March 2004 E-newsletter San Diego County Public Law Library

SLAPP Lawsuits What is a SLAPP lawsuit? SLAPP stands for strategic lawsuit against public participation. These suits are usually a way to try to stop individuals from exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech regarding matters of public concern. Basically, if you publicly criticize a government agency, corporation, or individual, then many times that person or entity will sue you to enjoin you from speaking using one of the following civil torts: defamation, conspiracy, malicious prosecution, nuisance, interference with contract and/or economic advantage. First Amendment Project says people have been sued for protected free speech activities including: writing a letter to the editor, circulating petitions, calling a public official, reporting police misconduct, erecting a sign or displaying a banner on their property, complaining to school officials about teacher misconduct or unsafe conditions in the school, speaking at a public meeting, reporting unlawful activities, testifying before Congress or state legislatures, speaking as an officer of an active public interest group filing a public interest lawsuit. However, California has very strong laws that protect the individual's right to speak out. The California Anti-SLAPP Project has a great web page devoted to explaining SLAPP and listing cases about it. All locations of the Law Library have a great CEB action guide in our collection called Making and Opposing Special Motions to Strike Under the California Anti-SLAPP Statute. This 2004 Action Guide addresses SLAPP motions from both the plaintiff's and defendant's point of view. Come check it out!

New Superior Court Website The San Diego Superior Court has a newly revised website. The menus down both sides make the site easier to navigate and the prominently placed search tool bar helps you get to where you need to go quickly.

More Ex Parte Hearing Times in Family Court Starting March 1, 2005, the Central Division of the Family Court will have additional ex parte hours. In addition to having ex parte hearings at 8:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, hearings will also be held at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Information on the new schedule is posted on the family law portion on the new Superior Court website. Family Court Supervising Judge William J. Howatt, Jr. was instrumental in getting this information up and available for all practicitioners. "This was my way of getting information to everyone at all locations at the same time," said Howatt.

Judge Gill Speaks about Juries for Law Day Event April 29th Every year around May 1st, the San Diego County Public Law Library participates in Law Day. Law Day (officially May 1st) is a nationally recognized day praising the presence and value of law in our government. It was originally conceived in the 1950s by Charles S. Rhyne, former president of the American Bar Association and recognized via a Proclamation by President Eisenhower on Feb. 3rd, 1958. The week following May 1st is unofficially known as Law Week. This year's theme is The American Jury: "We the People" in Action. Superior Court Judge David M. Gill will be our featured speaker for a free lecture from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, April 29th at the Main location of the Law Library. Judge Gill has been on the bench of San Diego's Superior Court for over a quarter of a century. He has seen many juries and has interesting stories to share about how juries work and what happens when they don't. Come join us for an interesting topic by an excellent speaker! An hour of MCLE credit will be available.

March 17, 2005 - March 17th- Free Online Research MCLE Class, noon - 2 p.m Starting Location: Main Law Library- 1105 Front Street Learn about some of the online sources available at the law library and some available anywhere! A class called Doing Legal Research on the Internet will be offered free to Law Library attorney members on Thursday March 17th, from noon - 2 p.m. It is good for 2 hours of General Participatory credit. This free class is only available to current attorney members of the Law Library and is one of your membership benefits. For further information or to sign up, call (619) 531-3900. Note: We have a ten minute rule in effect for MCLE classes. If you reserve a spot but do not check in at least 10 minutes before the session begins, your reservation will be cancelled and your spot given to someone else.

Library Closed March 31st- Cesar Chavez Day All locations of the Law Library will be closed Thursday, March 31st in recognition of Cesar Chavez day. We will reopen with normal hours on Friday, April 1st.

Bad News for Turbo Tax? This is the time of year when thoughts turn to....deductions. Many of us have relied on tax preparation software to help us prepare and file our taxes. However, a 9th Circuit Bankruptcy Case and an ABA Model rule proposal may spell the beginning of the end for those programs. The 9th Circuit case is called Frankfort Digital Services v. Neary(In re Reynoso), 315 B.R. 544 (2004). It concerns a debtor representing himself in bankruptcy court. He used appellants' bankruptcy software to prepare and file his petition. Appellants argued they were not practicing law and "their service is no different than commercially-available tax preparation software such as Turbo Tax." The Bankruptcy Appeals court ruled against the appellants and said that perhaps their comparison was true but it was irrelevant. The Court went on to say that Congress has the power to regulate providers of tax document preparation software. However, Congress has regulated bankruptcy petition preparers (BPPs), and has mandated they cannot engage in unauthorized practice of law. This decision may not substantially affect Turbo Tax right now, but the potential is there for an argument to be made that Turbo Tax engages in the unauthorized practice of law. Second, the American Bar Association has proposed that each state adopt a law specifically outlining what is considered "unauthorized practice of law" in that state based on the state's model rule. It is conceivable that a state could categorize the use of Turbo Tax as an unauthorized practice of law and prohibit its use. Some states already have an "unauthorized practice of law" statute on the books. Opponents of the implementation of such laws are simply a way to stifle the free flow of legal information and "responsible lawyers should reject such sophistry out of hand." I'm going to get my copy of Turbo Tax while it's still legal....

Correction to Family Law Rules The San Diego Superior Court has issued an announcement regarding corrections to the newly effective San Diego Superior Court Rules, effective Jan. 1, 2005. According to the release, the only rules affected are Family Law Rules 5.62 G.2, 5.64A.3 and D.2 and rule 5.72A.

March Legal Links Globeexplorer.com-Use this site to get satellite photos of any address in the US. Plug in your address and try it. It works! You're a CEO, Baby!- Ever noticed how high powered CEOs (and perhaps even partners of law firms?) resemble babies? Babies are coddled, cared for, and fussed over. This irreverent column compares the two and makes some funny observations. Update on Electronic Discovery- from the American Bar Association's February 2005 edition of the General Practioner's Solo Law Trends & News Litigation. A valuable update with current case law and information.

Reference Question of the Month- Federal Appendix Q: Opposing counsel has cited a case in the Federal Appendix. I've never heard of that. What it is and is it citable? A: The Federal Appendix is a set of unpublished appellate court decisions. Since they are not published, they are not citable in court. A fellow law librarian has an excellent article explaining what they are and how they are compiled. These decisions are published in a set called, appropriately enough, the Federal Appendix. We don't carry this set of books, though, because you can't cite them in court. However, if you have a Federal Appendix cite, you can access our Shepard's or Westlaw databases to pull it up.

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, Reference Librarian/ Head of Media Relations, at ahale@sdcll.org.