Oregon 2013 Senate Bill 123: Requires the Department of Human Services to adopt rules to establish Oregon Foster Children’s Bill of Rights. (Use this link if that one doesn’t work: text of the bill.)
This law will be codified in the 2013 Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) (to be published early 2014). The law’s effective date is January 1, 2014.
You can find the official text of the session law in Chapter 515 of the 2013 Oregon Laws.
The 7/30/13 ABA Journal reports: “Ralph Nader plans tort law museum,” article by Debra Cassens Weiss
The museum’s location is currently set for Winsted, Connecticut (so you won’t need to decide between a visit to rockets and spies while in D.C. or stamps and tort law – whew).
October 2011 ABA Journal article, by Stephanie Francis Ward: “Mr. Small Claims’ Makes a Career on Volume”
(Note: Small claims court $$ limits vary from state to state. In Oregon, it is $10,000.)
Excerpt: ‘Small claims court cases are like any other legal disputes, but minus a zero, says Jordan Farkas, a Canadian lawyer who’s built a practice advising people who have $25,000 or less at stake. “Most lawyers look down at it,” says Farkas, 31. He started small claims work as a law firm associate to pick up litigation experience, and he can be found online as “Mr. Small Claims Court.”….’ (Link to full article.]
When The Google isn’t good enough and you need Good Value (i.e. not full-service & not expensive) for full-text, all-cases or statutes (or almost all) legal research database searching:
1) Law Library of Congress: How to Locate Free Case Law on the Internet
2) Georgetown Law Library’s Free and Low Cost Legal Research Guide
If that dusty law book in your office hasn’t been scanned yet (assuming copyright allows you or another repository to do so), PLEASE Don’t Throw it Out!
(If you want to know how to get rid of used law books, read our “How to Dispose of Used Law Books” guide.)
Some very popular Oregon reports that are used a lot in print, but have also been scanned (yay!), including these:
Depending on your specific question, you will need to look at different parts of the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) or contact state regulatory or consumer agencies. Here are a few places to start your research (in no particular order):
1) Do a quick search for Oregon consumer law and car rentals. For example, Laura Gunderson at the Oregonian “Complaint Desk” and Brent Hunsberger at the Oregonian’s “It’s Only Money” column cover a lot of useful Oregon consumer-protection ground; they are worth reading. They are also the first to say whoops if they make a mistake or overlook something, so don’t stop there with your research. (These columns move around the Oregonian website, so you may need to use a search engine to find them.)
Currently you can find PDFs of the 1955-1967 and 1995-2009 ORS at the Oregon Legislature’s website. Soon, the 1969-1993 superseded ORSs will be there, too. (Look under: “Selected Archives of the Oregon Revised Statutes.”)
The Washington County Law Library has been scanning these pre-1995 ORSs for the Legislature and they have been making those images available to everyone from their website. We have scanned through 1989 (and started 1991), but for a publicly-hosted set of these superseded statutes for the years 1967-1993, you need to be patient.
We have been told that the Legislature is in the middle of a website redesign project and won’t be able to publish the 1967-1993 superseded ORSs until October. (We wish them luck and lots of pizza for sustenance! A redesign is lots of work, lots of fun work (at least for librarians, website designers, and content strategists), but it is a mega-ton of work from start to finish, especially on the scale of a state legislature’s website).
A free e-Book: 60+ Ways to Get Rid of Your Student Loans (Without Paying Them) (From SALT.)
More about this e-Book:
Jim Calloway, at the Oklahoma State Bar, alerts us to these “Ten Improved Fastcase Tools,” including this intriguing one (among others):
“PACER Searching
Searching federal dockets with PACER is slow and difficult, especially if you have to search multiple courts. So Fastcase has worked with Justia to build a tool that can search across all PACER sites at once. It’s the depth of PACER with the power of Fastcase. You can also filter by state, court, date or type of suit. When you select a document you’d like to download, the tool takes you to the individual PACER site, where standard charges apply.” [Link to Jim Calloway’s blog post.]
Law offices without law librarians can also save time and money with the tips and reviews in the 2013 “Legal Information Buyer’s Guide & Reference Manual.”
1) How to deter and refuse unsolicited shipments: Do you know about 39 U.S. Code 3009?
2) Do you really need annual print supplements? (They can be expensive up-front and to file/shelve.)
Oregon Legal Research Blog