Researching “Criminal Justice” versus Researching “The Law”

Researching criminal justice topics can be quite different from researching the law.  There is overlap, of course, but sometimes not very much at all depending on the specific question.

The field of criminal justice also has many of its own research resources that are completely separate from legal research resources.

Both fields of study have roots and branches in law, courts, public policy, government, history, sociology, and psychology, but they are different fields of stufy.  One could say that criminal justice is a subset of “the law,” but it’s also its own field, and  it is, of course, as interdisciplinary as any field of study is nowadays.

The Portland State University library has this Research Guide for Legal Resources, but it confuses the subjects, too.  This is actually a “Research Guide for Criminal Justice Research.”

Keep in mind, also, that the term “primary source” refers to one set of documents when performing basic legal research and it refers to a completely different set of documents when historians, criminologists, and when some legal scholars speak of “primary source.”

My advice: ask a librarian when you begin developing your research strategy.  It wil save time and aggravation.

(PSU has lots of other research guides, too.)

Nine Things Pro Se (Self-represented) Litigants Need to Know

Whether you are going into Small Claims Court, Circuit Court, Bankruptcy Court, or into Traffic Court, if you want to win or at least stay in control of your destiny to the extent possible:

1. You have to listen, learn, read, get organized, keep good records, stay focused and determined, and above all else keep a healthy sense of perspective and humor.

2. Legal research is hard and time-consuming.  But it can also be interesting, rewarding, and even fun.

3. It’s not all online. You can’t “Google” the law and expect to win your case.

4. Legal analysis is even harder.  See, for example: Five Methods of Legal Reasoning, posted 8/3/11, at the Legal Skills Prof Blog

5. If you walk into a law library with a “what’s the law on x?” or “how do I sue someone?” question and do so without pencil and paper in hand, or if you do not write down what the law librarian tells you, please do not be surprised if you are not taken seriously or if you are given only very brief instructions (such as, would you like a piece of paper and pencil?).  There are hundreds of other people in line behind you, literally and figuratively (a lot of them use email to ask these questions).  Those who take notes, listen, and who work hard deserve the most attention.

6. Do not expect to find an off-the-shelf fill-in-the-blank legal form. You will probably have to draft your own forms. (Don’t blame the law librarian for this and please don’t say, “but they had this form in xxx state or country.”  Wherever you go, there you are.  Deal with it.)

7. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Online lawyers and legal websites aren’t always better-than-nothing.  They are not always accurate, reliable, or cheaper than doing the work yourself at the law library or hiring a local attorney. Do your homework on how to hire a lawyer and check on that lawyer's license.

8. Paralegals are not attorneys .  Paralegals cannot advise you on your legal options, on what the law says, or on how to draft or fill in a form.  Only attorneys can.  And then there are those pesky unauthorized practice of law problems.  Take them very seriously; those rules are there to protect you.  Yes, they are there to protect lawyers, too, but they protect you first.

9. The best pro se litigants usually consult lawyers, often early in their cases and sometimes throughout litigation.  That is how some of them become really good pro se litigants who win their cases.  (If you do your research and your record-keeping, many lawyers will be happy to help out by answering specific questions, without charge or sometimes even for the cost of lunch if you are courteous, respectful, and to-the-point – and have good table manners. (Please don’t stiff the lawyer with the check.  Very bad karma, juju, whatever.))

FBI Mortgage Fraud Website

As if homeowners didn’t have enough to worry about, we now need the FBI to step in with a Mortgage Fraud website.

Thank you to the Gallaher Law Library (at the University of Washington Law School) blog post alerting us to this FBI website.

Researching Commercial Leases in Oregon

We get questions about commercial leases mostly from attorneys, but occasionally from property owners, real estate investors, and small businesses.

Here is some research advice:

1) As of today, there is no Oregon legal treatise written specifically on commercial leases.  There are separate real estate and Oregon business treatises that will address the subject to varying degrees.  Many of these materials are in print and in the OSB BarBooks database, both of which you may find in many (but not all) Oregon law libraries.

2) There have been a few Continuing Legal Education (CLE) course books printed, but none that I’ve seen in the past several years by the Oregon State Bar, Oregon Law Institute, or the Multnomah Bar Association.  Non-Oregon publisher CLE vendors do present programs on commercial leases.

In order to find past programs, use the OSB MCLE Database.  You can search the keywords commercial lease.  You can also limit by city if you get too many hits.  Portland is a good limiter that doesn’t limit too much (sometimes a good thing – sometimes not), but CLE programs are given in other cities.

3) It looks as though the OSB is scheduling some commercial real estate programs over the next few months. You can find details at their CLE website. If you can’t find what you need, phone them to ask.

4) OSB CLE: “Drafting a Commercial Lease,” March 17, 2000.

5) Oregon Law Institute (OLI), Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, also schedules course on commercial leases.  There were some back in 2001: "Three Half-Day Programs on Commercial Real Estate Issues”:

May 11, 2001: "Commercial Real Estate from the Ground Up"

June 8, 2001: "Leasing 101: The Fundamentals"

June 8, 2001: "Today's Hottest Topics in Leasing"

6) Check with large law libraries for commercial real estate treatises (or databases) and for CLE materials from Oregon and non-Oregon CLE vendors.  You can search law school library catalogs online.  You can search most state law library catalogs online.  Several publishers and organizations have print and online commercial lease publications, including but not limited to the following:

Center for Commercial Real Estate

Vendome Group

Thomson-Reuters-West

Reed Elsevier Legal

7) You will also need to research the specific subject the usual way: statutes, case law, treatises, forms books, and monographs on commercial leases, Oregon case law and statutes, and consultation with Oregon attorneys.

Oregon Jury Instruction Error: Murder Conviction Reversed

One of many things that pro se (aka self-represented) litigants have a difficult time learning is that even if you read the laws, the rules, the cases, and the jury instructions, you still can’t predict the outcome of your case.

Many people want black and white rules and think there is a simple answer to, for example, the question “what is the statute of limitations on x ?”  They also think that if the statute says x and y, then x and y are The Law.

Lawyers, and law librarians, are faced every day with someone, statute book and statute in hand, asking “what does this mean?”  Who knows?  We can respond “ask the Legislature – they wrote the statute,” but in all seriousness, they often don’t have a clue either.  They certainly don’t know how a judge will interpret the statute. Or how the next judge will, or the appellate court …. 

There is also the immutable Law of Unintended Consequences.  Every solution has a problem.

So, we all do the best we can and cross our fingers that Justice will prevail.  Sometimes it does and sometimes not.  Then the Legislature has another go at re-writing the law.  Then the cycle continues….

Here in an example: Oregon V. Lopez-Minjarez (SC S059045):

Excerpt:

"Linder, J.

We allowed review in this case to consider whether a uniform criminal jury instruction on aiding and abetting correctly states Oregon law. As did the Court of Appeals, we conclude that it does not. We further conclude, as did the Court of Appeals, that giving the instruction was prejudicial in this case. We differ, however, in our determination of which crimes were potentially affected by the instructional error. Consequently, we affirm in part and reverse in part the decision of the Court of Appeals, we reverse the judgment of the circuit court, and we remand for further proceedings....

….

In sum, we conclude the uniform instruction at issue here, Uniform Criminal Jury Instruction 1051, incorrectly advises that a defendant can be criminally responsible for any other crime that is a natural and probable consequence of a crime that a defendant aided in committing. It was error for the trial court to give that instruction. We further conclude that the error prejudiced defendant on his convictions for assault, felony murder, and aggravated murder, and we therefore reverse those convictions…." (Link to full opinion.)

Oregon V. Lopez-Minjarez (SC S059045)

Oregon Appellate Court Opinions

Oregon Judicial Department

New Legal Research Guide - Consumer Law

The Washington County Law Library has a new legal research guide on consumer law.  You can find all of the library's legal research guides on the Subject Guides page and in the Document Index.  The What's New page is also a good source for new legal research guides and library projects.

In Oregon consumer protection law news, although the 2011 bill banning certain products containing bisphenol A (BPA) failed in the Oregon Legislature, Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen (along with Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman) wants to try his luck with a county-wide ban of some products containing BPA. 

According to the bill's summary,  Senate Bill 695 would have created an "unlawful practice of manufacturing, distributing, selling or offering for sale child's beverage container or reusable bottle made or lined with bisphenol A or replacement material that is carcinogenic or is reproductive toxicant...Requires Oregon Health Authority to approve and obtain for Women, Infants and Children Program infant formula contained only in containers that do not leach into formula certain amounts of bisphenol A or are not made with replacement material that is carcinogenic or is reproductive toxicant."  The bill would also have created the Oregon BPA-Free Advisory Group.  SB 695 passed the Senate but died in the House Energy, Environment and Water committee.

For more information on the possible BPA ban in Multnomah County see Steve Law's August 25, 2011 story "A BPA-free county?" in the Portland Tribune and Beth Slovic's August 12, 2011 story "Jeff Cogen and Dan Saltzman consider Multnomah County ban on BPA: Portland City Hall roundup" in the Oregonian.  More information on BPA and its possible health risks can be found at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' website and at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's website.

Read the Whole Screen: You’re Never too “Experienced” for More Training

This is true whether you climb mountains or research the law.  How many times do you read a news report about a tragedy on a mountain where the climber, hiker, skier is described as “experienced.”

How about those Facebook and Twitter meltdowns with people, quite old enough to be considered “experienced” by any measure, who seem not to have read the whole screen, literally and figuratively speaking.

This is a rather roundabout way of saying, we’re never too old to learn new tricks, to learn from young and old, and to jump at any chance to learn or refresh our skills, whether they are computer, notary public, search engine, or database searching skills.

“Experience” can go only so far if we don’t keep our skills up to date, and practice, practice, practice.

Here’s an example of something most of us (me!) need to be reminded:

READ THE WHOLE SCREEN

When visiting a website for the first time or even for the 100^th time, it’s really important to READ THE WHOLE SCREEN.

I’m so guilty of this myself.  A favorite Multnomah County Library Assistant was telling me about a training program that she and a librarian colleague give to public service library staff members.  The class is several hours long and the more she described it the more I thought, “wow, I could use that!”  One of the most important, and simplest, things they teach and demonstrate is to READ THE WHOLE SCREEN.

Try this out.  You’ll be amazed what you find.

To Google is Human, to “Date Other Search Engines” Divine

Mary Ellen Bates (InfoTip) Summer/August 2011 post, “Still Using Google?” gives you a summary of the Hitwise study on searcher and search patterns.

You can also visit a list of Search Engines, Wikipedia's list, and this search engine list for even more search engine explorations.

Bicycles on Sidewalks: Oregon Laws

Are you allowed to ride your bicycle on that sidewalk?

Did you just get run over by a bicycle while you were walking on the sidewalk?  Do you wonder if that bicycle should even be on that sidewalk?

You need to look at your local ordinances first – or call your local elected officials – they write the laws.  For some of us, our favorite bicycling, teaching, blogging, and writing lawyer, Ray Thomas, has done a lot of the legal research.

I can’t tell from the webpage how recently the information was updated, so double-check with your current ordinances, but this is a great starting place:

Visit his webpage, Bicycles on Sidewalks.

Rocket Lawyer, Google, and the Practice of Law in the 21st Century

You can spend your entire vacation catching up on how the practice of law has changed over the past few years, or, you can read a quick and dirty summary at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog in their 8/22/11 post:

Legal Markets Fall in Classic Pincer Movement

A librarian's prescription for what ails you?

You can still read millions of words in lawyer blogs, bar association websites, blogs, newsletters, and journals about the fast, fast changing legal profession, but take a break first, take a vacation, and read a good book or two, on an e-reader or in print, on something other than law!  Philosophy, science, history, love, travel, humor, mystery, or whatever takes your fancy.

Nanny Spam Scam

I got one of those Nanny-scam email messages.  You know the ones:

"My name is xx, I need a babysitter for my twins for our next holiday. This will be for next month from 10th September 2011 to 30 September 2011. Please kindly state your price if you accept to do it. Kindly reply to xxx@domain.com"

As much as we would like to respond with a “you can’t afford me” or “$1,000” an hour you kindly kinda scamming spammer,” I recommend you either delete it or report it, if you want.

You can contact the Oregon DOJ Consumer Hotline (or your own state's Department of Justice or other Consumer Protection agency) to find out if they want to know about these types of scam-spams or you can report it to Nanny Scams or you can delete, delete, delete and stay vigilant.

Oregon Vehicle Repair Shop Legislation: Estimates Required, But When?

Back in 2009, I blogged:

Does your car repair shop give you an estimate before making repairs? (1/23/09)

The other day, someone asked what happened with that bill.  It turned out to be a little bit of a research exercise to find out the new statute number.  We could easily find out that the bill became law and could easily find the Session Law number.  But finding the new ORS cites was a bit of an Legal Research Adventure. 

It was fairly straightforward to do the search in print sources, using Tables and the Oregon Laws volumes, and could also have been done online, assuming you knew what you were looking for, but, well, read on:

Using the information at the Oregon Legislature’s website:

The bill, 2009 HB 2268, stated that it was amending 646.608:

“2009 HB 2268, Chapter 133, (2009 Laws): Effective date January 1, 2010:

An act: Relating to requirements for customer authorization of motor vehicle repairs; creating new provisions; and amending ORS 646.608.”

However, remember that the bill created "new provisions" and amended ORS 646.608.  Where were those new provisions?

Clever little law librarians that we are, we tracked down the Tables volume of the ORS, where we discovered that the new law was codified in ORS 646A.480 et seq.

Now, suppose you had instead used the ORS Index, assuming you didn’t know about those other research tools.  Ha ha ha ha.  Here’s that journey through the ORS Index:

1. Look up the word “vehicle” in the Index.  Nothing.  We’re sent to “Motor Vehicles.”
2. Look up, under Motor Vehicles: vehicle repair, nothing
3. Then we try under “repairs” – we’re sent to “Garages and Repair Shops”
4. Under Garages and Repair Shops, there is nothing under “vehicle repair” or “repair,” but:
5. We look under the word “Estimate.”
6. Eureka - yay for us!  A perfect match to ORS 646A.480 et seq.

Whew.  Maybe.  Now try reading this law.  Someone had a tough time with their syntax, and I quote:

646A.482:

"(1) A vehicle repair shop shall prepare an estimate of the cost of work the vehicle repair shop proposes to perform on a motor vehicle before beginning the work. The vehicle repair shop not later than before receiving final payment shall give a copy of the estimate, either as a separate document or in the form of an invoice, to the owner or the owner’s designee. The vehicle repair shop shall retain a copy of the estimate. The estimate, at a minimum, must:..."

Huh?  I see trouble ahead – and lawyers or maybe just English teachers.

Many thanks to the person who asked the question in the Comment.

2011 Federal and State Laws Protect Public Benefits from Garnishment

I'll be writing a longer blog post on Garnishment soon, but in the meantime:

The Lane County Legal Services Programs website has posted this information: "New laws protect Social Security, Veterans Benefits and other public benefits from garnishment."

Excerpt:

“… New 2011 federal regulations, which went into effect on May 1, 2011, protect:

• Social Security and SSI
• Veterans benefits
• Federal Railroad retirement benefits and Railroad unemployment and sickness benefits
• Federal Civil Service Retirement System benefits and Federal Employee Retirement System benefits

A new 2011 Oregon law, Senate Bill 926, which went into effect on August 5, 2011, revises Oregon procedures to be consistent with the federal procedures, and protects:

• Public assistance payments from the state of Oregon or an Oregon state agency
• Unemployment Compensation from the state of Oregon or an Oregon state agency
• Payments from a public or private retirement plan
• Workers Compensation
• Black Lung benefits…” (Link to website for full news release.)

Oregon Landlord-Tenant Law: Questions and Resources

Law librarians are asked lots of landlord-tenant questions by public librarians and by law library patrons.  Here is our latest list of contacts:

IF YOU HAVE Oregon Landlord-Tenant Law QUESTIONS:

We BLOG about Oregon landlord-tenant law and on a wide range of related issues: renting to relatives, Landlord School, service animals, renting a room in someone’s house, etc.  Click on the landlord-tenant law tags below or on the right-hand sidebar.

TELEPHONE CONTACTS:

(Please call to find out customer service hours - these hotlines are often staffed by volunteers so don't forget to say "thank you!," which I'm sure you usually say anyway whenever someone helps you out.)

1) Community Alliance of Tenants, Renter’s Rights Hotline: 503-288-0130

2) Legal aid tenant hotlines

a) The Oregon Law Center (OLC) legal aid Tenant Hotline (503-648-7723) serves five counties, Washington, Columbia, Tillamook, Clatsop, and Yamhill). It’s run by the Hillsboro Oregon Law Center.

b) If you live outside these counties:  Legal Aid Service of Oregon (LASO) does not have a state wide tenant hotline at this time. Rather, people have to contact their local office by region.

c) Oregon Law Help has a Directory of legal aid programs.  (If that link breaks, please just go to the homepage for Oregon Law Help and link to the Directory from there.)

3) Fair Housing Council: 503-223-8197

OREGON LANDLORD-TENANT LAWS:

Oregon Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (RLTA) and FED (forcible entry and wrongful detainer laws):

Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS), Title 10, Sections 90, 91, 105 (FED) and PLEASE, PLEASE USE THE ORS INDEX! for all ORS sections that apply in your specific situation.

IF YOU ARE A TENANT and think you might be headed for a dispute or you just want to know more about your rights:

1) Janay Haas's BOOK, "Landlord/Tenant Rights in Oregon,” though out of date, is still excellent.  So don’t throw yours out and if you see one at a used book sale, consider buying it to keep or to donate.

2) Landlord-Tenant info at Legal Aid Services of Oregon (LASO). Click on Housing for most current brochures and information flyers.  Their Landlord-Tenant Law brochure lists resources and contacts.

3) The Oregon State Bar Landlord-Tenant webpage has lots of information and a list of legal aid contacts. 

They also have a lawyer referral service – some landlord-tenant law problems need the attention of a lawyer!

4) Oregon state government website

5) Habitability questions may require other types of research, often starting with your local government’s resources.  That habitability blog post’s link to the Oregon State Bar has broken, so use their new one, which is also noted in the blog post’s Comment.

6) Visit an Oregon law library.  They will have other print-only or on-site-only databases you can use to research your legal problem.

IF YOU’RE A LANDLORD, see this previous blog post on: Becoming a Professional Landlord

Feel free to add a Comment to this blog post if you know about other landlord-tenant legal research resources.

Oregon Civil Process Manual: Service, Writs, $350

I last blogged about the Sheriff’s Civil Process Manual (and writs of assistance) back in 2010, but before we got the 2010 update to the Manual.

The Washington County Law Library does now have the 2010 edition of the Manual.  It’s not online and the CD-ROM costs a cool $350 (yikes!), so not a lot of libraries will have it.  I'm not sure it is worth $350, but it sure does help lawyers, judges, and litigants answer a lot of their service and writ questions - maybe that makes it priceless.

(You can also see my updated "Oregon Legal Research Resources -Not Online" list at our website.  The link is at the bottom of the Oregon Legal Resources webpage.)

New Legal Research Guide - Appeals

The Washington County Law Library has a new legal research guide on appeals, available on our website in a number of places: the What's New page; the Subjects Guide page; and our lovely Document Index.  If you are ever at a loss to find a document on our website, the Document Index page includes every document uploaded to the website.  You can also use the labels on the right-hand sidebar of this blog to find posts about appeals. 

Link Rot Update: Oregon Secretary of State and Legislative Archives

The Oregon Secretary of State updated their website not long ago and now the Archives webpages where you will find Legislative Records has a new URL.

If your own website or Favorites list has the old URL, you might want to update it manually, but the search engines catch up fairly quickly. (We have a lot of research guide and website updating to do ourselves.  Oh boy.)

One’s quixotic search for PURLs (persistent uniform resource locators – see also the Wikipedia article) is foiled again.  It takes research, time, expertise, and money to transition to PURLs and no one has that nowadays so most of us are stuck with link rot.

Learn Basic Website Design Skills at your Public Library

Even if you plan to hire someone to build your business website, it helps to have a general understanding of how a website is created.  How else will you know what to look for when you review resumes and interview job applicants for your website design project?

You can sign up and pay for training classes yourself, and there are some excellent classes available online and at training centers, but wouldn’t it be nice to get a FREE introductory hands-on tutorial with a friendly public library techno-trainer before being thrown into the mysterious and stressful world of bytes, fields, frames, call-outs, HTML, Flash, domain names, URLs, Java, etc.?

I was looking at my own public library’s list of free computer classes and here are some of the many skills you can learn: spreadsheets, creating a basic website, Windows and Web for beginners, word processing, and an HTML lab.

Check out your own public library’s offerings.

Justice Bedsworth is Befuddled by Chinese Legislators and Courtship

California appellate court's Justice Bedsworth tries to stay upbeat about the likelihood of retiring before age 93, while simultaneously trying to understand the war between the sexes in China.  Are they connected?  Stay tuned:

"Jabberwocky, Part Deux," by Justice William W. Bedsworth

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

Free Law Books Online: Findlaw and Nolo

If there is a particular book you want and you know its title, you can check library catalogs or run a web search or ask a law librarian (who have access to this wonderful resource, Svengalis, "Legal Information Buyer's Guide and Reference Manual").

But sometimes you don’t know exactly what you want or even if there are books on the subject you are researching.  In addition to checking your local libraries’ catalogs using keyword and subject searches, run a web search using the words free law books.  You can also check out these:

1) “Findlaw for the Public,” from the University of Washington Law Library’s Gallagher Blog.

2) Free Nolo Press Books Online.  They include Renters Rights, Dog Law, Small Claims Court, and many more are online, FREE, at the Nolo Press website.

Oregon Building Codes: Almost Everything You Need to Know

I first wrote this blog post in 2007 and it's high time for an update:

As you might imagine, libraries get lots of questions about building codes, specifically asking if we have them. The short answer is, no.  (If the answer you get is yes and you need the information for a client, please read on.)

You see, it's next to impossible to keep building codes up to date in a small library, in almost any library for that matter.  But we can refer you to a better source of information. Here's some advice I published a few years ago in a bar association newsletter and it is still good information:

Do you worry that opposing counsel knows more than you do about the building codes pertinent to your case?  Is opposing counsel a former builder or construction expert?  Do you spend teeth gnashing, hair pulling hour upon hour trying to figure out which amendment to the building code is applicable to your situation, and wondering what language the blasted code is written in?

First: remind yourself that you are not alone. Ask 12 lawyers what they know about building codes, and 11 of them will say, “bupkes” (*) If the 12th one knows something, offer lunch, dinner, or your favorite weekend retreat in exchange for information.

Second: Pick up the telephone and call your city's or county's Land Use, Code Enforcement, or Building Services Department and ask to speak to the Code Enforcement officer who would handle your particular situation, and then ask for advice. They are happy to help, have all the codes and their current amendments, and will also have some great stories to tell. Voila!

Third: If you want to know a little about Building Codes here in Oregon:

GENERAL INFORMATION

1) Statutes and regulations originate in the State’s Building Codes Division.

2) The Builders Book website has Oregon building codes for sale.

3) And if you’re wondering why you can’t find most building codes free, online, read Veeck v. SBCCI (293 F3d 791 (2002)), a case out of the 5th Circuit that was denied certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court.

To find Veeck, copy it into Google Scholar and start reading.  Then just copy it into a regular Google search, and read even more.

4) You can find some free building codes at public resource dot org.

BUILDING CODES:

1) Building Code (aka Structural Specialty Code): Structural, Mechanical (HVAC), Electrical (National Electrical Code and NFPA), Plumbing

2) One and Two Family Dwelling

3) Manufactured Dwelling Installation Standards

4) Uniform Fire Code (6 different fire districts in Washington County)

* Bupkes means, inter alia*, “beans” or “nothing” in Yiddish. Alternate spellings: bobkes and bubkes : courtesy of Leo Rosten, in The Joys of Yinglish, 1989.

Oregon Legal Research Materials Not Online or Through Fee-Based Databases Only

I’ve updated my “Oregon Legal Research Resources Not Online or Through Fee-Based Databases Only” PDF grid.

You can find it from each of these web pages:

Washington County Law Library, Library Services

Washington County Law Library, Document Index (title: Not Online)

Researchers may find this grid saves them a little time.

It is Oregon-centric with an abbreviated list of federal legal research materials that are not online.  (It is also A Work in Progress and updates are added as I learn of them.)

Librarians know that not everything is online (and even if that resource you need is online, it may not be official or authenticated). Lawyers know, too. See, e.g. Robert Ambrogi's Law Sites blog post, 5/17/11: "Finding State Court Dockets Online — or Not"

Blast from the past: And, you may remember the Penny Hazelton 1999 survey "How much of your print collection is really on Westlaw or Lexis-Nexis?"  That article was published in 18 LRSQ 3 (1999).