Updated Legal Research Guides

When conducting research in an unfamiliar area of the law, one of the best resources for getting started is a pathfinder or resource guide. The Harris County Law Library has a number of helpful guides on a variety of legal topics in the most commonly practiced areas of the law: Family Law, Probate, Real Estate, Labor and Employment, and Civil and Criminal Litigation.

Two additional Research Guides -- Law Practice Management and Attorney Networking Resources -- were created specifically with solo and small firm legal practitioners in mind, and yet another guide, Recursos en Español, was written just for Spanish speakers. 

To access all of these Research Guides, please visit our dedicated webpage where links to all ten of the guides are posted. Open each link to view a full-page, printable PDF of every title in the collection. For help locating any of these resources in print or online via our Westlaw, Lexis, HeinOnline, and O'Connor's legal database subscriptions, please stop by the Reference Desk for assistance from our friendly staff. 

The Spirit of the Law

In the spirit of the Halloween season, Harris County Law Library is exhibiting several spooky selections from our print collection. The sources we uncovered will be on display through the end of the month. Don't miss your chance to see them before they vanish! The following featured items are included in the exhibit. 

Burchill v. Hermsmeyer, 212 SW 767 (1919), is the case of the ghost who inspired a contract dispute and a fraud claim. Mr. Hermsmeyer sued to recover the $10,000 he invested in Mrs. Burchill's corporation. She claimed that ghosts, with whom she consulted via a medium, told her there was oil under her land. When no oil was discovered, Mr. Hermsmeyer argued that Ms. Burchill's claim was a fraudulent misrepresentation of facts. The court rejected his argument saying that the existence of ghosts is a matter of belief, not of fact. His claim was, therefore, "insufficient to form a basis for relief for the plaintiff."

Purtell v. Mason, 527 F.3d 615 (2008), involves Halloween yard decorations which caused a neighborhood dispute and raised questions about the right to insult every person on your block. Jeffrey and Vicki Purtell displayed six wooden tombstones in front of their Chicago home, each bearing unflattering references to their neighbors and the details of each person's fictitious demise. One of the neighbors identified on the tombstones argued with Mr. Purtell over the offensive decorations resulting in a call to the police. Officer Bruce Mason arrived at the scene. He arrested Mr. Purtell and ordered the removal of the tombstones. The Purtells asserted their free speech rights, but the Seventh Circuit found no loss of First Amendment Protection under the "fighting words" doctrine. 

The Law of Cadavers and of Burial and Burial Places by Percival E. Jackson is the "standard work on the subject of the law pertaining to the care and disposal of bodies of deceased human beings, and the establishment and maintenance of burial places." Included in this volume is a thorough treatment of the law regarding sepulture along with "approximately a hundred pages of forms pertaining to the regulation of cemeteries, the transfer of plots, graves, and monuments therein and the care, transportation, and burial of human corpses as well as some forms of legal proceedings in both tort and contract, germane to the general subject." (Book Review by Charles G. Coster, 2014) This title, 2nd edition, is available in the Harris County Law Library's print collection and also via HeinOnline's Legal Classics Library, which you can access at the Law Library.

In the early 1900s, three creative thinkers designed new and improved lanterns in the category of "decorative and grotesque illuminating devices commonly called jackolanterns." (Andrew B. Heard, Patent No. 715,379) Their patent drawings are featured in the exhibit and shown in in the graphics throughout this post.

To see the rest of the Halloween-themed legal materials on display, visit the Law Library before November 1st. Happy haunting!

Latest & Greatest – Trial Manual 6 for the Defense of Criminal Cases

HeinOnline has recently introduced a new addition to its American Law Institute Library: Trial Manual 6 for the Defense of Criminal Cases. Written by Anthony G. Amsterdam and Randy Hertz, the Trial Manual, as it is called, is designed to be a handbook for managing and handling criminal cases. Arranged chronologically, the Trial Manual takes the reader step-by-step through the criminal defense process, from the initial stages following an arrest through postconviction proceedings and appeals. Chapters covering the initial case to the arraignment address such topics as bail, case planning, preliminary hearings, grand jury, and guilty pleas. Proceedings included in the period between arraignment and trial include pretrial motions, pretrial discovery and conference(s), and suppression motions and hearings. Matters relating to the jury and the conduct of the trial itself are addressed in the trial chapters. Lastly, post-trial motions, sentencing, appeals, and probation and parole revocation are discussed in the final chapters dealing with post-trial matters.

As with resources found in other HeinOnline libraries, this full-text treatise features hyperlinks, which take the reader to the highlighted cases and law review articles cited in the Trial Manual. There are also handy flow charts detailing the procedure for cases involving felonies, cases dealing with misdemeanors, and cases before a magistrate. Moreover, there are checklists throughout the Trial Manual to ensure that the attorney has performed all of the necessary steps at a particular stage. Additionally, the authors, knowing that an important part of any trial, civil or criminal, is an understanding of the attorney-client privilege and the ethical rules concerning the practice of law, provide an excellent summary of the duties owed to the client and refer to the American Bar Association Standards of Criminal Justice, the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct (also available at the Law Library), and the ABA Code of Professional Responsibility. (Another good source on ethics that is available here at the Harris County Law Library, but not specifically referenced, is Professional Responsibility in Criminal Defense Practice.)

Incidentally, the authors stress that, while the Trial Manual is a helpful resource for the novice attorney and can provide him or her with the necessary information to competently represent a criminal defendant, criminal law remains a specialty. Thus, they recommend that those lawyers who are not well-versed in the handling of criminal matters consult with a more experienced criminal attorney for assistance. Nevertheless, the Trial Manual has been and continues to be an invaluable resource for those who are called upon to defend an individual in a criminal case. Look for it on HeinOnline at the Harris County Law Library.