Articles Posted in General Legal Research Resources

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Hot Coffee, the movie, a documentary film by Oregon attorney, Susan Saladoff:
Excerpt from Hot Coffee webpage: “…Is Justice Being Served?
Seinfeld mocked it. Letterman ranked it in his top ten list. And more than fifteen years later, its infamy continues. Everyone knows the McDonald’s coffee case. It has been routinely cited as an example of how citizens have taken advantage of America’s legal system, but is that a fair rendition of the facts? Hot Coffee reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. After seeing this film, you will decide who really profited from spilling hot coffee.” [Link to Hot Coffee, the Movie, website.]
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Legal Informatics Blog alerts us to the forthcoming:
‘… Over the next several weeks we will offer eight rules of E-filing systems implementation.  However, please note that there are many additional factors in any successful implementation as defined in classic project management structures including proper governance, budget, testing, and communication that cannot be ignored.  So please keep that in mind as you read our “rules“….’ [Link to introductory post.]
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Some of us here at the Oregon Legal Research blog are recently returned from the 2011 Virtual Reference Summit, where many Oregon library staff go to share an interest in the triad of reference, service, and technology issues and ideas we regularly encounter in the field. Some fun and potentially useful sites were presented that our readers might enjoy:

EasyBib: Free automatic bibliography and citation maker for books, websites, newspapers, and so on. The usual style suspects are included: MLA, Chicago, APA.

OttoBib: Same thing, for books only; but creates the citation/bibliography immediately using just the ISBN and also can provide a permanent URL for the bibliography.

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If you write, and you want people to read what you write, now and in the future, take heed:
Librarians Rule (again)!  Yes we can weed or delete your magnum opus from library collections, but, more to the point, we have an even greater passion for preserving your legacy!
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Not all statutes are codified, that is, not all laws passed (by Congress and signed by the President) appear in the numbered sections of the U.S. Code.  Sometimes they appear in the code section’s note.
This blog post may not mean anything to you right now, but one day you’ll say “so that’s what Laura was talking about!”
I used to teach this to law students, using the Privacy Act of 1974 as an example, but a federal agency law librarian has written a useful and short memo on the subject so you don’t need me anymore (at least not to explain this!):
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CALI’s Free Law Reporter is an interesting project, sort of, maybe; I’m just not sure why the creators are putting their limited time into it given that we have so many better, bigger, free sources of the same information (see sidebar), some of which also have search engines.  You can’t do legal research without a search engine, among other research tools, but you sure can’t do real legal research without adequate content in the database.
See also May 18, 2011, Law Librarian Blog post:
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“… Today, the Oregon Supreme Court held that sheriffs must issue concealed handgun licenses to applicants who meet the statutory requirements for such issuance, regardless of the applicants’ use of medical marijuana. In doing so, the Court rejected arguments raised by sheriffs from two different counties that, to the extent that Oregon’s concealed handgun licensing statute does not concern itself with an applicant’s use of marijuana, it is preempted by a federal statute that prohibits possession of a firearm by any unlawful user of a controlled substance….”  [Link to OJD Media Releases.]
Link to full (consolidated) case:  WILLIS v. WINTERS (CC 07-2755-Z7; CA A139875; SC S058645), SANSONE v. GORDON, STEVEN SCHWERDT v. GORDON, LEE WALLICK v. GORDON, (CC C073809CV, C0073810CV, C073811CV; CA A139802; SC S058642)  [Link to full Oregon Supreme Court case.]
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Do you want to do a “background check” on an employer (individual or corporation), a future or current partner, an employee, a “friend,” or a colleague?
FIRST and FOREMOST: Keep your expectations realistic.  If you expect to find all the data you are seeking in one place, one database, one website, or one-anything, you are gravely mistaken.
We just got a copy of “Wanted! U.S. Cirminal Records: Sources & Research Methodology,” by Ron Arons.  (There are other books on researching public records, too.  They will cure you of any illusion that searching public (and private) records is for the faint-hearted.)
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Free public access to federal court opinions through GPO’s FDsys may be coming soon.  A lot of people (e.g. those “it’s all online” types who haven’t a clue) think this is easy now – ha ha ha.
But soon it may be soon.  See the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog post:
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