October 2004 E-Newsletter- San Diego County Public Law Library

2004 Witkin Awards Dinner A Rousing Success On Sept. 23rd, over 180 lawyers and judges from San Diego's legal community came together to honor three outstanding members of San Diego's legal community and to raise money for the Law Library at the Bernard E. Witkin, Esq., Awards Dinner. This year the dinner ended in record time, clocking in at barely over an hour! In order to keep the agenda shorter, the video presentations were moved to eye-catching flat panel displays during the reception. Many thanks also go to to the wonderfully able Master of Ceremonies Judith Copeland as well as the interesting and succinct winners. The Witkin Award recognizes and honors leaders of the San Diego legal community for "civic leadership and excellence in the teaching, practice, enactment, or adjudication of the law." Winners this year were the well-known real estate attorney Alan R. Perry, Esq., Judge James R. Milliken( Retired), and esteemed law professor Sister Sally Furay. We'd also like to thank our generous sponsors for their support of the Law Library. The Witkin Fund proceeds are used to purchase books and materials for law practitioners for the San Diego County Public Law Library, in keeping with the life and writings of Bernard E. Witkin, Esq. See what we purchased last year using Witkin monies. The Witkin Award Dinner is, appropriately enough, the primary fund-raiser for the fund and the Witkin Award celebrate members of the legal community and their good works. To contribute to this or other funds, please contact: Law Library Justice Foundation of San Diego County, 1105 Front Street, San Diego, CA 92101, Telephone: (619) 531-3904.

New Punitive Damages Law Goes into Immediate Effect A new law put forth by the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review that which was approved and rushed into effect August 16th mandates that 75% of punitive damage awards will now go to the state instead of the plaintiff. Specifically, SB 1102 says any action filed after the effective date of the bill "...that results of a final judgment or settlement that is rendered on or before June 30, 2006, and includes punitive damages, that the punitive damages shall be apportioned according to a specified formula. Pursuant to this formula, 25% would be paid to the plaintiff or plaintiffs and 75% of the award would be paid to the Director of the Department of Finance for deposit into the Public Benefit Trust Fund, which would be created by the bill. The fund would be administered by the Department of Finance. Of the amounts deposited into the fund, 25% would be continuously appropriated to pay the plaintiff's attorney, as specified, and the remainder would be available for annual appropriation in the Budget Act, to be used for purposes consistent with the nature of the award, as specified..." Additionally, the new law prohibits "...informing a jury that a portion of a punitive damages award will be paid to a government fund or that a punitive damages award would result in a windfall to the plaintiff." So in essence a plaintiff's attorney can get 25% of a punitive damages award but their portion will be distributed by the state. And we all know how efficient large government bureaucracies can be....

Library Closed Oct. 11- Columbus Day All locations of the Law Library will be closed Monday, October 11th, in observance of Columbus Day. See our other holiday closures here. The courts are also closed on this day. We will reopen with normal hours on Tuesday, October 12th.

New Books- October 2004 Here is a list of some of our newest acquisitions. Please note that while some of these books are located only at our Main Library, books that circulate can be sent to our branches upon a request from the branch. California Uninsured Motorist Practice, 2nd ed. by Tod Castronovo. CEB, 2004. Available at all locations. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy by Keith M. Lundin, 3rd ed. Bankruptcy Press, 2004. Available at Main. Overly on Electronic Evidence in California by Michael Overly. Thomson/West, 2004. Available at all locations.

PACER Price Change Many of you already know and love PACER, the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) database. It allows users to obtain case and docket information from Federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index for a very modest cost (7 cents a page). However, starting Jan. 1, 2005, the modest cost is expanding slightly and going up to (gasp) 8 cents per page! On the plus side, though, if you want to download a document that is more than 30 pages long, it won't cost you 8 cents per page. Instead, the cost of the whole document, no matter how many pages it is, will be capped at $2.40. If you haven't ever used PACER, you do have to sign up and open an account. Once you do, though, you will find obtaining federal docket information remarkably easy. Additionally, if you accrue less than $10 per year on your account, you won't be billed for it.

October Legal Links Auctiondrop.com- Fall is the time to clean out the closets, and someone may want to buy your junk on eBay! But what if you don't have the time or energy to put up an eBay posting, process payment and ship it? Consider finding an eBay drop off center and letting them do the work for a cut of the profits. A local Vista man is starting up a similar business called 24/7 Auctions. Urban Legends about Halloween- www.snopes.com- this is one of my favorite sites for debunking urban myths. With Halloween around the corner, this site is a perfect reference site when you start getting forwards from your friends about stories of razor blades in apples and other trick-or-treating nightmares. Places to be Scared- Each October, many commercial haunted houses open up and charge a lot of money so you can wait in line and be scared. It's said divorce lawyers do the same thing (ha ha). In any case, if you are looking for a scare that won't take two years or cost more than your car, here is a short list of San Diego's commerical haunted houses: Scream Zone (Del Mar Fairgrounds), Haunted Hotel / Frightmare on Market Street (downtown San Diego), and Halloween Haunt (Knott's Berry Farm).

October Cartoon- "Tax Guru" This cartoon is one of Stu's Views, now in color! 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. He has graciously allowed his cartoons to be reprinted in our newsletter since 2000. He recently launched a new site where his cartoons can be easily customized to include a person's name, firm name, and legal specialty and put on a wide variety of gifts. The holidays are coming and it's never too early to prepare...

Library Closed Dec. 23-Jan. 2nd Due to a budget shortfall of about $330,000, the Law Library will institute a one-week mandatory furlough without pay for employees. Thus, all four locations of the Law Library will be closed December 23, 2004, through January 2, 2005. The Law Library will reopen with normal hours on Monday, January 3, 2005. We want to give you some advance notice so you can plan to use other resources during that time. For example, the University of San Diego's Law Library will be open Monday, December 27th, through Wednesday, December 29th. However, they too are closed for the Christmas (Thursday, December 23 - Sunday, December 26) and New Year's holidays (Thursday, December 30 - Sunday, January 2, 2005).

Reference Question of the Month- Pocket Motorcycles Q: Are the little mini motorcycles I see zooming everywhere legal for highway use? A: No. In fact, according to the California Highway Patrol, mini motorcycles, also known as "pocket motorcycles," are illegal for any highway or street use, period. You can't use them as an off-road vehicle either. You can only ride them on private property with the owner's permission. Orginally designed for use in closed-circuit racing, they have been marketed as a toy or a motor scooter but they are not street legal. Regardless of what they are called, if you are seen on the street driving one, you can be cited for (1) no driver's license, (2) lack of proper motorcycle endorsement, (3) unsafe vehicle, or (4) lack of helmet use, and the bike may be impounded, which would require you to pay tow and storage fees to get it back. Click here for a good short summary of the laws.

October 21, 2004 - Free MCLE Class- Pre-Trial Procedures noon - 1:30 p.m. Starting Location: Main Law Library- 1105 Front Street Need some participatory MCLE credit? Want to brush up on your pre-trial skills? This class provides an overview of practice materials used in filing and/or defending a lawsuit; preparing and responding to common pre-trial motions; and tips and tricks in the discovery process. It is good for 1.5 hours participatory credit! The class is free and available only for members of the Law Library. Space is limited, so sign up today by calling (619) 531-3900.

November 4, 2004 - Free MCLE Class- On-line Databases 2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Starting Location: Main Law Library On Thursday, November 4th, the Law Library will offer a class for attorneys to familiarize them with some of the online resources available at the Law Library. This class is good for 2 hours of participatory MCLE credit. The focus of the class will be on learning how to use databases the Law Library is subscribed to, such as Loislaw.com and Shepard's Online. Additionally, the class will cover various free Internet sites for governmental and legal sources of information. There will be time for hands-on practice at the end of the class. Space is limited so sign up early! The class is available only for members of the Law Library and is free. For further information or to sign up, call (619) 531-3900.

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