If you haven’t heard or used Zimmerman’s Legal Research guide, give it a whirl. You might find you use it again and again.
Andy Zimmerman has now created a handy-dandy ZRG blog, which is an excellent way to keep atop his updates to the ZRG.
Recent updates include these, but you can find them all, including an RSS feed, from the ZRG blog homepage:
MUTCD: Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices
Another research resource alive and well on the web, but remember, not everyone has web access. The digital divide is also alive and well. Support your libraries that make digital documents available to people who don’t have easy access to online resources!
Brace yourself for a fun Oregon Election ballot in November 2010.
If you want to participate, don’t forget to register to vote. Visit the Oregon Secretary of State Election Division or your county election office for information on registering online or in person.
November 2010 is the time to vote for a new Oregon Gubernator. (Why else would they call it a gubernatorial election?)
While on a rare, and all too brief, break from work, I caught, so to speak, a wonderful, and not a little bit terrifying, interview on Fresh Air with Peter Laufer, author of “Forbidden Creatures: Inside the World of Animal Smuggling and Exotic Pets.”
It was hard on the heels of my Exotic Pets post: Animal Law: Thou Shall Not Covet Exotic Pets in Oregon (and beyond)
If you’ve been reading stories about the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) ban on sharing home-brewed beer (and the Oregon Homebrewers Alliance has links and information), you might want to read the law itself and a bit more on how this all came about.
1) The OLCC Blog has information and you can visit their other news sites as well.
2) The Willamette Week has information and a link to the July 23, 2010, OLCC press release.
If you’re interested in learning more about how Oregon Small Claims and Traffic courts operate, here’s your chance:
Oregon Small Claims and Traffic CLE
Presented by: Judge Steven A. Todd, Multnomah County Circuit Court
Questions about Oregon initiative and referendum signature petitions are as old as the petition itself (1902) and as new as yesterday (see History links, below). The latest challenges are to the Secretary of State’s office tossing petition signatures for a 2010 ballot initiative that would change how the state manages legislative redistricting.
There are lots of recent news stories; online news readers can Google (or otherwise search) “oregon initiative petition signatures” with any variations you wish that develop as you read the stories. Don’t forget that the phrase “valid signature” may not be used in a story about petitioner signatures and instead, there may be words like signature verification, authentication, and similar words used in conjunction with the words petitions, signatures, and initiatives.
Keep in mind also that I know little about signature petitions (see Disclaimer, below), let alone the initiative and referendum process (other than as a voter), so come along on my:
Brace yourself for a fun ballot in November.
If you want to participate, don’t forget to register to vote. Visit the Oregon Secretary of State Election Division or your county election office for information on registering online or in person.
November 2010 is the time to vote for a new Oregon Gubernator! (Why else would they call it a gubernatorial election?)
This is an update to previous posts on estate planning (and on pro se litigants):
Public law libraries, and public libraries generally, get a lot of questions from people (non-attorneys) who want to write their own wills, draft their own powers of attorney, and who want fill-in-the-blank estate planning legal forms.
1) If you have no money, no property, no children or relatives in Oregon or any other state, no heirs, no interest in leaving what you do have to a charity or nonprofit, and don’t care if what remains of your estate (everything) goes to the tax collector and/or the state general fund, you don’t have to read on.
While there are dozens of print resources (and even more online) on specific wills, trusts, and estate planning issues and questions, here’s a short list of the basic, not to be skipped, Oregon estate planning forms and practice materials. These are print-only resources in most law libraries, though some libraries may have on-site online or CD-ROM access.
1) Oregon State Bar (OSB) estate planning practice and course books
2) Oregon Will and Trust Forms in the U.S. Bank 3-volume set (also on CD-ROM)
Oregon Legal Research Blog