Some articles speak for themselves:
From: Law – “Finding Accurate Law Text Online Nearly Impossible” (from the Indiana Law Blog):
Excerpt: ‘… It sounded easy. Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s counsel, Denley Chew, slapped down some $2 bills and challenged a room of lawyers and legal researchers with laptops and iPhones to find the authoritative text of the landmark Fugitive Slave Act online.
It is not unusual for someone to think it is easy to find a dissertation or thesis: sometimes it is, and sometimes not. “The Internet Tubes” have made the search a little easier than in the past, but “they” (the Internets, that is) have complicated it in a few other ways, namely, if the document is not in the Usual (i.e. Old Days) Repositories For Such Things, the world of places one has to search for another repository has expanded exponentially. The upsides are that you may be more likely to find what you are looking for AND you will find some other very interesting titles while you search.
1) Check with your local reference librarians (most have some kind of online reference so you don’t even have to get up or break a sweat).
2) Subscription databases (check also with your local libraries)
a) Dissertation Abstracts Online (Dialog)
b) ProQuest UMI Dissertation Publishing (and see their sidebar about searching Google for dissertations)
3)Miscellaneous
Legal Research Plus blog has had (at least) two very interesting posts this past week:
1) Writing the book on citing unpublished and non-precedential opinions, July 27, 2009, by Paul Lomio:
Excerpt: ‘Today’s mail brought Volume 10, Issue # 1 (Spring 2009) of The Journal of Appellate Practice and Procedure. This issue contains Professor David R. Cleveland’s book-length (116 pages) article “Overturning the Last Stone: The Final Step in Returning Precedential Status to All Opinions.”…’ (link to full post)
More free legal information – hurrah! See King County Law Library blog, KCLL Klues:
Free Federal Case Dockets Online
FreeCourtDockets dot com provides free court dockets from PACER (except for the U.S. Supreme Court, whose dockets originates from their own database). You must register (see their introductory information page) for access instructions.
Having problems with the lawyer someone recommended to you or who you thought was recommended by an “online service” or a “best ever lawyers in the whole wide world” list?
It is not enough just to get a recommendation for a lawyer who can help you with your legal problem. You need to do a some preliminary research and have a conversation about fees and service with that lawyer.
If you do absolutely nothing else before you hire a lawyer, please:
1) For an excellent lineup of free legal research databases, see Robert Ambrogi’s Legal.Online column: 10 Places to Get Free Cases: A Very Good Price, from the Oregon State Bar Bulletin, July 2009 issue. In 2 pages he gives links and pertinent information about each database’s coverage and caveats.
2) Another view of “free”: Can Free Information Make Us A Vendor-Free Library?, posted July 13, 2009, Paul Lomio, has some interesting ideas, excellent links, and thoughtful Comments.
3) See also my Oregon Legal Research blog sidebar, which links to guides to Free and Low-Cost Legal Research Resources.
U.S. Supreme Court questions someone will ask about and that we will want to find quickly.
These can all be found at the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 Term webpage:
1) The “firefighters” case, aka the “new haven firefighters case”: Ricci V. DeStefano, 07-1428 (decided 6/29/09)
See the explanatory memo at the Oregon State Bar (OSB):
“Effective July 1, 2009, some state court filing fees will change due to 2007 legislative changes that become effective July 1, 2009, and the extension of the temporary filing fee surcharges through September 30, 2009, as provided in a 2009 legislative bill (HB 2287B). The Oregon Judicial Department has more information here.
For circuit courts, there is no single circuit court fee schedule, because circuit court fees vary by county depending on local fee assessments. If a court has not posted its fee schedule on its webpage, contact the court directly for information….” (Link to full OSB announcement)
It’s a new month and the funniest judge in the country is still on the bench and online:
Justice Bedsworth, of the California Court of Appeals, returns in July 2009 with his not to be missed Criminal Waste of Space column in the Orange County Lawyer Magazine:
“A Ticket to Walk: Beds takes a look at prison administration“
Oregon State Bar (OSB) Bulletin: June 2009: Duty of Confidentiality: Top 10 Myths, by Helen Hierschbiel, will be interesting for lawyer and client alike. It is another reminder to non-attorneys that you can’t learn the law from watching television shows or reading legal fiction, not that they aren’t fun and I highly recommend you keep enjoying both. But don’t confuse what you see portrayed on the big screen, or the Internet or in a novel, with the actual practice and word of law.
Excerpt: “If there is one duty that virtually all lawyers have ingrained in their psyches, it is the duty to protect their clients’ confidential information. Notwithstanding this basic instinct, myths about the duty abound. In a highly unscientific method called “asking around,” the OSB general counsel’s office compiled the following list of top 10 myths about the duty of confidentiality, and the truth behind these myths….
…
Myth #3: You may reveal your client’s confidences after the client has died.
Contrary to popular belief, the lawyer-client privilege survives the death of the client. The U.S. Supreme Court explained the purpose of this rule in Swidler & Berlin v. United States, 524 U.S. 399, 407 (1998), saying that posthumous application of the privilege encourages full and frank communication with counsel….” (read full article)
Link to Oregon Rules of Professional Responsibility and other sources of information on the regulation of attorneys in Oregon.
Oregon Legal Research Blog