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From Oregonlive, here:

“Forest Grove’s attempt to condemn 140 acres of farmland just outside its border came to an abrupt halt Thursday when Washington County Circuit Judge Mark Gardner dismissed the case without prejudice and encouraged both parties to try mediation. Although the dismissal ends the current condemnation case, the city has the option of refiling it, Gardner said. Mediation is expected to start after the holidays, according to attorneys for the city and the property owners….

Gardner said after Thursday’s hearing ended that he thought the case wasn’t a good match for the limits of a courtroom, where there is always a winner and a loser. He listened to a day and a half of testimony before suggesting mediation as an alternative. “In a mediation, there’s all kinds of possibilities in terms of how people might structure a resolution,” he said.”

I don’t know if any of you caught this editorial in today’s Oregonian – or if you caught the libraries reference, but it did make me laugh. How often do you see library workers mentioned in the same sentence with stockbrokers, skiers, and mountain climbers. This might be the first, though a bittersweet context it is.

“Some of us work in libraries. Some sell stocks. Some ski. Some climb mountains.” (from: 12/22/06 Oregonian, editorial:

Enjoy the long weekend – and don’t spend it all shopping. Spare a thought for families who are missing loved ones who will never return.

From a place where Crown Copyright reigns supreme, we now have this wonderful public database of U.K. Statutes. Our roots are here, or should I say there, so pay attention. There are times when you really do want to look at and compare their statutes to ours. Try, for example, typing “infanticide” into the database title search field. (Thanks to Rob at BoleyBlogs for the posting about this database.)

From State v Meharry (S52988) OJD Media Release: “In an opinion written by Justice Rives Kistler, the Supreme Court held that a warrantless search of an automobile does not violate Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution when the automobile is mobile at the time an officer stops it and there is probable cause to believe that the vehicle contains contraband or evidence of a crime. The Court reasoned that the search of defendant’s van was justified because the van was mobile when the officer stopped it by parking his police car behind defendant’s van.”

This Oregon Supreme Court case and others decided this week can be found at the OJD web site, here. The full text of Meharry is here.

What do investigators and truck drivers have in common? Just as in this age of wired shoppers, we still need skillful truck drivers to deliver the goods, so too do wired attorneys still need skilled investigators on the ground. It might be a wired world, but we still eat, shop, and cheat in three tangible dimensions. It’s a career choice for many, electronically– or gumshoe-inclined, and law librarians have moved into the profession too. I remember a wonderful presentation at a law librarian conference by a Kroll lawyer/investigator not so many years ago. He was also doing a bit of recruiting, and not a few of us were intrigued by the possibilities. Lucky for you, some of us stayed in public service 🙂

Shlep has a post (from 12/18) with lots of good links on the subject, “holiday hell week at family courts.” Let’s hope not, but … prepare for some heartbreak. We provide law library services to a lot of local juvenile and family law attorneys – it’s a tough job, not unlike walking a tightrope high above a canyon, with a child in each arm.

OSB recently published 2006 revisions to their “Creditors’ Rights and Remedies” and “Oregon Uniform Civil Jury Instructions” CLE manuals/deskbooks (could I start a movement to STOP calling them CLEs and start calling them, maybe, practice guides or something like that? We all get a little testy after the 43,598th time saying, “the MANUAL, you know, the DESKBOOK, you know, the LOOSELEAF, NOT the CLE coursebook.’ Sigh.

Both the Oregonian and the Portland Tribune have stories today (and in the past, of course) about Measure 37 (M37) developments. There seems to be some surprise that it’s not the little guy who is filing M37 complaints, though there is some of that. Duh (that’s librarian-ese for Uh huh). Just about any county law librarian could have told them this shortly after M37 passed. We prepared for an influx of ordinary people with M37 questions and instead, nothin’. It occurred to us in very short order that most of the M37 filers were people with lawyers, and in some cases, people with big law firm lawyers. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing (if I had a M37 claim, I’d probably hire an attorney), but why voters and the head of Portland’s M37 program thought it was a “mom & pop” do-it-yourself game, I’ll never know:

“It’s a whole new ball game,” Dearth said. “It’s not the mom and pop, Dorothy English-style claim anymore.” [Chris Dearth, head of Portland’s M37 program] [Quoted from the Portland Tribune story.]

The Oregonian had a nice story today on neighborhood mediation services, “Neighbor got your goat? Time to call in a mediator.” They link to Resolutions Northwest for more information. Some Oregon cities, e.g. Hillsboro and Beaverton, have local mediation services in place and in Portland, some neighborhood associations can also help out or refer to professionals. These are terrific places to begin to resolve disputes – save the courthouse for later if necessary.

The latest issue (Fall 2006, vol. 25, no.3) of Litigation Journal (published by the OSB Litigation Section) has, among other informative articles, one by Erick J. Haynie, entitled, “The Lis Pendens Doctrine inOregon: Caging the Golden Goose in Real Estate Litigation.”