Oregon Legal Research BlogThe “Law via the Internet Conference” will be held in Ithaca, NY, October 7-9, 2012:
Among other programs, this one promises to be provocative:
“Can We Trust What’s Online? Conclusions from the National Inventory of Legal Materials.”
Articles Posted in Legal Subject Area Guides
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Oregon Attorney 2012 CLEs: Animal Law, Learning the Ropes, and ICWA
1) October 5th: 2012 Animal Law CLE: Sponsored by the OSB Animal Law Section:
Personal Property or Companions? Why the Legal Status of Animals Matters:
Part I: Overview and Evolution of Animal Law
Part II: Animals in the Criminal System
2) Late October-early November 2012: The ever popular, forever useful Learning the Ropes, 3-day, CLE. Visit the Law Practice Management 9/17/12, blog post with information and links.
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iPad Tips for Lawyers: Resource Round-up from I Heart Tech
If you feel awash in iPad tips for lawyers, you’re not alone. Here’s another place to begin:
iPad for Lawyers: Resource Round-up from I Heart Tech (and her resource page).
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2012 Oregon Renters’ Handbook (OSPIRG)
OSPIRG has updated their Oregon Renters’ Handbook, now in its 10th Edition (2012).
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Civics Lession: Does Oregon Have Three “Branches” of Government?
Gavel to Gavel blog (a review of state legislation affecting the courts) had this September 4th post:
Excerpt:
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Oregon Contract Lawyers: Independent Contractors or Employees?
“Contract Lawyers: Independent Contractors or Employees?” by attorneys Lisa C. Brown and Jim W. Vogele, (OSB PLF, July 2012, In Brief, pp. 1-3)
Excerpt:
“Law firms working with contract lawyers should be aware that law firms, just like any other businesses, may be audited by federal and state agencies to ensure they are correctly classifying their contract lawyers as either employees or independent contractors. A firm may assume a contract lawyer is an independent contractor without carefully analyzing the factors distinguishing independent contractors from employees.
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Researching Appellate Court Briefs: Online? Low-cost?
Law librarians teach law students and new lawyers that state and federal appellate court briefs are treasure troves, but they are not the easiest documents to search.
For example, in Oregon, unless you have a subscription to Lexis or Westlaw, and can afford to buy into their briefs databank, and need to search only relatively recent briefs, you have to resort to needle-in-a-haystack types of research. (A law librarian can recommend some research tips, but the research still takes time.)
Web-based, publicly-accessible, moderately priced, and searchable digital briefs banks rise and fall, but that’s a good thing. One needs to experiment a lot to find the right online business model and database. To read about a recent effort:
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Justice Bedsworth: Why God Made Misdemeanors and the NCAA Sanctioned Cal Tech
Justice Bedsworth’s take on these matters makes as much sense as anyone’s – and maybe a little more. And he’s a real judge! (Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal.)
OC Lawyer, A Criminal Waste of Space: September 2012: Schools by the NCAA
Excerpt: “…. So we, greenhorns all, learned the rules of evidence and the complexities of human nature by trying misdemeanors. If you dropped the blood vial in a driving-under-the-influence case and watched it shatter on the floor—as actually happened to one of my contemporaries—you were not turning a puppy-raper loose on society. If you over-prosecuted a petty theft case, it was unlikely your mistake would change the earth’s rotational rate.
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California enacts UELMA, Guaranteeing Free & Authenticated Access to State Legal Materials
On September 13th, 2012, California Governor Brown signed SB1075 into law, enacting the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act in California (UELMA).
From Law Librarian listserv:
“SB1075 provides that the California Constitution, the state statutes, and the California codes will be authentic and permanently available online to the citizens of California. The bill, sponsored by the Senate Committee on Rules, leaves open the option to include additional categories of material through amendment and it establishes that the Legislative Counsel Bureau is the official publisher.
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Some Students CAN Discharge Student Loans in Bankruptcy
Marketplace Money ran an interview with Ron Lieber, author of the recent NYT story on discharging student loan debt in bankruptcy:
1) Marketplace Money (9/7/12) podcast: Student loans and bankruptcy
2) Ron Lieber’s (9/31/12) New York Times article:
Last Plea on School Loans: Proving a Hopeless Future