Moritz Legal Information Blog

In law school, you’ve probably focused mainly on federal and state law.   Municipal laws can be very important in practice as well.   Today’s Columbus Dispatch illustrates with this article: Watterson’s firing of gay teacher may violate city law The facts:   Carla Hale was fired by a school after her mother’s obituary identified Hale’s partner, also a woman.   The Dispatch summarizes the relevant law:   “A Columbus city ordinance makes it a misdemeanor for an employer to discriminate against an employee based on sexual orientation. City law also states that an employer cannot have a policy that discriminates based on sexual orientation. Those who are found guilty could face up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.” Curious to find the text of this law?   Explore the text of the Columbus Municipal Cod e here . For more on local law research, read this short piece by fellow law librarian Mary Whisner, a Greenbag honoree .

With exams right around the corner, anxiety and depression seem inevitable. It's a lot of pressure to be under, and sometimes it seems like there's no one to talk to for perspective. Friends and family not in law school don't really get it, and your law school colleagues are, for all intents and purposes, competition. Here are a few resources to help you address the stress: Speaking Up: Helping Law Students Break Through the Silence of Depression Health & Wellness for Legal Professionals (Ohio State Bar) Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life Help for Law Students (Moritz Law Resources) Monte Smith

A new survey indicates almost half of those seeking a law degree plan to use their degree to advance a career other than the practice of law. If you fall in this category, stop by the library to check out the following books: The New What Can You Do with a Law Degree America's Greatest Places to Work with a Law Degree JD Preferred : 400+ Things You Can Do with a Law Degree (Other than Practice Law )

Facebook has terms of service and mechanisms to allow users to determine what happens with their accounts when they pass away; now Google is joining in . As Slate.com puts it, "in an age where some of our most personal assets live online—our emails, our photos, our social-media identities—few of us stop to think about who will have control over this information." This raises (at least) two legal questions: 1) Are estate planning attorneys ethically obligated to consider a client's digital data (and potentially valuable intellectual property) when writing a will or creating a trust? Could an attorney be sued for malpractice for failing to account for this digital data? and 2) What ethical obligations are imposed on attorneys who conduct business in the cloud? How does or should an attorney factor digital data (some of which may be a client's property) into his or her succession planning in the event he or she passes away?

Not all of us dread tax day.   A new Pew Report announces 30% of Americans like doing their taxes—5% even love it!   Reasons vary from a lofty sense of duty to the more practical refund anticipation.   Here are a few more recent Pew reports lawyers might find insightful: Supreme Court’s Favorable Rating Still at Historic Low Yes, More Americans Favor Legalizing Gay Marriage, But Just How Many Do? Majority Now Supports Legalizing Marijuana

Words' meanings matter, and even though carelessness with grammar and spelling hardly seems significant, it can be a big deal to be accurate and precise when you are an attorney. This is especially true if you draft legislation, but it also matters in contract drafting and in writing briefs to the court or judicial opinions. Hybrid words, portmanteaux, mondegreens, and crash blossoms are all nefarious traps into which an attorney's writing can fall. But even simple meanings can lead one astray. (Perhaps that's why Scripps, arbiters of the National Spelling Bee, are now introducing a vocabulary bee !) If you find yourself troubled by words or having trouble with words, stop by the law library to peruse a few good works on law and language.

Some professionals seek to treat the whole person to help them solve their problems. For example, in collaborative divorce, attorneys work with mental health professionals, child psychologists, financial planners, and other experts to help transition a couple from being married to being divorced. The goal is to ensure communication and a win-win outcome for the family. (See Divorce Without Court: A Guide to Mediation & Collaborative Divorce or Collaborative Family Law for more information.) Doctors and lawyers are the latest collaborators, working together to ensure that patients have the tools they need to continue treatment and recover: "Watts works for Community Legal Aid, a nonprofit that gives free legal help to low-income people in eight Ohio counties. Her firm is housed in a downtown office tower. But Watts prefers working out of the clinic. "So if somebody comes in to the clinic and they get sent to me and it's a housing problem and I'm here, I c