The Oregon Legislature has posted a press release of Top Bills Going into Effect January 1, including but not limited to new laws on health care, civil rights, ID theft protections, meth, veterans benefits, and consumer protection.
Other Legislative press releases can be found here.
The City of Gresham has posted information about the Gresham Rental Inspection program, including a copy of the Council Bill 14-07.
The Oregonian ran a story about the new program, “Landlords: the checks are in the code,” by Robin Franzen, on 12/20/07.
On Wed, 12/19/07, Governor Kulongoski named appointed a new Washington County Circuit Court Judge. From the Governor’s press release:
“Governor Ted Kulongoski today announced his appointment of Keith Rogers to the Washington County Circuit Court. Judge Rogers will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Tim Alexander, effective December 31, 2007. …”
This is an excellent research tool from the staff at the University of Oregon Document Center for those who need to search across all Oregon local government web sites.
From Tom Stave of the U of O:
“Open the UO Libraries’ “Planning” research guide and click on the Web Resources jump link.
We (meaning my stupendous library assistants and I) have finally released a copy of our How to Find a Lawyer in Oregon – in 6 Easy Steps. (If this direct link to the PDF doesn’t work, try from my library’s hompage, and click on the Legal Research Resources Overview tab.)
This guide started out around 3 pages and we cut, and cut, and cut (no one wants to read 3 pages on finding a lawyer!), so maybe it is too bare bones now. But give it a try and send along suggestions we’ll consider for a future update.
And for Washington County residents (lots of Mult Co listings too), the 2008 Community Action Find guide is out too. You can search it online at their excellent database, but my library and others keep a print copy handy. It is a fabulous resource and complement to our How to Find a Lawyer guide.
The 2007 Oregon Family Fairness Act * is a good excuse to give you a mini-primer on how to find Oregon laws, when the new statutes are about to be published, even though everyone thinks they should already be out and can’t figure out why they can’t be found. (I could explain the lengthy and laborious process of codification to you, but you’d fall asleep, so I won’t.)
As you try and follow the links below, remember that direct links to certain legislative pages just aren’t always possible. You have to go to a “home” page and then drill down. (Yes, very sad, but you have to take that up with your State Senators and Representatives.)
Full speed ahead:
Excerpt from the Law Librarian blog post:
“LawCrossing features the largest collection of active legal jobs in the world, including more than 70,000 positions at top law firms, corporations, public interest organizations, and government offices throughout the U.S. A free job search function is provided on the website’s front page as is legal news and other useful information resources.
Launched in July 2003, LawCrossing is a brainchild of CEO A. Harrison Barnes, who also founded the hugely successful parent company of LawCrossing, Juriscape, in 2000. The very popular JD2B is another website published by the Company and one I have frequently recommended to law students….”
PI Buzz has a post about searching old U.S. Passport databases:
Excerpt from the PI Buzz post:
“U.S. Passport Applications 1795-1925 have been collected together into one database that can be searched by name or date and other criteria. Ancestry.com has assembled this from U.S. government sources The images of original applications may include photographs, physical descriptions, country of origin, place of residence, travel companions, marriage status and affidavits of relatives.
Search the FamilySearch.org index of international birth, death and marriage records collected by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ProGenealogists collect links to international vital records that are searchable in online databases.”
There was a time when you had to beg, borrow, or steal (I didn’t say that) titles like this, Benchbook for U.S. District Court Judges (5th edition, 2007). Now, it’s an open source new world.
Thanks to the excellent Law Librarian Blog for the tip.
‘Aux Armes, Citoyens!:’ Time for Law Schools to Lead the Movement for Free and Open Access to the Law, by Ian Gallacher, published here.
From the article’s abstract:
“This article is a manifesto that outlines the principles of the open access to legal information movement and sounds a call to action for law schools to become leaders in that movement. … . After considering the need for open access to the law for pro se litigants, scholars from outside the legal academy, and practicing lawyers, after considering and rejecting courts and legislators as viable guarantors of open access, … the article concludes that America’s law schools have both the opportunity and obligation to provide an alternative to the commercial legal information sites and make America’s law freely available to all. The article ends with a series of proposed principles that might guide such an open-access legal information site.”
Oregon Legal Research Blog