In a January 27th, 2010, opinion, the Oregon Court of Appeals decided:
Tim Tubra v. John Michael Cooke and Ron Swor and the International Church Of The Foursquare Gospel, (A134332):
U.S. Presidents have been speaking out to members of Congress for a long time, and vice versa. Supreme Court Justices speak out every week, at the very least, and members of Congress get to have their say every minute of every day, or so it seems.
So, why the fuss when they disagree (e.g. making faces or outbursts)? It’s often about manners (e.g.), or history, or protocol, or even just frustration. Sometimes it’s about maturity and gravitas and mental health and sometimes it’s just about childish behavior. It might help if we had a Question Time where members of Congress could get it all out their systems, but that’s their own fault. If members of Congress wanted a Question Time, they could make that happen (House and Senate).
But we can all speak out. Isn’t that what America is about?
Certificate in Business Lawyering at Willamette University Portland Center (1120 NW Couch Street, Suite 450, Portland, Oregon)
“The Certificate in Business Lawyering (CBL) program offers a structured approach to business that provides the tools, resources and concepts to increase an attorney’s value and productivity. Become a better lawyer by thinking about business issues the way business decision-makers think about them. Prepare to be a partner or general counsel by building your expertise in the business side of your profession….
…
The Certificate in Business Lawyering consists of eight, day-long sessions delivered over eight months where participants can earn a certificate of completion and up to 55 CLEs (including ethics and practical skills CLE’s that can be converted to General CLE’s; WBA CLE’s subject to approval). The program repeats annually….” (link to full program information)
Not unlike the iPad rollout, the new-interface rollouts for Lexis (aka New Lexis) and Westlaw (aka Westsearch or WestlawNext) are creating a lot of buzz.
Whether or not there is substance, improvement, change, or anything worthy of all the hoopla remains to be seen. We remain hopeful, although some of us still pine for the precision and speed of the old Westlaw (aka native Westlaw).
Law librarians, and librarians generally, are skeptical people by nature and training, usually reserving judgment until we see if performance matches hype. We also look askance when someone (Lexis and Westlaw aren’t the first and won’t be the last) says that their new search engine is “Just Like Google.”
Citing to digital legal resources with specificity (and confidence in the URL’s permanence) is tricky business.
Documents and websites have a habit of moving around cyberspace – a lot. Corporations aren’t the only non-human entities that have “people“-rights to move cross-country, so to speak; digital documents change their addresses (URLs) as frequently as human-people do and there is no law stopping them from doing so.
KCLL Klues has this blog post, with references that will give you a good start when researching this subject:
Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) Filing Fee website and fee calculator.
Oregon attorneys have additional information at the PLF website, including this memo that was revised January 12, 2010: “Understanding the New Filing Fee Requirements in Civil Cases (HB 2287) Effective: October 1, 2009”
(The Law Librarian Blog has an interesting update to this story: What Would Professor Kingsfield Say? Conan O’Brien-NBC Contract Dispute Awakens Sleeping 1L Contract Students, posted, January 16, 2010.)
I read recently that “Conan’s Lawyers Screwed Up, Forgot To Specify “Tonight Show” Time Slot,” Henry Blodget, Jan. 11, 2010.
A lot of people exclaim “there ought to be a law,” but the reality is, in many instances, what people need is better contracts. From your condo/HOA bylaws, to your apartment lease, to employment contracts, to that CEO going-out-the-door sweetheart deal, to that prenuptial agreement, to your will, and on and on and on, it’s the words of the contract that matter.
Not all U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals (or federal district or bankruptcy courts for that matter) make full (or almost full) runs of their opinions available at their websites. See, e.g. the blog post at Gallagher Law Library (University of Washington Law Schools): Circuit Courts Archiving Cites to Online Sources.
The Administrative Office of the Courts is a one place to begin when researching federal court practice and procedure, but for cases, you need to do a little detective work if you want to use a free database.
The primary method for finding federal court case documents is PACER (registration required – some fees), but opinions from the Courts of Appeals, and other federal courts, may also appear elsewhere on the Internet. The AOC has links to federal courts.
Let’s say I wanted to find this case, Mayfield vs. United States (a December 10th, 2009, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit opinion). (And I might want to find the case so I can write a postscript to this Shaggy (Law Librarian) Dog Tale.)
When I use Google Legal Scholar, specifying federal court and 2009, and the search <brandon mayfield united states> I get nothing. When I use the same search in native Google, with only the date limiter, I get in the first page of results several links to the actual case, including the link on the court’s website.
There are a number of technical reasons for this (and a few flawed human being reasons, too), and I will leave those to be explained by Search Engine Scientists, but woe to the untrained (or unthinking) legal researcher who thinks that Google (or that other “I looked it up on The Internet” place) is where one researches an actual case.
From the Law Librarian Blog:
ABA Launches Law Reviews, Law Journals and Document Repositories Search Engine:
“The ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center has launched a free search engine for researching the free full-text of over 300 online law reviews and law journals, as well as document repositories …” (link to full LLB post)
Oregon Legal Research Blog