Articles Posted in August, 2007

The Oregon Professional Liability Fund, an amazing resource for members of the Oregon State Bar, has this article, Construction Lien Traps and Pitfalls, in its August 2007 issue of In Brief. The article, and the publication, is written for attorneys but has useful tips for anyone who wants or needs to record a construction lien.

If you are not an attorney and want more information on construction liens, visit your local public law library (we can give you contact information for your own county’s law library), the Construction Contractors Board (here and here) and the Oregon State Bar public information website.

This isn’t from Oregon, but concerns legal research. A paralegal in Muncie Indiana, who is accused of drug charges, has been granted access LexisNexis to prepare his defense.

It looks like the request came because the defendant said the legal library in the jail was not up to date.

While on vacation I went to the phenomenal Body Worlds exhibit at OMSI (and the marvelous Rembrandt exhibit at the Portland Art Museum, but that’s another story). And if you were wondering about a legal research connection, well, look no further. Contract law abounds when it comes to organ (or whole body) donation.

How to donate your body for plastination: See the Body World home page for link or here.

How to donate your organs in Oregon (and we are top of the charts when it comes to organ donations! (yes, me too)): Donate Life Northwest.

While Laura is off and out, I’ve come out of the lurker’s shadows to keep the blog home fires burning. Today, a note on commas and legal writing.

While trying to find justification for uses of the comma in web copy without resorting to ranting and raving, I started with my old trusty print copy of the Chicago Manual of Style. I found the answer I needed, but I couldn’t resist checking the Web for other examples, and ran across the Q & A section of the Manual’s website, which has a few choice items on commas, including:

HELP! I’m arguing with a contract lawyer over this sentence which points to a great clip on a facet of plain language and the Law, “Down with Provided That” from the Michigan Bar Journal. Lawyers fall prey to the same errors and obfuscations that ordinary mortals do, but I think it’s safe to say that their slips of the comma may effect the wallet more than others.

The San Mateo County Law Library is holding a seminar for people to prepare for the care of their love ones (pets) after a death in the family.

Pets are not allowed at the event.

I would also like to thank Laura for allowing me to guest blog while she is away on vacation, I hope I can keep the blog up to her same high standards.

We now break into our regularly scheduled legal research program for a message from our county’s entertainment center, without which we would be much duller creatures.

This weekend in Washington County, Oregon, and both well worth a visit (and one might power you for the other), are:

The Elephant Garlic Festival!! Go to funstinks dot com.

State Senator Bill Morrisette (D-Springfield), had a letter in today’s (8/9/07) print Oregonian reminding everyone that the Oregon Prescription Drug Program (OPDP) benefits are available to ALL Oregonians, even if you are already covered by an existing policy. From Senator Morrisette’s web site (the Oregonian letter is too deeply buried for me to find it in the available time):

“With the passage of my Senate Bill 362, all Oregonians are now eligible to receive the benefits of the Oregon Prescription Drug Program. The program was created as a result of a bill I co-sponsored in the 2003 session and has steadily been enlarged since then through bills and initiative measures I sponsored.

Anyone can sign up to receive a card at www.opdp.org and use it to receive discounts whenever buying prescription drugs. Even if you have drug coverage with your health care insurance or the Medicare Plan D, you can check with your pharmacist to see if the OPDP card will give you a larger discount on any prescription or carry you through the notorious Plan D “donut hole” of federal non-coverage.”

Visit the OPDP website for more information or contact your own Oregon state representative or senator, who would also be able to tell you about this program. Your state elected officials are a terrific source of information about state laws and new and proposed legislation.

My latest favorite book (after Harry Potter, which I’ve been trying to read at a civilized pace – luckily I’m finding reading about George Mason equally appealing (such a wonk I am)) is “What is Your Dangerous Idea,” by John Brockman, based on postings at the Edge dot com (see also Edge’s World Question Center). I’d probably read almost anything that had an introduction by Steven Pinker, so if you are the same, know that you won’t go wrong here.

The other wonderful thing about reading Dangerous Idea is that it starts one thinking about one’s own dangerous ideas. Even librarians have dangerous ideas – ideas that could make other librarians roar (or laugh, such as these bibliomulas (via the 8/7/07 Library Link of the Day)). One of these days … well, one of these days.

In any event, some of our locals have their own dangerous ideas. Steve Duin, in Tuesday’s Oregonian (8/7/08), talks about political campaign dangerous ideas in “Still Mad as Hell, and Still Taking It.” And on Monday (8/6/07), Peter Schoonmaker and Rick Michaelson wrote in the Oregonian (8/4/07) a piece on dangerous transportation ideas, Portland Needs its own CIA – of Ideas.