Global Warning Isn’t the Only Future Event To Fret Over: Even Popular Mechanics is talking about the “Digital Ice Age” (thanks to Library Link of the Day for the link). Librarians, historians, and archivists have been talking (and warning) about this for a couple decades now. Be prepared for a lot of historical black holes in the future – convenient for some, inconvenient for others.
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What’s a Consumer To Do?: It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, so consumers beware. Librarians are often front and center (today may be shaping up to be a Run With the Clichés Day, so bear with me) when ordinary people (and this sometimes includes attorneys I might say), visit their local public or law library to ask, “How Do I Get Out of This Mess?” or “The #%^& Ripped Me Off!.”
It’s not easy and there are more consumer law resources than I could possibly begin to list here, but a little advice first and then sources of information:
First, think logically. If the problem is with your cable company, start with the cable company and work forward (or backward as the case may be). Look on the web or ask at your local library to find out which government office, if any, regulates the business, the service, the product. If the problem is with a defective item you ordered through the mail, at a local restaurant, with your car, or with anything else (including services) you purchased, sit down and gather facts and develop a strategy for fixing the problem. Plan to do a little research first. It will save you time and aggravation.
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Tis the Season, Part Two – Food Law:If I hadn’t become a law librarian instead of practicing law after law school I imagine I might have practiced school, government, or food law. For an appetizer, here are some Food Law links (sorry to put you off your food or your turducken, but … someone had to do it):
Mad Cow Blog (via Inter Alia) and Food Law
In a town of foodies and food handlers, you can’t be too careful.
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Foreign & International Law: For those of you who must stray beyond Oregon legal research, for curiosity or for work, here are three links you might want to add to your collection:
1) Directorate of Legal Research at the Library of Congress: Story by Michael Ravnitzky, here, and link to Directorate, here.
2) These two link to F&I resources, one a U.S. site and the other a U.K. one.
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Tis the season to read briefs – and to eat Turducken?
A couple of years ago (long before I began Blorking) as we were gearing up to digitize the state’s appellate court briefs I wrote an article for our county bar association newsletter and in it I compared briefs to Turducken (no, I don’t imagine it really does need to be capitalized). Here is a fragment of that article:
“According to Laura Orr, the Washington County Law Librarian, appellate court briefs are the overlooked middle children of the legal research process. Quiet and unassuming, they sit there watchfully or more often obliviously, happy to be left alone. Many law librarians, and a few lawyers, know about the treasures within briefs. One can find sample pleadings, tables of cases, factual details that surpass and legal arguments that outnumber those found in their corresponding judicial opinions. To Laura, briefs are the Turducken of the legal world. (“For those who never heard of Turducken, it is a chicken, within a duck, within a turkey holiday main dish. I have heard some people then put the Turducken inside a pig. It may have a vegan counterpart, though I doubt it is quite as alarming as the carnivore’s version. I could be mistaken though.”)
(Note: If you are wondering about those digitized Oregon appellate court briefs: we did set up a great system, even with my small staff (2.5) and limited budget, but there wasn’t much interest so I’ve given up, though we still have about 7,000 briefs in the database. It was a nice little project though, efficient, cost-effective, and it is a joy to send a brief to an attorney in about 3 minutes – it used to take much more than that – hours sometimes if it was on microfilm. My incredibly supportive local bar association law library board and my county’s IT staff were champs all the way. But no more – very sad. The State Law Library is going to step into the breach, but we don’t know when.
(Note 2: Microfilm is the only way to go for archival purposes, but digital is the only way to go for easy access to the documents.)
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Proposed Changes to ORCP: The Council on Court Procedures (CCP) is proposing a number of Rules changes – you can find them here, with instructions on how to submit comments. The CCP will meet and take final action on these proposals on December 9, 2006. (Other notices of Rules Amendments can be found here.)
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Measure 47 is/not enforceable?: The Mercury (via BlueOregon) has an update on whether or not all or part of Measure 47 is/will be enforceable. Who’s on first?
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What Do You Mean H.E.L.P.?: First there was HTML (well, it wasn’t really *first*, but you know what I mean), then there was XML, and now there is OPML (via Library Link of the Day). What next – HELP?
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Reedsport City Charter Ballot Measure Passed: See story in the Umpqua Post, here. Portland is also going through a city charter review process (any others?). Among other interesting comparisons between the two cities (yes, yes I know the two cities are quite different), Reedsport decided in their new charter to elect council members at large instead of by precinct. “’An elected official needs to represent the entire city,’ said Lechuga.”
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Benton Co DA Steps Down: The Albany Democrat Herald reports that a Benton County DA is resigning because of a Circuit Court judge. Direct link is here, but if that doesn’t work, link from the paper’s front page.