How to Subpoena a Library Book

I love it! A Georgia law librarian received a subpoena for a reference book in the collection because the attorney did not have borrowing privileges with this public institution. The staff photocopied the book, had it notarized, and sent the bill. The notarized copy was admitted as evidence.

Minn.Stat.599.15 takes care of situations like these locally. My own encounter was the need for an original copy of the Wall St. Journal from 8 years previous to the request. The Minneapolis Public Library told me to have them subpoenaed so the attorney who requested the newspaper did. Most libraries now make a point of archiving back issues in the original of any newspaper for 2-3 years. The tsorsis is not worth it!

That National Law Journal!

It does get confusing when you see only the headlines in a blog. Last week I caught the article about summer hiring and law firms but totally missed the article on "Litigating Landmark Suits", a little overview of Marvin Krislov, general counsel at the University of Michigan. Evidently we get our hard copy one week after it appears on Law.com. Wonder if the folks on the east coast get it any sooner??

The week of Feb. 7 which the library will receive next week (Feb. 14 - remember "Who's on First"?) also has some interesting articles.
Judge orders firm to ethics class is a nasty story about the Lozano Smith law firm which fights students with disabilities.

High court to weigh class action 'reform' covers the litigation of multi-party actions.

This one looks very interesting because it discusses the Google decision in Virginia: Key battle over search engine fees is not over. A similar case is being decided in the Northern California Federal District, Google v. American Blind and Wallpaper Factory Inc., No. 03-5340-JF.

Enjoy the hard copy when you receive it. You have been warned!

Other Blogs

The Scotusblog has an RSS feed! When it began it did not which was inconvenient for me, being so cheap I do not believe in actually paying $$ for a feed aggregator. Sounds bucolic: feed aggregator. My $$ go for blogs that ultimately cost $$, i.e., you need a subscription to the Wall St. Journal or Law.com. Mealey's costs $$ if you want to see the full text, as do the Intraclips I have created for the 8th Circuit and the Minnesota Federal District Court.--again if you have this desire to see the full text.

Latest rumour is that Bloglines was bought by Ask Jeeves according to Ambrogi's Lawsites. Some days it's just hard to keep up with who is buying whom. Wonder if this means I'll actually have to buy some software in order to blog.

From the National Law Journal Sources

Scary costs, those Philadelphia law firms are increasing new associate salaries to $115,000.00. At least they're not increasing the billable hours, those remain at 1,900 for the newcomers. The article is taken from the Legal Intelligencer and titled "Buchanan, Stradley Join Move to $115K Starting Salary".

This week's NLJ newspaper covers insurers and obesity policies; elder law attorneys and the politics of aging; and more on the Asbestos trust fund. The other article I found interesting is about summer hiring, how it has increased this year, and how firms are looking for more specific interests. The article is not in this week's newspaper though; maybe it will be next week.

The funniest trademark story is who owns the name of "the Mustang Ranch". Look for that in this week's Natioanl Law Journal, in the column "Voir Dire".

Validated!

From the blog, LawLibTech comes a piece on why law librarians should blog. I knew that. You cannot know how much "stuff" is strewn throughout my cubbie office with little bits of information that I may need someday. Much better to put it all down electronically. Just think how much worse it would be if the staff were larger!

Not too worried about someone actually finding this blog even though it's private. Like e-mail, you should not put in anything you do not want other people to read. Common sense, yes?