In honor of Halloween today, here are some weird laws from around the world pertaining to the celebration of this spooky holiday.
Many locales have age restrictions on trick or treating, usually banning teenagers and adults. Some cities ban adults accompanying children trick or treating from wearing masks.
In the UK you could be fined and spend six months in prison for wearing a police officer costume.
If you’ve never had a document notarized before you might have questions on the process and what you need to know. Read on for answers to some of these questions.
How Do I Find a Notary Public?
The Oregon Secretary of State has a list of active notaries here, but there is no search function and it is basically a database of names and addresses. You could sort by city, but the interface is clunky and not user friendly. There are several websites that have notary directories and some of the notary associations have directories that you can search. Many banks and public libraries offer notary service for their customers.
The Washington County Circuit Court has posted informational videos about court procedures for evictions. These are short videos available in English and Spanish that contain general information about evictions and things both landlords and tenants need to know about how evictions are handled in court. The information in the videos is not specific to the Washington County Circuit court, so if your matter is in another county, they are still good resources for information.
For evictions, also see last week’s blog “So you’ve been served with eviction papers. Now What?!” with a video from our Now What?! legal information series.
Oregon Law Help, maintained by the Oregon Law Center, recently posted a Renter’s Handbook on Rent Increases. This short document, available in English and Spanish gives information about the different types of tenancies and how a landlord may deliver a notice of a rent increase. It also provides resources you can look at if you are a low-income renter.
So you’ve been served with eviction papers. Now What?!
Back in July the Washington County Law Library hosted a webinar on the eviction process and renters rights with Rick Peel from The Oregon Law Center. The video of the presentation is now available on the county’s YouTube!
Back in April the Washington County Law Library hosted a webinar on Probate with Javier Spyker from Hernandez and Associates. The video of the presentation is now available on the county’s YouTube!
A federal criminal indictment has been in the national news recently. But federal criminal law and procedure is not something most of us know much about. So how can you learn more about federal criminal indictments and federal criminal procedure?
First one could look at the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. These are the rules that attorneys and the federal courts follow for federal criminal matters. Rules six through nine govern the indictment process. Other rules cover various aspects of the proceedings before, during, and after trial.
For more analysis and explanation of criminal justice proceedings, one could look at HeinOnline’s Criminal Justice & Criminology collection. This collection includes several law journal articles, books, Department of Justice publications, Congressional hearings, and Congressional Research Service reports, among others. WCCLS library card holders can access HeinOnline remotely.
As COVID restrictions ease across Oregon, the state’s circuit courts are resuming in-person trials. We have been getting questions about serving on a jury. Each county circuit court has their own procedures and rules, so it is always a good idea to contact the circuit court directly to get answers to your questions. Here are some sources that I found online that answered some of those questions.
The Oregon State Bar has a Juror handbook which answers in plain language many questions a prospective juror may have.
On the Oregon courts webpage they have posted a Juror Orientation video. It has comments from judges, attorneys, and former jurors about jury duty and re-enactments of parts of jury selection and a trial. There is also a FAQ section on the site about jury duty in general (not county-specific information) and a section on court etiquette.
The number one question on the Oregon Legal Research website has for many years been “When Can I Leave My Kids Home Alone?” The last time this was updated was in 2011, so I thought I’d update that page.
Oregon does not have a law specifically stating the exact age when children can be left home alone. However, the child neglect statutes do offer some guidance, along with cases that interpret those statutes. It is also helpful to look at the information provided by government agencies. If you read the updated Q&A you will find the text of the statutes and links to helpful resources.
How did we answer that? #StatuteOfLimitations
We had a woman come into the law library and ask us about how to sue a doctor for a medical injury (sometimes called malpractice). Through follow-up questions, we were able to determine that she was not looking for resources about the legal process or how to file suit. Instead, she was wanting to know how long since the injury occurred did she have to initiate a lawsuit, also known as a statute of limitations.
Conveniently, the Oregon State Bar has a book called “Oregon Statutory Time Limitations.” Like their other publications, there is a convenient index in the back. We showed this book to the patron and she was able to find the entry about medical injury. In the book, it referenced a specific ORS (Oregon Revised Statute, the legal code for the state of Oregon).
“Cite Wikipedia in an argument to a judge, and you are likely to get a disapproving glare in response. ‘Give me solid precedent,’ the judge is likely to say, ‘cases and statutes and respected authorities.’
But a team of scientists from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Maynooth University, Ireland, has concluded that, in fact, Wikipedia has a measurable impact on judicial decision making. …”
Read the rest of Bob Ambrogi’s article on LawSites.
Oregon Legal Research Blog