An interesting (but not earth shattering) case from Australia: the court (Master Harper) allowed a mortgage lender to serve the homeowners – at their Facebook page.
Find stories on the web, using these search words (or others of your choosing): australia court service mortgage facebook Canberra
Make sure you read at least a few stories out of Australia, not just the U.S. papers reporting the story. E.g.:
I’ve blogged about this before (here), but it is worth mentioning again (in different words) – we get lots (and lots) of questions from people who would not have questions at all, or their legal reference questions would be quite different, if they understood the following. But we’re happy to explain as often as necessary – it feels very good when someone lights up and says, “I think I’ve got it!”
The Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) are different from the Oregon Laws. As I wrote in a previous blog post:
“… if you research “the law online,” please make sure you have the current, official, corrected, authentic, and updated laws of the jurisdiction. For example, the 2007 ORS is not the most current statutory compilation. You will also need to check the 2008 Laws (and Oregon case law, not free-text searchable free online, though individual cases can be found here) which won’t be included in the ORS until the 2009 enactments are codified and published in early 2010.”
From the Washington County (Oregon) Law Librarian:
This is a follow-up to my previous post for those of you looking for Oregon legal forms.
Another important place to look for official, court-sanctioned, Oregon legal forms will be in the Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) Circuit Court Supplemental Local Rules (SLR). But, you still need to know what you’re doing. Check with the court where you plan to file the documents. And consult an attorney, please. It saves no one any time, money, or grief if you file the wrong form and don’t comply with rules of service.
Also keep in mind, that not every County Circuit Court’s SLR will have forms. My own county has a number of Washington County Circuit Court-specific family law forms, e.g. a Motion to Reset. You may not find this form in another Circuit Court. Your Circuit Court may require you to file a different form!
The flux is at it again. You know, when some relatively rare topic arises in conversation and then it comes up again and again. (I blogged about the flux a long while ago, here, but I was in a chatty mood so it’s a longer post than you might be up for.)
Anyway, the topic of copywriting legal documents came up a couple of weeks ago, and then it came up again and then again. Today I ran across this article, while looking at a webpage on searching public records, that I linked to from the Law Librarian Blog:
1) Due Diligence in Drafting: Copyrights in Legal Documents, by Thomas J. Stueber. (This article can be found in other online and print publications.)
2) There is also this one: “The Highest Form of Flattery? Application of the Fair Use Defense against Copyright Claims for Unauthorized Appropriation of Litigation Documents,” by Davida H. Isaacs, Northern Kentucky University – Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Missouri Law Review, Vol. 71, p. 391, 2006.
I was trying to decide if et al needed a serial comma – and I came across this:
In Bournemouth, England at least, “plain language” means you can’t use these: E.g., bona fide, and more (etc. too)
Excerpt from the story at Newstin dot com: Town halls ban staff from using Latin words, in case they confuse immigrants:
It’s almost Plum Book time again (see also here for links to previous Plum Books). If you’ve ever thought about becoming a belly-of-the-beast public servant (appointed) and working in Washington D.C. for a new Presidential administration, now is the time to get your resume out and buffed up.
Prepare to compete for jobs with the best and the brightest – very exciting!
We love all the hoopla about Public Resource dot com and their commitment to making the law accessible to all, without cost (or too many bells and whistles we don’t always need).
However, there is another legal research database that does almost the same thing, but seems quite happy to stay quietly under the radar:
The PLoL is a portion of the Fastcase database, and is offered freely by their owners.
Add the following to my previous post on Foreclosure research.
A USA Today story on Oct. 24, 2008, Programs are available to help struggling homeowners, by Anna Bahney and Barbara Hagenbaugh, tells of these national programs: Hope for Homeowners, Hope Now Alliance, Bank of America, and Indymac Federal Bank, and has web links to all.
Also, more foreclosure information can be found at the National Consumer Law Center, and, especially for non-lawyers, see their Consumer Education brochures.
I have a few extra Fastcase pilot project passwords to give out. (The application is at our webpage – at the bottom of the page, or here is the direct link.) You do not need to be an attorney to be eligible for this trial.
Washington County (Oregon) residents (and litigants with cases in Washington County courts) get priority but if passwords remain, other counties’ residents will be eligible, so send in your application, and tell me why you would like to participate. If I get a lot of applications, your database searching skills will be considered in determining eligibility, but curiosity and aptitude will be also.
This trial is NOT for the novice. I do NO hand-holding. The two of us who work in the Washington County Law Library serve a county with over 500,000 people: I do NOT offer Fastcase training for this pilot project. You will need to be comfortable with their excellent online tutorials and their telephone and email help services. (This level of (non) service on my part is intentional and part of the trial. Among other things, I want to know how easy it was for you to use this database.)
Public Resource dot com has started putting various state building, fire, mechanical, etc. codes online, at their codes dot com site.
Keep an eye on the site – and on everything else they are doing at Public Resource dot org – very exciting.
(But, please, be sure to check with your own jurisdiction’s code enforcement staff. Building codes are updated piecemeal and in full, and it takes time for third-party database vendors to update their own holdings from official sources. Links to my previous posts on Building Codes are here and here.)
Oregon Legal Research Blog