This is a Quick and Easy Guide. More complicated ones exist, but it just doesn’t have to be that hard – and this way you have no excuse for not speaking out:
In a Nutshell (example of a 4-step script follows):
1) Who IS your legislator? One quick way to find out is to use this Find Your Legislator tool. It will give you your state and federal legislators’ names and contact information.
The King County Law Library blog, KCLL Klues, has this post about Legal Applications for iPhones, and it includes a bar exam prep application, in addition to others on copyright law and student law. More to come, too, I expect. Who needs to go to the office anymore? Wowsers.
Can a self-represented (pro se) litigant claim “attorneys fees?”
For a discussion of the meaning of attorneys fees in the context of a pro se litigant’s public records lawsuit, I recommend you read the recently decided (June 17) Colby v. Gunson (A133979) (2009).
Excerpt: “Plaintiff argues that he is entitled to attorney fees and costs under ORS 192.490(3) because he is a “person seeking the right to inspect” public records, and he prevailed in the appeal. Defendant contends that the statutory reference to “attorney fees” includes only fees that are charged to a client under a contractual commitment between an attorney and client and not the value of the time invested in the case by a self-represented client. Our determination of the intended meaning of the term “attorney fees” in ORS 192.490(3) is governed by the method described in PGE v. Bureau of Labor and Industries, 317 Or 606, 610-12, 859 P2d 1143 (1993), as recently modified by State v. Gaines, 346 Or 160, 171-72, ___ P3d ___ (2009) (examination of the text and context of the statute, and legislative history of the enactment when that history appears useful to the court’s analysis)….
…
ORS 192.409(3) does not require that the attorney fees be “incurred.” The statutory construction issue in this case, then, is whether the bare term “attorney fees” implies that same contractual dynamic–a charge by an attorney that a separate entity is obligated to pay. We determine the legislative intent in the use of particular statutory wording by giving words their plain, natural, and ordinary meaning. Haynes v. Tri-County Metro., 337 Or 659, 663, 103 P3d 101 (2004). In common parlance, “attorney fee” connotes a charge for an attorney’s professional services. Webster’s Third New Int’l Dictionary 833 (unabridged ed 2002) defines “fee” to include “compensation often in the form of a fixed charge for professional service or for special and requested exercise of talent or of skill (as by an artist) (a doctor’s ~) (a lawyer’s retainer ~).” Similarly, Black’s Law Dictionary 139 (8th ed 2004) defines “attorney fee” as “[t]he charge to a client for services performed for the client, such as an hourly fee, a flat fee, or a contingent fee.” A “charge,” in turn, arises in a transaction between two persons. Webster’s defines “charge” to mean:…” (read full case!)
From the Oregon Legislature Clerk of the House website:
“In 1999, the Legislative Assembly adopted ORS 171.022, which reads, “Except as otherwise provided in the Act, an Act of the Legislative Assembly takes effect on January 1 of the year after passage of the Act.”
Some bills contain a clause which specify a particular effective date. Still others may have emergency, sunset, or referendum clauses attached.”
See also previous OLR Blog post on effective dates of legislation.
Legal Aid Services of Oregon, among others, has created Oregon Forms Help:
“This website is designed to help Oregon residents who wish to represent themselves in an uncontested divorce. Here you will find step-by-step instructions for filling out the Optional Statewide Family Law Forms prepared by the State of Oregon Judicial Branch. You will also be given step-by-step instructions for processing the forms and performing the other necessary tasks required by the court.
This website is presented by Legal Aid Services of Oregon, in collaboration with Oregon’s legal aid programs.” Oregon Forms Help.
This story in the Statesman Journal is accompanied by a list of the bills “In the Pipeline,” “Still Brewing,” and “In Limbo or Dead”:
Measure 57 key to ending the 2009 session, Issue keeps budgets of public-safety agencies in limbo, by Peter Wong • Statesman Journal, June 21, 2009.
Landlord-Tenant Law and Legislation:
The U.S. Supreme Court case on special education in Forest Grove, Oregon, is:
Forest Grove School Dist. v. T.A., decided: 6/22/09, No. 08-305, which you can find at the Court’s opinion’s website, 2008 Term.
Sleepy radio listeners have long muttered “WHAT hour?” at radio announcers who say, “it is 10 minutes past the hour.” (Would it be so hard to say, it is 10 minutes past 7 a.m. in San Francisco? Public radio listeners are smart enough to figure out what time it is then in Indianapolis. Radio announcers also play this game with the stock market. “The Dow Jones went up 13 points today.” TO WHAT, pray tell?!)
And newspaper readers (especially lawyers and law librarians) have long muttered, “WHICH statute?” at newspaper reporters who write, “a 1999 statute ….” WHICH STATUTE?!
Recent stories in the newspapers keep saying, “a 1999 statute” changed the law in Oregon [about religion as a defense when parents withhold medical treatment from their child] without otherwise identifying WHICH statute. For the record: it is this statute:
From the Law Writing Prof Blog:
Northwest Regional Legal Writing Conference in Portland – August 28-29, 2009
“Lewis & Clark Law School and the University of Oregon School of Law are pleased to announce their joint sponsorship of the 2009 Northwest Regional Legal Writing Conference. Because of that sponsorship, the conference will have no registration fee.
As is the case for any vocation or avocation, the law is filled with Words that make us go huh! in the night (but not with this huh and surely not to be confused with d’oh, unless you use the Word incorrectly while speaking to a judge in a crowded courtroom).
We’re not talking about those legal Latin words and phrases that can make even (especially) legal writing gurus, who usually favor plain speaking and writing, roll their eyes.
There are many law dictionaries in the wide world of the web and there is a new edition of Black’s Law Dictionary on the horizon (the 9th, to be precise, though I sincerely doubt it will have the impact of Beethoven’s 9th symphony).
