Act Now!

The other day I had a woman come into our library at about 3:00PM in the afternoon frantically (i.e. freaked out of her mind) looking/begging for legal assistance.  Seems she had been served with a complaint 30 days prior and, with the clerk's window closing at 4:30PM, she had to have an answer stamped and filed now (as in TODAY)! 

In my mind I'm thinking, "Why?!"  Way did you wait until the 11th hour to answer your complaint?  Was it because your dog ate your homework?  Was it because you had to take your kids to soccer practice everyday, all day?  Was it because you had to stop to make your husband another sandwich?  Was it because your mother-in-law dropped by to give you yet another #%@#!%^@# tip on how to be a better wife to her baby boy and mother to her grandchildren?  Was it because you just didn't think it was all that important until your pooka casually suggested (because that's how they roll) you get on over to the law library to get information on how to file your answer?

Sad that she had to wait and start with the screaming and yelling and begging for more time; time which no court (or sane attorney) in the world would give her.  Notwithstanding her desperate plight, I suggested she quickly browse California Forms of Pleading and Practice (Lexis; Vol. 3, Ch. 26; Answers).  I also suggested (if she had a few extra seconds) that she take a look at American Jurisprudence Pleading and Practice Forms (West).  Long story short, she didn't get her answer filed in time and left the library the same way she came in with the screaming and the yelling and the speaking in diverse (possessed) tongues.

If you ever find yourself in a similar bind, don't wait to get help - run (as in RUN FAST) to your nearest county law library and let your local county law Librarian help you find what you need LOOOOOOOOOOOONG before you need it.

...and in other news

Normally, I publish about once a week because my posts about legal research are pretty potent stuff.  Today, however, I saw an article in the Los Angeles Daily Journal that talked about Ciolino v. Hewlett-Packard Co, 2013 DJDAR 6149, which was a case just handed down by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.  In Ciolino, the court stated that when a settlement in class action cases provided for coupon relief (meaning, instead of collecting cash, the prevailing party is giving coupons redeemable for goods/services), attorneys must base their fees upon the number of coupons actually redeemed.  Wait, what?!? 

See, in the past, lawyers who won a class action case where the prevailing party is given coupons to use to buy goods/services with the offending defendant, attorneys could collect huge amounts of cash for their fees and costs of suit whether or not anyone actually used the coupons. The problem is/was - why in blazes would anyone want to use a coupon for stuff at a company they just sued? 

Apparently, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals thought that was crazy, too, stating to the attorneys, if you win a class action suit where the settlement provides for coupon relief, you (the attorneys) can't collect your fees up front but must wait and base your fees on how many coupons are actually used.  What this means is that if no one uses their coupons, the representing attorneys don't get paid!

Ohhhh, that's gotta hurt but with a ruling like that I'm thinking attorneys will be re-thinking filing their next class action suit because we the people are sick of having to use those stupid coupons.  Interested in filing a class action or what a class action lawsuit is?  Take a gander at Newberg on Class Actions (West) or Survey of State Class Action Law (West) and with that, I'm out!

Running with scissors

How many times did your mother tell you not to run with scissors?  Frankly, I quit counting after 1,000,000,000.  Thing is, I don't know what the allure was all about.  Running fast and carrying something sharp.  Must have been the feeling of living dangerously.  Yeah, that must have been it - knowing that at any time you could fall and poke your eye(s) out or slice off a body part.  What a rush!

Strange how some people never really get over this feeling of living dangerously.  For example, the other day I was talking to a person who had just lost his case in Superior Court.  Seems until he lost his case (which, incidentally, never made it past the filing of the complaint stage), he thought he could prepare his case from stuff found on Wikipedia and Google.  Imagine his surprise, then, when he got blown out of court in a matter of minutes because his complaint, in the words of the judge, was woefully inadequate.  Inadequate?!  How can that be?  Isn't Wikipedia the repository of all legal knowledge?  News flash - no, it isn't.  In fact, it is my humble, slightly biased opinion that 99% of everything on the Internet is bunk.  BUNK, I say!

Had this guy just spent some time at his local county law library, he might have avoided the embarrassment of getting rejected in court.  Had he just taken the time to talk to his friendly neighborhood law Librarian, he might have been exposed to California Forms of Pleading and Practice (Lexis), California Practice Guide: Civil Procedure Before Trial (West), or even Represent Yourself in Court (Nolo Press), and he might not now be singing his own swan song.

The moral to this story might be if you need help finding things legal - DON'T rely on the Internet to save your neck.  Your local law Librarian is who you want to see because, often times, we know what you need before you need it.  Yes, we are that good.

Word of the Month for May 2013

Once upon a time there were two brothers:  Cain and Able.  Able was a shepherd and Cain was a farmer.  One day, God came a 'callin asking both brothers to provide a sacrifice of an unblemished sheep.  Able went out to the field, snagged his best sheep and bada bing, bada boom, offered up the sheep.  Cain, on the other hand, thought he knew better what to do and offered up a bunch of twigs and leaves because that's what he does, grows twigs and leaves!  The result was that God accepted Able's sacrifice and rejected Cain's sacrifice. 

The other day, as I was doing my law Librarian thing, we had a patron come into the library all screaming and yelling and stomping around.  Seems he had submitted a set of legal documents to the court and the court rejected all of them because they failed to conform to the rules of court.  He screams, "Who do these ##%$@#%^ judges think they are and what in blazes are the rules of court?!?!?"

Black's Law Dictionary defines RULES OF COURT as "rules governing the practice or procedure in a given court" and, as it turns out, each court (state and Federal) are governed by their own set of rules of court.  The California Rules of Court govern the entire state of California and the local rules of court deal with issues for each county in the state of California.  In California alone there are rules of court for the California appeallate courts (Rules 8.1 - 8.1125); there are rules of court for criminal courts (Rules 4.1 - 4.700); rules for civil procedure (Rules 3.1 - 3.2120); rules for family and juvenile law issues (Rules 5.1 - 5.830); and even rules governing the law of practicing law (Rules 9.1 - 9.61).  Yep, there are certainly a whole bunch of rules which, if you don't follow them, may result in a painful judicial smackdown.

Now, back to the story.  For years it bothered me that God rejected Cain's sacrifice.  I mean, a sacrifice is a sacrifice, right?!  Actually, no.  The reason Cain's sacrifice was rejected was because Cain didn't follow procedure or, more to the point, the rules of court.  God said give me an "unblemished sheep."  Able did and Cain didn't.  Plain and simple.  If you don't follow the rules of court for the jurisdiction you are in (for example, you wouldn't use the California rules of court if you lived in Maine or Iowa, or Texas or Wyoming or the European Union, right?!), the court is going to (or can) reject your legal documents.  Plain and simple. 

Now, don't go out and start screaming about this.  Just suck it up and accept the fact that you're going to lose on this one.  If you need help locating the rules of court for your jurisdiction, head over to your local county law library and your local county law Librarian will help you out (and help prevent against your going around blaspheming against God, your least favorite judge, or whomever).

Appearances can be deceiving

In the news today is a story about a bunch of Chinese meat producers who have found a way to cut costs by taking rat, mink, and fox meat, mixing it with gelatin and passing it off as lamb.  For the full story, check out the Yahoo.com article.

The immediate problem I see here is aren't there a number of religions that won't eat certain types of animals.  Being a card carrying member of P.E.T.A. (people eating tasty animals), I can see how this might be a problem since I've not yet heard that rat is all that tasty; in fact, it's pretty stringy.  Another problem is that too often we the people hear of questionable products leaking into the American food supply because someone took a bribe or kickback or whatever and then a bunch of people get sick and die.  Sad situation all around.

The good news is that for those who are concerned about the regulations governing their food supply here in the USA, your local county law library has a couple of excellent resources you can take a look at.  For instance, the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 9 is all about food safety and inspection and Title 21 of the United States Code Annotated (West) deals with food for human consumption.

So, whether you're sick and dying because of something you ate, or you're afraid to eat something because it might lead you to be sick and dying, know that your local county law library has what you need to help you sleep at night (or provide fodder for your nightmares, as the case may be).