Oregon Small Claims Court Limit Raised to $10,000

Please note corrected effective date for this law - and thank you to the lawyers who alerted me to this!

The Oregon Small Claims Court jurisdictional limit has been raised to $10,000.

HB 2710 was signed by the Governor on June 30, 2011.  (Chapter 595, (2011 Laws): Some parts effective date July 1, 2011; the Small Claims Court amendments are effective October 1, 2011.)

Please, as I noted in a previous blog post on this subject, if you have that much money at stake, please, please do your research or consult an attorney.  You have no appeal from a Circuit Court Small Claims Court small claims court verdict.

The Oregon State Bar Information and Referral Service can refer you to Small Claims Coaches.  Call their referral service at 503-684-3763 or 1-800-452-7636 for more informaton.

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.

Weather Data for Lawyers, Litigants, and the Rest of Us

When you need certified weather records for court, you’ll visit the National Weather Service’s National Climatic Data Center or NCDC.

But when you’re in the early stages of research, or just curious, try these websites:

Weathersource dot com

Weather dot org history

Wunderground dot com)

Western Regional Climate Data

Spies Online Weather and Historical Weather

FastCase 50: Legal Technology Leaders

If you want to forge your very own career path in the law, here are some excellent examples:

The 2011 Fastcase 50: Honoring the law's smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders.

“Twelve Nasty Work-From-Home Scams,” from Forbes

Forbes dot com brings us this story:

Twelve Nasty Work-From-Home Scams, by Terra Stanley, 07.28.10, Forbes dot com

More scam and other consumer protection information from the:

Oregon Department of Justice or the Federal Trade Commission Consumer Protection

It’s July 2011: Are your online (or digital) statutes authenticated and official?

The Uniform Law Commission (ULC) recently approved the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act. Find links to the latest UELMA draft and other documents and more at the June 11, 2011, Legal Informatics blog post: Uniform Electronic Material Act Approved by ULC.

For more about official, authenticated laws, follow the links at the June 11, 2011, AACPLL blog post, National inventory of primary legal materials, including a link to the seminal AALL State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources and updates.

Law librarians, lawyers, legislators, and others have been working on this problem for a very long time.  The problem: most digital (including online) statutes and other legal research materials are not official, authenticated, and are only prima facie evidence of the law.

If you think about it, this makes (some) sense.  Online information is transitory, hackable, rewritable, and all those other –ables that make us nervous about living online when serious business must be transacted.

Also, historically, print and more recently microfilm have been the accepted standard for archiving official records.  While it is possible to rewrite law books (and other books) and say “it’s the law,” it’s not so easy to fool everyone all the time when we each have in hand a copy of the officially published statutes and the print or microfilm in a vault or under the stewardship of government archives librarians.

For another interesting view of this problem, see: Law Library Journal (LLJ), Spring 2011, article: "The Trap of Medium-Neutral Citation, or Why a Historical-Critical Edition of State Constitutions Is Necessary," by Horst Dippel, LLJ vol. 103:2 (2011)

Sara Rose, Kid Lawyer, and Lawyers to the Rescue

Law Librarian Blog brings us, Lawyers to the Rescue 4/27/11, blog post: Sara Rose, Kid Lawyer, by Spencer Aronfeld (in the tireless editors’ periodic Round Up of Law Practitioner Blogs).

You can read more about Sara Rose, Kid Lawyer, a 4^th grader who likes to argue!

Read about: Lawyers to the Rescue

Read the Law Librarian Blog (a member of the Law Professor Blogs Network).

Oregon Concealed Handgun & Medical Marijuana Case on Journey to U.S. Supreme Court

Sansone v. Gordon and releated cases:

High Court could hear county's last pot shot," July 22, 2011, by Kurt Eckert, The Hillsboro Argus

"Who better than the nation’s highest court to decide if medical marijuana users have a right to concealed handgun licenses?

The answer could come to Oregon law enforcement via Washington County if the U.S. Supreme Court eventually elects to take a look at Sansone v. Gordon.

Affirmed May 19 by the Oregon Supreme Court, the case is now recognized as state law, holding that the requirements for an Oregon Concealed Handgun License don’t have to conform to federal gun control laws precluding narcotics use over “a prolonged period.” ....'  [Link to full Hillsboro Argus article.]

Previous OLR blog post on Sansone v. Gordon and related cases.

Criminal Laws Passed in the 2011 Oregon Legislative Session

The Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (OCDLA) Legislative Committee has posted a list of the criminal laws that were passed in the 2011 Oregon Legislative (General) Session. (See upper right link on their webpage.)

Thank you OCDLA.  This compilation represents a lot of hard work.

Washington County Law LIbrary Website: New Links, Old LInks, Dead Links

If you run into broken links from this blog to documents on our website, the Washington County (Oregon) Law Library, we apologize.

When websites are upgraded, when webpages are moved, when links rot, we all know what happens.  Sigh.

We all try our best to clean up links, but sometimes we just need to move on, move forward.  (Maybe that was what James Joyce and Shakespeare decided too, when they looked at their published manuscripts and noticed typos or, heaven forbid, awkward sentences.  I bet they both said, "let it go, let's just move on.  What's past is prologue." Well, it could have happened!)

First try visiting our homepage.  If that doesn't work, try using our Documents Index, which we keep under the left button labeled Legal Research Resources.

Of course, links do also suddenly die, but don't despair.  Run a search-engine search using the exact name of the document you need or contact the source. Webmasters want to know if their readers can't find what they need!

Job: Legal Assistant – Legal Researcher: Port of Portland (Oregon)

The Port of Portland has an interesting Legal Assistant position posted.  Deadline is July 22, so don’t dawdle.

www.portofportland.com

Oregon Digital Historical Newspaper Program

Take a spin in the beta-test version:

Oregon Digital Newspaper Program

"The Oregon Digital Newspaper Program (ODNP) is an initiative to digitize historic Oregon newspaper content and make it freely available to the public through a keyword-searchable online database. The initial phase of the program will concentrate on newspapers published between 1860 and 1922, with a goal of approximately 150,000 pages freely available online in the first two years (2009-2011)."

Casualties of American Wars

The next time you think you're tired of reading bad news, hearing about Congress "debating" whether or not to raise the debt ceiling, the high price of gasoline or food, remember:

Today’s Official Statistics:  U.S. Department of Defense Casualty News Releases

News stories:

Faces of the Fallen, Washington Post

War Casualties: CNN

iCasualties (Iraq War casualties)

Wikipedia: Casualties of the 2011 Libyan Civil War

Historical U.S. War Statistics:

Wikipedia: United States Military Casualties of War

Research Military Records at the U.S. Archives

American War Library

CRS Report: American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics, 2/26/10

Info Please: America’s Wars

Who Prosecutes Locally in Oregon when there is no County District Attorney?

“No right to prosecute: With no district attorney in office, defense lawyers say all ongoing criminal cases must be dismissed,” by Phil Wright, East Oregonian, July 14, 2011

Excerpt: "Defense lawyers in Umatilla County are pushing to end criminal prosecution for lack of a district attorney. Attorneys have filed multiple motions to dismiss in the wake of the Oregon Department of Justice’s criminal investigation and prosecution of Dean Gushwa, who resigned as district attorney effective May 31...." [Link to full East Oregonian article.]

By the way, the Governor appoints District Attorneys when there is a vacancy.

You can track the Governor's appointments at the Governor's website and Media Release page, where you'll also find Twitter, Facebook, and other links.

Oregon Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Course Materials in Law Libraries

The following Oregon law libraries have a selection of credit-worthy Continuing Legal Education (CLE) course books available for members of the Oregon State Bar (OSB) and others who can use the CLE course materials to fulfill their own profession’s CE requirements.

Some of the Law Libraries have very short (3 to 5-day) attorney CLE check-out periods in November and December and each has law library has its own circulation (book check-out) policy.

Please call ahead (or check websites) to confirm title availability, checkout rules, and law library hours.

1) Clackamas County Law Library (503-655-8248)

2) Lane County Law Library (541-682-4337)

3) Marion County Law Library (503-588-5090)

4) Washington County Law Library (503-846-8880)

5) State of Oregon Law Library (503-986-5640)

The following county law libraries have selected CLE course books for research only, not the audio and not for credit:

1) Jackson County (541-774-6437)

2) Linn County Law Library (541-928-1095)

3) Multnomah Law Library (503-988-3394)

For questions about what CLE or CE credits you have, you need, or what CE titles can be used for credit, etc.:

1) If you are an Oregon Attorney, please visit the OSB MCLE website.

2) If you are a paralegal: please speak to your employer or contact the paralegal professional association to which you belong, e.g. OPA or PNWPA

3) If you are an Oregon licensed investigator: please visit the Oregon DPSST Private Security and Private Investigators Program website and any private investigator professional association to which you belong.

Codification of the U.S. Code (and Supreme Court Bobbleheads)

In the continuing saga of codification of laws of the land, I bring you this article:

"Title 51 of the U.S. Code and Why it Matters," by Robert C. Berring, 14 Green Bag 2d 251 (2011)

The The Green Bag is a lively law journal, if you can imagine, and home of the infamous (in some circles) Supreme Court Justice Bobbleheads

Of course, for those of you so inclined, you can make your own bobbleheads:

How to Design a Bobblehead (from e-How)

U.S. Supreme Court Library a Thriving Entity

Whenever someone tells you that they “don’t need no stinkin’ law library,” beware – why doesn’t that person want you to have access to the nation's laws and to the collected wisdom of legal scholars through the centuries?

U.S. Supreme Court Justices are some of the smartest legal scholars in the country and not only do they have the smartest law clerks from the best law schools, but they have a stellar law library.  You don’t hear any of them saying, “why don’t we save some taxpayer money by closing the law library” - do you?

I saw this quote in a recent article about the retirement of the current U.S. Supreme Court Law Librarian –  they have a staff of 28!

“In the earliest years, the Court did not have its own Library. Members of the Court used their own personal collections or borrowed books from the Library of Congress or other sources. Today, the Librarian manages the Court’s splendid collection of more than 500,000 volumes, directs a staff of 28, and provides irreplaceable research in support of our work.”

Justice Bedsworth and the Value of a Dollar

California appellate court’s Justice Bedsworth lets loose on people who don’t know the value of a dollar.

Given that the U.S. Congress is once again rehashing what the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform did last year (and their Commission’s Final Report is on their website), I don’t blame the Justice for his testiness.

See his monthly column, “Criminal Waste of Space,” in the Orange County Bar Association’s monthly magazine, July 2011 OC Lawyer:

“July 2011 - Zero Plus Zero Equals Trouble”

Excerpt:

"... Voodoo economics has become a redundancy.

And it’s affecting our judicial system. I heard a lawyer a few weeks ago lamenting the fact he was being “dragged back into court time after time over a $30,000 fee award.”

The implication was clear: he couldn’t believe anyone was expending so much effort over such a trifling amount.

I’m sorry. Thirty thousand dollars is—to borrow from Ev Dirksen—real money to me, and I think it should be to our profession.

I’ve been blessed both to have grown up blue-collar and to have worked with and before generations of lawyers and judges who appreciated zeroes. Men and women who had been through a Great Depression and a war that required rationing took decimal points seriously and taught me to.

I got hit with a three thousand dollar dental bill last week and I’ll probably be in a blue funk about it until the Cal-Fresno State game.6 Three thousand dollars isn’t going to delay my retirement or cause my kid to drop out of law school. But it’s a big chunk of change...." [Link to full article.]