys and law students are working to pass on the commitment to pro bono and to ensure that no one in Oregon lacks a voice in the legal system.

Great idea! But wait, is the scarcity of pro bono services in Oregon because Oregon lawyers don’t know that eager law students are available through the law schools?..." (Link to full article.)

Link to the Oregon Pro Bono Student Network.

Access to Justice: Oregonians Who Can’t Afford Lawyers: Quotations

A former Umatilla County Law Librarian said during a discussion about the importance of public law libraries:

“The folks who cannot pay for a private attorney and cannot get a legal aid attorney are already disadvantaged in being forced to be self represented. With the law library, they have a slim chance at self representation, but it is at least a chance. Without a public law library, they have no hope of achieving any sort of justice at all…. What is the point of operating court facilities if the system doesn't work for everyone? ”

From a report on access to justice in Oregon:

“There is significant unmet need for outreach, community education and access to easily used, high quality self-help materials…. Lower income people obtain legal assistance for their problems less than 20% of the time.” (From, The State of Access to Justice in Oregon, by D. Michael Dale, published in 2000, sponsored by the Oregon State Bar, the Oregon Judicial Department, and former Governor John Kitzhaber.)

Will the Virtual Law Office (VLO) Make an Appearance in Oregon?

Bob Ambrogi’s Law Sites blog post of 1/9/11, brings us an update on Xemplar, where you can read about exemplary lawyers.

Exemplar’s January 2011 featured lawyer, Stephanie Kimbro, has created a Virtual Law Office (VLO) that sounds quite intriguing and is surely just the front end of a wave of VLO lawyers.

Are Paralegals Happier than Lawyers? (and other Oregon legal news)

A colleague passed this along, from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Law Blog (and you can read other WSJ blogs, too):

“Survey Says! Paralegaling is a Better Job than Lawyering,” WSJ Law Blog, 1/6/11

The WSJ Law Blog seems to have a slightly higher caliber of Comments than some other news websites and blogs. See, e.g. their Oregon Supreme Court decision blog post (re Barger (SC S058345) and Ritchie (SC S057701 (Control), S057705):

“When ‘Viewing’ is Not ‘Possession’: Oregon High Court Voids Child Porn Prosecutions,” WSJ Law Blog, 1/7/11

And I still like our very own Lewis & Clark Law School Library’s “Law in the News” roundup for a quick look at Oregon, Northwest, and other legal news stories of interest to many of us.

Oregon Public Affairs Forums

There are a number of public affairs forums across the state, dozens, maybe hundreds, if you include all the “speaker” series offered by local nonprofits, libraries, political, and educational and religious organizations. Check your local news and events sources to find out what is happening in your community. There are sometimes multiple ways to listen to these, so check out their websites.

Here are three well known ones in Washington, Marion, and Multnomah Counties:

Washington County Public Affairs Forum:

Date: Monday, January 17, 2011
Topic: Introducing the Chief Justice of Oregon's Supreme Court
Speaker: The Honorable Paul J. De Muniz

City Club of Salem:

Check their calendar for upcoming events.

City Club of Portland:

Date: January 14, 2011 - 12:15pm
Speaker: Tom Potiowsky, director, Oregon Office of Economic Analysis

Oregon Legal Ethics “Hot Potato” Rule

This January 2011 MBA article by Mark Fucile on the "Hot Potato" Rule is either less or more interesting than you might imagine. It is less, if you think it’s an article about lawyers who stand-up their friends and dates when a “better offer” comes along, though, come to think of it, it’s not really much different from that sort of situation.

It is more [interesting], when you actually read it!

Ethics Focus, by Mark Fucile: The “Hot Potato” Rule

(The MBA Multnomah Lawyer newsletter is not available online except to members, but the article’s link is to the author’s law firm, where the article is posted as a PDF – thank you to Mr. Fucile and his law firm for sharing all your articles!)

Can a lawyer or law firm fire, or otherwise withdraw from representing, an existing client if a “better” client comes along who could not otherwise have been represented due to a conflict with the first client?

Excerpt: “…. Welcome to the “Hot Potato” Rule. The short answer, as put by the OSB in Formal Ethics Opnion 2—5-11 (at 2n.1) is no: A lawyer cannot ‘fire’ a current client in mid-matter to avoid the current-client conflict of interest rules….” (Link to full article.)

2011 Oregon Legislature: Legislative Sessions, History, and Bills

1) Stay tuned for the 2011 Oregon Legislative Session. And don’t forget that we will now have annual sessions, which will be even more exciting for law librarians who already have to explain the difference between session laws and codes. (You can also read about codification and my other attempt to explain session law vs. codification/codes.)

2) Visit the Oregon Legislature’s website for links to current and previous bills and laws.

3) About those Annual Sessions: See Ballotpedia’s entry and links for the 2010 Measure 71 that was approved by voters in November 2010. It amends the Oregon Constitution: “Amends Constitution: Requires legislature to meet annually; limits length of legislative sessions; provides exceptions.” (Measure 71)

4) Legislative Hearing Minutes: don’t forget that you now have to listen to the hearings in full to find out who said what. Visit the Oregon Legislature’s website for audio/video links. (Read more about legislative intent and legislative drafting and interpretation.)

5) Legislative intent: For an update to my previous post on Oregon Legislative History: From PGE to Gaines, see OSB Bulletin, October 2010, article, Methodology Matters, by Robert M. Wilsey.

Superheroes and the law

Law and the Multiverse: Superheroes, supervillains, and the law is a fun, new blog dealing with theoretical legal issues in relation to superheroes and comic books. The authors, licensed attorneys, apply existent laws to fantastic situations. For example, recent posts include "Supers and Social Secutiry," "Costumes and the Confrontation Clause," and "Supers and the Eighth Amendment."

Lexis and Westlaw Search Syntax Comparison and Cheat Sheet

While playing around with our newly installed OSB BarBooks database and came across this mysterious Boolean search: variable: 4 and weights:7

While waiting for the answer to reveal itself, I went off to catch up with my law library blogs and ran across this excellent research tip post at the KCCLL (King County Law Library) Klues blog:

“Cheat sheet” comparing Lexis and Westlaw search syntax Research Tips

It links to:

LexisNexis and Westlaw Features Compared, from the Cleveland-Marshall School of Law Library.

[That "variable" search means:

"When site search sorts search results after a search, by default all words in a request count equally in counting hits. However, you can change this by specifying the relative weights for each term in your search request, like this:

apple:5 and pear:1

This request would retrieve the same documents as apple and pear but, site search would weight apple five times as heavily as pear when sorting the results.

In a natural language search, site search automatically weights terms based on an analysis of their distribution in your documents. If you provide specific term weights in a natural language search, these weights will override the weights site search would otherwise assign."]

Researching Oregon Paternity Law and Determinations

It’s time to update my 2008 post on Researching Oregon Paternity Law

Depending on your specific question (and they do run the gamut!), here are some updated resources and links.

1) Oregon DOJ Child Support Program: Determining Paternity and more

2) The Legal Aid Services of Oregon (LASO) “Oregon Law Help” website (click on Family, and then Paternity)

3) Oregon Paternity Project

4) Oregon State Bar (OSB) family, and paternity, law links

5) Oregon’s Center for Health Statistics: Establishing Paternity On A Birth Certificate

6) The Oregon Child Advocacy Project has good information on Oregon paternity law and practice.

7) There are additional print and online research resources to consult, including cases and secondary materials. Visit a public law library to find free or low-cost access to those subscription databases.

(Termination of parental rights is a separate, but sometimes related, issue. In the future, we will address how to research that subject.)

OREGON LEGAL RESEARCH BLOG: DISCLAIMERS and REGRETS

We cannot respond to most legal research questions.

Disclaimer: The information provided on this blog is for research purposes only. We do not provide legal advice, nor do we endorse any person, product, or company.

Disclaimer: It is against state law for library staff members to engage in any conduct that might constitute the unauthorized practice of law (ORS 9.160, 9.166 and 9.21). They may not interpret statutes, cases or regulations, perform legal research, recommend or assist in the preparation of forms, or advise patrons regarding their legal rights. They may, however, assist patrons in locating materials or links that would aid in individual research.

Oregon Territorial Laws

Oregon territorial laws (Acts of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Oregon (July 1849- May, 1950)) are now in Google Books.

The simplest way to find them is to type the words “oregon territorial laws” into Google Books.

You can also search “Oregon statutes” to find more.

And you can find lots more at the State of Oregon Law Library website.

Visit the Oregon Historical Society website, among others, for more.

Justice Bedsworth on the Election of Judges

Start the new year with Justice Bedworth, who cuts to the chase, and the chuckle, when it comes to electing judges.

"Electoral Processpool," by Justice William W. Bedsworth

Excerpt: “…I’m pleased that my friends(2) have been impressed by the margin of my victory. With no opponent, I received 73.3% of the vote. Just call me Landslide Bedsworth.

But one of those friends couched the results in language I could appreciate as a sports fan, but which disturbed me somewhat, nonetheless. Willie Brown,(3) the center fielder on my high school baseball team, said, “Beds got 73% of the vote against nobody. Isn’t that like playing a football game with no other team on the field and winning 20–7?”

I must admit it’s a little disconcerting that 387,337 people, given their choice of me or nobody, chose nobody. I can just hear them saying, “No, if Bedsworth’s all you got, I think we’ll pass, thank you very much." (Link to full article.)

It’s NOT All Online: The Long, Slow Dance of Requesting Copies of Laws in Oregon

Despite cries from legislators and others that It’s All Online, in Oregon at least (and we really do know it's the same in other places), IT IS NOT ALL ONLINE!

For example:

Have you ever tried to find an Oregon city or county code without these dance steps?

1) You phone and ask for a copy or fax or scan of x pages
2) They say, “mail us a request for what you want” (Mail? Mail? What year is this?)
3) They say, we’ll figure out how many pages your request covers and then
4) We’ll let you know how many pages and how much money you need to send us
5) You then have to send a check in the exact amount due
) Then, assuming all the stars are lined up, they will send you the photocopied pages – through the mail

This is not an unfamiliar dance whether you are requesting court records or local government records.

And for those of you who think “it’s all online,” and who may even know what to do with that statute or case when you find it, on my Oregon Legal Information webpage, I’ve started compiling a list of frequently requested Oregon and federal legal research resources – with notes about their online status.

Feel free to send me additions and corrections!