KCLL Klues: Washington State Legal Research

The Judges page at the King County Superior Court’s web site provides a wealth of court-specific information that will save you time and help you present your or your client’s case more effectively.  In addition to listing the current sitting judges and commissioners for each courthouse, this page also has links to court-specific pages where the judge has provided practice and procedure information.  If the judge you’re working with has provided this, his or her name will be an active hyperlink.  For example, here’s the page provided by Judge Kimberley Prochnau.  The information provided by each judge varies but you can find contact information for his or her courtroom, trial practice tips, references to specific local rules he or she wants to call to your attention, links to model forms and sometimes biographical information about the judge.  Back at the Judges main page, you’ll also find a link to a document that describes how to use email to communicate with the court.

The November election is only a week away.  Voter turn-out is expected to be high across the nation, with many voters submitting their selections via mail-in ballots.  In Washington State, 37 of our 39 counties are now using voting by mail exclusively.  Secretary of State Sam Reed is urging all voters, whether you’re voting by mail or in person at the polls, to carefully review the material in your voter’s pamphlet.  If you are voting by mail, your completed ballot must be postparked by November 4.  If you plan to vote at the polls, expect longer lines.  For more information from the Secretary of State about this year’s election and our State’s voting procedures, see Sam Reed’s latest press release.

I have been teaching classes on investigating social networking information for a number of organizations outside the Library. I wrote a basic guide to Investigating Social Networks and decided that it might be useful for our Library patrons. I have posted the publication to our Research Guides on the web page. In addition, I am bringing a version of the class, called Public Sleuthing on Social Networks, to the Library Training schedule on November 17th. Call to register and come join us to learn how to search social sites such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and more.

Next week I will be doing a training update for the Seattle Public Librarians. In preparation I decided to post a glossary I have used in the past to explain legal terms. The glossary uses a When you hear - think approach and links to the appropriate research guide from our web site and to other resources that may help. It does not include direct definitions, but is a good place to start. The WashingtonLawHelp web site also has a great glossary that lists legal terms used on its web site, plus the definitions, but no links. You may find an additional Guide to Terms Used in Washington Courts at the State Court web site. If you do not know what a legal term may mean, how to start a legal procedure such as eviction or deal with that traffic ticket you just received, check out the glossary for links that may help.   

The Superior Court Clerk’s homepage has finally moved over to the kingcounty.gov domain. One of the changes they made is terrific! The first thing you see on the  Homepage is a number of questions. These questions start with “How do I?” and finish with examples like “file for divorce?” or “find a case number?” and include links to do-it- yourself pages with good basic information. The left side navigation menu is easy to use and leads to the most accessed court information. While they neglected to include a link to our web page, these other changes make the new page worth a visit.

The Washington Practice series, published by Thomson West, continues to grow with new titles that cover more specific topics. In September, we received the Washington DUI Practice Manual (v. 32) and in October, it’s Washington Construction Law Manual (v. 33) and Washington Summary Judgment and Related Motions (v. 34). Washington Construction Law Manual, written by local attorney Matthew King, covers the construction process from beginning to end. Washington Summary Judgment and Related Motions has sample motions to dismiss based on various reasons, motion to strike, and summary judgment along with the relevant citations for those motions. The summary judgment volume also comes with forms on a CD-ROM. 

At the Seattle library, there are three circulating copies and one non-circulating copy of the entire Washington Practice set.  There are two copies (one circulating, one not) of the set at the MRJC library.

The Northwest Justice Project has recently launched a new interactive court forms project:

“This online interview was developed by the Northwest Justice Project for use by low-income persons representing themselves, but is available free of charge to all persons. The interview is easy to use and when completed provides completed court forms and instructions for filing a divorce without minor children of the marriage in Washington State.”

At both library locations, we have public computers with Internet access and the required software (Microsoft Word and Adobe Flash Player) to run the interview.  Print outs are $.15 per page.

Drafting an appellate brief can be challenging if you are unfamiliar with the terminology of the courts or even the proper process to follow. The Washington State Court of Appeals, Division I, now posts a guide for writing an appellate brief on the court’s website. This guide walks you through what is most essential in communicating your position to the court.

Another online guide appears here on appellate.net titled “How to Write a Good Appellate Brief.”

Or you can always come in to the library where we have several print titles on Brief writing including:

1. The art of appellate brief-writing and oral advocacy in Washington: Call Number KF 251 .A78 1999

2. Appellate practice: persuasive brief writing and beyond: Call Number KF 9050 .A75 A67 2002

If you are looking for law review articles on a particular topic you may wonder how many other law reviews have cited the article you find. Now you can know that number with greater ease on HeinOnline in the law library. “If you run a search for ‘Right to Privacy’ across the titles in the Law Journal Library, you will be able to determine how many times each result has been “cited by” other scholarly law review articles in HeinOnline.” Social indexing is most often associated with the area of blogs, news sites and favorite websites; however, this new tool allows for you to verify that the article is a more trusted source of information. You can see a brief demonstration of the product here.

If you have more questions about what other materials are available on HeinOnline or other legal research databases, contact the library at 206-296-0940.