Articles Posted in October, 2006

Darwin Online: I can usually find a law library connection to just about anything within, oh, say 20 seconds, but this one took about 5 seconds. Darwin, Scopes, First amendment, intelligent design, lawsuits, … Need I say more?

Legally Speaking: Thursday (10/26/06) on Legally Speaking, a TVCTV cable access program, our host, Jim Hilborn, welcomes back Terry Rilling, who was on the program last month. Terry is running for election. Jenn Bascom, Clackamas County Law Librarian, and I, the Washington County Law Librarian, will appear for a few minutes for our Public Law Librarian Interlude. Legally Speaking is a call-in program that airs live on the 4th Thursday of the month, from 8-9 p.m., out of Beaverton, Oregon and is rebroadcast at different times throughout the month on Portland metro-area cable access channels.

Bills of Attainder: I would bet that no more than 1 out of 23 people (yes, I made that up – the 23 is probably low) know what a bill of attainder is, as in “[n]o bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed” from Article 1, Sections 9 & 10, of the U.S. Constitution. Don’t feel bad. It’s never too late to learn. Enter “bill of attainder constitution” into your search engine of choice (I’m recommending Dogpile.com today, but Ask.com is always good too), and read a few of the entries, paying attention to who is writing them (as you always do, don’t you, please – or limit yourself to dot gov sites). Try this one, and this one, and this one, among others. Interesting, isn’t it. Now, if some 15 year old high-school student doing a survey came up to you on the street and asked you what a bill of attainder was, you’d be ready to show them how smart you are. Doesn’t that feel good? (Not as good as if that young person offered you a free coupon for ice cream, but almost.)

News, and News, and News of the Day:

Today’s Oregonian, 10/20/06, was chock full of legal news. Not everyone gets to read it from cover to cover (I have a VERY long Trimet commute), but take a look at the newspaper today if you get a chance. I’ll try and link here to the online stories, but with Oregonlive, that is not always a fruitful endeavor, so maybe you should just start from their Front Page. If you don’t read newspapers, remember the wise words from The Wonkette, “… for the love of god, do not use us as your primary news source….” The same sentiment can be applied to the Daily Show. Your mother also knew that you can’t live on chewing gum alone.

Onward with today’s news:

DUI Website: This DUI website is pretty amazing – gotta love the web and the designers and content managers who have learned so much over the years. I found this link through Cornell’s InSite, a weekly current awareness service (celebrating their 10th anniversary!).

ABA Family Advocate and Personal Photos: Our Fall 2006 issue of the ABA Section of Family Law “Family Advocate” arrived today. The topic is “Marketing Your Family Law Practice.” There is so much good stuff packed in this issue, but unless I missed it (quite possible) the one thing missing was any mention of the personal photos on your web site.

So, before you put a photo of yourself on your web site (or in any of your brochures or professional publications, hard copy or otherwise), please, please, please, get an honest opinion on whether or not it’s a good likeness of you and, please, whether or not you look daft, silly, sober, intimidating (do you want to look intimidating?), as if the photo is a mug shot, etc. And please ask people of different ages, sexes, professions, etc., each of whom could represent potential clients. In other words, do you look like the kind of lawyer the clients you want would hire? (Forgive the awkward sentence, but you know what I mean 🙂

As you’ve probably deduced, I’ve seen some bad photos of some truly terrific attorneys. (No, I’m not going to get myself in trouble by linking to them, but you know because you’ve seen them too.)

Prison Libraries: We get questions about prison libraries from librarians, library staff, and from inmates. Jessamyn has a posting at her Librarians.net for those who might be interested in prison librarianship as a profession.

Consumer Law & Debit Cards: Consumer Reports, November 2006 issue, has an excellent article on Debit Cards. I keep up with a lot of this stuff, but I learned a couple of new things from this article. It’s on page, 57 in the paper edition (which I subscribe to and you can probably also see at your local public library online or in print). You can also read it free (thank you Consumer Reports!) on their web site, here. If this direct link doesn’t work right for you, link to Consumer Reports and follow the Personal Finance links to an alphabetical list of articles, and look for one called “Debit Cards.” The article is called, “Debit Cards, Going Cashless, not Clueless.”

Press Conference on Net Neutrality at Powell’s: U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden will speak about Network Neutrality and the fight in Congress over the future of the Internet at a press conference on Wednesday in Portland. He’ll be joined by local business owners and concerned citizens, who will deliver more than 20,000 petitions from Oregon residents supporting Net Neutrality — the longstanding principle that ensures all Web sites and services are treated equally.

WHAT: Press Conference on “The Internet at Risk”
WHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 18, 11:15 a.m.
WHERE: Powell’s Books, 1005 W. Burnside, Portland
WHO: U.S. Senator Ron Wyden
Michael Powell, Powell’s Books
Alan Davidson, Google
Rich Bader, EasyStreet Online Services
Laura Etherton, OSPIRG
Bruce Fife, American Federation of Musicians and Oregon Alliance to Reform Media

FRIDAY THE 13TH ROUNDUP:

RSS in Law Firms, Courtroom Animation, etc.: Not all of you check Boley Blogs, but it’s worth it. The past couple of weeks have had links to great posts on uses for RSS in law firms, a history of courtroom animation, and more.

Zimmerman’s Legal Research Guide: Most law librarians know about Zimmerman’s Research Guide, which was around well before Lexis/Nexis picked it up, but not many other people do. It’s extremely useful and worth adding to your list of basic legal reference tools.