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For those who think that the wheels of (in)justice (as the case may be) grind slowly, here’s an example. (And for those of you with small children in your lives, think about those bus wheels going round and round, round and round, round and round, …. For the rest of us, think of Jarndyce vs. Jardyce or sometimes this, where wisdom and mirth meet.)

From: Portland Oregon Personal Injury and Class Action blog: Oregon Comcast Late Fee Class Action Certified

Excerpt: “No one said it would be quick or easy, and no one was right on both counts.

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Forget Eat, Pray, Love or Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. My mantra is fast becoming:

Think, Research, Listen, Speak.

The arguments, legal, profound, profane, insane, in Portland, Oregon over naming a street after Cesar Chavez reminds me how quickly many of us are to speak (or comment on blogs) before doing the research. Most important issues in life, whether personal, professional, legal or culinary, are not simple (see, e.g., Jonah Leher’s, How We Decide).

In California (and at least 7 other states), Cesar Chavez Day is a state holiday today. To get to holiday status, one must argue the point, seemingly endlessly, but eventually the Legislature and the Governor have to decide. And sometimes one then pushes on to National Holiday status.

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Welcoming a renter into your home is a serious matter, whether that person is a friend, family member, or stranger. Becoming a tenant in someone’s home is equally serious. Make sure there is a lease.

Do you want to draft a Lease of Your Own?

1) There are “fill in the blank” forms, online and in print, but … there is no such thing as a free lunch, nor a Get Rid of a Bad Tenant (or escape a bad landlord) Free card. Use the online forms, but Caveat Emptor – and read on ….

2) Make sure you read about Oregon landlord-tenant law, Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS). The Residential Landlord-Tenant Act (RLTA) is a complex tangle of rights, obligations, and protections.

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Some law books just look as if they’d be more fun to read than others:

Law and Magic, by Christine A. Corcos

“…Topics include alchemy in fifteenth-century England, a discussion of how a courtroom is like a magic show, stage hypnotism and the law, Scottish witchcraft trials in the eighteenth century, the question of whether stage magicians can look to intellectual property to protect their rights, tarot card readings and the First Amendment, and an analysis of whether a magician can be qualified as an expert witness under the Federal Rules of Evidence…” (link to publisher website)

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Public law librarians frequently (sometimes it seems daily) get the question: Where can I find a Power of Attorney form (and preferably one online)?

Please don’t try to short circuit this important, critical, legal protection. Here’s a sample response to the question:

I don’t meant to sound lawyerly or librarian-ly(?), but it depends on what you mean by “standard form,” what kind of power is being granted, who the parties are, what state everyone lives in, etc.

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Gallagher Blogs reports on the migration of federal information from GPO Access to FDsys:

You might already be familiar with GPO Access, the website of the U.S. Government Printing Office, which provides free electronic access to the official documents of all three branches of the federal government. Documents available on GPO Access include the U.S. Code, congressional bills, legislative history documents, Supreme Court decisions, budgets, and reports.

On January 19, 2009, the GPO publicly launched its next-generation digital information system, FDsys, and started moving the documents on GPO Access to FDSys….” (link to full post)

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Our neighbors to the north (Washington) and south (California) are often a step or two ahead of us when it comes to legal information and legal service to the people. (We are ahead in other ways (and don’t fare too poorly on the free legal service front), so please don’t read this post as anything but Legal Research News – it’s not an arms race.)

1) In Washington State, their Supreme Court is “being blogged,” to be distinguished from blogging themselves. This may make for a more interesting blog, though not necessarily more useful – only time will tell:

See stories at King County Law Library blog, which links to the Trial Ad Notes blog, which links, whew, to the Supreme Court of Washington Blog.

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The Outreach and Referral System for Veterans will be expanding in Washington County, Oregon.

Currently, all Veterans in our community can access VA benefits, services and assistance in completing discharge documentation (Form 214) through the Washington County Disability, Aging and Veteran Services (503-846-3060) and access employment training and resources through the Veterans Employment Representative (503-681-0219) at Worksource Oregon Employment Division.

A new component to helping homeless veterans in our community is a mobile Veteran Outreach Van that will provide resources (e.g. clothing, etc.) and referral to shelter/housing programs and the VA Medical Center. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hosts the Veteran Outreach Van scheduled to be in Washington County. See attached flyer for details.

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Law school libraries are excellent sources of legal research guides. You can find many of them with a quick Google search using your topic keyword and then simply adding the words “research guide.” Another useful search word is “pathfinder.”

This Guide to Free and Low-cost Legal Research is from Georgetown Law Library.

As you might imagine, law library associations are another source of excellent guides, and our D.C. law librarian colleagues are a wonderful source, as you might suspect, for federal law research guides. for example, see their recently updated:

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