Articles Posted in December, 2007

There is no better way to end an old or begin a New Year than a visit with Justice Bedsworth, who takes on Kansas, Nebraska, London, South Korea, France, and Italy. As for London and Nebraska:

“… So, as you can see, there is not much to choose between these two places except that London has part of an ocean protecting it from the maniacal French, while Nebraska is chockablock next to the maniacal Kansans and you pretty much live in constant fear that they might pour across the border at any moment and take your science textbooks away from you. Other than that, I think you could have a great weekend in either place.” (For the Full Beds, go here.)

For Bedsworth fans, a faux Bedsworth-archive (or should I say a faux-archive of Bedsworth 🙂

The Dec 28th lineup of decisions (or from here if that link fails) includes, but is not limited to:

More on the Jordaan M. Clarke v. OHSU (SC S053868) case, with an examination of Article 1, section 10, of the Oregon Constitution.

State v. Shaff (SC S054425), where the Oregon Supreme Court examines Article 1, section 12, of the Oregon Constitution re Miranda warnings and domestic abuse reports (via the pizza driver).

On the heels of my new guide, How to Find a Lawyer in Oregon (I blogged about it here), the Oregon State Bar (OSB) has come out with a 2007 revision of their Fee Agreement Compendium. The compendium has been written for attorneys, but is useful for potential clients too. Visit your local law and public libraries for this and other titles on how to work with lawyers. (Lawyers already have lots of books on how to work with clients 🙂

A lot of legal practice involves investigating who, what, where, when, and why – and that means gathering information on all parties to the case (including one’s own client). Investigating in the 21st century adds a new dimension to what was done in the 20th century (pre-web and especially pre-database and pre-internet). This 12/24/07 PI Buzz post, The Armchair Investigator: Social Media and Teens, gives you a fair idea what you are up against – and I’m speaking primarily to those attorneys who think they don’t need to know what MySpace, Facebook, MyFace, wikiis, CHAT, IM, and all the other Web 2.0 tools, are.

Booknote: As you might have guessed from this post’s Title field, I’m reading Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, which is turning out to be even better and funnier than I imagined or certainly remembered. If you haven’t read it recently or at all, think about doing so. It’s worth it. I haven’t yet (!) seen the movie so can’t compare.

For the legal historians amongst you, this posting from the Law Librarian Blog:

Where is the Legislation That Banned Christmas?

Excerpt:

Willamette Week, in the Score column of 12/26/07, tells us:

“Disabled drivers get a break—for six months, anyway—as the Portland City Council passes on a new state law that revokes certain privileges for people who have disabled parking permits but don’t use wheelchairs (see “Space Odyssey,” WW , Dec. 17, 2007). No luck for any of us, disabled or otherwise, dealing with malfunctioning meters.” (I blogged about it here.)

And here and here are reports from the Oregonian on the Portland City Council meeting about this issue that was held 12/19/07.