Articles Posted in December, 2007

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.”

HALT has a new online booklet, Guardians and Guardianships: A Primer.

Oregon-specific guardianship resources can be found at the Oregon State Bar (OSB), Legal Aid Services of Oregon (LASO), and at your local county law library (OCCLL).

What happens when 21 law students analyze and redraft a sample company contract? Did blood flow? Did heads roll? Did anyone roll over? Read the story (by Ken Adams) of a legal writing instructor’s contract-drafting exercise with his students:

A Report on the Penn Law 2007 Contract-Redrafting Project

“Each semester that I teach, I inflict a series of drafting assignments on students in my Penn Law contract drafting class. This semester, the final assignment—the grand climax!—consisted of redrafting the first five pages of a master services agreement submitted to me by a major financial-services company in response to this invitation I posted on this blog. The company—let’s call it Acme—uses this contract as the template for its company-wide services procurement….”

How do you pick a good URL? One place to start is Good URL, Bad URL. (A sense of humor is always appreciated.) Worst URLs, additional URL resources, and Best Practices are included.

(There are lots of blogs, websites, and print business writers willing to tell you how to name your domain and optimize your web presence (I like to start here). Go to libraries and search engines to find them. (Oh, and good content helps, too.)

Portland is apparently second to Austin in blogging. I saw the story in the Oregonian (12/13/07), but had to look to other stories to find out “according to whom.” The Whom is apparently, Scarborough Research, which has lots to say about other subjects, including hybrid owners, organic food consumers, and eBay visitors.