Oregon Legal Research Blog

I love great questions from pro se litigants, paralegals, and law students. (Lawyers have great questions too, but usually they are of the, “that would be a terrific law exam question” type of question.) Here was today’s great non-attorney question:

What do the “Supplemental Local Rules” (SLR) supplement?

This question is usually preceded by a, “may I ask a stupid question?” It is NOT a stupid question, partly because it means the “student of legal research” is noticing patterns and paying attention. Here’s the answer:

The Feb 2007 issue of the Lane County Law Library Newsletter is out. Learn about links to research resources on finding legislative history, administrative law, law journals, and legal forms. Thank you to the Lane County Law Librarian!

An interesting article from the Christian Science Monitor, “New no-smoking frontier: condos and apartments.”

From Bruce Schneier on Security blog:

“According to this article, “Mistaken eyewitness identification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions.” Given what I’ve been reading recently about memory and the brain, this does not surprise me at all. … New Mexico is currently debating a bill reforming eyewitness identification procedures: ….”

The latest in this developing story about the Portland attorney, Scott Caplan, is in today’s Oregonian, here. Other stories appear here, here, and here.

This month’s Washington County Sheriff’s Neighborhood Watch News has a terrific article about MySpace and other social networking sites, parents, their children, and life online.

This week’s Blawg Review is dedicated to Mediation and Negotiation. Enjoy your travels:

Welcome to Blawg Review #94–the “getting to yes” edition!

Many editions of Blawg Review are organized around a central, unifying theme, influenced by the focus of the host’s own work or an event or date that edition coincides with.

The theme of this one happens to be negotiation.

Sabrina at beSpacific reminds us that it is National Consumer Protection Week. I should have seen this coming. A lot of what law librarians do with the public is helping people navigate the Consumer Protection rough seas. So …

Shred your mail, don’t use a debit card online, and beware of online solicitations (off-line ones too :-), use your turn signals, don’t tailgate, and – wait – save these for National Drive Safely Day.

Virtual Email Reference

It’s not easy explaining how to research a legal question – and try doing it in high-heels and backwards – no, wait, I mean in an email message. I love to write (and am even working on a piece about Virtual Legal Reference and Writer’s Voice), but virtual legal reference makes me crazy. Not “Don’t Make Me Do It” crazy, but more of “I Love Trying to Figure Out How to Say This, but Don’t Have Three Hours to Figure Out How to Say It Intelligibly So You Don’t YELL at Me for Not Answering Your Question The Way You Think It Should Be Answered” crazy.

Law librarians and others who staff reference desks or online reference services get a lot of grief for our long, seemingly evasive, answers to “simple” legal questions. Take a look at poor Mr. Groklaw who took the time and trouble to explain at great length what appears to be a simple question (and it’s not even about the law – only about legal citation!) but clearly isn’t. If you read the comments what is also clear is that he got grief. He was only trying to help. We’re a tough bunch, we law librarians and keep trying year after year – against all odds. We don’t quit even after getting grief – and we do get it, oh do we get it. (But we do get a cartoon to see us through the day – Unshelved.)