If you have surgery in your future, don’t think about lawyers and medical malpractice if something goes wrong … think preventive, preemptive action, that is, BEFORE something goes wrong.
Oregon’s Patient Safety Commission has a Surgical Safety Checklist webpage.
You can also contact the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners, which regulates the practice of medicine in Oregon, to ask about your doctor or surgeon.
U.S. Supreme Court questions someone will ask about and that we will want to find quickly.
These can all be found at the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 Term webpage:
1) The “firefighters” case, aka the “new haven firefighters case”: Ricci V. DeStefano, 07-1428 (decided 6/29/09)
In a kinder, gentler world, the words “you’re under arrest” without any accompanying cuffs or restraints may mean you’re free to head off with impunity at a measured pace to the nearest coffee shop, or tree top, but in Oregon the words “you’re under arrest” means YOU’RE UNDER ARREST AND IN CUSTODY so stop calculating that escape route and forget about that Freedom Road Quickstep maneuver.
From the OJD Court of Appeal July 8, 2009, Media Release (or read the full case):
“State of Oregon, Respondent, v. James B. Thomas, Appellant (A135855) decided July 8, 2009:
Non-attorneys don’t often realize the amount of preparation that is required to prepare for a case, whether it’s researching, drafting documents, communicating with opposing counsel, appearing in Small Claims or Traffic Court, or before a judge in conference or at trial, and every interaction with the judicial system in between.
Lawyers learn and develop their own trial notebooks, paper and online, and pro se litigants need to do the same, without all the seminars and other training lawyers get on trial notebook preparation.
But here’s a good place to begin if you want to know what a trial notebook is: from the King County, Washington, Reference Librarian on their KCLL Klues Blog: Trial Notebook for Family Law.
We all know how useful mock exams are – who wants to have take a test over and over again when it is possible to take a mock (aka practice) exam and learn your weak points, knowledge gaps, and how to cope with exam-jitters?!
If you think mocking is only for losers, think again. It’s really for winners. To Mock is Human, to Mock Exam Divine!
Visit the Pacific Northwest Paralegal Associations webpage, click on Seminars, and scroll down to the entry and application for:
Journalists have ethical codes and so do librarians and lawyers. (Librarians also have a intellectual freedom codes, which might answer some of your question about why we can be so pigheaded).
Do Bloggers Share an Ethical Code?, posted at attorney Donald Vanarelli’s blog, is worth reading:
Excerpt: “According to a recent study published in the June 2009 edition of the New Media & Society journal entitled doing-the-right-thing-online-a-survey-of-bloggers-beliefs-and-practices, bloggers share a group of ethical principals. This first large-scale survey of blogging ethics identified four underlying ethical principles important to bloggers: truth telling, accountability, minimizing harm and attribution...” (link to full post)
See the explanatory memo at the Oregon State Bar (OSB):
“Effective July 1, 2009, some state court filing fees will change due to 2007 legislative changes that become effective July 1, 2009, and the extension of the temporary filing fee surcharges through September 30, 2009, as provided in a 2009 legislative bill (HB 2287B). The Oregon Judicial Department has more information here.
For circuit courts, there is no single circuit court fee schedule, because circuit court fees vary by county depending on local fee assessments. If a court has not posted its fee schedule on its webpage, contact the court directly for information….” (Link to full OSB announcement)
Just as there are some lotteries you don’t want to win (e.g. airplane crashes), there are also some cheats who aren’t really cheats – not the bad kind, at least.
Ever wonder how good public speakers seem to talk without notes? While some really can, others have tricks. I love these simple ones – and am sure we can think up others:
Another reminder that there are no quick fixes or free lunches in the world of finance, law, consumer protection, or living a long and healthy life:
beSpacific alerts us to two new GAO reports on reverse mortgage consumer protection issues:
1) Reverse Mortgages: Product Complexity and Consumer Protection Issues Underscore Need for Improved Controls over Counseling for Borrowers, GAO-09-606, June 29, 2009
A May 2009 It’s Only Money column at Oregonlive ran an interesting set of stories on health care advocates and on how to challenge health care bills. The article included lots of self-help tips and links.
Health care advocates can, among other things, scrutinize your medical bills for errors the same way legal billing auditors do (though mostly for clients with the money to pay to have their bills scrutinized). The average person isn’t as likely to wrack up huge legal bills the way the average person can wrack up huge medical bills, so do some research before you call in the lawyers.
Legal Aid Services of Oregon (LASO) also has a brochure on Unpaid Consumer Debt (click on Consumer).
Oregon Legal Research Blog