Articles Tagged with legal forms

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While most government documents are in the public domain, not all of them are.  Here’s a story about some copyrighted state legal forms and the state (Montana) that sued a company that violated that copyright.  The defendants were charging someone lots of money for the forms – when state residents could have used the forms for no charge at all in their own court cases.
 
This happens in Oregon, too.  Before buying legal forms online, find out if there are any free, official Oregon legal forms available.  You can ask at the Oregon State Bar, at an Oregon county law library, or you can post the question to L-net.
 
“State Law Library of Montana Wins Legal Forms Case,” by Judy Meadows, State Law Library of Montana
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We’re beginning to compile a list of free, online, legal formatting templates.NOTE: this is NOT a list  of “fill in the blank” legal action-specific forms.  These are very simple forms templates, with field and line number formatting, that a litigant and lawyer could use to draft their own legal documents when specialized, sometimes expensive legal forms software is unavailable.

You still need to research the law!

We’ll add to this list as we learn about more options, but it’s a start:

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Oregon Small Claims Court forms (including updates) are available at the OJD Uniform Trial Court Rules (UTCR) website.
Additional Oregon Small Claims Court information is available through many or possibly all of the Oregon Circuit Court websites and at county justice courts. (Note: Not all counties have Justice Courts.)
Law libraries and public libraries may have additional information on Small Claims Court, including books, articles, websites, and a recommendation that you visit the Small Claims Court where you will be filing your case so you can see what happens in Real Life.
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Whether you are going into Small Claims Court, Circuit Court, Bankruptcy Court, or into Traffic Court, if you want to win or at least stay in control of your destiny to the extent possible:
  1. You have to listen, learn, read, get organized, keep good records, stay focused and determined, and above all else keep a healthy sense of perspective and humor.
  1. Legal research is hard and time-consuming.  But it can also be interesting, rewarding, and even fun.
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This is an update to previous posts on estate planning (and on pro se litigants):

Public law libraries, and public libraries generally, get a lot of questions from people (non-attorneys) who want to write their own wills, draft their own powers of attorney, and who want fill-in-the-blank estate planning legal forms.

1) If you have no money, no property, no children or relatives in Oregon or any other state, no heirs, no interest in leaving what you do have to a charity or nonprofit, and don’t care if what remains of your estate (everything) goes to the tax collector and/or the state general fund, you don’t have to read on.

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While there are dozens of print resources (and even more online) on specific wills, trusts, and estate planning issues and questions, here’s a short list of the basic, not to be skipped, Oregon estate planning forms and practice materials. These are print-only resources in most law libraries, though some libraries may have on-site online or CD-ROM access.

1) Oregon State Bar (OSB) estate planning practice and course books

2) Oregon Will and Trust Forms in the U.S. Bank 3-volume set (also on CD-ROM)

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Arcade Book Exchange will be a Stevens-Ness Partner/Dealer for the Western Washington County (Oregon) area beginning June 1st, 2010.

Gene Horton, of Horton’s Sav-On Office Supply in Forest Grove, will be retiring and closing his store on May 28th. The Arcade Book Exchange will take over the Stevens-Ness Legal Forms portion of his business.

If you have any questions please feel free to call the Arcade Book Exchange at 503-648-5821 or visit their website:

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If you’ve read the recent (last week, last year, last decade, last century) stories about relatives, caregivers, and others who are charged with theft, elder abuse, and other crimes against the fragile or elderly people they are allegedly caring for …,

If you ever wondered why public law librarians and lawyers go pale when people use Fill-in-the-Blank forms for things like Powers of Attorney and Advance Directives, to name only a couple …,
Here’s an excellent article from the Oregonian’s Brent Hunsberger’s It’s Only Money column (Sunday, 9/7/09, Business section, p. D-1) that will explain why.

It also has some valuable tips on how to protect yourself and loved ones. (Oregonlive version: Protect yourself now against elder financial ripoffs, Posted by Brent Hunsberger, The Oregonian September 05, 2009.)

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Legal Aid Services of Oregon, among others, has created Oregon Forms Help:

“This website is designed to help Oregon residents who wish to represent themselves in an uncontested divorce. Here you will find step-by-step instructions for filling out the Optional Statewide Family Law Forms prepared by the State of Oregon Judicial Branch. You will also be given step-by-step instructions for processing the forms and performing the other necessary tasks required by the court.

This website is presented by Legal Aid Services of Oregon, in collaboration with Oregon’s legal aid programs.” Oregon Forms Help.

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Are there free, online, downloadable, official forms you can use to write a legally enforceable Oregon will?

Sorry, but the answer is no, at least not if you want your will to do what you intend and be legally enforceable. Oregon wills, and other estate planning documents, are not Wash & Wear, Click & Go, One-Size-Fits-All, or Eat and Run.

Will-drafting cannot be done on the fly, on Twitter (though I’m sure it has been tried – and may one day soon be tried in court), or with anything other than serious thought, study, and drafting skill. This is not to say one can’t draft a will oneself, or write one quickly in an emergency.

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