We all need a little bit of comic relief and today’s suggestion comes to you from the lawyers and law librarians behind: “Top 3 ‘Peeps in Law’ Entries” from the ABA Journal Law News Now, Apr 13, 2009,by Molly McDonough.
Don’t forget to click on the Peeps in Law Gallery for contest entries.
(Librarians also play Pimp My Bookcart for their comic relief.)
This is an interesting story:
Law Professors Seek Injunction over ‘Sham’ Treatise Supplement, by Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer, April 16, 2009.
Excerpt: “An ugly dispute has erupted between West Publishing and two law professors who claim they were falsely identified as the authors of an annual supplement to a treatise on Pennsylvania criminal law even though they had nothing to do with writing it.
PI Buzz has a post, with Comments, about a Mexican court records database: Mexico Court Record Index Online.
Finding other countries’ court records databases doesn’t appear to be that difficult in a Google World, however, you should always try and talk to people who use those databases professionally to find out the pitfalls, the shortcomings, the strengths, and the alternatives. Private investigators and librarians who specialized in public and criminal records searching are excellent resources for database evaluations.
(PI Buzz also has a series of articles about Sunshine Week and government transparency.)
A recent bill in the Oregon Legislature, 2009 HB 3274 (HTML or PDF), and a question from a patron, started me thinking about what my research strategy might look like if I had to draft legislation on this subject or if I had to argue for or against taxing marijuana sales (medical marijuana or other uses, if any).
(There was also this recent New York Times story: Struggling States Look to Unorthodox Taxes, by Jesse McKinley, February 28, 2009.)
And, I attended an interesting program recently on evidence-based research (origins in evidence-based medicine), which gave me even more ideas on sources one would need to consult to write the definitive guide to marijuana research, or even just marijuana taxation.
Blogging is a commitment – it’s not a civil (or criminal) commitment, although it sometimes may feel that way, but it’s still something to take seriously (and I also believe civilly), assuming you the blogger want to be taken seriously. You need to blog regularly to keep up the momentum, your own and your readers. (See my previous posts on blogging, here and on public sector blogging.)
But, it can’t be as difficult as trying to trying to come up with a cartoon a day, which has to be up there with having to put out an interesting newspaper every day (with real articles, not just wire stories) or feeding a family 3 meals a day, day after day, week after week, month after …. You get the point, which may not be what you think it is.
Imagine, each and every single day, day after day, week after …, you are introduced to someone as the “funniest person I know,” and each time someone new looks at you as if to say, “ok, say something funny.” How many of us can meet that challenge?! Daily cartoonists do!
Check Your “Attorney’s” Bona Fides! (Don’t be an April Fool.)
“I thought he was a licensed attorney.”
“I thought a paralegal could advise and represent me.”
“He said he knew Oregon law.”
If you hire someone who claims to be an attorney, or who hedges when asked, trust your instincts, because when your instinct detects hedging, your instinct is often a whole lot sharper than you are at the moment. It doesn’t mean it is right, just that it isn’t bothered with “being nice” or any other need to please. Be the adult and stay in charge of the situation.
“Are you a licensed attorney in this state” is a yes or no question.
The answer should not be “uh, huh, or uhhhhhhh,” or, “ummm, uh uh, how are you today?” or “sort of,” or any variation on that theme.
The answer should either be “NO” or “YES” and “here is my bar card so you can check with the Oregon State Bar.” And then CHECK with the Oregon State Bar! Call them or check their website, for heaven’s sake.
Some law books just look as if they’d be more fun to read than others:
Law and Magic, by Christine A. Corcos
“…Topics include alchemy in fifteenth-century England, a discussion of how a courtroom is like a magic show, stage hypnotism and the law, Scottish witchcraft trials in the eighteenth century, the question of whether stage magicians can look to intellectual property to protect their rights, tarot card readings and the First Amendment, and an analysis of whether a magician can be qualified as an expert witness under the Federal Rules of Evidence…” (link to publisher website)
Public law librarians frequently (sometimes it seems daily) get the question: Where can I find a Power of Attorney form (and preferably one online)?
Please don’t try to short circuit this important, critical, legal protection. Here’s a sample response to the question:
I don’t meant to sound lawyerly or librarian-ly(?), but it depends on what you mean by “standard form,” what kind of power is being granted, who the parties are, what state everyone lives in, etc.
Law school libraries are excellent sources of legal research guides. You can find many of them with a quick Google search using your topic keyword and then simply adding the words “research guide.” Another useful search word is “pathfinder.”
This Guide to Free and Low-cost Legal Research is from Georgetown Law Library.
As you might imagine, law library associations are another source of excellent guides, and our D.C. law librarian colleagues are a wonderful source, as you might suspect, for federal law research guides. for example, see their recently updated:
Give a big welcome to a (relatively) new entrant in the Oregon legal research database field of players: Oregon Laws dot org. It’s a legal research database designed and powered by law students (our future!). I like it so far – and its associated blog too.
The owners solicit feedback, which I’m sure they’ll get from law librarians on issues of authentication, PURLs, archives, and more – oh my (law librarians always have something to say, and we’re always glad to see new entries into the Legal Information to the Public arena).
Lawyers might have other things to add, including our friends at PLoL and Justia and Public Resource, all very public spirited, like librarians.
Oregon Legal Research Blog