Articles Tagged with Free legal research resources

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Imagine this: A patron comes into the law library at 4:40 and says “I’m being sued, and I need to file a response before 5:00 today. Do you have the form for that? Oh, and I need help filling it out.” We would really like to help this person, but realistically this may not be possible. Unfortunately, patrons usually do not know what services we provide. Read on for information on what law libraries can and can’t do and how to get the most from your visit.

Don’t leave your research until the last minute. Leave enough time to handle any problems that might arise. In our example, the patron assumes that there is a fill-in-the-blank form that they can use, and that law library personnel can help them fill it out. Oregon does not have many fill-in-the-blank forms and law library employees cannot help patrons fill out forms. We would direct the patron to possible sources of templates that they can use to create their own document, and to resources that might help them to fill out the form. They probably wouldn’t have time to do all that in less than 20 minutes and get it to the court before they close.

Along those same lines, make sure you can devote time to research your questions. Law library personnel can’t do research for you. We can point you to resources that might be useful and show you how to do the research yourself.

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Do you have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) at work? Then you might have access to free legal help that you didn’t even know about!

Many employers offer their employees an EAP as an extra benefit. Many EAPs offer some legal help as part of the package. It could be as simple as articles on legal topics to free legal consultations to discounts on attorney fees.

Some EAPs offer articles on various subjects such as criminal law, immigration, and consumer law. They may also offer forms for specific states and might include various Power of Attorney forms and Wills.

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The Washington County Circuit Court has posted informational videos about court procedures for evictions. These are short videos available in English and Spanish that contain general information about evictions and things both landlords and tenants need to know about how evictions are handled in court. The information in the videos is not specific to the Washington County Circuit court, so if your matter is in another county, they are still good resources for information.

For evictions, also see last week’s blog “So you’ve been served with eviction papers. Now What?!” with a video from our Now What?! legal information series.

Oregon Law Help, maintained by the Oregon Law Center, recently posted a Renter’s Handbook on Rent Increases. This short document, available in English and Spanish gives information about the different types of tenancies and how a landlord may deliver a notice of a rent increase. It also provides resources you can look at if you are a low-income renter.

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The Washington County (OR) Law Library now offers remote access to select titles from the LexisNexis Digital Library. LexisNexis eBooks are a convenient way to do legal research from home or on the go from any internet connected device.

Some of the titles that are in our collection include the ABA Spanish Legal Phrasebook, Employment in Oregon, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure Annotated and Trial: A Guide from Start to Finish.

Books check out for a period of three days and you can make notes and add highlights to a book that will be available the next time you check it out.

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May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Therefore, we will highlight an important intersection of legal history of significant impact to the Japanese-American community: the Japanese internment camps, the Korematsu v. US Supreme Court case, and its subsequent legal treatment.

On February 19, 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of Japanese Americans from the west coast of the United States, which resulted in their relocation to internment camps.

The legality of this order and removal was challenged by Fred Korematsu, and the related curfew challenged by Minoru Yasui of Oregon and Gordon Hirabayashi. In all three cases the Supreme Court upheld the right of the government to exclude Japanese Americans and impose a curfew on them.

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Your local law library may provide some online resources you can access at home. Below are some examples from Washington County, Oregon. You can check with your local county law library to see what they offer.

The Washington County Law Library offers LexisNexis Digital Library. Patrons can sign up using an online form. Once registered they can access the digital titles subscribed to via a web link or the Digital Library app. LexisNexis Digital Library is relatively easy to use, and they offer robust online help to navigate the platform. It is important to remember this is an eBook platform, not a legal research platform. Among the titles patrons can access are Oregon Evidence, Employment in Oregon, LexisNexis Practice Guide: Washington Family Law, Military Family Law, Understanding Bankruptcy, The ABA Spanish Legal Phrasebook, and Trial: A Guide from Start to Finish.

The Washington County Law Library also subscribes to HeinOnline. Anyone with a Washington County Cooperative Library Services library card can access it remotely via the WCCLS HeinOnline page. If you don’t have a WCCLS card you can sign up for their digital card. HeinOnline has a large collection of law journals, federal legal materials, and subject specific collections (such as LGBTQ+ rights or gun laws).

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Ring in 2021 with Law Library of Congress U.S. Law Webinars

Orientation to Legal Research: U.S. Case Law: Date: Thursday, January 14, 2021, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EST

Orientation to Law Library Collections: Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2021, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST

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Guest post, from Lee Van Duzer, Washington County Law Librarian:

As we socially distance ourselves and physical spaces are increasingly closed, it is important to revisit online legal research options. The following are free research tools specific to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Federal & National

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Guest post, from Lee Van Duzer, Washington County Law Librarian, Hillsboro, Oregon:

As we socially distance ourselves and physical spaces are increasingly closed, it is important to revisit online legal research options. The following are free general legal research tools to help you work from home.

Case Law & Statutes

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One of my favorite Robert Mankoff (New Yorker) cartoons has this caption (and you can search the Cartoon Bank for a copy): “One question: If this is the Information Age, how come nobody knows anything?”

Few non-librarians know about the hundreds (thousands, probably) of hidden document treasure troves, which go by many names: libraries, archives, repositories, databases, among others.

You’ve probably heard about Gutenberg and maybe even HathiTrust, but what about SCRIBD, SCETI, Feedbooks, BASE, Unglueit, and many, many, MANY more, including our intrepid public records warriers, at Public Resource and PlainSite.

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