Articles Posted in General Legal Research Resources

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California appellate court’s Justice Bedsworth stifles a gag (mostly) in his latest monthly column, “Criminal Waste of Space,” in the Orange County Bar Association’s monthly magazine, September 2011 OC Lawyer

“Eat, Drink, and Hire Lawyers,” by Justice William W. Bedsworth
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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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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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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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I last blogged about the Sheriff’s Civil Process Manual (and writs of assistance) back in 2010, but before we got the 2010 update to the Manual.
The Washington County Law Library does now have the 2010 edition of the Manual.  It’s not online and the CD-ROM costs a cool $350 (yikes!), so not a lot of libraries will have it.  I’m not sure it is worth $350, but it sure does help lawyers, judges, and litigants answer a lot of their service and writ questions – maybe that makes it priceless.
(You can also see my updated “Oregon Legal Research Resources -Not Online” list at our website.  The link is at the bottom of the Oregon Legal Resources webpage.)
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The Washington County Law Library has a new legal research guide on appeals, available on our website in a number of places: the What’s New page; the Subjects Guide page; and our lovely Document Index.  If you are ever at a loss to find a document on our website, the Document Index page includes every document uploaded to the website.  You can also use the labels on the right-hand sidebar of this blog to find posts about appeals. 

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If there is a particular book you want and you know its title, you can check library catalogs or run a web search or ask a law librarian (who have access to this wonderful resource, Svengalis, “Legal Information Buyer’s Guide and Reference Manual”).
But sometimes you don’t know exactly what you want or even if there are books on the subject you are researching.  In addition to checking your local libraries’ catalogs using keyword and subject searches, run a web search using the words free law books.  You can also check out these:
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I’ve updated my “Oregon Legal Research Resources Not Online or Through Fee-Based Databases Only” PDF grid.
You can find it from each of these web pages:
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