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Public Service “All I need is a Form” Questions: Hot on the heels of my forms copyright posting, here’s one for members of the public. Non-attorneys frequently come into libraries and ask for “Forms.” (Sometimes there are “forms” and we can provide or refer. But this is extremely rare. Legal forms in Oregon are about as thin on the ground as 18-24 year-old voters.) While it seems simple enough to say, “We don’t have forms,” it is not an acceptable Public Law Librarian answer, at least without continuing the conversation to determine exactly what is needed. But the alternative is cumbersome. How do you explain without a long dissertation things like this:

“Well, we have sample forms, though it might take you some time to locate the one you need. Oh, your friend’s attorney told you to look for a form called xxx? Well, did you talk to that attorney? Does the attorney know exactly what your situation is? No? Um, no there isn’t a form called that or even a little bit like that.

[After showing them a few books with sample forms.] You think this is the form? Are you sure? Are you really sure? [It couldn’t possibly be.] No, you can’t just fill it in, but yes, you could copy it and use it as a guide. I’m not an attorney so I don’t know if this is the right form. No, it might not apply exactly to your situation, though yes, it could still be helpful but you need to sit and read it carefully first to decide or make a copy and find someone to advise you.

[And then of course we have to set out all the caveats.] Do you know what this form will do? Would you like a book on powers of attorney, advance directives, etc., etc., etc.? No? It’s too complicated? Are you sure it’s the right form or the form you want? Ah, you might want to consult an attorney before completing and signing the form. Have you ever talked to an attorney before? Would you like a book on how to work with attorneys? We have a couple of helpful ones. Oh, you don’t know where to find an attorney? Have you tried the OSB Referral and Information Service? Yes? Oh, they weren’t at all helpful. Well, maybe you want to try phoning them again. They rely a lot on volunteer help and maybe another person on the phone at a different time will help. Oh. Well, do you have anyone in your family or a friend who has hired an attorney and might be able to help you with a referral? No?”

You see, it’s not easy being a helpful public law librarian.

Keeping Up With the Law: In the “olden” days, attorneys and law librarians would read paper advance sheets and slip opinions to keep up our state court’s recent opinions. Now there are paperless ways to keep up. In Oregon, it’s easy to keep up with the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. If you regularly check the OJD web pages, and in particular the “Media Releases,” you won’t miss much. The trick is to keep up with it. Figure out how. Opposing counsel and the judges do.

Treaties Out of Print: The word on the law librarian listserve is that Treaties in Force and Treaties and Other International Agreements Series (TIAS) will no longer be published in print. The online source will be the U.S. Department of State. The Los Angeles County Law Library, among others, has a nice little guide to treaty research.

Podcasting Legal Guide: Creative Commons has posted a Podcasting Legal Guide. Thank you to Neat New Stuff for the link!

Old Bailey Proceedings: I did a lot more English legal research in my previous life when it was much harder than it is now to find the documents we wanted, so I give a wistful sigh over how much fun it would be today with the avalanche of English legal history materials coming up on the web, including these Old Bailey Proceedings.

Measure 37 Third-Party Rights: A KATU story reports that: “A judge has ruled that property owners granted waivers from land-use rules under Measure 37 must take further steps to establish their development rights before they can sell them.” The opinion is by Crook County Circuit Court Presiding Judge Neilson. The opinion is not yet on their web site.

THE Library Catalog for the World: Any day now, Worldcat will make its online catalog available to anyone with an Internet connection. This is OCLC’s pride and joy (they do other things worthy of accolade too). The bittersweet side of this is that OCLC’s founder, Frederick Kilgour, just died this week at age 92.

For biblio-wonks: This Worldcat news is bigger and better than you might even imagine, as librarians the world over know. One of the biggest drawbacks to conventional Internet search engines is that they allow for very limited and very crude field searching, but then they are search engines, not databases. (Now if only they could direct my search results into a database that could be manipulated … well, never mind.) For example, try limiting your Google search by date (no, not the Saturday night kind). It’s impossible to get the desired results, which is frustrating for those of us used to searching databases that allow for complex field searching, e.g. most library catalogs and full-service databases such as Dialog, Lexis, and Westlaw.

Internet Privacy and Reference Questions: With the deepest and sincerest apologies to Jane Austen: It is a truth universally acknowledged that anything you write on the Internet is as likely as not to be declared a public record or discoverable in a legal action, by a judge, state or federal attorney general, law enforcement agency, advocacy group, or an attorney. Any electronic medium disclaimer statement should reflect that fact. No matter which state or federal public records laws apply, this basic and universal truth is unassailable.

When I answer email reference questions, I use this public records disclaimer in addition to the usual one about the librarians and the unauthorized practice of law, They both make people really nervous, as they should, but not knowing is worse.

Disclaimers:

Podcasting as a Business Strategy: Go easy on the move to podcasting as a means to talk to other people in a professional milieu (you can podcast all you like in your personal life). One reason I don’t like a podcast instead of a transcript (rather than giving me a choice of either) is that most people are not very good at public speaking and it’s very painful to have to listen instead of being able to read a transcript. At best, many public speakers talk too slowly, which will lose an audience faster than a dull PowerPoint presenter in a cold, dark, cavernous, hotel conference room. At worst, well, we all know how bad public speakers can be. Even wonderfully talented, incredibly smart people um can a, um, be like, a, um, um, disaster when, ah, um, speaking ah, a, um, like, um, publicly. You get my um drift. So, please, like, a, um, PLEASE, don’t skip those transcripts and go directly to podcast. I, um, ah, like really, like wow, won’t listen to you and won’t get to hear your words of wisdom. Or, at least give Toastmasters a try first.

Packaging Law: Who knew? A packaging law firm too. I came to it honestly via Inter-Alia’s July 30th Research Weekly. Wrap it around Food Law.