Articles Posted in January, 2006

“Giving Legal Research Assignments to Others”: If you give research assignments to others and expect them to be done efficiently and thoroughly, thus saving everyone time, money and aggravation, here’s some excellent advice. (Thanks to a University of Washington law librarian for the tip!)

OSB Casemaker: I still meet Oregon attorneys who don’t know much about Casemaker, the legal research database the OSB makes available to all member attorneys. It’s free too – to Oregon attorneys that is. (In Washington State the bar also gives its law librarians passwords so they can help out the attorneys using Casemaker. Maybe Oregon attorneys are beyond help 🙂 Casemaker is a database of state and federal primary law and more. Did I say it’s free? You’d be crazy not to use it – or rolling in cash. Use it even if you have what you think are “flat rate” Lexis or Westlaw (together known as Wexis) accounts. In a nutshell, your next year’s Wexis “flat rate” is based on this year’s use, so keep your use of these great full-service databases to a minimum. If you can find the document you need quickly and easily on another, free or cheap, database, do it. Save Wexis for when you really need it. This is free advice from a Law Librarian. Listen to her. Link to Casemaker from the OSB web site.

Limited Scope Legal Assistance: If you ever assist pro se patrons, did you know that the ABA, “Handbook on Limited Scope Legal Assistance” has lots of information and forms such as sample retainer agreements and checklists for apportioning tasks? You can find a copy of this report of the ABA Section of Litigation at the Modest Means Task Force home page. For an interesting blog post on a closely related subject, see MyShingle, posting on 1/25, about attorneys and “cut rate” service. Clearly there is a problem looking for a solution.

Recycled ORS: I’m recycling superceded ORSs again this year. They are a better value than you think. Armed with the Sections Affected table (aka Amend and Repeal tables) in the 2005 ORS (online and in print, due out in Feb 2006), you can make good use of that 2003 ORS without too much worry, though a little worry is always wise. Check online with the 2005 version before making any commitments. (link: http://www.leg.state.or.us/bills_laws/)

Search Engines: If you use multiple research resources for researching the law, why not do the same when searching the web? If you’re a one-horse searcher (Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.), give the nag a rest. For quick and dirty searching it makes sense to use the search engine you know best, but if you need to search widely for something hard-to-find, be creative. Robert Ambrogi reminded me of this when he posted about Scroogle (on 1/21), which of course leads one to GoogleWatch. So don’t get into a research rut. You don’t let Thomson/West or MatthewBender/Lexis do all your research for you – do you? Pretend the web is like a wonderful old bookstore or big library, the kind where you used to spend hours just wandering around, finding gold in every nook and cranny.

Bankruptcy and Family Law: If you get a request for a recent (2005) Oregon bankruptcy case with family law issues, it is possibly this one: “Judge Perris recently issued a decision in a bankruptcy case that has a good discussion of whether a divorce settlement entered into on the eve of bankruptcy constitutes a fraudulent transfer under bankruptcy law and how to value the potential fraudulent transfer claim against the ex-spouse in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.” In re Dale Gordon, August 31, 2005, (Case No. 04-38864-elp13) and can be found here and on Wexis (law librarian shorthand for Westlaw or Lexis). OLI also presented a “Bankruptcy Law for Family Law Practitioners” program in 2004. We have a copy of the course materials and so might other county law libraries around the state.

MILITARY STATUS VERIFICATION: I posted this in October but have had requests to repost it: If you need to verify non-military status for the purpose of complying with new SMCRA (aka SCRA – these are the amendments to the Soldier and Sailor Civil Relief Act of 1940), here is one place to go if you have a Social Security number. If you don’t have a SS#, here is a list of addresses for 5 branches of the military. Additional information about SCRA (Servicemember Civil Relief Act) can be found at the ABA web site, here. Let me know if you find other useful sources of this information. Also, the ABA is coming out with their military divorce handbook soon.

New Solo Practitioner Blog: This is new only to me. It has been around since April 2005. Might be worth following. Live dangerously and try it out.

Life-Work in the Balance: A billing tool for attorneys. Is this scary or what? Thanks to Stark County Law Library and The Practice for the links.

Oregon Judges Criminal Benchbook: The “OJD Judges Criminal Benchbook 2005” is now online at the OJD website, here. Be warned – it is 1,100 pages, PDF. We’re going to ask if they can come up with alternative viewing and searching options. But it is still good to have the update.