Oregon Legal Research BlogWhen and how should a judge intervene when parties represent themselves in court?
Richard Zorza has published an article on the subject in the ABA Judges Journal, which you can link to from Zorza’s Access to Justice blog post:
Articles Posted in Legal Self-help Community
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Copyrighted State Legal Forms can Protect Consumers
While most government documents are in the public domain, not all of them are. Here’s a story about some copyrighted state legal forms and the state (Montana) that sued a company that violated that copyright. The defendants were charging someone lots of money for the forms – when state residents could have used the forms for no charge at all in their own court cases.
This happens in Oregon, too. Before buying legal forms online, find out if there are any free, official Oregon legal forms available. You can ask at the Oregon State Bar, at an Oregon county law library, or you can post the question to L-net.
“State Law Library of Montana Wins Legal Forms Case,” by Judy Meadows, State Law Library of Montana
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Free Legal Forms Templates (NOT fill-in-the-blank forms!)
We’re beginning to compile a list of free, online, legal formatting templates.NOTE: this is NOT a list of “fill in the blank” legal action-specific forms. These are very simple forms templates, with field and line number formatting, that a litigant and lawyer could use to draft their own legal documents when specialized, sometimes expensive legal forms software is unavailable.
You still need to research the law!
We’ll add to this list as we learn about more options, but it’s a start:
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Free Federal Court Opinions in FDsys
Find free U.S. court opinions at the FDsys website. This is a pilot project and not yet fully populated, but take a look:
Reported on in:
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Legal Rights and Legal Answers for Young Oregonians
“My boyfriend is 15 and I’m 17 …” and variations on the theme.
Sometimes the only thing to do is to “Ask a Lawyer.” Sometimes, you can read all the books, read all the statutes, ask all your friends, and you still don’t have an answer.
The Oregon State Bar has a program called Problem Solvers for people ages 11 to 17. They offer free, confidential 30 minute legal consultations. You can contact them:
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Free Federal Rules Ebooks
Free Federal Rules Ebooks, from the Legal Information Institute (compatible with iPad, Kindle, and more.)
Read: “About our Federal Rules ebooks.
If you know LII, you know free doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice quality. The books are based on LII’s federal rules collections, the premiere, free versions of the federal rules online. Our federal rules ebooks include:
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Legal Aid funding cuts hit Oregon’s Marion and Polk Counties
“Legal Aid funding cuts hit Marion and Polk Counties,” at the Law for Real People blog, posted 09/06/2011
Excerpt: “…We need to recognize legal aid as a kind of community public health resource, like a free vaccination clinic — because when we ignore the legal needs of the poor, they don’t just magically disappear, they get worse and become far more difficult and expensive to deal with. When society doesn’t fund vaccines for the poor, it’s not just the poor who suffer. Same with civil law. Sure we can shave a few bucks off the legal aid budget every year after year after year — but then we wonder why we, to take just one example, have to spend so much more to try to educate kids who change schools five and six times in two years (because the parent’s inability to defend themselves against an abusive debt collector caused wage garnishment and loss of housing, leading to a vicious downward spiral of unemployment and underemployment, which causes housing and food insecurity, which raises the likelihood of student failure, dropping out, and other social maladaptations)….“ (Link to full post.)
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Nine Things Pro Se (Self-represented) Litigants Need to Know
Whether you are going into Small Claims Court, Circuit Court, Bankruptcy Court, or into Traffic Court, if you want to win or at least stay in control of your destiny to the extent possible:
- You have to listen, learn, read, get organized, keep good records, stay focused and determined, and above all else keep a healthy sense of perspective and humor.
- Legal research is hard and time-consuming. But it can also be interesting, rewarding, and even fun.
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Free Law Books Online: Findlaw and Nolo
If there is a particular book you want and you know its title, you can check library catalogs or run a web search or ask a law librarian (who have access to this wonderful resource, Svengalis, “Legal Information Buyer’s Guide and Reference Manual”).
But sometimes you don’t know exactly what you want or even if there are books on the subject you are researching. In addition to checking your local libraries’ catalogs using keyword and subject searches, run a web search using the words free law books. You can also check out these:
1) “Findlaw for the Public,” from the University of Washington Law Library’s Gallagher Blog.
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Oregon Small Claims Court Limit Raised to $10,000
Please note corrected effective date for this law – and thank you to the lawyers who alerted me to this!
The Oregon Small Claims Court jurisdictional limit has been raised to $10,000.
HB 2710 was signed by the Governor on June 30, 2011. (Chapter 595, (2011 Laws): Some parts effective date July 1, 2011; the Small Claims Court amendments are effective October 1, 2011.)