Articles Posted in June, 2006

Judicial Appearance of Impropriety?: The Hermistan Herald has this story (dated June 9th) on their newspaper’s web page about whether or not the judges who endorsed a candidate for election to the Circuit Court should recuse themselves in a particular case.

Brace Yourself Bridget: While reading the latest issue of “Oregon Litigation & Arbitration Reports” from Jury Verdicts Northwest, I’m struck (no pun intended) yet again by the number of Rear End Collisions reported on. This month (May), it was 7 out of 20 of the cases reported on. Slow down and back off folks.

Public Perceptions of the Bar: For Steve Duin’s impression of State Bar members and the issue of Elimination of Bias/Diversity training, see his column in today’s (6/13/06) Oregonian.

Lawyer Research Skills: Two stories beSpacific linked to June 11th might make you think a bit and take stock of your own legal research skills. One, a survey of law library benchmarks, includes this: ‘Internet search skills of attorneys: Most librarians in the sample characterized the internet search skills of the attorneys in their organizations as “Average” but only a shade more than 17% considered them “Proficient” or “Highly Proficient.”‘ Academic, law firm, and public law librarians were part of the study.

The other story, by Dahlia Lithwick in the American Lawyer, reminds us all that you ignore the law bloggers (aka blawgers) at great peril. If this, “Douglas Berman-whose blog, Sentencing Law and Policy, has now been cited in 21 judicial opinions-is tracking the fallout from the Supreme Court’s sentencing guidelines cases,” doesn’t open your eyes, the rest of her article will.

McGaughey on Oregon Corporate Law: The new edition of Robert McGaughey’s “Oregon Corporate Law Handbook” is out. You can order it from his web site, here.

Death Indexes: Here is a nice gateway to state death databases and of course the SSDI. Oh, and there is also this.

Military Divorce Handbook: The ABA’s “Military Divorce Handbook”, by Mark Sullivan, is finally out.

Receipts, Money back, and Security: “Have you ever been to a retail store and seen this sign on the register: “Your purchase free if you don’t get a receipt”? You almost certainly didn’t see it in an expensive or high-end store.” This June 1st posting from Bruce Schneier’s blog (a source of never-ending wonder and conversation) is worth reading and thinking about – and maybe applying to other situations. And as always, read the comments too.