Legal self-help is a bit of a crap-shoot unless you have official (i.e. court sanctioned and current) legal forms or the guiding hand of an attorney, but sometimes one has to plug along the best one can.
Public law librarians not infrequently get requests for legal separation forms. Oregon has, rather had, legal separation forms, and still, sort of, does have them. But, well, read on:
Disclaimer! Warning!
The May 2014 OSB Bulletin has this article: “A Cure Worse than the Disease? Oregon’s New Social Media Law,” by Dan Webb Howard.
Excerpt:
“.... A Law of Unintended Consequences?
Provocative ABA Journal article – and Comments also worth reading:
ABA Journal, May 2014: “These venture capitalists skip law firms for legal services startups”
This particular Comment resonates in my world, where legal shortcuts land clients in hot water – and their attorneys in the law library wondering why the client didn’t seek legal advice first and saved themselves big bucks and big headaches:
The Legal Forms Problem bedevils most states, even those with active statewide Access to Justice Commissions (Oregon does not have one). Some states are tackling the legal forms problem head on with gusto and with Statewide Legal Forms Committees (see also the legal forms program presentations at the ABA Equal Justice website – there was an excellent one a couple weeks ago on the Washington State Legal Forms initiative).
See the ABA Resource Center for Access to Justice Initiatives and the Access to Justice blog for information and news about these A2J commissions and initiatives.
From 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, 4/22/14, post: “LegalZoom Gets Nod from South Carolina Supreme Court”
Read Robert Ambrogi’s post:
“Bryan Garner Discusses the Latest Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary”
On October 24, 2014, Georgetown University Law Library in Washington, D.C. will host a symposium that explores the problem of link and reference rot:
“404/File Not Found: Link Rot, Legal Citation and Projects to Preserve Precedent”
Preliminary Agenda:
“.… The Legal Services Program is a one-year pilot project, beginning December 2013 …. The purpose is to fill the unmet legal needs of Native American women incarcerated in and released from Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (CCCF) in order to reduce barriers to reentry, improve reentry planning, and empower women to successfully return to their families and communities….” [Link to information about the Red Lodge Legal Services Program.]
Oregon Legal Research Blog