National Law Day – Judicial Independence Panel Discussion

Written on April 17, 2019.

In honor of National Law Day, our library will be holding a judicial panel discussion with three esteemed justices from the Fourth Court of Appeal and two Riverside County Superior Court judges about the role of judicial independence in a politically divided society. But what is judicial independence and what shape does it take in the California judicial system? Judicial independence allows our judicial officers the ability to do their jobs without external influences. Let’s just say that the...

The Supreme Court Has The Last Dance

Written on March 28, 2019.

Interesting development to my blog post from last month regarding copyright of dance moves that appeared in video games. For more information read the prior blog. On March 4th of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people must complete their registration with the Copyright Office before they could sue for copyright infringement. Because of this ruling, the lawsuits against the maker of Fortnite, Epic Games, have been dropped. The lawsuits were over use of certain dance emotes in the...

Look What You’ve Been Missing

Written on January 30, 2019.

The three branches of the Riverside County Law Library have so much to offer. We have a wealth of legal information available – State and Federal Statutes, Codes and Regulations, Local Codes and Ordinances, California and Federal Practice Guides, Form Books, Legal Encyclopedias, and Law Reviews and Journals. I encourage you to stop in one of our locations and check out the resources both in print and on line. There will certainly be information to help with your legal query. Don’t have a legal...

New Law Would Eliminate Bail

Written on January 22, 2019.

On August 28th of last year, Governor Jerry Brown signed SB10, better known as the bail reform bill, into law. Originally scheduled to go into effect in October 2019, the new law promises to transform conditions of pretrial release and is already being used in test programs in several counties. For example, Napa County has a similar system in place and has reported a lower rate of recidivism. Under current law, those facing misdemeanor charges are usually released on their own recognizance and...

Technology Competency in Legal Practice

Written on August 9, 2018.

For the record, I am not a technophobe, but I sometimes feel like a technosaur. That feeling is not uncommon in the legal field. Until a couple of years ago, most articles about law and technology were about how the legal field is slow to adopt technology. As much as it might be true that the legal field was slow on the uptake, I think it’s equally true that now we are working hard to make up for lost time. From the use of Artificial Intelligence to conduct legal research to chatbots that...

Moving Day

Written on July 5, 2018.

Stress really gets to some people. When I was young(er) I thrived on it. Stress got me through the day. Then I got married, kids, mortgage, and now….well, stress has a way of changing your perspective. So, what stresses you out? According to the Internet, there a number of things that stress people, such as: 1. Death of a spouse 100 2. Divorce 73 3. Marital separation 65 4. Imprisonment 63 5. Death of a close family member 63 6. Personal injury or...

What was lost was (almost) found

Written on June 7, 2018.

Isn’t it amazing what you can find if you look hard (or long) enough? Take for example the gentleman recently visited our Indio branch with a very straight forward request (well, as “straight forward” as a legal research question can be, I guess). Seems he wanted to know if we had anything by “Witkin” dealing with small claims procedures. For those not in the know “Witkin” is a code word for the series of books written by Bernard E. Witkin. The Witkin...

So, we meet again

Written on May 31, 2018.

I really don’t like Google. Well, it’s not so much that I don’t like Google as a company so much as it is what it has done to the legal system. Well, it’s not so much what it’s done to the legal system as it has done to the people who relied solely on Google to supply their legal pleadings. Time after time I have people come to me complaining about stupid judges who granted demurrers against them when all they did was use the complaint (or answer) they found on...

A New World of Selfies, Part III

Written on May 21, 2018.

In 2011 an Indonesian monkey allegedly took a selfie. There ensued a battle for who owns the copyright. PETA filed suit in the Northern District Court in California stating it was an original work and the monkey, Naruto, had authorship. The wildlife photographer, John Slater, claimed ownership although he didn’t snap the picture but set-up the camera and has since been published in a book, “Wildlife Personalities.” Also involved in the mix is Wikimedia Commons who put the picture on their site...

Tag: Law