The very funny title leads into a very, very interesting blog post from BlawgIT. I love it also because it ties in with what law librarians say all the time:
Don’t Treat Your Law Librarian Like a Lawyer! Law librarians know and teach legal research. If you have a legal problem, ask a law librarian how to research it. If you want a solution to your legal problem, hire a lawyer!
But hear it from a lawyer:
A post at the King County Law Library blog reminded me to update my own sidebar list of “Legal Research – Free” list with ALSO — see Legal Resources On-line: Check This Out:
“American Law Sources on-Line (ALSO) provides free legal resources online. This website includes information about law libraries, federal courts, bar associations, legal forms, and government websites….” (from KCLL Klues)
At WisBlawg, Bonnie talks about Archival Case Law Free with FindACase. The fine print isn’t necessarily a deal breaker, but you have to decide that.
I’ve been talking a lot lately with others about public sector blogging and I thought it might be useful to start posting about the issue.
(And, some of the best, and most productive, discussions I’ve had have been with the people at the Multnomah County Library who drafted these: a) Social Software Policy for Multnomah County Library Users and b) Blog Comment Guidelines)
Blogging issues that arise in the Public Sector World include technological, budget, practical, policy, politics, and literary ones, and, of course, legal questions and puzzles. I’m sure there are others, but one has to start somewhere.
A recent case in libel reminded me of the proverb: the greater the truth, the greater the libel
(This proverb/quote has been attributed to Lord Mansfield and others, but also has roots in the doctrines of calumny and detraction, where, in lay terms, it’s worse to say something bad about a person if the thing is true than if it’s untrue, because you can’t retract it without telling a lie. Go ahead and have Google run a search on the words calumny detraction to see more or if you are interested in scholarly research on the subject, visit a law or theological library.)
From Media Law blog: “Think You Know Libel Law? Think Again:
“A bedrock principle of libel law is that truth is an absolute defense. If what you say about someone is true, the person cannot win a libel case against you, even if you defame them. The federal appeals court in Boston put a jackhammer to the bedrock this week. In Noonan v. Staples, it ruled that even a true statement can be subject to a libel lawsuit if it was said with actual malice. In so deciding, the three-judge panel did an about face, reversing its own earlier decision in the same case. You need not be superstitious to appreciate the import of this Friday the 13th ruling. It is the most dangerous libel decision in decades. The decision puts a crack in the bedrock that threatens to undermine free speech….” (read full post)
You might not have read this chapter book, Frindle, by Andrew Clements, but …
Lawyers aren’t the only ones who want to know Definitions, Words & Phrases, and the Meaning of it All (and even the Meaning of Liff itself). Non-attorneys frequently ask us to show them where a word or phrase is defined, surely one of the hardest things a law librarian has to explain to a pro se litigant.
You might want to read this article, just one of many where the courts have to figure out what the meaning of a word is:
From Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips blog, link to: Site of the Week: The Invent Blog®, and find this provocative suggestion: Purchase Your Kid’s Domain Names (and their nicknames, maybe, while you’re at it? 🙂
It’s not enough to feed, clothe, school, and love them ….
There are additional SEO tips from The Invent Blog (and from Jim’s blog):
Update: See this 4/30/09 OLR Blog post for new links to guides.
In addition to the usual source, Oregon State Bar (OSB) Information and Referral Service, don’t forget there are other sources of referrals. For example:
KCLL Klues reports that Washington State appellate court briefs from June 2006 forward are now online.
For Oregon appellate court briefs, see the guide on How to Find Oregon Appellate Court briefs. (And see here for more information on appeals in Oregon courts.)
Appellate court briefs are a terrific source of information for all legal researchers.
This recent post at f/k/a will take you to previous ones on lawyer billing, all worth reading. It will also take you to a definition of agita, a condition not unknown to those of us who don’t get a chance to get it all out of our systems (though blogging does help).
This leads me to my current lament (but no agita), which is: “why isn’t there a satisfactory legal equivalent to The Best American Science Writing?” (I’m working through the 2008 edition now.) Or is there?
There are a lot of “The Best American xxx Writing”: science and nature writing, short stories, mystery stories, comics, erotica, political writing, plays, sports writing, etc. Why not law?
How do you declare someone dead when there is no body?
I should probably save this for a Day of the Dead post, but, appearances notwithstanding, I’m blogging about Legal Research and the Living so … full speed ahead. (Previous posts about road kill & zombie debt.)
1) Check your state laws, forms, and procedures first and, if you are a lawyer, ask your lawyer colleagues for shortcuts and anecdotes too.
Oregon Legal Research Blog