KCLL Klues: Washington State Legal Research

A new release of King County Superior Court’s eFiling application  came out yesterday to comply with changes to LGR 30.  Two of the enhancements are the ability to eFile documents into pre-ECR and pre-SCOMIS cases and a shopping cart feature for eEx ExParte.  Read the release notes for a complete listing of all the enhancements.

The King County Superior Court has posted the set of Local Rules that take effect September 1, 2010.   You can view the entire set of new local rules, a set of the rules showing changes from the previous version, and sets of rules going back to 2004 at the King County Superior Court Local Rules page.  We have also printed sets of the new rules for your use when you are at the library.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington has published an online resource on how to obtain a court order waiving or reducing the interest that accrues on legal financial obligations.  The packet contains information regarding the Washington state laws that govern the process, as well as step-by-step instructions and court forms for completing the  procedure yourself.  For more information, please use the following links:

Interest Waiver Guide (from the ACLU)

Revised Code of Washington (RCW) Title 10.82.090 – Interest on Judgments

Did you know that there are mobile apps for Black’s Law Dictionary, Lexis/Nexis and Fastcase?  You would if you’d read the online guide  Mobile Applications for Law Students and Lawyers, authored by Vicki Steiner from the Hugh and Hazel Darling Law Library at the UCL A School of Law.  The Guide has separate tabs devoted to apps for legal research and news, law school and bar study, general productivity and fun.   It also has a section with links to mobile app search engines and app stores.  Note that mobile apps are written for specific devices so make sure to confirm that the app you’re interested in is available for your particular phone or PDA.  Also, some apps are free and some are not so you may be required to spend some money to get what you want.

We have posted a schedule of classes for September and October.  We are offering the complete E-Filing series (Beginning and Advanced Features) on September 8 and September 15.  In October, we’re teaching the Legal Research for the Non-Attorney two-part class and a session of our popular Skip Tracing classes.  All sessions are free and held at the Seattle law library location.  Registration is required and space is limited so call 206-296-0940 to sign up!

Joseph Chester Self was the 73rd person to be executed in Washington and the last person to be executed in the state until Westley Allan Dodd’s execution on January 5, 1993. During the 30 year hiatus, Washington’s capital punishment statute was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972.

In Part Two of this episode of KCLL’s Sidebar, we talk to Jim Burns, who was among two men to prosecute Mr. Self.  For additional information about the case, you can go to the History Link website which we have linked to here.

Mike Flynn, long-time editor of the Puget Sound Business Journal, was one 35 people who witnessed the hanging of convicted murderer Joseph Self in June of 1963.  Mr. Flynn has posted a thoughtful reflection about the execution and capital punishment in Washington State at  Flynn’s Harp .  For more information about the Self case, see our recent podcast, wherein local attorney George Sjursen interviews one of Self’s defense attorneys, Dan Riviera.

For those of you who are eager to read through the final version of the massive and hotly-contested Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act signed into law by President Obama on July 21st, here’s a set of useful links.

As of this writing, the text of Public Law 111-203 wasn’t available but the Library of Congress’ THOMAS web site has a wealth of information about the legislation, including the final text of the bill presented to President Obama and a Congressional Research Service summary.

The White House has also posted the President’s remarks about the new law and a brief Executive summary of its intent.

Joseph Chester Self was the 73rd person to be executed in Washington and the last person to be executed in the state until Westley Allan Dodd’s execution on January 5, 1993. During the 30 year hiatus, Washington’s capital punishment statute was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972.

In Part One of this episode of KCLL’s Sidebar, we talk to Dan Riviera, who was among two men to defend Mr. Self.

Listen to Episode 36, Part 1
Links for Episode 36, Part 1

The Department of Licensing (DOL) recently discovered that the State’s Model Traffic Ordinance (MTO) has not been updated to reflect new traffic laws since 2004.  This may lead to the dismissal of certain trafffic citations issued by municipalities with traffic codes based on the MTO.  For more information directly from DOL, see their July 15 blog posting.

For more information about the enabling statute for the MTO, see RCW 46.90.  To read the text of the MTO, see WAC 308-330.