Articles Tagged with Legal research

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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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If you need a copy of a file in your case, you can contact the records department of your local court. If you just want to see the docket and list of events or documents, you can use the courts’ online Records and Calendar Search.

Some law libraries have access to the courts’ Oregon eCourt Case Information Network (OECI). That would allow you to browse documents. If you need a copy, you would need to then go to the court records department.

If you want to search for cases without knowing a party or case number, then you need to use a different tool. OECI does not offer a broad search function. Databases like LexisNexis or Westlaw do allow docket searching. This allows you to search through the dockets for key terms. However, you might not be able to view the documents. You would need to get the case number or party name and pull up the case on OECI. Your local law library can help you with this process.

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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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As a techno geek I’ve been fascinated by the concept of Artificial Intelligence (or “AI” as it also known). Maybe it’s the Star Trek-iness of it, but the I like idea of having a bot do some of the work for me. The advertising for Google’s Bard AI system says it can help you write your novel. In a recent article a Londoner asked Bard to plan a weekend in London (including what they should wear!). Even if you don’t get the information you were hoping for, at least it provides for an amusing anecdote.

Lately I’ve seen articles published about using AI to aid in legal research and was wondering what the consensus was about using an AI platform to do legal research.

Above the Law has an interesting piece on how AI is transforming legal research, including a brief history of legal research all the way back to the “Unwieldy Rocks” of Hammurabi’s Code.

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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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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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