The Law Librarian blog posted a very funny video today from the Onion News Network titled Congress Forgets How to Pass a Law. As an added bonus, the video offers a shout-out to the Library of Congress (and mentions legislators frantically searching wikipedia).
From the Onion’s website:
After years of gridlock, Democrats and Republicans have realized no one remembers how to actually enact legislation.
The Oregon Department of Justice is alerting everyone to this:
Scam Alert: Fake Debt Collection Scams
Excerpt: “The Oregon Department of Justice has received several complaints regarding phony debt collection calls. Scam artists pose as debt collectors or law enforcement officers calling about an outstanding debt from an online payday loan. They frequently use fake phone numbers and official sounding business names. They also do their research. Some Oregonians have been tricked into paying nonexistent debt because the scam artist knew personal information about them, including their Social Security number, home address, e-mail, and names of family and personal references.
This was hilarious (thus, good for a Friday late afternoon), but also instructive – or it should be instructive to any of us who think we know anything about websites. (Most of us admit to being amateurs – but even the pros make mistakes.)
“Law school Web sites judged; some found wanting,” by Karen Sloan, The National Law Journal, January 26, 2011:
‘There are a lot of law students happily lounging under trees out there — if law school Web sites are to be believed.
A recent empirical study and ranking of the home pages for all 200 American Bar Association-accredited law schools found that 65 included photos of students in or around trees, a phenomenon the authors dubbed “Girls Under Trees.”….’ (Link to full article.)
A colleague passed this along, from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Law Blog (and you can read other WSJ blogs, too):
“Survey Says! Paralegaling is a Better Job than Lawyering,” WSJ Law Blog, 1/6/11
The WSJ Law Blog seems to have a slightly higher caliber of Comments than some other news websites and blogs. See, e.g. their Oregon Supreme Court decision blog post (re Barger (SC S058345) and Ritchie (SC S057701 (Control), S057705):
Portland State University (PSU) and the PSU Millar Library will be closed from Saturday December 18 through Sunday December 26, 2010, due to budget reductions.
PSU affiliates will continue to have access to the Library’s extensive online resources and to 24/7 online chat assistance through the Oregon Libraries Network (L-Net) (a service funded by the Oregon State Library and staffed by Oregon librarians, and others around the U.S.).
If you want to speak out to your elected officials about budget priorities:
Use the Oregon Legislature’s Find Your Legislator tool to locate contact information for your state and federal elected representatives.
Bob Ambrogi’s Law Sites Blog, August 19, 2010, post brings us this excellent news: Virtual Chase Rises from the Ashes
Many lawyers, law professors, and judges have to talk to the press (print and online news writers and reporters) at some time in their careers. Sometimes reporters just want some background information, facts checked, or some legal procedural step clarified. But sometimes, the lawyer IS the story, or at least the only story the news-writer has access to.
What do you do and say if your client is a party to a news-worthy case? More to the point, what do you say if you’re a new lawyer and you’ve not yet been battle scarred by badly written, inaccurate, misspelled, and potentially harmful (to your client) news stories?
Aside from the fact that “the press” can be your friend and that we all like to READ news stories, what are some of those tried and true lessons our parents would have taught us if they held high-profile legal jobs:
If you or your neighbors run into Gutter-Cleaning Man, please call the WC Sheriff to find out if he is still a Wanted Person.
“Police seek man accused of several elder abuse cases,” Monday, June 28, 2010, by Nick Christensen, The Hillsboro Argus:
Excerpt: “… Police say an elderly man, who lives on the 1800 block of Elm Street, was visited by a man identifying himself as “Mike” and offering to clean the moss off his roof.
Participate in a discussion on the federal deficit:
1) USA Budget Discussion dot org
2) For a quick review of the difference between the national debt and the national deficit, visit this U.S. Treasury website.
We are often asked about Oregon legal newspapers. The answer depends on the specific question: if one want to post a legal notice, if one is looking for legal jobs, if one wants to track Oregon legal news, if, if, if, ….
The following is an attempt to address most of the “is there an Oregon legal newspaper?” questions, but I’m sure I’ll leave something out for a later blog post.
First things first: There isn’t a “legal newspaper” in Oregon, at least not if one is looking for something like these:
Oregon Legal Research Blog