See April 28, 2010, pdate to this post.
HALT is now CLEAR (new homepage), not to be confused with this CLEAR (dot com) OR THIS CLEAR (scientology) or any of these CLEARs.
Center for Legal Empowerment, Accountability & Reform (CLEAR), formerly known as Help Abolish Legal Tyranny (HALT)
You may be willing to give up security and confidentiality on your own behalf, but when you’re talking about your clients and other second and third parties, you have to do a little more research, and have a little more care.
This was interesting:
Law Firm Bans iPhone Due to Security Risks from Ride the Lightning:
Is it possible to visit iLibrarian and not find something useful for the online writer? Is it possible to visit Men With Pens and not learn something about — social media (and of course laugh at the great domain name).
I’m sure I’m not the only person who hears “social media” and thinks online social life and personal life. It shouldn’t, but that is what many people hear. The word “media” isn’t powerful enough (sorry, talking heads) to overcome that “social” word. And, like it or not, that word “social” has come to mean personal, not professional (as in the phrase “this is business, not personal” that we hate, love, and use).
I’m not sure we need a new term for our personal social mediating, which we love dearly, but for businesses and organizations looking to hire professionals to manage their “social media” (or for freelancers competing for work), I think a new term is called for, if only from a practical point of view: to reduce the number of job applications from people who think that being a consumer of personal-life social media qualifies them for a job as a professional public information creator, facilitator, and manager.
Let’s say I wanted to find this case, Mayfield vs. United States (a December 10th, 2009, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit opinion). (And I might want to find the case so I can write a postscript to this Shaggy (Law Librarian) Dog Tale.)
When I use Google Legal Scholar, specifying federal court and 2009, and the search <brandon mayfield united states> I get nothing. When I use the same search in native Google, with only the date limiter, I get in the first page of results several links to the actual case, including the link on the court’s website.
There are a number of technical reasons for this (and a few flawed human being reasons, too), and I will leave those to be explained by Search Engine Scientists, but woe to the untrained (or unthinking) legal researcher who thinks that Google (or that other “I looked it up on The Internet” place) is where one researches an actual case.
Do you need quick links to other states’ business filings databases?
Kathy Biehl‘s “Research RoundUp: Business Filings Databases” was updated at LLRX on December 5, 2009.
You will find lots of other legal research tools at LLRX, including, but not limited to their LLRX Court Rules, Forms and Dockets database, Legal Research, and Librarian resources.
1) From the QPR Institute, a free download of:
“Suicide the Forever Decision, For those Thinking about Suicide and for Those who Know, Love and Counsel Them,” by Paul Quinnett, Ph.D
(You will need WinZip (a free WinZip link is provided) to download or Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the book online.)
From Oregon Laws, I saw this: Who Let the Dogs Out, by Ray Thomas, which shows you why it may behoove you to talk to a lawyer or do some extremely thorough legal research when bicycles and dogs intertwine.
“… There are a number of widely held but mistaken beliefs about loose dogs. One is that only the owner of the loose dog is responsible for damages….” (read full Ray Thomas Who Let the Dogs Out article)
Oregon Law Practice Management blog has a post that describes the latest changes to Oregon’s Notary Public laws.
The Oregon Secretary of State’s Notary Services webpage has lots of other information about becoming a Notary and about the notarization process, e.g. 15 Steps to a Proper Notarization, and a link to their news updates.
1) From Salem’s Statesman Journal:
Oregon’s high court explores the limits of consent, State’s top lawyers argue case that could alter drunken-driving enforcement, by Peter Wong, Statesman Journal, December 17, 2009:
Excerpt: “…… The arguments by two of the state’s top lawyers were heard by the Oregon Supreme Court, which has before it a Sept. 30 decision by a divided Oregon Court of Appeals that would require police to obtain search warrants before they can draw blood samples from some suspected drunken drivers…
…
This case involves Thomas Gregory Machuca of West Linn, whose blood was drawn after a June 1, 2005, crash in Portland but who failed to persuade a trial judge to suppress evidence of his blood alcohol level. (It was 0.20 percent, above the legal limit of 0.08 percent.) He said it violated his state constitutional right against unreasonable searches and seizures.
From the Law Librarian Blog:
ABA Launches Law Reviews, Law Journals and Document Repositories Search Engine:
“The ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center has launched a free search engine for researching the free full-text of over 300 online law reviews and law journals, as well as document repositories …” (link to full LLB post)
Oregon Legal Research Blog