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Some law books just look as if they’d be more fun to read than others:

Law and Magic, by Christine A. Corcos

“…Topics include alchemy in fifteenth-century England, a discussion of how a courtroom is like a magic show, stage hypnotism and the law, Scottish witchcraft trials in the eighteenth century, the question of whether stage magicians can look to intellectual property to protect their rights, tarot card readings and the First Amendment, and an analysis of whether a magician can be qualified as an expert witness under the Federal Rules of Evidence…” (link to publisher website)

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Public law librarians frequently (sometimes it seems daily) get the question: Where can I find a Power of Attorney form (and preferably one online)?

Please don’t try to short circuit this important, critical, legal protection. Here’s a sample response to the question:

I don’t meant to sound lawyerly or librarian-ly(?), but it depends on what you mean by “standard form,” what kind of power is being granted, who the parties are, what state everyone lives in, etc.

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Gallagher Blogs reports on the migration of federal information from GPO Access to FDsys:

“You might already be familiar with GPO Access, the website of the U.S. Government Printing Office, which provides free electronic access to the official documents of all three branches of the federal government. Documents available on GPO Access include the U.S. Code, congressional bills, legislative history documents, Supreme Court decisions, budgets, and reports.

On January 19, 2009, the GPO publicly launched its next-generation digital information system, FDsys, and started moving the documents on GPO Access to FDSys….” (link to full post)

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The Outreach and Referral System for Veterans will be expanding in Washington County, Oregon.

“Currently, all Veterans in our community can access VA benefits, services and assistance in completing discharge documentation (Form 214) through the Washington County Disability, Aging and Veteran Services (503-846-3060) and access employment training and resources through the Veterans Employment Representative (503-681-0219) at Worksource Oregon Employment Division.

A new component to helping homeless veterans in our community is a mobile Veteran Outreach Van that will provide resources (e.g. clothing, etc.) and referral to shelter/housing programs and the VA Medical Center. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hosts the Veteran Outreach Van scheduled to be in Washington County. See attached flyer for details.

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Law school libraries are excellent sources of legal research guides. You can find many of them with a quick Google search using your topic keyword and then simply adding the words “research guide.” Another useful search word is “pathfinder.”

This Guide to Free and Low-cost Legal Research is from Georgetown Law Library.

As you might imagine, law library associations are another source of excellent guides, and our D.C. law librarian colleagues are a wonderful source, as you might suspect, for federal law research guides. for example, see their recently updated:

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This class for Landlords only: Landlord Study Hall 2009

Previous Oregon Legal Research blog posts about free Oregon legal information, here and here and here.

(And for those of you of a certain age or of a certain frame of mind, remember Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book, which, of course you can find free on the web.)

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If public law librarians had a motto, it might be:

We don’t make it easy, but we try to make it possible.

This underwater logging reference question came to us (the 3 Oregon county law librarians who answer email legal reference questions for L-net, the online Oregon Statewide Reference Service). My Lane County Law Librarian counterpart crafted a masterful response and I thought it would be worth posting (and it is edited to protect the innocent).

The question was about laws and regulations governing underwater logging, who has rights to logs, what kinds of permits are required, etc.

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I frequently get calls from people looking for U.S. pocket constitutions and I happily refer them to our various sources, including this one, which is having a sale!

But it occurred to me that I should start a 100 Uses for Pocket U.S. Constitutions list. Here goes:

1) To hand out to law library patrons on Constitution Day.
2) To pass around to public-transit mates when we start talking about the 17th Amendment (election of Senators) and other heavy subjects. (And see also #7, below.)
3) Gifts on special occasions or for special people who appreciate such things
4) A book group “book” (research guides about the U.S. Constitution?)
5) A book-group prop when reading a history or political science book (I took a stack of them for everyone when we read Kafka Comes to America.)
6) Stocking stuffers (and this doesn’t just have to be for Christmas 🙂
7) Peace Out, Dawg offerings when riding public transit (it’s hard to get mad at someone who’s handing you a free pocket U.S. Constitution!)
8) Luggage stuffers. I always put one in my suitcase, on top, before I close the lid. It’s not prohibited, is it?
9) When a law library patrons asks, “can you sign away your Constitutional rights?”
10) As a handout when I teach a class to paralegals.
11) To hand out to the first 10 librarians who attend the inaugural business meeting of the recently formed Oregon Library Association (OLA) Legal Reference Round Table during the OLA Annual Meeting.
12) …

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In our continued exploration of the Oregon Legislature, in particular the information on their website, don’t forget the Committee Services webpages. Click on Committee Services Publications for, among other things, previous session summaries. You can find full session publications or view these reports section by section, e.g. 2008 Judiciary.

These and other useful publications are from the Legislative Administration Services Committee Office. (I last blogged about them when reporting on the demise of the legislative minutes.)

Lawyers, and their clients, and law librarians, live in the present, future, and especially in the past – seriously. There is a reason we need to keep superseded laws, regulations, and rules in our libraries, many of which are “out of print” and not online, so we are thrilled to see “retrospective conversion” digitization projects going on.

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The Oregon State Bar (OSB), Winter 2009 issue of the Debtor-Creditor Section newsletter (online only to section members) has a sobering article by Oregon attorney Terrance J. Slominski:

“Foreclosure Rescuers: Good Samaritans or Scam Artists?” with a description of 4 categories of foreclosure scams, including: Sale-Leasback, Equity Stripping, Loan Modification, and Stealing the Home.

These sound harmless enough, don’t they? Beware. Please talk to an attorney who is qualified and experienced in creditor-debtor matters if you have serious financial problems.

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