Articles Posted in Legal Subject Area Guides

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Al Nye The Lawyer Guy posted on A Dozen Things To Consider Before Filing For Divorce. I might have missed it but for Diana Skaggs’s Blawg Review #101 debut:

“You know the numbers. It’s projected right now that about half of all new marriages end up in divorce. It’s a horrible statistic that doesn’t begin to suggest the emotional and financial strain that it puts on families. Other than the death of your spouse, divorce is probably the most stressful event you’ll ever face. I’ve had women discussing their divorce in my office become violently ill. I’ve seen hardened fishermen cry in open court during their divorce hearing. Make no mistake – divorce is hell.

So what have I learned after being a lawyer for nearly 30 years and helping many folks go through this difficult process? If you believe that a divorce is in your future, here are 12 things think about …” Got to Al Nye for the rest.

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LibraryLaw (an excellent blog, by the way) reports to us that the Copyright Renewal Database at Stanford is available. It covers those key dates, 1923-1963 (read the About the Collection section of the web site).

And if you are a neophyte just embarking on a copyright quest, don’t forget to start with the official U.S. Copyright Office web page. Everyone has an opinion on copyright law. Read the best, read the law, do your research, and when in doubt, consult an attorney.

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A recent story in the Oregonian, March 29th, 2007, headline, “Raising Grandkids,” by Abby Haight ((available through the public library’s Oregonian database and on the Oregonlive web page for 14 days after publication), has moved me to post some of the resources we point grandparents to when they come to the law library with their own grandkid-raising questions. (We probably get these questions every few weeks.)

Here are some Portland metro area and beyond sources of information:

1) Report: “Oregon’s Legal Guide for Grandparents and other Relatives Raising Children,” 2005.
2) County Government office: Your county’s Aging and Disabilities Services office

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Know your tow truck operator.

From the Washington County Sheriff’s Department story, “Oh Thank Goodness the Tow Truck Is Here.” (Yes, I know there is another side to tow truck operators but we’ll leave that for another day.) There is more Sheriff’s Office News here.

“Have you ever had your vehicle break down on the road and needed to be towed? You feel that great sigh of relief as the tow truck arrives to move your vehicle and often you and family members from the side of the road. Or maybe your vehicle has been stolen and later recovered and you needed towing services. What do you know about the tow company and the person arriving to help you? Your Sheriff’s Office has taken steps to assure your safety.

Your Sheriff’s Office authorizes only certain companies to respond when deputies call for tow services. Each of the authorized tow companies has had their offices, storage yards, and trucks inspected by Sheriff’s Office members. In addition, each tow truck driver, company owner, dispatcher, and mechanic must undergo a thorough background investigation.

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If this isn’t wonderful, “Ecstasy of Influence,” by Jonathan Lethem, I’ll bite my blog. (Linked to via Library Link of the Day, 2/14/07). An excerpt is below, but read the whole thing. You’ll smile at the logic, the flaws, and the humor, but will also be provoked beyond measure. And it is only by chance that I posted a couple of days ago to Posner’s book on plagiarism. Enjoy:

“The idea that culture can be property—intellectual property—is used to justify everything from attempts to force the Girl Scouts to pay royalties for singing songs around campfires to the infringement suit brought by the estate of Margaret Mitchell against the publishers of Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone. Corporations like Celera Genomics have filed for patents for human genes, while the Recording Industry Association of America has sued music downloaders for copyright infringement, reaching out-of-court settlements for thousands of dollars with defendants as young as twelve. ASCAP bleeds fees from shop owners who play background music in their stores; students and scholars are shamed from placing texts facedown on photocopy machines. At the same time, copyright is revered by most established writers and artists as a birthright and bulwark, the source of nurture for their infinitely fragile practices in a rapacious world. Plagiarism and piracy, after all, are the monsters we working artists are taught to dread, as they roam the woods surrounding our tiny preserves of regard and remuneration.” [from Harper’s Magazine, Lethem, “Ecstasy of Influence”]

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** Please see the June 2009 update (or click on the Babysitting label). **

This is the time of year when the babysitting questions appear with increasing frequency. I’ve compiled a few sources of information to help answer some of the questions, but don’t expect the answers to be black and white. Little in life is.

The question we get most often is about what age a child must be before he or she can be left home alone. I refer people with that question to this Clackamas County web site because it explains it well. You may very well want to contact your own county’s Information or Sheriff’s office.

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From the Oregon Court of Appeals, Oregon v. Greenlick A127374),

“This case presents the opportunity to decide whether the statutory speedy trial right, ORS 135.747, applies to traffic violations. Defendant moved to dismiss the charge, asserting that the state had violated ORS 135.747 by bringing him to trial some 15 months after the citation was issued. The trial court did not address the state’s contention that the statute was inapplicable, but ruled that the length of the delay was not unreasonable. For the reasons that follow, we reverse….

Thus, a straightforward application of ORS 135.747 in the context of a violation requires that a defendant be brought to trial within a reasonable period of time after the issuance of the citation. In this case, we have no difficulty concluding that a delay of 15 months between the issuance of the citation and trial was unreasonable in the absence of any other circumstances.”

Other Oregon Court of Appeals and Supreme Court cases can be found here. The Media Releases summarize the recent cases.

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David at Shlep reminds me to remind you (well, not quite, but his posting prods me, so to speak 🙂 about the Nolo Press Podcasts. They are on a full range of subjects from, “Do Dads Get a Fair Shake in Divorce” to “Is it a Crime to Make a Full Confession” to “What’s the Best Way to Screen a Tenant” and everything in between. Thanks David and Nolo!

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Aggrieved car owners whose cars have been towed are frequent visitors to our law library and to other public libraries. “What can I do?” they ask. The answer is the same as what you would do when you have any other grievance, public or private. You research and document the facts, map out a strategic plan of action, and then you act – you Speak Out, with dignity and style. Success isn’t measured by winning. Success is measured by knowing you’ve fought the good battle, armed with good information, and that you are on the side of angels (you are aren’t you?).

Today’s Oregonian ran a story today about some of the towing bills before the state legislature. Hope springs eternal. They list some of the bills (click on the Factbox), but you can also find the whole list of towing bills by searching the Oregon Legislature’s web page. Type “towing” into the 2007 Legislative Measures search box and, voila! (This database is updated frequently.)

To speak out on this issue (and any other for that matter):

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I’m an unabashed fan of the AARP Bulletin. (This is different from being uncritical of some of AARP’s positions.) I learn as much, and sometimes about the same things, as I do reading Consumer Reports. This month (Jan 2007) in the AARP Bulletin their column, The Law, has this question: “Does a retirement community violate federal laws by deciding what kind of living arrangements residents need?” The online edition doesn’t yet have a live link to the story, but it is listed in the table of contents. Apparently there has been a lawsuit filed in California, by the plaintiff, Herriot and AARP, against Channing House in Palo Alto. Another story about this lawsuit is here.

The AARP Bulletin also has this column, Ask the Experts, and questions about law, finance, and government are answered.

And, they also have a legal services network, which I will add to my growing “How to Find a Lawyer” list I am compiling for my upcoming programs on the subject.

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