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If you haven’t heard about this iPhone Scam Alert, in the newspaper, online, from the Oregon AG’s office, and beyond, then you need to think about ratcheting up your news tracking. This scam is not the worst out there, but if you’re not hearing daily about some food or product recall or scam, then you can’t complaint about the world going to hell in a handbasket. It takes two to be scammed, and to tango. So put on your crap-detectors, slow down, and think before you play or pay.

In other words, let’s have a little more caveating out there. See FBI, Snopes, beware urban legends, and check out Recalls dot gov. But you’re on the front line so Caveat Emptor.

I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use the very funny line of Tom McCarthy’s from his review of the Clancy Martin book, “How to Sell.” McCarthy’s line in his article, Art of the Deal (from the 5/17/09 NYT Book Review): “To bastardize the Latin, emptors need to sober up and exercise a little caveating over that one….” Yes, McCarthy said it in a completely different context! But the sentiment works amongst us legal types, doesn’t it?

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Non-attorney Oregon legal researchers frequently overlook Oregon attorney-general opinions. Not every legal problem will require a search of attorney general opinions, but you don’t want to miss this research resource when it is relevant. (Other states also have AG opinions, and so does the U.S.)

There are a number of ways to find relevant AG opinions, using the Annotation volume of the ORS, an online legal research database that has the AG opinions, a citator, or by looking at the Oregon Attorney General (AG) Opinions website, which has opinions from 1997 to the present:

“The opinions fall into two broad categories, formal and informal opinions. Formal opinions are signed by the Attorney General as chief legal officer of the State and typically respond to questions concerning constitutional issues and other matters of statewide concern. Informal opinions are issued on matters less likely to impact those other than the requestor and are signed by the Chief Counsel of the Department of Justice General Counsel Division. The informal opinions can be distinguished from the formal opinions through their designation. Informal opinions appear in the subject index as, for example, 1997-1. Formal opinions appear as, for example, 8246.” (link to AG website)

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An excellent, and fast, tutorial on free and low cost legal research tools is available from the Duke University law librarians: The Unexploded Cow’s Guide to Legal Research.

My previous posts on free and low-cost legal research are here and here (with additional imbedded links).

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Even in the world of zines and social networking, there is still a kind of Periodical Underworld, which isn’t as under the world as it used to be, but it’s still not quite mainstream.

Here is an AP story that I found through Google News, about the Prison Legal News (PLN):

Ex-con’s magazine focuses on advocacy, prison life, by JOHN CURRAN, May 24, 2009. Other releases of the story are here and here.

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beSpacific reminded me to try out Google Squared, which is very interesting. I foresee it being useful for kids and parents doing homework and maybe even for medical and health related questions – maybe. I’m not so sure about legal research. I entered Oregon Legal Research, but all I got was: “Google Squared couldn’t automatically build a Square about oregon legal research.” Very funny, but not helpful. I’m about as Square as can be!

And then there is Bing. Only time will tell, but so far so good, especially on the Oregon Legal Research front.

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It’s hard to keep up with all the new laws coming out of Salem. Here’s a news story from KOHD News describing how Governor Kulongoski signed 24 bills into law on June 2, 2009 – just try reading those in one day!

You can find other bills signed into law at the Governor’s website.

Find other Oregon Legal Research blog posts about Legislation by clicking on keywords in the side-bar’s LABELS list.

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I saw this story at a May 17, 2009, PI Buzz blog post (3rd paragraph) and thought I’d blog about it here given the strong (ish) public records laws in Oregon. The link is to a Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press post.

Excerpt: “The names of individuals buried in a state cemetery are death records, the Nebraska Supreme Court said today, ruling that they must be released in accordance with the state’s open records law… . The court held that “HIPAA does not bar release of the information” and, in fact, “provides for release of information when required by state law.” As the records here were death records under Nebraska law, the court said, they must be released.” (link to full post)

(HIPAA = Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)

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You have to love law librarians and others who go where others fear to tread (e.g. the journalist who forced open some MP (Member of Parliament) records about their taxpayer funded expenditures).

Mary Whisner, at the Gallagher Law Library, University of Washington, has posted a link to her article about the Law Behind the Mattress Tags (101 Law Libr. J. 235 (2009)).

(The Law Library Journal archives can also be found at the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) website.)

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