Oregon Legal Research BlogJust because landlord-tenant law is state-specific and local law for most of us mere mortals doesn’t mean there aren’t some excellent treatises and resources on the subject for those times we need to read about multi-state landlord-tenant practices and policies. If that is where your research is taking you, mosey over to the LLLoC blog post:
Articles Posted in General Legal Research Resources
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Judges who Blog
From LawSites: New Blog Serves as Training Hub for Minnesota Judges, Trial Lawyers
And, see links to this at the bottom of the blog post:
“For more examples of judges who blog, see my [Bob Ambrogi’s] earlier posts:
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Free Public Access to Federal Materials on “Guide to Law Online” (WOW x 1,000!)
“Free Public Access to Federal Materials on Guide to Law Online
October 14, 2014 by Donna Sokol
This is a guest post by Ann Hemmens, legal reference librarian at the Law Library of Congress.
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Free Federal Tax Law Research: Legalbitstream and More
About once a quarter we’re asked where to find IRS Private Letter Rulings and other IRS documents that used to be tough to find outside a law library that subscribed to expensive tax databases and treatises.
You can still find these documents in the usual fee-based resources, Lexis, Westlaw, and (maybe) Bloomberg (we don’t subscribe to Bloomberg, so I don’t know).
But there are also some free sources. One of those is Legalbitstream: “Your Source for Free Federal Tax Law Research, Comprehensive and timely updated databases.”
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Legislative Words: What are Congressional “Terms,” “Sessions,” “Adjournment,” and “Recesses”?
The dance of legislation has more steps and rules (and foot and toe stomping opportunities) than a few words defined, but learning the Language of Congress is a good place to start:
“Sessions, Adjournments, and Recesses of Congress,“ by Richard S. Beth, Specialist on Congress and the Legislative Process, and Jessica Tollestrup, Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process, February 27, 2013:
“The House and Senate use the terms session, adjournment, and recess in both informal and more formal ways, but the concepts apply in parallel ways to both the daily and the annual activities of Congress. A session begins when the chamber convenes and ends when it adjourns. A recess, by contrast, does not terminate a session, but only suspends it temporarily…. [Link to full CRS Report
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Possible Restoration of PACER Records
The Washington Post reports today that the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has a plan to restore online access to the PACER documents that were removed. Link to the full article.
Hat tip to AALL (American Association of Law Libraries) for their action on this important issue.
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New 2014 Edition: Universal Citation Guide
From HeinOnline: “The Universal Citation Guide, 3rd ed. recognizes the current practices of legal researchers who often consult an electronic research tool without ever seeing a print volume of a reporter or code sitting on a library shelf.”
“…. As states publish primary documents on their own web sites and researchers utilize a wide variety of options to access legal materials, it is necessary to have a universal system of citation that helps users locate information across all formats, platforms, and publishers….” [Link to HeinOnline blog post and order information.]
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PACER Update: How to Find Federal Court Documents Removed by the U.S. Administrative Office of the Courts
The University of North Carolina Law Library has developed a guide on:
Accessing Docket Information Directly from the Courts Affected by the Removal of Information.
Previous OLR blog posts on the most recent removal of PACER documents:
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Federal Circuit Court Oral Argument Feed
A Fastcase blog post alerts us to this high cool-factor federal circuit court oral argument feed:
Arguments: An index of oral arguments from federal courts, updated every 15 minutes.
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Intellectual Property Casebook: Free Creative Commons Download
From beSpacific: “Open Intellectual Property Casebook“:
“Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain is announcing the publication of Intellectual Property: Law & the Information Society—Cases and Materials by James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins. This book, the first in a series of Duke Open Coursebooks, is available for free download under a Creative Commons license. It can also be purchased in a glossy paperback print edition for $29.99, $130 cheaper than other intellectual property casebooks. This book is an introduction to intellectual property law, the set of private legal rights that allows individuals and corporations to control intangible creations and marks—from logos to novels to drug formulae—and the exceptions and limitations that define those rights. It focuses on the three main forms of US federal intellectual property—trademark, copyright and patent—but many of the ideas discussed here apply far beyond those legal areas and far beyond the law of the United States….” [Link to beSpacific post.]