Articles Posted in General Legal Research Resources

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It will be many years before you can do all your legal research online all the time.

Librarians get daily requests for documents that aren’t online or are behind firewalls or are available only to subscribers of particular databases.

You can find a “Not Online“ guide for Oregon legal researchers at the Washington County Law Library Document Index website.

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There are many free, publicly accessible, legal research databases in Oregon County Law Libraries.  We update the Oregon County Law Libraries Legal Research Databases directory at least twice a year.
It’s called the “Oregon County Law Libraries Legal Research Database Grid,” and you can find it at the Oregon Resources webpage of the Washington County Law Library.
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The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) has a webpage with “Brochures for Older Consumers.”  It’s an excellent list of resources.
There is one brochure called INTERNET RESOURCES: Helpful Consumer and Elder Law Web Sites that is particular useful, especially for librarians seeking to find that One Resource that might help the distraught person standing at the reference desk who has a unique problem not otherwise covered by the usual list of referrals and resources.
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The Oregonian published an interesting AP article describing grandparent visitation law and practice around the country.
This is a complex area of law.  While everyone is welcome in the law library to research the subject and their specific question, we recommend you consult with a family law attorney in your state.
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While most government documents are in the public domain, not all of them are.  Here’s a story about some copyrighted state legal forms and the state (Montana) that sued a company that violated that copyright.  The defendants were charging someone lots of money for the forms – when state residents could have used the forms for no charge at all in their own court cases.
 
This happens in Oregon, too.  Before buying legal forms online, find out if there are any free, official Oregon legal forms available.  You can ask at the Oregon State Bar, at an Oregon county law library, or you can post the question to L-net.
 
“State Law Library of Montana Wins Legal Forms Case,” by Judy Meadows, State Law Library of Montana
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We’re beginning to compile a list of free, online, legal formatting templates.NOTE: this is NOT a list  of “fill in the blank” legal action-specific forms.  These are very simple forms templates, with field and line number formatting, that a litigant and lawyer could use to draft their own legal documents when specialized, sometimes expensive legal forms software is unavailable.

You still need to research the law!

We’ll add to this list as we learn about more options, but it’s a start:

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Find free U.S. court opinions at the FDsys website.  This is a pilot project and not yet fully populated, but take a look:
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Only a few people have that gift that can make people laugh and cry at the same time: Mark Twain, Molly Ivins, and others.  Sometimes I think we can include on that list California appellate court’s:
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It’s that time of year again when Oregon lawyers ask about:
CLEs in Oregon public law libraries
And, here are some other research guides that may be of use to Oregon lawyers, support staff, and self-represented litigants:
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Laugh at the lawyers in your life – attend Laf-Off, tonight (Oct. 28), Portland, Oregon. (At least look at the pictures on the website – yikes!)

No, I don’t think you can get CLE credits for attending, or even for performing, but maybe you should ….

Laf-Off (Brought to you by the Lawyer’s Campaign for Equal Justice)
October 28, 2011
6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. shows
(doors open at 5:30 and 8:30)
Mission Theater
1624 NW Glisan Ave, Portland
Tickets only $10 each!

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