Appendix A

Patron Requests in Law Libraries

Included in this appendix are three sets of actual patron reference questions compiled in law libraries. One is from the Mecklenburg County Law & Government Library in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I worked in 2005 (see Chapter 10). The second is from the Washington County (OR) Law Library, available at www.co.washington.or.us/LawLibrary/upload/AALL_Sample_Reference_Questions_-July09_June10.pdf. Finally, I threw in a few questions from one of the law firms I have served.

My thoughts on how some of these questions should be handled are in the Endnotes to this appendix.

Mecklenburg County Law & Government Library

  1. I need a sample separation agreement.
  2. I need to see the statute and sample form to file a lien.
  3. Can you give me information on structured sentencing for misdemeanors?
  4. Is it legal to shoot a BB gun in the city limits?1
  5. What are the legal issues surrounding oral agreements?
  6. How do I legitimize a child born out of wedlock?
  7. I need to know the duties and responsibilities of the board of directors for a private corporation.
  8. How do I form a nonprofit corporation?
  9. How can my son get a crime expunged from his record?2
  10. I need to appeal the decision on my unemployment claim.3
  11. There is a law review article from the 1940s that is not on LexisNexis. Do you have a copy?4
  12. I am trying to become a member of the Texas bar. Do you have Martindale-Hubbell directories back to 1996 showing that I was listed as a North Carolina attorney?5
  13. My employer fired me for no reason. How can I sue them?6
  14. I just lost my case in small claims court, and I want to appeal to district court. Where are the forms to do that?
  15. What is the statute of limitations on medical malpractice cases in North Carolina?
  16. How do I file a Freedom of Information Act request?
  17. I am a CPA needing to research new tax law changes.
  18. Are North Carolina Industrial Commission reports on the internet?7
  19. Where do I go to report a worthless check?
  20. I need help drafting a quitclaim deed.8
  21. I need a sample form for transferring my interest in a partnership to someone else.
  22. What are the laws in North Carolina regulating neighborhood associations?
  23. I am thinking about going to law school, and I need information on school addresses and rankings.9
  24. What are the elements of cocaine possession, and what class felony is it?
  25. Where can I get a vehicle accident report off the internet?10
  26. How do I file a complaint against a local judge?
  27. I need some sample rental property management contracts.11
  28. Where do I find bankruptcy in the U.S. Code?
  29. How do I legally change my name?
  30. I need some cases in which federal district courts have granted writs of prohibition.

Washington County (OR) Law Library

  1. What do we have on probate for a criminal defense attorney?
  2. I have to fill out custody forms; do you have any information on that?
  3. Request for sample civil jury instructions.
  4. I am looking for the bio on a lawyer who graduated from law school in 1933.12
  5. Looking for a 2003 superseded ORS section.13
  6. “No appeal certification” – how to get one?
  7. Contempt of child custody agreement – Oregon laws and cases that are applicable.
  8. Are there any legal requirements that a towing company has to follow concerning notifying owner of imminent towing?
  9. How can I find motions (preferable for Wash. Co. Circuit Court) for ORCP 21?14
  10. Legal definition of a word.
  11. Guardianship materials.
  12. Death and survivors.
  13. I want to [know] my rights as a renter.
  14. I got served papers for the disillusionment of my marriage. How do I respond? Am I responding to the marriage or custody issues?15
  15. Do we have 1962 ORS?
  16. Phone number for Beaverton Public Library
  17. When did ORCP 55(e) come into existence? Was it passed after 1956?16
  18. Law re: contractor’s ‘implied warranty’ in the state of Washington.
  19. How much do I owe on a ticket (not sure if OSP or Sheriff)? Don’t have the ticket.
  20. Do we have digital briefs from 2008?17
  21. Do you have forms that I can use to file a complaint?18
  22. How can I find out how much I owe for a seat belt violation ticket that I lost?
  23. How to find active duty military status.
  24. Notary available?
  25. Do you have computers to do the child support calculators like they do in Multnomah Co. Law Library?19
  26. Will Legal Aid Services be able to tell us if the government can represent me because we are disabled?
  27. Need copy of 1973 Senate Bill 100.20
  28. Need recent LUBA reports.21
  29. Do you have OSB member directories from 1990 forward?
  30. I need to check my work against a lawyer’s handbook on guardianship.
  31. Resources for the mentally disabled with discriminatory matters (church/school).
  32. How do I get Oregon appellate court briefs?22
  33. Legislative History – help in finding an effective date.23
  34. What are my rights as a beneficiary?
  35. I need a family law form pertaining to a divorce.24
  36. We need to evict our son. What do we have to do and what can we do with his belongings?
  37. What does our Westlaw subscription include?
  38. Need a Nevada Revised Statute.25
  39. What’s the term for cancelling a signature on a contract you signed but didn’t understand?26
  40. How to defend civilly against case where you’ve been accused of improper behavior with a child?
  41. Looking for the definitions to “right of way” and “permanent easement” as they pertain to land use.27
  42. Materials for how to file an answer to a Federal Civil Complaint (labor law).
  43. History of an administrative rule.28
  44. Research materials on RICO.
  45. How do I appeal a decision from an administrative judge (pro se)?

Law Firm

  1. Here’s the issue: Can an attorney licensed in state A defend a resident of state A at a deposition held in state A in a lawsuit filed and pending in state B? In other words, whereas the attorney clearly couldn’t defend a deposition in state B—because she’s not licensed there—could she nevertheless defend a deposition in state A that’s pending elsewhere?29
  2. I’m answering some questions a client has about the recent amendment to the South Carolina Constitution eliminating the “minibottle” requirement. Specifically, I’m researching the South Carolina statutes and regs, and I’ve found that the statutory amendments from June 2005 are available, but it doesn’t look like the administrative code and regs have amendments (there are still references to “minibottles” in the regs, whereas the statutory provisions have been changed to “by the drink”). Is this the most recent version of the code? Also, if you could offer any other sources to assist me in my research, I’d greatly appreciate it!
  3. Would you be able to get me a profile on this judge? He is a U.S. District Court judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
  4. Can you send me the Macmillan case which is at 559 A.2d somewhere in the p. 1260 range and the Kahn case at 694 A.2d somewhere in the p. 429 range?30
  5. Could you obtain copies of the following? Thanks.
  6. Please do a search to see what articles/documents/studies you come up with on the University of Pittsburgh’s “recently” published study regarding hydrogen sulfide and also whatever information you can find on the actual studies by American researchers Dr. Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck (winners of the 2004 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine) regarding smell and the human nose. Finally, there’s an article that’s been published in the Special Asphalt Issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine Vol. 43 No. 1 regarding a 2003 study of multicountry asphalt workers.32
  7. Will you please get me a current address (do a “locator search”) for
    • Thomas Cheek
    • 08/10/45
    • Route 1, Box 65
    • Milo, MO 64767 (We are trying to sue this guy and need information for service and the complaint)33
  8. Do you know how to get sample interrogatories from the free Bender database in a personal injury case? Bender has a personal injury directory/database, and they’ve got lots of stuff about interrogatories. However, what I’ve found is pretty general. I’d like to know if they have actual suggested language for interrogatories in an injury case (re: damages, experts, lost earnings, etc.).34
  9. Pls get asap a copy of this article for me: Daniel E. Troy, FDA Involvement in Product Liability Lawsuits, FDLI Update, Jan–Feb 2003.35
  10. In a nutshell, the patron wants to know if you can obtain a copy of the episode of the soap opera Guiding Light that aired on August 3, 1998. Believe it or not, this relates to a product liability case (it’s not for his personal enjoyment!).36

Endnotes

  1.    A fabulous resource for city and county ordinances is www.municode.com. Of course, it does not cover every city and county in the U.S. For smaller entities, check the main county library.

  2.    This is one of the most common requests. It is also generally one of the easiest, as the state statutes will usually spell out the procedure.

  3.    This is a tricky request. Since this person is really asking how to do something, it is easy to stray into unauthorized practice of law.

  4.    A reason not to throw out all those old journal issues!

  5.    What did I tell you about keeping old copies of the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory?

  6.    This is another procedural question. It is best to refer questions like these to a do-it-yourself book like the type published by Nolo Press (see Chapter 9).

  7.    Indeed they are, though only from the 1990s. See www.ic.nc.gov/database.html.

  8.    This is another person asking how to do something. I would find a form in a series like AmJur Legal Forms and let the patron figure it out himself.

  9.    A great place for this is the National Association of Legal Professionals Directory of Law Schools, available at www.nalplawschoolsonline.org.

10.    Nowhere, unless you pay for it through a public records database (see Chapter 7), to which the general public typically does not have access.

11.    Another job for AmJur Legal Forms or a similar forms series.

12.    Another reason to keep old copies of Martindale-Hubbell, though no library would have the space or fortitude to maintain an 80-year-old copy.

13.    ORS = Oregon Revised Statutes. The Bluebook is a fabulous resource for identifying abbreviations.

14.    ORCP = Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure. Also indentified using The Bluebook.

15.    Here is another plea for help. Divorce and child custody questions are among the most common—and the most emotional. Usually, the requester has gotten the runaround from the courts and any number of attorneys, and he or she is stressed to the breaking point. Handle these questions with extra caution.

16.    A legislative history question, often handled by consulting an annotated code (see Chapter 2).

17.    This question is not about undergarments but electronic copies of appellate court filings (briefs). See Chapter 7.

18.    Though there are form books like AmJur Legal Forms, these are really collections of templates. When a patron asks for a “form,” what he really wants is something to fill out, check off, and submit, like an IRS form. The courts do not work that way. To file a complaint, which is the beginning of a lawsuit, there is no standard form; you have to draft the complaint yourself based on the specifics of your case. It is hard to explain this to patrons.

19.    Resist the urge to reply, “Well, why don’t you just go to Multnomah County Law Library?”

20.    This is another legislative history question.

21.    The Bluebook won’t help you with this one. LUBA means Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals. This is one you would know through experience or using Google. Or you could try Prince’s Bieber Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations, published by William S. Hein (www.wshein.com).

22.    A research guide on this topic is available at www.co.washington.or.us/LawLibrary/upload/Briefs_HowtoFind-2.pdf.

23.    Yet another legislative history question. Legislative history is a big part of a law librarian’s job that I simply can’t cover in detail in this book. A good source for learning more is LLSDC’s Legislative Source Book (www.llsdc.org/sourcebook).

24.    Another request for an IRS-like form. You would have to explain to this patron that the court system does not work like that.

25.    This is like saying, “I need a North Carolina case.” If you must laugh, laugh on the inside.

26.    This is called a “rescission.” Black’s Law Dictionary is the perfect tool for this request.

27.    Dan the Day Laborer strikes again!

28.    For history of a regulation, you will have to trace it through the Federal Register (for a U.S. reg) or the state equivalent (for a state reg).

29.    As you can see, attorney requests are typically more detailed and specific than those from the general public. Then again, what with “state A” and “state B,” I remember feeling less informed after reading the question than before.

30.    This is an example of the “wrong or incomplete citations” you are liable to get from attorneys (see Chapter 3).

31.    These may not be “wrong or incomplete citations,” but they are obscure ones. The first place to start, of course, is The Bluebook. If that doesn’t work, then move on to Prince’s Bieber Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations. I had trouble finding some of these, and when I asked the requester for more information, he replied, “The treatise I’m referring to uses the cites I gave you.” Remarkably, authors of treatises don’t always format citations correctly. In these situations, I might search for the citations in the law journals database on Westlaw or LexisNexis (see Chapter 5). Another writer might have cited the same documents more clearly.

32.    This is a good example of the nonlegal research law firm librarians have to do. This request came from one of the environmental law paralegals.

33.    I got questions like this all the time. See Chapter 7 for information on locating individuals.

34.    “Bender” refers to Matthew Bender, a treatise publisher owned by LexisNexis. Matthew Bender does have a general interrogatories treatise, but sometimes specialty treatises work better. I sent this requester to a West title, Stein on Personal Injury Damages, which had exactly what he was looking for.

35.    At the time, this article was not available on Westlaw, LexisNexis, or any other database our library subscribed to. It was also not available free on the internet. The Georgetown University library had hard copies of the journal, and I was able to get the article copied and emailed to me.

36.    In 12 years of law librarianship, this is my most fabulous research request. I started with the CBS network, but it did not provide copies of individual episodes. Next I tried a few television archives (e.g., the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago), to no avail. Finally, I asked myself, who is the most likely type of person to have this information? Answer: a fan of the show. This led me to soap opera discussion boards. I did not find the episode, but that is because the attorney called off the search after a day or two. I think I could have found it if I had kept at it on the discussion boards.