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Oregon Legal Research Blog Published By Oregon Legal Research Navigation HomeWebsite Published on: April 23, 2024 Understanding the Courts: NCSC Video Series By Lee Van Duzer The Jenkins Law Library, Philidelphia, Blog shared the recent launch of a series of short videos that explain partes of the court and legal system by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC). Kristen Matteucci writes the goal is to help Self-Represented Litigants better prepare for court hearings and more confidently engage with the courts, these illustrated videos address topics like legal advice vs. legal information, what it means to file a motion, and what to do after being served.” The full blog post has a list of the current videos, and the videos can be found at the NCSC A2J Videos (Access to Justice). Please note these videos are not specific to any one state. Continue reading → By Lee Van Duzer Posted in: General Legal Research Resources and Legal Self-help Community Tagged: Court procedure , Legal self-help and Videos Published on: April 23, 2024 Updated: April 19, 2024 4:09 pm Published on: April 2, 2024 Law Library of Congress: Laws on Plant Patents and Propagation By Lee Van Duzer Since Portland has also seen the peak of its cherry blossoms, we’re sharing the Law Library of Congress’s seasonal postStumpy’s Legacy: Laws on Plant Patents and Propagation .” The Yoshino Cherry (Prunus xyedoensis) is the prominent flowering cherry of Washington, D.C., gifted to the United States by Japan. This is also the genus to which Stumpy belongs. While the Akebono” (Japanese for dawn”) is not patented, other variations of the cherry blossoms are. Plant patents were created by the Plant Patent Act of 1930 (46 Stat. 376) and codified with amendments. …” While it’s unclear which species are in the Tom McCall Waterfront Park, a Yoshino Cherry tree can be found outside the Portland FireRescue Station 1 along the waterfront, and more can be seen at the Portland Japanese Garden. By Lee Van Duzer Posted in: United States Federal Resources Tagged: Intellectual property Published on: April 2, 2024 Updated: April 1, 2024 11:11 am Published on: March 28, 2024 So you’ve decided to divorce. How about mediation. Now What?! By Lee Van Duzer Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 6:30 pm. Steven Leskin from Leskin Law’s One Day Divorce Mediation will join the Washington County Law Library via Zoom to discuss topics in divorce mediation. For details, the zoom link, or past programs, see the Washington County Law Library’s Now What?! series . By Lee Van Duzer Posted in: Uncategorized Published on: March 28, 2024 Updated: March 27, 2024 11:12 am Published on: March 26, 2024 Law Library of Congress Webinars – April 2024 By Lee Van Duzer Orientation to Legal Research Webinar: Tracing Federal Regulations Date: Thursday, April 4, 2024, 10:00 a.m. PDT – 11:00 a.m. PDT This entry in the series provides an overview of U.S. federal regulations, including information about the notice and comment rulemaking process, the publication and citation of regulations, and the tracing of regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations, to the proposed rule in the Federal Register, to the regulation’s docket. Continue reading → By Lee Van Duzer Posted in: General Legal Research Resources and United States Federal Resources Tagged: Code of Federal Regulations and Law Library of Congress Published on: March 26, 2024 Updated: March 25, 2024 4:07 pm Published on: March 15, 2024 So you want to start a cannabis business. Now What?! By Lee Van Duzer On Wednesday, March 20, at 6:30pm: Mia Getlin from Mia Getlin LLC will join the Washington County Law Library via Zoom to discuss issues in starting a business in the cannabis industry. Continue reading → By Lee Van Duzer Posted in: Legal Self-help Community Tagged: business , Cannabis and Marijuana Published on: March 15, 2024 Updated: March 14, 2024 11:08 am Published on: March 12, 2024 From HeinOnlne: The Deadliest Industrial Disaster You’ve Never Heard Of By Lee Van Duzer From the HeinOnline Blog: Hawk’s Nest: The Deadliest Industrial Disaster You’ve Never Heard Of Between 1930 and 1931, near the town of Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, 3,000 men worked in ten-hour shifts drilling a three-mile tunnel through the side of a mountain. Within five years, more than 750 of those men would die of a deadly and preventable disease. Keep reading as we use HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library and U.S. Congressional Documents collection to learn more about the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel Disaster, the single deadliest industrial incident in American history, and its influence on the struggles for worker’s rights and safety regulations in the United States. …” HeinOnline may be available through your local law library . By Lee Van Duzer Posted in: General Legal Research Resources Published on: March 12, 2024 Updated: March 11, 2024 9:38 am Published on: February 20, 2024 History of the Bar Exam By Lee Van Duzer Passing the bar exam is a requirement to become a practicing attorney. But why is that the case? The Law Library of Congress explored the history of the bar exam in the U.S. in a couple recent blog posts. The first discusses how the bar exam came about: The History of the U.S. Bar Exam, Part I – The Law’s Gatekeeper . The second highlights the first person of color and the first woman to be admitted: The History of the U.S. Bar Exam, Part II – The Gate Openers . Continue reading → By Lee Van Duzer Posted in: Other Tagged: Bar exams Published on: February 20, 2024 Updated: February 15, 2024 2:17 pm Published on: January 30, 2024 Piracy on the High Seas By Lee Van Duzer The purpose of this blog is to explore Oregon law. However, the navigable waters off the Oregon coast are governed by federal maritime law, or outside the U.S. borders, international law. Federal law incorporates the international laws of piracy and has provisions for U.S. citizens who engage, or assist, in piracy on the high seas.” The blog postModern Piracy and the United States Code ” from the Law Library of Congress, by Aaron Lombard, explores this topic. It is a fun introduction to federal laws and legal resources. By Lee Van Duzer Posted in: General Legal Research Resources and United States Federal Resources Tagged: Federal statutes and United States Code Published on: January 30, 2024 Updated: January 25, 2024 1:23 pm Published on: December 20, 2023 How do I cite-check a case? By Lee Van Duzer Cite checking goes by many names, including Shepardizing, KeyCite, and authority checking, among others. At a basic level it is checking a case one plans to use to make sure it’s still okay. Rulings from cases can become invalid over time if a more recent case from the same or a higher court changes the rule, or if the legislature passed a statute that impacted the case. In order to find such events, legal publishers have created tools (called citators) to track such changes. One of the original tools was Shepard’s (now a LexisNexis product). The online LexisNexis version allows a user to find documents that cite the case they are looking at. It also allows a user to see if any of those have overturned the case of interest, or otherwise challenged part of its ruling. In Shepard’s there are visual indicators to suggest a case is still good (green), called into question (yellow), or part of it has been overturned (red). Westlaw has a similar tool called KeyCite , and Fastcase uses Authority Check . It is important to note that any of these tools can only indicate that there might be something. The user will have to read the newer case that may affect the original case to see what that impact actually is, and how it relates to the user’s situation. Continue reading → By Lee Van Duzer Posted in: General Legal Research Resources and Legal Self-help Community Tagged: case law , Citation and Citators Published on: December 20, 2023 Updated: December 20, 2023 3:49 pm Published on: December 12, 2023 OJD iForms: A DIY...