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Researching criminal justice topics can be quite different from researching the law.  There is overlap, of course, but sometimes not very much at all depending on the specific question.
The field of criminal justice also has many of its own research resources that are completely separate from legal research resources.
Both fields of study have roots and branches in law, courts, public policy, government, history, sociology, and psychology, but they are different fields of study.  One could say that criminal justice is a subset of “the law,” but it’s also its own field, and  it is, of course, as interdisciplinary as any field of study is nowadays.
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Whether you are going into Small Claims Court, Circuit Court, Bankruptcy Court, or into Traffic Court, if you want to win or at least stay in control of your destiny to the extent possible:
  1. You have to listen, learn, read, get organized, keep good records, stay focused and determined, and above all else keep a healthy sense of perspective and humor.
  1. Legal research is hard and time-consuming.  But it can also be interesting, rewarding, and even fun.
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We get questions about commercial leases mostly from attorneys, but occasionally from property owners, real estate investors, and small businesses.
Here is some research advice:
1) As of today, there is no Oregon legal treatise written specifically on commercial leases.  There are separate real estate and Oregon business treatises that will address the subject to varying degrees.  Many of these materials are in print and in the OSB BarBooks database, both of which you may find in many (but not all) Oregon law libraries.
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One of many things that pro se (aka self-represented) litigants have a difficult time learning is that even if you read the laws, the rules, the cases, and the jury instructions, you still can’t predict the outcome of your case.

Many people want black and white rules and think there is a simple answer to, for example, the question “what is the statute of limitations on x ?”  They also think that if the statute says x and y, then x and y are The Law.
Lawyers, and law librarians, are faced every day with someone, statute book and statute in hand, asking “what does this mean?”  Who knows?  We can respond “ask the Legislature – they wrote the statute,” but in all seriousness, they often don’t have a clue either.  They certainly don’t know how a judge will interpret the statute. Or how the next judge will, or the appellate court …. 
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The Washington County Law Library has a new legal research guide on consumer law.  You can find all of the library’s legal research guides on the Subject Guides page and in the Document Index.  The What’s New page is also a good source for new legal research guides and library projects.

In Oregon consumer protection law news, although the 2011 bill banning certain products containing bisphenol A (BPA) failed in the Oregon Legislature, Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen (along with Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman) wants to try his luck with a county-wide ban of some products containing BPA. 

According to the bill’s summary,  Senate Bill 695 would have created an “unlawful practice of manufacturing, distributing, selling or offering for sale child’s beverage container or reusable bottle made or lined with bisphenol A or replacement material that is carcinogenic or is reproductive toxicant…Requires Oregon Health Authority to approve and obtain for Women, Infants and Children Program infant formula contained only in containers that do not leach into formula certain amounts of bisphenol A or are not made with replacement material that is carcinogenic or is reproductive toxicant.”  The bill would also have created the Oregon BPA-Free Advisory Group.  SB 695 passed the Senate but died in the House Energy, Environment and Water committee.

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This is true whether you climb mountains or research the law.  How many times do you read a news report about a tragedy on a mountain where the climber, hiker, skier is described as “experienced.”
How about those Facebook and Twitter meltdowns with people, quite old enough to be considered “experienced” by any measure, who seem not to have read the whole screen, literally and figuratively speaking.
This is a rather roundabout way of saying, we’re never too old to learn new tricks, to learn from young and old, and to jump at any chance to learn or refresh our skills, whether they are computer, notary public, search engine, or database searching skills.
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Mary Ellen Bates (InfoTip) Summer/August 2011 post, “Still Using Google?” gives you a summary of the Hitwise study on searcher and search patterns.
You can also visit a list of Search Engines, Wikipedia’s list, and this search engine list for even more search engine explorations.
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Are you allowed to ride your bicycle on that sidewalk?
Did you just get run over by a bicycle while you were walking on the sidewalk?  Do you wonder if that bicycle should even be on that sidewalk?
You need to look at your local ordinances first – or call your local elected officials – they write the laws.  For some of us, our favorite bicycling, teaching, blogging, and writing lawyer, Ray Thomas, has done a lot of the legal research.
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You can spend your entire vacation catching up on how the practice of law has changed over the past few years, or, you can read a quick and dirty summary at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog in their 8/22/11 post:
A librarian’s prescription for what ails you?
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