KCLL Klues: Washington State Legal Research

Many thanks to local author and publisher Debbie Brooks for donating two copies of the 2009 King County Superior Court Civil Litigation Handbook and the 2009 Advanced King County Superior Court Civil Litigation Handbook for the Seattle and MRJC libraries. 

From Debbie’s website http://www.legalsecretary.com/:

“[The 2009 King County Superior Court Civil Litigation Handbook] is for the beginner to intermediate legal secretary, paralegal or support staff.  It can also be used by attorneys to apply Civil Rules and Local Rules when they are working a case filed in that jurisdiction. From the Summons and Complaint to Trial, step-by-step procedures are covered. ”

“[The 2009 Advanced King County Superior Court Civil Litigation Handbook] is for the intermediate to advanced legal secretary, paralegal or other support staff. It can also be used by attorneys on the more complicated aspects of civil procedures. Covers Summons and Complaint to Trial on a higher level of understanding…”

Check out the September E-News for info on subscriber proration, the Tech Tip and new books in the library.  E-News is the library’s bi-monthly electronic newsletter that goes out to more than 4500 subscribers.

Within the Appellate and Trial Courts portion of the Washington State Courts website, there is a pair of useful links to appellate practice information that you should review if you are involved in an appeal. 

The first link is called Appellate Case Processing Guide and leads to a series of concise descriptions of the basic elements of an appeal.  The descriptions include an overview of the process, timeline notes where applicable, references to the appropriate Rules of Appellate Procedure, and links to sample forms.

The second link is called Brief Writing — Best Practices and leads to a list of tips for writing a persuasive brief.  The comments address both construction and style.

While searching the Washington Courts website recently, one of our librarians ran across an electronic copy of the Domestic Violence Manual for Judges.  The Manual, updated in 2006, has 14 chapters and 10 appendices covering topics from criminal pre-trial issues (such as warrantless searches) to domestic violence in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans-Gender (LGBT) community.

We also have hard copies of the Manual at the Seattle and Kent libraries.

Last week, we posted about a reoccuring reference request for information on how to obtain a personal records protective order.  The King County Superior Court has recently posted important time-critical information for people who have been contacted concerning Barquest v. Farmers Insurance Co. of Washington, filed as a class action lawsuit in King County Superior Court.   The page includes an Objection Form that must be received by  the third-party administrator by October 13, 2008.

The web site for the Northwest Women’s Law Center has an excellent publication titled Formatting Court Documents.  It discusses margin requirments, the consequences of not following the various format rules of our Courts and the process for filing a Faulty Document appeal.

In the last few days we have had a recurring reference question asking us how to do a protective order to prevent the disclosure of personal records contained in Personal Injury Protection (PIP) claims. This type of protective order is obtained under the Washington Uniform Health Act, located in the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 70.02.060.

The question is how do you find the necessary forms to do this? A set of books in the Library titled Washington Practice has some sample forms that you can adapt for this purpose. The forms are in Volume 9A, Washington Practice, Civil Procedure Forms and Commentary, Chapter 26. This chapter contains a sample Motion for Protective Order, a Declaration in Support of Motion for Protective Order, and an Order Granting Protective Order. These three sample forms can be adapted to fit the circumstances of the protective order to prevent the diclosure of the records. As these forms are sample forms, they must be edited to comply with the court rules for documents you wish to file, particularly General Rule 14. You can find a guide on formatting court documents for King County Superior Court at the Northwest Women’s Law Center web site.  

You can find the rules for discovery for superior courts in Washington, Civil Rule 26, at the state court web site. Local discovery rules may also be available. For instance, you can find KCLCR 26 for King County at the King County Superior Court Clerk’s web site.

Visit our Library to obtain copies of the sample forms, or use our document delivery option to obtain the forms via email.

Update: The situation that precipitated this blog posting is in the process of being resolved. The necessary forms to obtain the protective order for this record request will be made available to the parties soon. Update to the Update:  See this post about the objection form now being available from King County Superior Court.

I was going to find a nice blog article to link to, but instead decided to talk just a bit about skip tracing, that is, locating someone who has moved. Here in the King County Law Library we teach a class called Skip tracing – Public Sleuthing. The focus of this class is on using free web-based resources for finding information on people and on businesses. I highlight some of the best resources and explain how I use them. Check our training calendar to see when we plan on next offering the class.

Here is one of my favorite web sites I use on a regular basis. It is called BRB Pubs and includes some of the best free links to public resources for other states. When I know I need to find a good public resource from Minnesota or Florida or another state, this is the first site I use. I include this site in my list of Public Sleuthing web sites. Check them out, as I have many more links you might want to try.

The Legal Information Service to the Public (LISP) Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) has put together a great resource called the Public Library Toolkit.  It was created “to help public librarians understand the process of legal research, effectively develop and use the information located within their libraries, utilize information located outside their libraries, with the end goal of helping the patron locate the legal information they need.”  The kit offers information on topics including researching a legal problem, finding known citations, keeping current, and collection development.

As of June, 2008, there were 25 state-specific tool kits, including Washington. The Washington page was written by Merrilee Harrell and Mari Cheney while they were working for us as interns through the University of Washington’s law librarianship program.

One of the best-known books on ADR in Washington is Alternate dispute resolution deskbook : arbitration and mediation in Washington published by the WSBA.  However, this resource has not been updated since 1998.  What’s a lawyer to do?  Come down to the library and check out these recent CLEs:

Finding success at mediation : skills that make a difference / WSBA.
KF 9084 .A75 F56 2008

Alternative dispute resolution for family law cases : staying out of court / WSBA.
KF 9084 .A75 A47 2007

Emerging trends in dispute resolution / WSBA.
KF 9084 .A75 E44 2007
 
The essentials of civil settlement strategies / WSBA.
KF 9084 .A75 E87 2006

Winning without trial : effective strategies for success before trial / WSBA.
KF 8900 .W56 2005