New Law Library Website

We at the Washington County Law Library are pleased to announce the premiere of our newly redesigned website.  We've reorganized our content and added some new navigation menus.  A new navigation tab has been added for CLE information, and we organized our legal research resources into subject-area subsites (general resources, Oregon resources, subject guides, etc.).  We've also added direct links from our home page to the library catalog and the subject guides page.  One of the most exciting additions to the website (at least to us) is the document index, where we have compiled all of the documents available on the website.  Another exciting new subsite is the Divorce/Family Law page, accessible through both our website and the county's homepage (from the Key Services & Information menu).  We invite you to explore the redesigned site and discover all our library has to offer.     

New Legal Research Guide - Collecting Judgments

Back in March, OregonLive.com ran a David vs. Goliath story on a man from Philadelphia who "foreclosed" on a Wells Fargo Home Mortgage branch.  The man didn't actually foreclose on the branch; he won a judgment against Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, resulting in a lien that would have led to a Sheriff's sale of the branch's contents.  Judgment collection situations aren't always that interesting, but we do get quite a few questions about judgments and how to actually collect on them.  So, we recently added a new legal research guide on collecting judgments to the law library's website. 


For information on setting up a debt-collection business in Oregon, see Laura's post from January 4, 2009.

Hot Coffee, the Movie: A Documentary Film

Hot Coffee, the movie, a documentary film by Oregon attorney, Susan Saladoff:

Excerpt from Hot Coffee webpage: “…Is Justice Being Served?

Seinfeld mocked it. Letterman ranked it in his top ten list. And more than fifteen years later, its infamy continues. Everyone knows the McDonald’s coffee case. It has been routinely cited as an example of how citizens have taken advantage of America’s legal system, but is that a fair rendition of the facts? Hot Coffee reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. After seeing this film, you will decide who really profited from spilling hot coffee." [Link to Hot Coffee, the Movie, website.]

The DVD will be available for sale in the fall.

Oregon Nonprofits and the Law

Law librarians get all sorts of questions about nonprofit organizations. We get questions from nonprofit board members, donors, lawyers hired by nonprofits, and from people who want to set up nonprofits.

The biggest mistake people often make is assuming that creating and running a nonprofit is easy – or should be.  It’s not and, arguably, it shouldn’t be.  Nonprofits “redistribute the wealth” the same way any business or family head of household does and should be held to the same standards.

1) The best place to begin your nonprofit research is the Nonprofit Association of Oregon  (NAO) (formerly known as TACS) and their the excellent Oregon nonprofit corporation handbook, which is the place to begin for any and all Oregon nonprofit questions.  (Most Oregon public libraries have the handbook.)

2) If your nonprofit questions are about tax law, exempt status, incorporation, privacy, public records, liability, or similarly important legal (and financial) issues, I recommend you also check with a lawyer to make sure you are complying with all applicable laws.

The Oregon State Bar has an Information and Referral Service and has a toll free number to call to get names of attorneys who specialize in nonprofit (and related) areas of law.  Call their referral service at 503-684-3763 or 1-800-452-7636.

3) The Oregon Department of Justice oversees public records matters and charitable organizations.

4) The Portland State University (PSU) Institute for Nonprofit Management has a list of links to additional resources.

5) Hands On Greater Portland is a great place for people and nonprofit organizations to look for volunteers and volunteering opportunities.

Eight Rules of Implementing Court E-Filing Systems

Legal Informatics Blog alerts us to the forthcoming:

McMillan: Eight Rules of E-Filing and on to the Eight Rules of E-Filing at the Court Technology Bulletin, which alerts us that they will:

‘… Over the next several weeks we will offer eight rules of E-filing systems implementation.  However, please note that there are many additional factors in any successful implementation as defined in classic project management structures including proper governance, budget, testing, and communication that cannot be ignored.  So please keep that in mind as you read our "rules"….’ [Link to introductory post.]

Whew.  Let’s hope those weeks pass quickly, but not too quickly.

Meeting of the Law Librarian Bloggers, AALL 2011, Philadelphia

Our blogger-buddies at the Dallas Association of Law Librarians post the details of the AALL Annual Meeting of Law Library Bloggers, to be held in Philadelphia, during the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), July 2011

Two lists of Law Library / Law Librarian Blogs:

1) http://aallcssis.pbworks.com/w/page/1189465/Law-Library-Blogs

2) http://blawgsearch.justia.com/blogs/categories/law-librarian

Advice (from law students) for New Law Students

Gallagher Blogs (University of Washington Law School Library) alerts us to:

“Advice for Entering Students,” from the Student Appeal, a law student forum.

Update on Online Law Schools

Here is an update to my “Can you attend law school online?,” post:

June 17^th, 2011, Robert Ambrogi's LawSites: This Week on L2L: Online Law Schools

Oregon Legislature May Increase Small Claims Court Jurisdictional Limit to $10,000

If the Oregon Legislature passes 2011 HB 2710, as amended on 6/27, it will increase the jurisdictional limit of Small Claims Court to $10,000.

You can find this bill (HB 2710 B-engrossed, June 27, 2011) from the Legislature’s Measure Search or Bills website.

Legal minds will differ on this, but my informal tally so far shows that there are an awful lot of consumer-friendly lawyers worrying about this increase in jurisdictional amount from $7,500 to $10,000, without some corresponding court-managed small claims case preparation assistance made available (the way the courts provide family law assistance for self-represented litigants).

Ten thousand dollars is a whole lot of money in our world, of solo practitioners and law librarians.

The responses have been along the line of, “when there is that much money on the table, people need to talk to a lawyer.  Remember, there is no appeal from a Small Claims case filed in Circuit Court.”

And I say:

"Ten thousand dollars is a whole lot of money!

I have been a law librarian for 25+ years.  I can research the heck out of legal questions. But I hire lawyers. If I was being sued, or if I filed a lawsuit, in Small Claims Court (or any other court), I’d consult an attorney.

I might do most of the research and drafting myself, but I would consult an attorney. (I would also negotiate hard for a reduced fee.)

If you need expert advice, get it from an expert, even if it means brown-bagging lunch and eating oatmeal, beans, and rice for a month, in order to save up that money.  Some things are worth paying for and you might be out a whole heck of a lot more money if you don’t get tough with yourself from the start."

The Oregon State Bar can refer people to small claims court coaches and and also to consumer, bankruptcy, and debtor-creditor lawyers would be able to assist plaintiffs and defendants in small claims court.  But read the laws about Oregon Small Claims Court (in Circuit Court and in Justice Court ).

Oregon State Bar (OSB) Legal Links and Finding (free & low cost) Legal Help

The Oregon State Bar (OSB) has a Legallinks TV and video program that covers a wide variety of legal topics and issues. Episodes air on cable channels across Oregon and are also available by streaming video.

Recent programs have been on traffic law, guns in Oregon, child support, and finding legal help.  You can find links to the resources at the OSB LegalLinks website announcement for the program.

Transferring Ownership (title) of Vehicles in Oregon in Divorce, Bankruptcy, or Estate

The Oregon State Bar (OSB) Bulletin, June 2011, has a useful article in their Legal Practice Tips column: "Get it Right the First Time: Settling Ownership of Vehicles," by William Leslie.

Excerpt: "Handling a titled vehicle in a divorce, bankruptcy or estate doesn’t have to be hard, but simple mistakes are made by new and experienced attorneys alike....

Here are some common mistakes made by attorneys in handling vehicles. The concepts apply equally well to boats, airplanes and anything else with a title issued by a state agency...." [Link to full article.]

(You can find previous issues of the OSB Bulletin at their archives website.)

Civil Liberties Debate: John Yoo – Steve Wax, Alaska Debate Transcript on DVD

My law library now has a copy of the DVD (2 disks):

Alaska Bar Association: "Excerpt from 2011 Convention, Fairbanks, AK: The Balance Between Security & Civil Liberties in War Times,”

featuring UC-Berkely Law Professor John Yoo (former White House attorney under George W. Bush) and Steve Wax (Oregon Federal Public Defender)

The Washington County Law Library is a research library so materials do not circulate, but we do have a conference room and a DVD player.

If you want your own copy of the DVDs, please contact the Alaska Bar Association.

Other stories about the debate:

Oregonian story: "John Yoo, author of 'torture memo,' defends his position to Oregon's Federal Defender Steven Wax," Friday, May 06, 2011  

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story: “Alaska attorneys face off over use of torture in war," by Sam Friedman, May 7, 2011

From the audience: Life in Spendard

Sites to see from the 2011 Virtual Reference Summit

Some of us here at the Oregon Legal Research blog are recently returned from the 2011 Virtual Reference Summit, where many Oregon library staff go to share an interest in the triad of reference, service, and technology issues and ideas we regularly encounter in the field. Some fun and potentially useful sites were presented that our readers might enjoy:

EasyBib: Free automatic bibliography and citation maker for books, websites, newspapers, and so on. The usual style suspects are included: MLA, Chicago, APA.

OttoBib: Same thing, for books only; but creates the citation/bibliography immediately using just the ISBN and also can provide a permanent URL for the bibliography.

Newspaper Map: Find and translate newspapers worldwide; filter your search by language, location, or both. Or just click the area on the world map that interests you. Over 10,000 newspapers are represented.

Newsmap: This site takes news from the Google News aggregator and creates a colorful visual map clustered by the volume of media coverage. Viewers can modify the map by topic, region, and/or time.

Newseum's Front Pages: Through a special agreement with more than 800 newspapers worldwide, the Newseum displays those newspapers' front pages each day on its website. The front pages are in their original, unedited form. You can sort by region as well as view the Newseum's top ten picks for quality graphic design.

Sign up for Emergency Notification (Oregon, selected counties)

This emergency notification system will be able to send text, email, and telephone notifications, but you must register unless you want the notification to go to your landline:

Sign up and learn more about the community notification systems in the following areas:

City of Portland and Multnomah County

Clackamas County

Clark County

Columbia County

Washington County

"... This emergency notification system that will be able to send text and telephone notifications to residents and businesses within Multnomah County impacted by, or in danger of being impacted by, an emergency or significant event. This system will be used by emergency response personnel to notify those homes and businesses at risk with information on the event and/or actions (such as evacuation) we are asking them to take....

Subscribers to this system will receive emergency alerts via e-mail, phone call or text/SMS messages when the associated address will be impacted by an emergency....

The system is preprogrammed with published landline phone numbers from phone company records. However, unless you register additional or alternate contact information, it cannot contact your e-mail address, mobile phone, internet (VoIP) phone or landline phone provided by a cable TV carrier...."

Sign up for Emergency Notification

If you live outside these areas, please check with local law enforcement or other city and county officials.

Oregon State Law Library: Librarian Retirement and New Appointment

Joe Stephens, the State Law Librarian, is retiring at the end of June. Joe led the library and its staff through many improvements to the library’s services, collection and facility and we shall miss him! (Joe was also an invaluable legal research and law librarian profession resource, and sounding board, for me well before I even moved to Oregon.)

OJD announces “that, effective July 1, 2011, Cathryn Bowie, currently the State Law Library Electronic Services Librarian, has agreed to serve in the capacity of Acting Law Librarian for the State of Oregon Law Library (SOLL) to provide a consistent leadership transition to support the many users and services of the SOLL.

Cathryn has been with the SOLL since 2003, and designed and spearheaded the brief bank project-from infancy to the excellent research tool that it is today.  Cathryn's expertise is vendor negotiations, and that is visible in the variety of electronic services that are available within and outside the OJD.  She has provided far reaching instruction for judges and OJD staff in using these electronic legal research resources. 

Prior to her arrival at SOLL, Cathryn accumulated 14 years of academic and law firm experience, including a position as Director of Libraries at a Texas law firm.   She was also Chief Financial Officer at the University of Houston Law Library.”

We are thrilled that we will have Cathryn leading the State Law Library into the future!

Roses & Ice: Oregon History with a Twist (or a Beer)

Everyone needs a break from the law – don’t they?  How about a history break?

The Oregon Encyclopedia (The OE), an online resource for Oregon history and culture, continues its History Night series:

"The rich fruits of human effort": Portland's 1905 World's Fair and its Rose Festival Legacy

Presented by Dr. Carl Abbott

Tuesday, June 21,2011

7:30 p.m.

Rialto Poolroom and Bar

529 SW 4th Ave, Portland, Ore.

Free and open to the public. Must be 21 or over

"A Scene of Ice and Snow": the Discovery and Study of Glaciers

Presented by Dr. Andrew Fountain

Tuesday, June 28, 2011, 6:30 p.m.

McMenamins Edgefield,

2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale, Ore.

Free and open to the public

For more information, please visit: www.oregonencyclopedia.org

The Naughtiness of Zeros and Ones: Print AND Digital, not VERSUS

If you write, and you want people to read what you write, now and in the future, take heed:

Librarians Rule (again)!  Yes we can weed or delete your magnum opus from library collections, but, more to the point, we have an even greater passion for preserving your legacy!

Read this On the Media interview with Brewster Kahle:

 "An Internet Archivist Recommits to Books," June 10, 2011:

“Entrepreneur, philanthropist and digital librarian Brewster Kahle: ' … And then the question is, is after the digitized is there any real reason to have the physical books. And we're determining yes, there absolutely is. We're discovering what librarians have known for centuries in this new digital world, so I —I'm feeling like a little naive….'” [Link to full interview.]

Librarians love, love, love digital information and access and world-wide dissemination of information, but:

If you write a book and article and you want it to last at least as long as humans do, which may not be all that long in the scheme of things (whatever):

MAKE A FEW PRINT COPIES AND DISTRIBUTE THEM WIDELY at libraries, archives, safe deposit boxes, or wherever else they might be found if the digital copy vanishes, which it will.

Digital is nothingness (naughti-ness).  It’s powerful nothingness, as all naughtiness is (think Seinfeld, silence, and space), but it is still nothing.

Digital is communication across the globe

Print is somethingness.  It’s not forever.  Nothing is.  But it is tangible. It is archival and archivable.

UPDATED: How to Find a Case Online - using Free resources

How to Find a Case Online (using free resources)

(if you have the citation)

It isn't always possible to use a physical reporter to locate a case using a citation.  If you don't have access to a bound reporter, here is a quick overview of a few of your free options for locating cases online.

Free case-retrieval resources:

LEXISONE

• Open your internet browser
• Type in http://www.lexisone.com/
• Click on the “Free Case Law” tab
• Select “Search by Citation” and type in your citation (for example, "238 Ore. App. 678").  
• lexisONE offers the last 10 years of Federal and State Court cases and U.S. Supreme Court cases from 1781 to the present.

GOOGLE SCHOLAR

• Open your internet browser
• Type in http://www.scholar.google.com/
• Type in your citation and select the “Legal opinions and journals” search option.
• Note Google's disclaimer for legal opinions: "Disclaimer: Legal opinions in Google Scholar are provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied on as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed lawyer. Google does not warrant that the information is complete or accurate."
• You can also limit your search by jurisdiction.  From the search results page, use the first drop down menu to select a jurisdiction.  Alternately, you can use the Advanced Scholar Search to select specific courts to search (for example, "238 Or App 678" with the Oregon Court of Appeals selected from the menu of jurisdictions, although that is a bit redundant).

FINDACASE

• Open your internet browser
• Type in http://www.findacase.com/
• Select a state (Oregon, for example)
• Select the citation search option and enter your citation in the search boxes.  For example, for the citation "238 Or App 678", you would type "238" in the vol. # box, select "Or.App." as the reporter, and enter "678" for the page number.  Note: FindAcase requires you provide your zip code and answer a CAPTCHA to prove you're human. 
• Also of interest, when I tried the above search, only one of the top ten results was from an Oregon court, and the citation I was searching for was not among the results.  I tried searching for another case from the same volume, without any luck.  So, I tried to find a case from volume 237, 237 Or App 149, and was unsuccessful yet again.  However, I did return a relevant result when I searched for the case using the Pacific Reporter citation: 238 P3d 1016.  So, this is yet another lesson that free online case search tools are far from perfect.
• You can find the FindACase database coverage here: http://www.findacase.com/help/library/LibCatPremium.aspx#saccontent.    

OPEN JURIST

• Open your internet browser
• Type in http://openjurist.org/
• You can type your citation directly into the search box on the upper right-hand corner of the page using the "Opinions" search option.  The search yields better results if you use quotation marks (181 F3d 906 yields thousands of results, but "181 F3d 906" yields 2, the original case and a case citing the original).
• You can also refine your search results by the jurisdiction (9th Circuit, US Supreme Court, etc.). 
• Note: OpenJurist appears to provide access only to Federal Court opinions, not state court opinions.

PUBLIC LIBRARY OF LAW (PLoL)

• Open your internet browser
• Type in http://www.plol.org/
• You do need to register to have full access to the PLoL database, but registration is free and is initiated the first time you click to view a case from your search results.
• You can do a quick search by entering your citation into the search box, staying in the "Case Law" tab. For example, I searched for the Enterprise vs. Rent-A-Wreck case again using only the citation (181 F3d 906).  The search yielded one result, thankfully the correct one.
• The advanced search options provide the ability to limit your search to a specific date range and/or jurisdiction.
• PLoL offers a tutorial on finding cases and advice on the best way to find a case.
• The PLoL database has all: Supreme Court Cases; Federal Circuit Court Cases from 1950-; state Supreme and Appellate Court Cases from 1997-.

Medical Library Student Internship (Oregon) Opening

A lot of people still think the only prerequisites for working in a library are 1) “you like to read” and 2) the ability to stamp books with checkout dates.

Other than laughing and telling them they do not have the range of technical and specialized skills needed to work in my library or any other library, even for the most entry-level of jobs, I do, sometimes, on occasion, if I’m feeling magnanimous, ask them if they have ever looked at a job posting for even a temporary, student-job in a library – and noticed the skills needed, eg.:

Kaiser Permanente Student Internship

Student Intern IV - Library(Job Number: 086115)

Essential Functions:

• Search PubMed for articles

• Check copyright clearance of articles

• Link item records in DSpace (institutional repository software)

• Prepare files and metadata for inclusion in the repository

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

• Course experience in basic cataloging

• Currently enrolled in an ALA-accredited MLS program

• Bachelor's degree

• Strong attention to detail

• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and Word

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience searching the PubMed database

• Experience working with DSpace

• Course experience in advanced (non-MARC) cataloging

• Experience editing catalog records

• Familiarity with Copyright Law

• Knowledge of XML

• Knowledge of Dublin Core Metadata Schema

Why Legal Outsourcing Doesn’t Always Work: Justice Bedsworth Explores a Culture Clash

The O(range) C(ounty) Bar Association monthly OC Lawyer Magazine, June 2011 issue, brings us another wise and wacky article from our favorite appellate court judge:

A New Kind of Custody Battle, by Justice William W. Bedsworth:

Excerpt:  "... And the adults you see in divorce court are usually going out of their way to be unlikable. I’m afraid with my background, I would have found myself sentencing most of those people instead of divorcing them.(3)

And then who would I have given the children to? “Well, Mr. Gazorninplat, I was going to award you custody, but now that I’ve ordered you incarcerated, I’m afraid I’ll have to give the poor little beggars to your spectacularly obnoxious spouse. Unless, of course, I can find a family of wolves willing to take them in.”(4)

The whole custody thing seems to come up in an unusual context in Chinese courts. According to the Austrian Times,(5) “A Chinese divorce court is being asked to rule on which selfish parent should get custody of their only child—after BOTH of them refused to take him.”

Yeah, I know. How does the Austrian Times, whose masthead proclaims, “We’ve got Austria covered,” report authoritatively on Chinese divorce courts?

I was skeptical, too—although we’ve all been where those Chinese litigants were. Anyone who’s been a parent has had days when they would have refused custody...."  [Link to full article.]

Justia Legal Question and Answer Service

Justia Virtual Chase has a free Legal Question & Answer Service.  Answers are provided by lawyers.

Justia Legal Questions and Answers

Justia homepage and Q & A page.

This is not the only legal Q & A online (hardly!) - and remember, read the disclaimers.

But we do love Justia for their law librarian services, especially their excellent law library blog feed that saves us a bucket-load of time.  They have other legal blawg feeds, too - whatever rocks your world!

Here is our disclaimer:

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 Redistricting Maps

The State of Oregon redistricting webpage has been updated with Co-Chairs' Proposed Legislative Maps.

Database of Oregon Nonprofits that Lost their Tax Exempt Status

More than 3,700 Oregon nonprofits have lost their tax-exempt status due to a Failure to File.

The Nonprofit Association of Oregon (formerly known as TACS) has posted the news.

DATABASE: You can search the IRS database, titled: Automatic Revocation of Exemption List (use those keywords in your search engine if this link stops working) or link to it from the main IRS website for Charities and Nonprofits.

Read the Chronicle of Philanthropy story.

Authority of Federal Statutes in U.S.C. Section Notes

Not all statutes are codified, that is, not all laws passed (by Congress and signed by the President) appear in the numbered sections of the U.S. Code.  Sometimes they appear in the code section's note.

This blog post may not mean anything to you right now, but one day you’ll say “so that’s what Laura was talking about!”

I used to teach this to law students, using the Privacy Act of 1974 as an example, but a federal agency law librarian has written a useful and short memo on the subject so you don't need me anymore (at least not to explain this!):

The Law Librarian's Society of Washington, D.C., Inc. (LLSDC.org) has placed on its Legislative Source Book a PDF version of the presentation made by Rick McKinney, Federal Reserve Board Assistant Law Librarian, on "The Authority of Statutes Placed in Section Notes of the United States Code."

This occurs in state codes as well.  There are a number of perfectly good reasons why not all statutes are codified, but those statutes are still law.

Online and/or Remote Access to Oregon Court Documents

All Oregon county circuit courts (and most if not all county, justice, and municipal courts) allow free on-site (in the courthouse) access to OJIN.

Few if any public libraries will subscribe OJIN.  It is not an easy database to use, due primarily to the fact that it was designed many decades ago for court staff and lawyers. Keep in mind also that few full-text documents are in OJIN.  If you need copies of actual documents filed in a particular case, rather than just reading the docket entry, you would have to go to the courthouse file room or clerk's office anyway, so remote access will not save you a trip to the courthouse.

Some county law libraries have OJIN subscriptions, but not many, for the same reason – the actual documents are only at the courthouse so lawyers, litigants, or researchers may as well be right in the court’s file room when they do their searches - and where they can get expert search assistance.

Note, OJIN is not like PACER, the federal electronic case filing database, which does have full text. But it too requires you to register – and there are charges, with some exceptions.

None of these public databases is free. It is very expensive to create and maintain good databases and people who use them are asked to help pay for them, even if all taxpayers contribute most of the money to support these databases.

Online databases, of any kind, are not free or even cheaper than paper files - they just allow greater access, at a cost. The price of remote access is high since you need skilled and experienced programmers and designers and network specialists who can build databases that everyone can use - not to mention the skills, hardware, and software that are needed to keep a database secure and properly backed up - and have 24/7 user support.  These skilled workers cost a whole lot more than people who sort and file paper documents.

There are also private, commercial, court document services where you can find case files online. These databases, however, are even more expensive than OJIN or PACER.  Big law firms, many with law librarians and other expert database searchers, will subscribe to these, but here too as with anything we buy or sell, the costs are passed along to the people who use them, the client or customer.

How to Get FREE Telephone Number Information in Oregon

You can find lots of free telephone and address information from:

1) “The Internet” (your search engine of choice, e.g. google, bing, yahoo, etc.).  If you want to find a telephone number and you have internet access, search the business or agency or person by name, for example: if you want the Washington County (Oregon) Watermaster, type this into your search engine: washingon county oregon watermaster.  You’ll get up to date contact info (especially if you make sure you click on your search engine’s link to get the most current info).

2) Your local public library information and quick reference lines during their open hours (e.g. Multnomah County public libraries and Washington County public libraries) and don't forget L-net, the statewide online reference service).

3) 211 Info, for locating Oregon (and some other state's) community resources, e.g. social services, elected officials, etc.

4) You can also try the free, online 411 dot com, but I got hilarious results when I tried to find a telephone number for “mayor sam adams.”  When I typed -- mayor sam adams telephone number -- into Google, I got an exact link to the Portland City Hall’s Contact Us website, including the Mayor’s contact info.

An awful lot of online phonebooks and fee-based telephone-finding services seem to be fairly unreliable, or so it seems from those of us on the receiving end of an awful lot of calls from people who say, “but they said this was the correct number!”  (I guess the upside of this is the inkling that maybe Big Brother isn’t so hot at finding us, no matter how much we might think we are being tracked.)

I’m cheap and cranky and, unless I absolutely have to, refuse to pay someone to find me a phone number – and I certainly won’t pay for the wrong phone number.  I’m sure there may be times when I would be willing to pay, e.g. if I’m trapped somewhere with only a rotary dial telephone and none of the options I list above are available.

Consumer tip:  If a fee-based phone-number service gives you a wrong number - let them know!  They can issue you a refund.  Learn to complain. Without people making legitimate complaints and without marketplace competition, we would all pay a whole lot more for a whole lot less. (If they don’t refund you for their mistake, there are places to report them, from the Oregon Attorney General’s Consumer Helpline to the FTC.)