Oregon Legal Research BlogOPB’s Think Out Loud had a program this past week on:
Involuntary Commitment, Air Date: Monday, May 24th 2010 (posted By: Julie Sabatier)
“Guests:
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Civil (Involuntary) Commitment in Oregon
Articles Posted in
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Illegal Debt-Repair Companies in Oregon
Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) has a website with information about debt-repair (or debt management) companies:
FAQs for consumers about debt management companies:
Excerpt: “If you’re looking for help reducing or managing your debt – whether it’s credit card debt, a mortgage, or a car loan – you may be considering a debt management company. These companies must be registered by the state of Oregon, and Oregon has many protections in place for consumers who use these services. Before you pay anyone to help you with your debt, it is important to:
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DIY Book Scanners
If you have a long weekend looming, with nothing to do (hard to imagine but some do have lives of leisure), did you ever think about building your own DIY Book Scanner?
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Farm Animals and the Law
When we hear about Animal Law Clinics and Projects, or maybe even the work of Temple Grandin, most of us do not think about farm animals and the law:
“Cow Whipping: How violent can a farmer get with his livestock?,” by Brian Palmer, Slate, Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Excerpt: “An animal rights group has released a video showing workers at an Ohio dairy farm punching cows, stabbing them with a pitchfork, and beating them with a crowbar. How violent is a rancher or dairy farmer allowed to get with his livestock?
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Legal Publishing History: Paul J. Ruskin Dies
Robert Ambrogi notes the passing of a legal publishing legend, Paul J. Ruskin:
The Lawyer Who Took Down West’s Copyright in Court Opinions Has Died
Excerpt: “It now seems almost ludicrous. But until fairly recently, legal publishing giant West claimed that it owned the copyright to federal court decisions. I’m not talking about the headnotes West writes or the key numbering it adds, I’m talking about basic information such as the name of the case, the date of the case, the names of the attorneys who argued it, and the page numbers of the opinions.
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Oregon DPSST Criminal Justice Code of Ethics
Did you know the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) has a Criminal Justice Code of Ethics (PDF and webpage with other DPSST documents)?
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Librarians are Prestidigiterians
I was reading the Rex Stout novel (League of Frightened Men, with Nero Wolfe) and came across this wonderful, and largely forgotten, word: prestidigitation (see also Word of the Day a few years ago.)
Isn’t this what a lot of us do, especially “digital” librarians (without the deceit, of course)?
Those ones and zeros are powerful things (or perhaps they are utter nothingness or naught-iness)
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The West Digest System is Your Friend
Rarely does a day go past without someone coming into our law libraries frustrated as can be: “I just spent #$% hours online and I can’t find what I need.” In the law librarian version of “breathe deeply,” we talk and walk the attorney through the search, more often than not taking them back to the origins of the West Digest System.*
Say what you will about the business-customer (vs. business-shareholder) side of Thomson-Reuters print and online services (and I surely won’t stop you), the legal research premise (or taxonomy, to be more precise) on which the original West Digest System is based is a thing of beauty. (See also West Digest System, from Wikipedia.)
The West Digest taxonomy (as remarkable as Roget’s Five Classes, the periodic table of the elements, and our 26 letters of the alphabet or even the Ten Commandments) is comprised of only seven topics – amazing:
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Lost Census Forms?
Heaven knows I’m no conspiracy theorist and this is not a conspiracy theory post, but I am wondering if a bag of mail (so to speak) containing Census forms was lost recently.
I’m not the only person in my small circle to be visited by a Census worker who says they never got my (our) completed Census form. Yes, we did complete them (and it couldn’t have been easier to complete) and yes, we did mail them.
I’m happy to provide the Census Bureau with the information; after all, I too want for my growing region better roads, public transit, hospitals, schools, parks, libraries, broadband, sewers, and maybe even another legislator.
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Oregon Writs of Mandamus
Do you need to research Oregon writs of mandamus?
(Related search-words to use when researching writs generally: original jurisdiction, writs, petitions, injunctive relief, mandamus, habeas corpus, quo warranto)
Consult the following primary sources, but take a look also at 1 & 2 for some useful guidance: