Oregon Legal Research BlogPublished on:
Traffic Deaths: 40,000 and counting?
Articles Posted in Legal Subject Area Guides
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Asset Searches in Dissolutions of Marriage (Oregon)
“Asset Searches in Dissolutions of Marriage,” by Ann Richards & R.T. Tavey, in the Oregon State Bar (OSB) Family Law Newsletter, June 2008, pp. 1-3.
(These useful newsletters from OSB Sections are not well-indexed so I try to highlight some of their articles when they land on my desk/top. You can contact your nearest law school or county law library (see sidebar for links) and ask about reading a copy.)
There is lots of information on the Internet about locating public records, but makes sure you know about the dangers of taking at face value everything you see on the Internet (or read in a book or a magazine or hear on the radio – shall I go on?). Always turn on your crap detectors (e.g. try this How to Evaluate Legal Web Sites guide from the excellent Maryland People’s Law Library website).
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Consumer Reports (Magazine) Free, Online and the Google Insights Service
I was looking at the Google Insights service (prompted by PI Buzz’s exploration of the service) and thought I’d run my [free, online] Online Consumer Reports “test” on it, i.e., just how many people do search for Consumer Reports via Google and how do they search for it?
The results were interesting to say the least. I limited my search to United States and the past 12 months, 9 months, and 30 days (all different results, all useful).
Three possible conclusions (of many others one could likely draw):
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Online Oregon Criminal Records Searches (re CriminalSearches dot com)
The Oregon Judicial Department has this official NOTICE ABOUT ONLINE CRIMINAL RECORDS SEARCHES:
“July 31, 2008
We have received many complaints since July 21 about inaccurate and outdated information on a new website called CriminalSearches.com, which offers to search for “criminal” records throughout the US for free.
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Should Juries Know the Likely Sentence When Deciding Guilt?
Are you following this blog conversation about Oregon sentencing law ?: “Should juries know the likely sentence when deciding guilt?“
“The title of this post is the title of this interesting BlueOregon post authored by Oregon state representative Chip Shields. The post begins with a review of the remarkable Rodriguez mandatory sentencing case (previously blogged here and here) still working its way through the Oregon state courts. But it ends with Rep. Shields setting out this legislative history and some provocative questions:
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Lawyers, Private Investigators, and Ethics
The body of literature (scholarly, practical, and popular) on private investigators (and their lawyer clients – or is it the other way around?) is a fairly large one, but it doesn’t hurt to add blog posts to that bibliography: From the always interesting PI Buzz’s Tamara Thompson comes this, “The Conversation Between Attorneys and Investigators.”
The Comment that begins thus, “[t]he point is that a PI should not rely on the attorney to set any objective ethical standards,” pretty much sums up a lot of what personal ethics decisions (and verdicts) are all about. “He made me do it” just doesn’t cut it for most of us. “I was following orders” is much more complicated, but then, so is life.
In my own Law Library, we have the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (OCDLA) publication, The Investigator’s Manual, by David Audet and Wendy Kunkel.
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Response-Ability: Defending the Yoga Instructor When a Student is Injured
While reading a magazine article “Play Your Part: Accept responsibility for what you bring to each moment and enjoy the power of truth,” by Sally Kempton, printed in the September 2008 issue of “Yoga Journal” (see Note below to find articles online), I realized it was not only an essay on blame, responsibility, truth, and strength (among many other things), but also a presentation on possible defenses a yoga instructor (and his/her lawyer) could sort through if a student is injured while in a yoga class.
(One of course would hope that a conversation would be the first choice for dispute resolution for yoga teacher and student, rather than litigation, but life is what it is and one is not entirely hopeful, though maybe a little more hopeful in the world of Yoga than the world of Medicine, which is no more an exact science than Yoga, or Law, or Life.
Doctors and their lawyers have been discussing for years (decades?) this alternative approach to “it’s your fault,” though not quite reaching the full spirit of disclosure, honesty, and “truth and reconciliation,” at least making the effort. I suspect, however, and the medical malpractice attorneys may pitch in here, that this approach is still present in only a small percentage of cases. Doctors are no more able than lawyers or politicians, or people generally, to say, “I’m sorry” (as opposed to “mistakes were made”).)
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Building Codes in Oregon: An Update
I last posted here about researching Oregon Building Codes and a couple of updates are in order:
1) You can subscribe to email BCD News for the Oregon Department of Consumer & Business Services, Building Codes Division. Visit their homepage and check out their online services.
2) Building Tech Books are closing up shop and referring customers to Builders Books, Inc.
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Phonies, Scammers, and Maybe Worse: False Sex Offender Accusation
The latest scam to hit my workplace is from people claiming to be from Verizon and wanting to examine our invoices (yeah, right). This comes on the heels of lots of other metro area (and countrywide I presume) phonies claiming to be authorized to check the wiring, the plumbing, the photocopier, and offering any other excuse that will give free, unmonitored, access to private spaces.
The law (and law enforcement) can’t do too much to stop these crimes from occurring before the fact, so use your common sense, ask to see ID, check with the source (that ID isn’t always legitimate), check with your employer. trust your judgment, and don’t let anyone unknown wander through private workspace. (Oh, and lock up your valuables and encrypt those computers for heaven’s sake.)
Here’s another variation – a cruel hoax that may also be surfing lightly in the presence of the ever-present vague anxiety that seems to exist among many people (where’s “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” when you need it?):
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Oregon Probate Mediation, Duty to Pay Debts, & Business Property Credit Update
The latest (Vol. XXV, No. 3, July 2008) issue of the newsletter from the Estate Planning and Administration section of the Oregon State Bar (OSB) includes the following articles:
1) Mediation of Probate and Protective Matters, by Joshua Kadish.
2) Duty to Pay Debts?, by Conrad G. Hutterli.