KCLL Klues: Washington State Legal Research

The website for the White House, WhiteHouse.gov, has been completely revamped.  This appears to be one of many steps taken by the new administration as a part of their commitment to transparency in government.  A new feature of this website is “The Blog”.  Some of the initial entries include the Inaugural Address and the announcement of the President’s first Executive Proclamation.  You can subscribe to the RSS feed to receive all of the entries in The Blog as they are published.  Just click on the RSS feed icon next to the heading “The Blog”.

 As the President continues to issue new Executive Orders and Proclamations, you can expect that announcements of these changes will appear on The Blog.  These documents will also appear on the White House website under Executive Orders.  As of this writing two new executive orders appear, Presidential Records, which overturns a previous executive order that limited public access to presidential records and Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel.  Announced in the press, but not on the website yet is an executive order that will close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, shut down secret overseas CIA prisons, review military war crimes trials and ban the harshest interrogation methods.  This Executive Order should appear on the website soon.

In this episode of KCLL’s SideBar the Seattle University Law School librarians join KCLL in their first “At the Reference Desk” segment, which discusses a question on legislative history research. Marcus Hochstetler, KCLL’s Director, speaks briefly about how to follow the current Washington State legislature’s session. In Craig’s “The Reel Verdict” segment, he reviews the movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Listen to Episode 26
Links for Episode 26 

The Law Librarian blog is reporting that Westlaw has sent a message noting that:

Westlaw access will be blocked when using Web browsers that are no longer supported by the companies that created them. The lack of support can create problems during Westlaw development which may result in a security risk. Users attempting to access Westlaw using one of these browsers will receive an explanatory message that offers alternatives.

Westlaw access using the following browsers will be blocked:

• Netscape (all versions)
• Mozilla Firefox versions lower than 1.5
• Safari versions lower than 2.0
• Internet Explorer versions lower than 6

There isn’t anything posted on the Westlaw website (that I could find) and we haven’t received any email messages from Westlaw here at our library. However, the Slaw blog confirmed with West Tech Support that the change went into effect on January 10, 2009.  We will link to the official news once it becomes available. 

If you use the library’s Westlaw terminals, no need to worry.  We run the latest version of Internet Explorer on our public terminals.  If you have your own Westlaw password, you should check your browser version.

Tamara Thompson over at one of my favorite blogs for Public Record research, PI Buzz, has written “The widespread use of social networking sites is also engaging private investigators as participants — as I am on Linkedin — and as information gatherers.” She links to new articles she has written on this subject. PI Buzz is definitely a blog that anyone who is doing investigative work should follow. She always give good information on investigative techniques. Tamara, you need to add Twitter though for social network information.

The Washington Court of Appeals ruled yesterday (January 12) that juveniles in truancy cases are entitled to counsel. The case is Bellevue School District v. E.S.  After 90 days, you will need to look on the LegalWa.org website to find the opinion.If you want to know more on the topic of truancy and juvenile law in general, here are some resources. We own a book called Juvenile Criminal Law in Washington: a Practice Guide (KF 9780 .Z99 W37 1999). You can search our catalog for additional juvenile law resources, including a brand new Nutshell book on juvenile justice administration.

Sign up now for our January and February legal research classes.  All classes are free and most are over the lunch hour.  Call the Library at (206) 296-0940.  Classes are held in the Legal Research and Training Center at the Seattle library. 

The January 2009 edition of KCLL E-News went out this morning.  In this issue, we highlight the new video for Pro Ses and a free download for making PDFs as well as new books in the library as of December, 2008.

The Housing Justice Project PM clinics will not be held in the month of January. Normally, the clinic is held in the King County Courthouse, Rm- 314, on Monday and Thursday evenings. As soon as we learn of their new schedule we will post the hours.

The King County Superior Court has produced a video explaining the court process for people who are involved in court cases. The video is particularly useful for anyone who will be representing him or herself without an attorney (that is, pro se). Judge Mary Yu and Judge Steven Gonzales describe the process for starting a court case, answering a case, scheduling and writing motions, appearing before a judge and more. This excellent video should be your first resource if you are involved in any kind of civil court case in King County. In addition, the video highlights resources that may help, including the King County Law Library, the Family Law Court and more.