Articles Tagged with Legal research

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A patron came in wondering if bankruptcy was right for them. Obviously we can’t answer that question, but we offered to show them resources that explain bankruptcy, and how to find bankruptcy attorneys.

The first thing we made sure they understood is that bankruptcy is governed by federal law and is handled by federal bankruptcy courts. In Oregon that would be the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Oregon. They have some helpful information on their website, including rules, forms, and general information.

We showed them books in the Washington County Law Library that discuss bankruptcy, including a practice guide by the Oregon State Bar and a Rutter Group practice guide. We also pointed out our Nolo self-help books that discuss bankruptcy – these can also be found through your local public library or the State Law Library’s online access to Nolo.

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How Did We Answer That?

We had a patron whose mother died in Kentucky. This was during the pandemic so travel from Oregon to Kentucky was not very practical. His sister still lived in the area, so he contacted us asking for ideas on how to help his sister with the estate. He wanted to do some research on finding a lawyer, being an executor of the will, and if there was anything he could do to help remotely.

Even though he was interested in Kentucky procedures, there were still some things we could point him to here in our library that he could read and let his sister know about. There are many NOLO books (which both law libraries and public libraries usually carry) dealing with wills and estate planning. Since NOLO books are not state specific these were a good primer for the patron and his sister. In Oregon we have access to NOLO books online thanks to the State of Oregon Law Library. A public library may have information about a similar problem in another state.

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We were recently asked about finding previous versions of the Oregon Administrative Rules and the Oregon Bulletin.

The Oregon Administrative Rules Compilation is an annual online publication containing complete text of Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) effective January 1 of the compilation year. The Secretary of State ceased print publication after 2017.

The Oregon Bulletin is a monthly online supplement containing rule text adopted or amended as well as Notices of Proposed Rule­making and Rulemaking Hearing. The Bulletin also includes certain non-OAR items when they are submitted, such as Executive Orders of the Governor and Opinions of the Attorney General (Oregon Bulletin, 2017).

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Do the journalists, bloggers, and talking heads who refer endlessly to “Title 42” when speaking or writing about immigration and border issues (usually the U.S. Mexico border) know what Title 42 is? Can those “reporters” cite the exact law? Have they read the so-called “Title 42?”

Saying “Title 42” is about as useful as hearing a radio or podcast host say “it’s Tuesday and it’s 20 minutes past the hour” (which Tuesday and what hour?!), or a subject line that says “Don’t miss today’s meeting!” (“today” has no meaning online, without a date!), or the so-called market reports saying “yesterday, the market ended up 13%” (what market, up from or to what?!). It’s meaningless, which listeners and readers know, but seemingly not the talking heads. Sigh.

Back to “What is Title 42?”

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From SLAW: Valuing Legal Information,” by Sarah Sutherland:

Excerpt: “The problem with trying to value legal information is that we mostly just talk about its price instead of its value. The value of anything is subjective, and correct legal information at the perfect time is worth a great deal, general legal information that isn’t needed at a particular moment is worth much less. This is important because the people who make decisions about how to fund legal information are often not the people who use it regularly and are generally not faced with urgent legal matters at the moment of making decisions about how much to pay for it….” [Link to Slaw blog post.]

Hat tip to the KnowItAALL service (you can subscribe to it, free)

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If nothing else, lawyers and judges care about what words mean:

SPORTS: What Exactly Is ‘Locker-Room Talk’? Let an Expert Explain,” by Bill Pennington, Oct.10, 2016, New York Times:

“….Having just left the locker room after his team’s victory over the Broncos in Denver on Sunday night, Tamme wrote: “I showered after our game but I feel like I need another one after watching the debate.” [Link to NYT article.]

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Home Free: How a New York State prisoner became a jailhouse lawyer, and changed the system,” by Jennifer Gonnerman, in: New Yorker, A Reporter at Large, June 20, 2016 issue.
“Derrick Hamilton was wrongfully convicted of murder, and spent more than two decades trying to prove his innocence…. He started spending time in the library, and eventually taught himself enough criminal law to become one of the most skilled jailhouse lawyers in the country….” [Link to New Yorker article.]

Hat tip to Longform.

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Short of performing a bundy-ectomy (formerly reserved for Al or Ted), let’s get another view of this particular cathedral. Here is an old Law Librarian’s take on protest and occupation:

Read a Book, Read the Law:

The history of protest goes back to the beginning of human time (check out the Flintstones if you doubt me).

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LoisLaw is dead; long live Fastcase/Loislaw.

Research Tip: Good word searches won’t get you very far if you don’t update your research.

(And all good legal researchers know how to “update the law.”)

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“The library is a growing organism.” [Ranganathan, the fifth of “Five Laws of Library Science”]

Visit the new website of the Multnomah Law Library for your legal research adventures. Note that Saturday hours have returned, remote and in-library database access is expanding, and the online catalog will earn its keep as a time-saver.

And don’t forget the Oregon legal research databases I featured in last week’s blog posts, from the State Law Library and OSB.

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