Oregon Legal Research Blog

Jury Duty Scam: It’s a scam that’s no longer a scam apparently, here. Con artists phone people to tell them they failed to report for jury duty and a warrant is out for their arrest. Personal data is solicited and received. Oy. Teach your children well: DON’T GIVE OUT PERSONAL INFORMATION OVER THE TELEPHONE and a few other places as well. Story link came from Bruce Schneier, posted 3/1/06. The comments to his posting are most interesting.

Filing and Service: The February 2006 PLF “In Brief” newsletter is chock full of useful information on service, computer backup and recovery, and much more. It’s an issue worth saving.

TurboTax Defense: Jack Bogdanski (surely you read Jack Bogs Blog regularly 🙂 posts the story (and related links) about a TurboTax defense and its outcome in Tax Court.

Law Practice Blogs and Beds: Yes, there are lots of them out there, but not all of them are great. Some are ok, others are blah, a few are good, and a handful are worth returning to regularly. This list can change so don’t get stuck in a rut. Right now, I (still) really like My Shingle and The Practice. And both of these bloggers link to their favorite blogs. And reading Beds (Justice Bedsworth) every month is an absolute necessity. There’s a secret spot where you can find the very latest and many of his just past columns. If you need a huge laugh and have only 5 minutes, go to Beds. The judge is at his best when trying to puzzle his way through family law issues, but he’ll bring a smile to your face no matter what subject he takes on.

U.S. Supreme Court decides Guzek: The U.S. Supreme Court on February 22nd, issued its opinion in Oregon v Guzek (04-928). You can find the opinion at their official web site, here, and many other places as well including Cornell, Findlaw, and other sites too numerous to list.

Client Technology Compatibility: Law tech blogger I Heart Tech who regularly makes me say, wow – what a great trick (I mean skill :-), generously posted her client technology compatibility survey in a February 17th posting that may prove useful in so many ways (I can see uses for it right here in the law library). If you share electronic documents with clients or even just communicate with them via cell phone, this survey could save you both a lot of time troubleshooting problems.

M37 Land Use Decision: The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled unanimously and reversed the lower Marion County Circuit Court opinion. See the Supreme Court’s February 21st decision, here. If you want copies of the briefs, the Washington County Law Library has scanned them.

It’s 10 a.m – do you know where your metadata is?: Don’t know what metadata is? Opposing counsel might:

“One Florida lawyer was quite upset when he learned his firm had been hoodwinked into e-mailing a document to opposing counsel instead of faxing it so that the metadata could be mined by opposing counsel. Apparently some client comments that were attached to the document and then deleted were recovered by opposing counsel. Well, this lawyer was on the Florida Bar’s Board of Governors and that body expressed its opinion that metadata mining is unethical and referred the matter to committee to determine what rules should be enacted on the subject.”

This is from Jim Calloway’s January 30th, 2006, posting on the subject, which has so much information and so many good links, you’d be worse than remiss for not reading at least some of it.

Disaster Planning and Personal Finance: Useful article from FDIC, here. It seems like commonsense, but do avoid that “black bag” by the door. It’s easy pickings for someone who shouldn’t be in your house. Thanks to Sabrina at beSpacific, an excellent blog for so many things and reasons.

Microsoft Training, Quick and Online: It’s good to get better at what we do. Microsoft has some quick, online training programs for you, your support staff, and your family to use, here. Thanks to Inter Alia, also a good place to visit to get better at what we do.