Articles Posted in General Legal Research Resources

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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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The O(range) C(ounty) Bar Association monthly OC Lawyer Magazine, once again brings us Justice Bedsworth who has a hard time getting his head around homicidal roosters, foxes, and other animals who are starting to fight back:
“Dog Bites Man Bites Broadcasting Career,” by Justice William W. Bedsworth (yes, he’s a real judge!)
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The current edition of “The Bluebook: Uniform System of Citation,” is the 19th.
The editors come out with a new edition about once every five years, so a new edition will not be coming out any time soon.  But their website offers free updates between editions.
Law schools can subscribe to an electronic version, but the editors expect the print version will continue to be published.
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This donation is no small contribution to our superseded ORS scanning project and I would be woefully remiss if I didn’t publicly thank the Oregon Supreme Court Justices for donating (lending!) to us their set of the superseded Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS).
We will take good care of it and see that it is returned, with a full set of digitized statutes.  (We also plan to create microfilm sets for archival purposes.)
Heretofore, we had been able to locate only 3 complete sets of these superseded statutes (a summary of the Long Road to Superseded ORS Digitization story is available at the project’s blog post), none of which was accessible except in Salem and Portland and none could be take off-site. (Incomplete sets exist in many libraries and on microfilm.)
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How to Find a Case Online
(if you have the citation)
It isn’t always possible to use a physical reporter to locate a case using a citation.  If you don’t have access to a bound reporter, here is a quick overview of a few of your options for locating cases online.
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LLRX is a wonderful research resource.  See, for example:
“Emerging Legal Issues in Social Media: Part II,” by Ken Strutin, March 21, 2011
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