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Public librarian/patron question: Can we get a quick overview of what types of cases/issues are addressed at each level of court – city, county, state, federal?

Answer: There probably is no such thing as a “quick” overview. In Oregon there are several different types of courts. Limited jurisdiction courts such as municipal courts or justice courts have, as you might guess, limited jurisdiction. They typically hear cases involving traffic tickets and in some areas, they might hear cases involving traffic crimes like driving while suspended or driving under the influence of intoxicants. Limited jurisdiction courts do not normally hear criminal cases, divorces, or larger civil suits.

It used to be the custom in Oregon to refer to the county governing body as the “county court” and in some counties that is still the practice. The county board of commissioners or county court has very limited jurisdiction to hear land use matters (and some other issues) in the same way that a city council hears zoning issues.

Public Librarian/Patron Question: If the ORS is indeed not “updated” how do we direct patrons to get “current” status?

Answer (thank you to our favorite law librarain contributor who for now must remain anonymous!): Remember that the Oregon Revised Statutes are updated whenever the Legislature meets in regular session. Special session legislation may not appear in the ORS volumes you have, but will be published in the Oregon Laws for the special session (e.g. the laws passed in April 2006, won’t show up in the 2005 ORS, but will appear other places). The most critical “update” is the constant interpretation of the law by the courts. There probably is no perfect system to make certain that the information you rely on is correct. The most reliable way is to use one (or more) of the citator systems maintained by legal publishers; Shepards by Lexis/Nexis and KeyCite by Thomson/West. Other publishers, like LoisLaw, VersusLaw, and Casemaker, also have citator systems. Without access to these, it is not possible to know that the statute you are using is still good law, nor is it possible to know how the courts have directed that the statute be interpreted. The best way to serve a patron looking for such information is to direct the patron to a law library that has access to one or more of the print or electronic citator systems. Law librarians can show the patrons how to use the print or online citators; they can’t explain to the patrons the case holdings that affect the statutes. Ultimately, the patron is best served by a referral to an attorney who can tell the patron the current state of the law.

Q&A from public librarians and their patrons: I will continue to post these Q&As periodically (see April 11th post), and please forgive any delays in doing so. Solo librarians, like solo practitioners, are their own chief cooks and bottle-washers and there are times when the day just isn’t long enough to deal with all the chopping, dicing, roasting, basting, burning, and cleaning up. Without further ado, however, the next posting will be a Q&A – hurrah!

Mandamus in Land Use Cases: The latest issue (Spring 2006, vol 25, #1) of the OSB “Litigation Journal,” has an article by Mark Fucile on “Mandamus in Land Use Cases.” The newsletter is not available on the section’s web page.

Podcast Internal Revenue Code: Librarians everywhere know that there are many people in the world who can’t read the printed page, for any number of reasons. While an audio ORS is probably a long way off, thanks to Jack Bogdanski, a podcast of the Internal Revenue Code is already here. Here is his description of the project, here is the link to the podcast, and here is the home page of his blog. Hmmm … maybe he can round up a few law students to podcast the ORS. It has a two-year shelf-life, so the effort might not be in vain. One can dream. Organizing a podcast of the index might be a bit tricky, but not impossible. I know a lot of really smart taxonomists who could probably come up with a zillion ways to do it.

May 2006 Election Judicial Candidates: TheOSB has posted its Judicial Voter’s Guide to its web site.

Dog Law blog: Nolo Press has teamed up with Little Sheba and others to create a Dog Law blog. It has links to law and legislation, books, travel tips, and much more. Check it out, here.

Thinking about Measure 37: The latest issue of Lewis & Clark Law School’s Environmental Law Review (volume 36, no. 1, 2006) is a Measure 37 Symposium Issue. Check it out.

Legal Information vs Legal Advice: An excellent place to look for articles and guides on how non-attorneys in courts, legal offices and libraries can serve members of the public productively and lawfully is at the American Judicature Society’s website. Their Pro Se forum resource pages are full of useful documents.

Citing unpublished opinions in the federal courts: It’s a Yes. The Supreme Court has not surprisingly approved citing to unpublished cases next year. beSpacific and How Appealing, among others, have been tracking this issue for years and link to a Tony Mauro story on the latest development, here.