Legal Research

Sansone v Gordon: Medical Marijuana and Concealed Handgun Licenses (CHLs)

Posted on June 03, 2008
Re: Sansone v. Gordon, Washington County (Oregon) Circuit Court Case No. C073809CV?County to appeal decision allowing medical pot users to carry concealed weapons,? Friday, May 30, 2008, by Kurt Eckert:?Next week, Washington County commissioners will consider filing an appeal to lift the haze over defining the right of Oregon medical marijuana users to possess concealed weapons...

Plum Book, Red Book, Blue Book, Pig Book

Posted on June 03, 2008
You?ve heard of the Plum Book, the Red Books, the Blue Books, but have you heard of the Pig Book (no, not this one)? Read on, from beSpacific about the Congressional Pig Book, with a link to the Complete Pork Database.

Oregon Estate Planning Laws: 2007-08 Updates

Posted on June 02, 2008
The latest section newsletter from the Estate Planning and Administration section of the Oregon State Bar (OSB) includes the following articles. (Only past issues are online, but you can contact your nearest law school or county law library (see sidebar for links) and ask to see a copy...

Justice Bedsworth: A Criminal Waste of Space (and the Case of Tunnel Vision)

Posted on June 02, 2008
I bet you thought (again) that I forgot to post about the new Bedsworth, Criminal Waste of Space. You lose. This month?s episode is titled: ?Beds suggests it?s time to get a little help from your friends.?

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Creativity and the Law

Posted on May 30, 2008
Creativity must be the It word of the year - not a bad thing at all See these latest salvos in the creativity push:1) Boley Blogs: The 100 Most Creative Moments in American Law, posted May 23rd, 20082) Ernie the Attorney: Know Your Brain, posted 5/29/083) Laura the Law Librarian: here (see Delgado article) and here and Moneyball (the oh so excellent (funny too!) latest book I?m reading ? and creative baseball team management is THE theme)...

Lawyer Web Page Optimization

Posted on May 30, 2008
Whenever lawyers ask my advice on blogging, I usually refer them to what I call ?real lawyer blogs? (and real lawyer web pages ? yes, ?real lawyers do have web feet? - uh, especially here in Oregon :-).There are a lot of them and many are excellent. (And I?ve blogged about them here and here...

Likely Recount for Oregon Measure 53 (2008)

Posted on May 29, 2008
See Oregonlive story, ?Looks like recount for Measure 53,? by Michelle Cole, Wednesday May 28, 2008, 4:23 PM. (Other Politics and Elections news from Oregonlive.)From the SOS Elections webpage, as of 10:49 a.m., 5/29/08:State Ballot Measure No. 53Amends Constitution: Modifies Provisions Governing Civil Forfeitures Related To Crimes; Permits Use of Proceeds by Law Enforcement...

Good Calories, Bad Calories, and Twinkie Defenses

Posted on May 29, 2008
I?m a big believer in reading widely, from A to Z, from potboiling genre fiction to the turgid Russians (though I do tend to avoid what has been coined, Misery-Lit). (I posted about reading widely here too - especially the Delgado article.)A story in today?s (5/28/08) Willamette Week Murmurs column reminded me again of the value of this reading pattern for lawyers...

Three Varieties of Hardboiled Oregon Lawyer: Kroger, Margolin, and Wax

Posted on May 26, 2008
Three Oregon attorneys have new books out (two reviewed this week in the Oregonian and elsewhere and one on the verge of release):1) John Kroger, ?Convictions.? Oregonian review, ?Oregon AG candidate's book shows zeal as NY prosecutor, ? Sunday, May 25, 2008, by Steve Weinberg...

Oregon Notaries: There is a New Journal Rule: ID Theft Protections

Posted on May 26, 2008
From the Secretary of State?s office, Filing in Oregon dot com:?The Secretary of State has issued a new Oregon Administrative Rule, effective May 1, 2008 OAR 160-100-0210 Information Required to Be Recorded in Notarial Journal. This rule addresses protections for Notaries and the clients they serve, by helping Notaries comply with the Oregon Consumer Identity Theft Protection Act...

Oregon Revised Statute error/correction: 2007 ORS 680.505

Posted on May 23, 2008
The print 2007 ORS has a printing error affecting §ORS 680.505.The online version or the ORS has been corrected. Legislative Counsel has a PDF document with the correct text that can be inserted into the 21-volume print set.In case you were wondering, yes, these things do happen, which is why one should usually take a quick look, or a longer one as the case may be, at the session law, at least in those instances where something doesn?t seem quite right about the code...

Oregon Revised Statutes Copyright Dispute: June 19th Hearing

Posted on May 23, 2008
June 19th, 2008, hearing in Salem, on this copyright dispute. (I last posted about this dispute here.) No details yet about time, where, or who.Letter here (via Public Resource dot org).SCRIBD documents on this matter are located in this Scribd group, also courtesy of Public Resource dot org.

Copyright and Orphan Works: More interesting than you thought!

Posted on May 23, 2008
What are Orphan Works and why does anyone care about them? (No, this is not a post about Charles Dickens and the working orphans who populate his novels. I?m an Our Mutual Friend fan myself ? see here about these digressions. Sorry.)1) ?Orphan works? described here and here...

Oregon Revised Statutes Copyright Dispute: The Copyright Comic Book (and a few more side dishes)

Posted on May 22, 2008
If you are following this dispute (and I last posted about it here), you might want to do a little reading about copyright, the history of commercial and official legal publishing, and vendor neutral citation (yes, all of these are entertwined) ? unless you want to sound ill-informed (or worse) when you Comment about the issue on the various blogs and news sites that are running stories about this dispute...

Oregon Revised Statutes Copyright Dispute: May 22nd Update

Posted on May 22, 2008
Public Resource dot org has created this web page devoted to this dispute (about which I last posted here.)(Among other things, it says ?Kibbitzers welcome.? I thought in this state (Oregon) they were called Kitzhabers?? Oy :-)

Oregon High Court Judges: Productivity, Influence and Independence

Posted on May 21, 2008
Willamette Week?s Murmers this week (5/21/08) notes a recent study (May 2008) titled, ?Which States Have the Best (and worst) High Courts," by Stephen J. Choi, Mitu Gulati, and Eric A. Posner.The WW Murmur links to the report and the official link is from the University of Chicago Law School, Olin Working Paper #405 or Public Law and Legal Theory working paper series #217.

Lawyer Blawgs: Stats, White Papers, and Blog Directories

Posted on May 20, 2008
1) I missed this local event. Beer and Blog?s: Sifting through your traffic stats for value (but I have been to the Green Dragon (half a block away from the Belmont 15 bus stop) :-). The topic is a great idea for an Oregon lawyer blogger gathering.2) Lawyers blogging and marketing ? LawyerCasting? including articles like these:a) How to Avoid Weird Characters in Email Subject Lines,b) Lawyer White Papers: The Top 10 Best Practices,c) and this one, Lawyer Blog DirectoriesThanks to Tom Mighell for his Inter Alia Blawg of the Day service (priceless!), where I found this marketing link and many others.

Rules of the Airwaves: Broadcasting your radio station phone call

Posted on May 20, 2008
Do you ever wonder If There?s a Law about the ?Broadcast of Telephone Conversations?" There is!Excerpt from full report, The Public and Broadcasting: How to Get the Most Service from your Local Station?Broadcast of Telephone Conversations. Before broadcasting a telephone conversation live or recording a telephone conversation for later broadcast, a station must inform any party to the call of its intention to broadcast the conversation...

What's a Homestead Exemption?

Posted on May 20, 2008
Wondering about what homestead exemptions are? (See Steve Duin?s column in May 15th, 2008 Oregonian, Sleeping dogs and the Berkman trial.)Note: Exemptions generally, in the context of debtor-creditor law (bankruptcy, debt collection, etc.) can get very tricky, so if you are more than curious, i...

?Dude, what?s a CMS and how much does a website cost??

Posted on May 20, 2008
These are not ?stupid? questions. Yes, I?m sure there are ?stupid? questions, but they usually come out of my mouth (why don?t people in the sun-belt and the middle-east corner the market on solar energy technology?), not the mouths of people who visit my library...

Legal Notice by Publication

Posted on May 16, 2008
Pro se litigants, and new lawyers, will ask us questions about how to ?publish a legal notice.? Does it have to be in the newspaper? Which newspaper? What does the notice have to say?Here are a few pointers, but as always, you?ll need to do some additional legal research and drafting yourself:1) Oregon Revised Statutes (use index, including but not limited to Chapter 193)2) Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure (use the index for references, including ORCP(F)(b))3) Oregon Public Notice website, from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association and their Legal Notice Publication Laws webpage (very useful, but read the disclaimer ? in fact, you should always read disclaimers)3) ?OSB Civil Pleading and Practice? (print or online at Oregon law libraries ? see sidebar for links)4) As for drafting the notice itself, I recommend you look at published notices to see how they are worded, but don?t assume they are right for your specific circumstances...

Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) Copyright Dispute: May 16th Update

Posted on May 16, 2008
(I last posted about this dispute here.)Ars Technica: Fight shaping up over Oregon state law copyright claim (May 13th) (I?m not too sure about Nate Anderson?s ?Out West? and the ?tumbleweed? references, but we need all the lightness we can get when tempers get hot...

Oregon Revised Statutes Copyright Dispute: May 13th Update

Posted on May 13, 2008
Selected recent (April and May) postings on this dispute, about which I posted previously here :1) Loaded Orygun has a summery posted 5/12/08.2) From ZDNet Government: Oregon says its law is copyright (and a link to the letter with the June 2nd deadline notice from public dot resource) (and other ZDNet posts with Oregon tags)...

Time to Rewrite Your Blawg/Blog?s Description?

Posted on May 11, 2008
I looked at my original blog Oregon Legal Research (OLR) description (aka header) (unchanged since I started blogging in October 2005) and gave a small shudder. I then read through a sampling of my OLR blog posts over the intervening years and wondered, ?what HAS this OLR blog been about anyway??Here is my May 2008 rewrite (leaving room for future rewrites :-):The "Oregon Legal Research" (OLR) blog explores the world through the (decidedly non-linear) mind of an Oregon public law librarian (and guests)...

New Blawgers: What about Comments?

Posted on May 11, 2008
As one of a small, but growing, number of Oregon legal bloggers (aka blawgers), I?m asked often to talk about blogging. (I?ve posted some of what I say here and here and here and here.)It occurred to me that I haven?t blogged for the New Blawger about blog Comments (though I do talk about Comments when I talk to lawyers and librarians about blawging)...

How to Find Oregon Appellate Court Briefs

Posted on May 09, 2008
In self-defense (too many questions taking too long to answer) I created this guide on How to Find Oregon Appellate Court Briefs. (You can see why there were all those questions!)If you have anything to say about the guide, constructive or otherwise (well, maybe not those remarks), please leave a Comment or email my Law Library.

Oregon Revised Statutes Copyright Dispute: May 9th Update

Posted on May 09, 2008
Selected recent postings on this dispute, about which I posted here.1) From ADF Alliance Alert: Oregon threatens over statutes copyright? (with a link to this post at The Volokh Conspiracy (and associated Comments)2) J?s Scratchpad: James Grimmelman: Copyright, Technology, and Access to the Law: Old Problems and New Solutions3) From Lowering the Bar: Oregon Says Its Laws Are Copyrighted, Can't Be Published

The official U.S. Code now has its very own RSS Feed

Posted on May 09, 2008
Law Librarian Blog links us to this story about the Legal Information Institute?s, U.S. Code (U.S.C.), including the RSS feed for official updates to the U.S.C.Not everyone will find this exciting, but law librarians do!

100 Top Web Apps

Posted on May 09, 2008
This 100 Top Web 2.0 Apps may be a more useful list than this one, though the latter has its uses (don?t we all).

Questions People Ask Law Librarians: Round Three

Posted on May 08, 2008
It's time for Round 3 of Questions People Ask at their Local Law Library. The previous Round 2 of Questions was posted March 9th, 2008.As I said then (and will keep saying): Read these questions and ask yourself, what would people do if they didn't have a public law library where they get expert help researching the law or finding referrals to legal services? (Our Disclaimer is at the bottom of this post...

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