Oregon Legal Research BlogThe State of Oregon redistricting webpage has been updated with Co-Chairs’ Proposed Legislative Maps.
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Oregon Redistricting Maps
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Database of Oregon Nonprofits that Lost their Tax Exempt Status
More than 3,700 Oregon nonprofits have lost their tax-exempt status due to a Failure to File.
The Nonprofit Association of Oregon (formerly known as TACS) has posted the news.
DATABASE: You can search the IRS database, titled: Automatic Revocation of Exemption List (use those keywords in your search engine if this link stops working) or link to it from the main IRS website for Charities and Nonprofits.
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Authority of Federal Statutes in U.S.C. Section Notes
Not all statutes are codified, that is, not all laws passed (by Congress and signed by the President) appear in the numbered sections of the U.S. Code. Sometimes they appear in the code section’s note.
This blog post may not mean anything to you right now, but one day you’ll say “so that’s what Laura was talking about!”
I used to teach this to law students, using the Privacy Act of 1974 as an example, but a federal agency law librarian has written a useful and short memo on the subject so you don’t need me anymore (at least not to explain this!):
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Online and/or Remote Access to Oregon Court Documents
All Oregon county circuit courts (and most if not all county, justice, and municipal courts) allow free on-site (in the courthouse) access to OJIN.Few if any public libraries will subscribe to OJIN. It is not an easy database to use, due primarily to the fact that it was designed many decades ago for court staff and lawyers. Keep in mind also that few full-text documents are in OJIN. If you need copies of actual documents filed in a particular case, rather than just reading the docket entry, you would have to go to the courthouse file room or clerk’s office anyway, so remote access will not save you a trip to the courthouse.Some county law libraries have OJIN subscriptions, but not many, for the same reason – the actual documents are only at the courthouse so lawyers, litigants, or researchers may as well be right in the court’s file room when they do their searches – and where they can get expert search assistance.Note, OJIN is not like PACER, the federal electronic case filing database, which does have full text. But it too requires you to register – and there are charges, with some exceptions.
None of these public databases is free. It is very expensive to create and maintain good databases and people who use them are asked to help pay for them, even if all taxpayers contribute most of the money to support these databases.
Online databases, of any kind, are not free or even cheaper than paper files – they just allow greater access, at a cost. The price of remote access is high since you need skilled and experienced programmers and designers and network specialists who can build databases that everyone can use – not to mention the skills, hardware, and software that are needed to keep a database secure and properly backed up – and have 24/7 user support. These skilled workers cost a whole lot more than people who sort and file paper documents.
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How to Get FREE Telephone Number Information in Oregon
You can find lots of free telephone and address information from:
1) “The Internet” (your search engine of choice, e.g. google, bing, yahoo, etc.). If you want to find a telephone number and you have internet access, search the business or agency or person by name, for example: if you want the Washington County (Oregon) Watermaster, type this into your search engine: washingon county oregon watermaster. You’ll get up to date contact info (especially if you make sure you click on your search engine’s link to get the most current info).
2) Your local public library information and quick reference lines during their open hours (e.g. Multnomah County public libraries and Washington County public libraries) and don’t forget L-net, the statewide online reference service).