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The Washington County (Oregon) Sheriff’s Office Newsletter always has at least one, and usually more, interesting (and even funny!) story. This latest issue includes this article:

What is the Difference Between Assault IV and Assault I: What do the numbers mean?

“People often hear that criminals are charged with Theft I or Theft III. Have you ever wondered what the different numbers mean after the charges? Or maybe you have heard that someone was charged with a Class A, B or C felony or misdemeanor. Both of these systems are ways of classifying the seriousness of the crime. Here’s a bit of info to help you remember what these designations mean.

Your lawyer, your insurance company, your executor, and your family may love you for this Home Inventory Guide one day, though only one of the latter is likely to help you complete this guide:

Via Neat New Tricks (which also links to this Picanswers site – gotta love the web), comes this: Home Inventory Guide

It’s a California guide so don’t phone them for help, unless you live in California! Phone your own state’s “people.” (You DO have People, don’t you? If you don’t know who they are, phone your public library reference staff – they are Your People.)

You wouldn’t think you’d have to study the Oregon Elections Division web pages to find the impending, looming, terrifyingly close voter registration deadline, but you do!

Here’s what it says at the Election Division Homepage. Find it there? Nope. Click on Voter Registration. Find it there? Nope.

Now, click on the next link, Register to Vote, (and then read half-way down the page). It says:

Great minds think alike. The following organizations all have their annual meetings in Portland this year:

League of Women Voters U.S. (LWVUS), June 13-17th, 2008

American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) 2008, July 12-15th, 2008

Adams Drafting blog takes a bite of the Bear Stearns Merger Agreement (and don’t forget to read the Comments):

“…. This deal raises all sorts of policy issues, but we at AdamsDrafting say to heck with the big picture—let’s look at the drafting angle! I offer below some random impressions derived from ten minutes spent skimming through the agreement.” (full blog post).

Interesting story by Karen McCowan, in the April 7th, 2008, Register-Guard, New disclosure law drives small-town resignations:

Excerpt:

“Coffee kiosk owner Scott Brooke doesn’t see what his fiancee’s out-of-town relatives have to do with his service on the Harrisburg Planning Commission.

Over the years, I’ve compiled a (very) short list of authorities a lawyer can cite to When All Else Fails. This list includes the following, pretty much in order of frequency of use (at least from attorneys I’ve spoken to :-):

1) Marbury v Madison
2) Hadley v Baxendale
3) Statute of Westminster
4) Something, anything almost, from Blackstone
5) Bracton

And today, while tracking down another librarian lead (Government Database Restriction Access Information on Abortion – also Wired story here), I found this:

HALT has started a Fred Rodell web site and blog.

What can I say? Read it and smile.

My non-lawyer readers may not realize just how much lawyers share, freely. In fact, a lot of lawyers don’t realize it either.

The recent Feb/Mar 2008 issue of the Oregon State Bar (OSB) Bulletin demonstrates this in two ways.

One is that their own professional association’s monthly magazine is free and online; you don’t need to be a member of the OSB to read it. (And it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that non-lawyers read it more carefully than lawyers, who tend to turn to one particular section and call it a day.)

More short essays worth reading to soften out the edges of a week in the World of Lawyers: Courthouse News Editorials

It’s not often that in memoriam essays are both funny and moving, but Coyote’s 3/14/08 essay, Jim Brantly was my Friend, is both: