San Diego County Public Law Library- August 2003 E-Newsletter

Got Rats? New Law Increases Landlords' Liability for Poor Living Conditions  Current California law says that a landlord is liable for up to $1,000 when the landlord demands or collects rent on a building that has been deemed by a public housing inspector to be untenantable and has been unlivable for the past 60 days. As of January 1, 2004, though, new law AB 647 will allow landlords who rent unlivable spaces to be sued for up to $5,000. Further, the unlivable conditions only have to exist for 35 days instead of 60. And if the landlord begins an unlawful detainer suit to evict a tenant while in violation of this section, the landlord have to pay attorney fees and court costs.

RSVP On-Line for the 2003 Bernard E. Witkin, Esq., Awards Dinner  The 2003 Bernard E. Witkin, Esq., Awards Dinner is set for September 17, 2003, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina East Tower, 1380 Harbor Island Drive, San Diego, CA 92101. The Cocktail Reception will begin at 5:00 p.m., and the Dinner and Awards Program will begin at 6:30 p.m. New this year- RSVP online! Each year the San Diego County Law Library Justice Foundation uses this award to honor members of the San Diego legal community for civic leadership and excellence in the teaching, practice, enactment or adjudication of the law while raising money for the San Diego County Public Law Library. This year's winners are the Honorable Judith L. Haller, Justice, Fourth District California Court of Appeal, Janice P. Brown, Esq., of Vantage Law Group, LLP, and Professor Lester Snyder of the University of San Diego School of Law.

More MCLE Classes Available this Fall  The MCLE class in July on electronic legal research was so successful that we have decided to have more! Next dates are Sept. 23rd and Oct 8th from 9 a.m.- 11 a.m. This class offers attorneys a chance to familiarize them with some of the online resources available at the Law Library while earning 2 hours of participatory MCLE credit. The class is free for members of the Law Library and $10 for non-members. YOU MUST PRE-REGISTER by calling (619) 531-3900 and there are only 8 spaces available for each class. The focus of the class will be on learning how to use databases the Law Library subscribes to, such as Loislaw.com and Shepard's Online. Additionally, the class will cover various free governmental and legal sources of information. Discussion of what is available on each of these resources will be discussed. There will be time for hands-on practice at the end of the class.

Staff Changes at the Branches  This month we bid farewell to North County Branch librarian Laurel Moran, who is leaving the Library after almost 7 years. A former family law attorney, Laurel joined the staff in 1996, first as a substitute librarian, then as the full-time reference librarian at North County. In 2000, she was promoted to the position of North County Branch Manager. Although her plans include spending more time with her family, Laurel will continue to be an active librarian, as she serves as the Vice-President of SANDALL and works part-time for the San Diego County Library system. Rita Wagstaff has joined the Library as the new South Bay Branch Librarian. Rita has recently relocated from Northern California, where she worked at Boalt Hall. Prior to becoming a law librarian, Rita's career included implementing technology and developing training courses for businesses and a number of higher education institutions. As the new South Bay Branch Manager, Rita will be developing new programs and outreach to the community, continuing the tradition of outstanding public service for which SDCPLL is known.

August Cartoon  This cartoon is one of Stu's Views. These are cartoons by a local lawyer, geared for lawyers. Stu is an entertainment lawyer here in San Diego who represents mostly visual arts creators. As he says in his bio on his home page, "Stu is the lawyer for cartoonists and the cartoonist for lawyers." See other cartoons by Stu at www.stus.com.

Hacking Notification Law Goes into Effect  As of July 1st, retailers who do business in California must notify their customers if and when their databases containing customer information are hacked. The bill, AB 700, was introduced by CA Assembly Member Joe Simitian and requires that retailers notify customers either via e-mail or written notice if any "unencrypted personal information was, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired by an unauthorized person." There is an exception, of course, that allows retailers to delay notification if it will interfere with a criminal investigation.

New Jury Instructions Coming Sept. 1  Beginning Sept 1, California juries in civil cases will have new jury instructions that are written in plain English instead of legalese. The instructions are drafted to be readable at a 10th grade reading level and are the product of six and a half years of work by six attorneys, four trial lawyers, six appellate justices, an academic scholar and one nonlawyer. The instructions themselves are not yet up on the web, but they are promised to be in place by Sept. 1

New Books- August 2003  Here is a list of some of our newest acquisitions. Please note that while some of these books are located only at Main, books that circulate can be sent to our branches upon a request from the branch. ADVISING CALIFORNIA COMMON INTEREST COMMUNITIES by Curtis C. Sproul and Katharine N. Rosenberry, CEB, 2003. See description. Rosenberry is a faculty member at Cal Western School of Law and a pioneer in this field. This set is available at all locations at KFC144.3 .S67 2003. CALIFORNIA PREMISES LIABILITY: LAW AND PRACTICE by Michael Paul Thomas, Mark A. Kelegian, and Paul D. Gutierrez, 2003. See description. Available at all locations at KFC315 .T56 2003. SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW by Wayne R. Lafave, 2nd ed, 2003. Available at Main at KF9219.L386 2003.

Legal Links- August 2003  Every issue of our e-newsletter contains information about useful web sites that we run across in our daily reference activities. As professional researchers, law librarians are quickly able to evalute the usefulness and authenticity of web sites and pass that information onto you. Sites that cost money to access are denoted with a $$. Lambda Legal - As you know, the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down Texas' sodomy law in Lawrence et al. v. Texas. This is only one of the cases brought by Lambda Legal, a "national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, the transgendered, and people with HIV or AIDS through impact litigation, education, and public policy work." This site has a wealth of information on topics affecting the LGBT community, including civil unions, employment, housing, military, reproductive rights, youth and schools, and more. Adlaw.com - this site bills itself as "the premier source of legal information for advertising and marketing professionals who need to know!" The site, run by New York law firm Hall, Dickler, Kent, Goldstein, and Wood, features a Virtual Law Library for Cyber-Marketers with great articles like "Reducing the Legal Risks of E-Mail Marketing" and something to make the Publisher's Clearninghouse people tremble- articles on the legal aspects of promotional programs such as lotteries and sweepstakes. Top 100 Federal Forms- FedForms, a great site providing one-stop shopping for federal forms most used by the public, offers this listing of the Top 100 forms downloaded by users. Last time I checked, the 2002 Form 1041 (Schedule D) Capital Gains and Losses form was the #1 form. I wonder what that says about the economy..... Speed Trap Exchange - Do you regularly exceed the posted speed limit? You can take the 5th on that, but you can't miss this site! The Speed Trap Exchange is a database of known speed traps around the US, with tips on how to avoid them, and how to fight a ticket you receive in a speed trap. Some of the San Diego speed traps listed are 6th Avenue between I-5 and Juniper, eastward on Mission Gorge Road into Santee, and Golfcrest Drive during rush hour.

Librarian Action Figure Coming Soon!  Yes, this is the moment you've all been waiting for. The Librarian action figure is due out this fall and features "amazing push button shushing action!" How did the librarian action figure come to be? Read the Seattle Times story. It will be available from Archie McPhee, a novelty store in Seattle which also boasts fun items like the nun punching puppet and the pig catapult. I admit to making a visit to this store last week while in Seattle at a law librarian meeting and purchasing the Republic of Texas lunchbox. This is a great site to surf for interesting gift ideas and they will let you sign up to be notified when the librarian action figure is available. I'm already on the list.

Don't Let This Man Do Your Eulogy  Be careful who you ask to talk about your life at your funeral- you could get someone like Rev. Scott Mansfield. Mansfield allegedly declared at the funeral of Ben Martinez, a former prominent member of Chama, New Mexico's town council, that Martinez had been a lukewarm Catholic who had been living in sin and was going to hell. The family is suing the Roman Catholic priest and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, NM, for psychological pain, physical afflictions, anxiety, depression and humiliation. To read about other strange lawsuits, check out the Jester's Courtroom from the Center for Individual Freedom ( www.cfif.org) This non-partisan nonprofit was founded in 1998 to "protect and defend individual freedoms and individual rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution" but the best part of the webpage is the list of weird lawsuits. Check them out!

We hope you've enjoyed our newsletter. We're hard at work on the next edition. In the meantime, please visit us online at: http://www.sdcpll.org/. And come see us in person at one of our locations. For locations and hours please click here: http://www.sdcpll.org/location.htm. For more information contact: Amy Hale-Janeke ahale@sdcll.org Media Coordinator / Reference Librarian (619) 531-3900