Wills and Probate Resource Month - October 2018

October is Wills and Probate Resource Month at the Harris County Law Library. All month long, you will find materials on wills, estate planning, and probate and trust administration on display in the Law Library and online.

Self-Help Guides from Nolo Press

Nolo’s Plan Your Estate is your go-to estate planning guide. With coverage of common estate planning goals, such as leaving property, providing for minors, planning for incapacity, avoiding probate, and reducing the estate tax, it is a go-to source for easy-to-understand estate planning information. Another useful Nolo resource is Estate Planning Basics. Both of these Nolo titles can be found in our Self-Help Collection in the Law Library. For assistance in finding these guides, please ask a member of the reference staff.

TexasLawHelp Wills & Estate Planning

TexasLawHelp.org is an incredibly useful online legal research tool for the general public. Take a look at their Wills & Estate Planning resources for information about filing a small estate affidavit, a transfer on death deed, or an affidavit of heirship. Also find a link to the Texas Probate Passport, a publication of the Texas Young Lawyer’s Association.

Harris County Law Library Research Guides

Visit our Research Guides page to download a free copy of our Probate, Trusts, and Estates Research Guide. This topical guide helps you quickly find the most practical resources available at the Law Library, including the Texas Probate System, a State Bar of Texas publication, and O’Connor’s Texas Probate Law Handbook (both of which are pictured above).Ask for these and other titles at the Law Library reference desk.

#Shelfies: Go Astros! and Book O'Lantern, oh my!

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For the month of October, the Harris County Law Library will offer a pair of #shelfie opportunities for all to enjoy. Snap a photo, post it on social media, and tag us!

Go Astros

The first celebrates the start of another playoff run for our hometown, World Series champs - The Houston Astros! Best of luck to our down-the-block neighbors as they take on some team from Cleveland today. Everyone cheering for orange and blue is welcome to take a #shelfie with our “H” in the stacks, provided they don’t cheer too loudly while taking it… This is a library, after all…

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Getting Spooky in the Stacks

Our very first Book O’Lantern will haunt our shelves now through Halloween. Snap a #shelfie with this bookish ghoul and take a look at our Spirit of the Law exhibit, which showcases early patents for jack o’lantern carving techniques, scary cases, and more! And for the real legal eagles out there, see if you can spot the CFR volume containing a definition of “pumpkin” that makes up part of this festive design. Happy October!

Exhibit: Summertime and the Law

During the month of July, Harris County Law Library is celebrating summer! Our exhibit, Summertime and the Law, will be on display all month long. On your next visit, pause for a moment in the Law Library lobby to view the exhibit and take a whimsical look at law and some of the hallmarks of summer -- sunshine, swimming, theme parks, barbecue, swimming, and more.

Featured items in the exhibit, along with a few additional sources, are listed here:

Cases

Gabriel Gomez v. The State of Texas, Unpublished

Gabriel Gomez appealed his conviction for aggravated assault asserting that he was denied a fair trial. In his complaint, Gomez described the State’s closing remarks as childish, improper, and prejudicial, and “an embarrassment to the legal dignity of the Court.” A portion of the prosecutor’s closing statement, which referenced various Disney characters, including Mickey Mouse, Peter Pan, Snow White, and the Seven Dwarves, is quoted in the opinion. See pages 6 and 7.

Animal Legal Defense Fund v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, 789 F. 3d 1206 (2015)

Living in captivity at a Florida theme park called Seaquarium, an orca named Lolita was exposed to persistent ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Seaquarium tried to combat the harmful UV rays by applying a black-colored zinc oxide to Lolita’s skin, the physiological effects of which were untested and unknown. Plaintiffs argued that the park should be denied renewal of its operating license for violating the Animal Welfare Act. 

Kingsford Products Company v. Kingsfords, Inc., 715 F. Supp. 1013 (1989)

The plaintiff, a manufacturer of charcoal briquettes, brought action against the similarly named Kingsfords, Inc. seeking to enjoin the defendant’s further use of the Kingsford mark on their barbecue sauce product. The District Court held that, despite the plaintiff’s aspirations to one day produce and sell a barbecue sauce under the Kingsford name, they were not entitled to trademark protection. The defendant had already established its product, developed from a family recipe, and the associated brand, so the plaintiff’s arguments went up in proverbial smoke.

Federal Regulations

Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21 - Food and Drugs, Part 135 - Frozen Desserts, Subpart B, Section 135.110

Code of Federal Regulations, Title 7 - Agriculture, Part 58 - Grading and Inspection, Subpart B, Section 58.649

State Statutes

Amusement Ride Safety and Inspection and Insurance Act, Vernon's Texas Code Annotated, Occupations Code, Chapter 2151. Regulation of Amusement Rides

Patents

Water Wings (1918), Patent No. 1,262,296

Water Wings (1928), Patent No. 1,677,083

Immigration Law Resource Month

During the month of July, print materials on all aspects of immigration law will be on display throughout the Law Library. Treatises such as Kurzban’s Immigration Law Sourcebook and a number of CLE coursebooks from TexasBarCLE will be featured. You’ll also find immigration law resources in the Law Library’s digital collection, including official immigration forms through Westlaw and the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal on HeinOnline. 

CLE Resource Month: Spanish for Lawyers and the Ten Minute Mentor

June is Continuing Legal Education Resource Month at the Harris County Law Library. Explore our new collection of 2017 State Bar of Texas CLE resources, in the Law Library's print collection, for research and self-study.

If you're in search of free CLE opportunities online, take a look at our On-Demand Learning resources on the Harris County Law Library's Legal Tech Institute web page. Here you will find live recordings of our LTI CLE programs on topics such as Legal Practice Technology, Finding & Formatting Legal Forms, The Robot Lawyer: Artificial Intelligence in the Practice of Law, and Excel Essentials for the Practice of Law. Note that the courses can be viewed free of charge, and attorneys can earn MCLE credit for watching them.

The Texas Young Lawyers Association is providing another valuable resource for those seeking free CLE credit and an opportunity to improve communication with Spanish-speaking clients. Spanish for Lawyers CLE Course just launched on June 1st. The program, which was produced at the Texas Bar CLE Studio, is comprised of 10 web-based classes which are 35-45 minutes each for a total of  9 hours of instruction. The course is approved for 5.25 hours of MCLE credit and includes beginner Spanish instruction focused on the use of legal vocabulary in various subject areas, including employment law, family law, civil law, criminal law and immigration law. Class 6, which is focused on engagement and providing advice to Spanish-speaking clients is eligible for .5 hours of ethics credit. In addition to the video instruction, each class is accompanied by a presentation, a pre-class vocabulary list, post-class homework and an MP3 file for oral vocabulary practice.

Don't forget that the State Bar of Texas CLE offers some free CLE courses online, and the Texas Young Lawyers maintain an extensive library of short videos on their website, Ten Minute Mentor. Legal experts in specific areas of the law provide short instructional presentations, which, after viewing, can be reported for self-study CLE credit. 

Finally, the Harris County Law Library offers a weekly, one-hour CLE program on some aspect of legal technology as part of its Hands-on Legal Tech Training series. Courses are offered at the Law Library in the Legal Tech Lab every Thursday at 2:00 pm. For the month of June, we will offer Find and Format Legal Forms, MS Word for Legal Work, and Free Legal Tech for Legal Professionals on a rotating basis. For details and to register, please visit the Legal Tech Institute website.