Category: Blog

April Morning Meeting: Writing Workshop for Law Librarians

April 2012 Program Flyer

Program Description:

If you missed it at AALL in Philadelphia last summer, you have another opportunity to attend this well-received writing workshop. Designed for writers of all levels, the workshop will help us learn how to think past mere sentence-level editing skills to more deeply fine-tune our writing. 

By exploring often-overlooked features of good academic writing, especially those that quietly serve as the springboard for an article’s main idea, we can begin to more easily come up with new and relevant topics about which to write, position a piece for publication, and communicate our ideas effectively to readers.

Workshop Leaders:

Amanda Irwin Wilkins, Director of the Princeton Writing Program, began her career in the editorial department at Scarecrow Press before earning her graduate degree in Comparative Literature. At the Writing Program she teaches new teachers of writing and offers a freshman writing seminar which draws on her research into how writers imagine war from the home front and navigate the aftermath of collective and individual trauma.

David Hollander is the Law & Legal Studies Librarian at the Princeton University Library and a Lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program where he teaches a writing seminar titled “The Fourteenth Amendment.” Prior to coming to Princeton University, David was the Reference/Instructional Services Librarian at the University of Miami School of Law. He is an active member of the American Association of Law Libraries.

DATE: Tuesday, April 17th
TIME: 9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
PLACE: The Writing Program at Princeton University
Directions and information about parking are available at http://www.princeton.edu/main/visiting/
The Writing Program is located in Baker Hall (part of the Whitman College complex).
         
A light breakfast will be served.

COST: Members: $20.00           Students: $10.00           Non-Members: $25.00

RSVP by Thursday, April 12, 2012

Make check payable to: New Jersey Law Librarians Association

 Mail to: Anne Shulman    Riker, Danzig One Speedwell Ave, PO Box 1981, Morristown, NJ 07962-1981
email: ashulman@riker.com  or call 973-538-0800, ext. 7482

NJLLA Grant to AALL Annual Meeting – Apply Now!

NJLLA Grant Application to 2012 AALL Annual Meeting (Word)
NJLLA Grant Application to 2012 AALL Annual Meeting (PDF)

Now is the time to apply for this year’s grant to attend the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), July 21-24 in Boston, MA.  You must be a member of NJLLA to apply.  For details on qualifications and grant specifics, see attached grant forms in Word and PDF.

NJLJ DDS archive access restored to NJLJ subscribers

On September 1st, I posted that access to most of the Daily Decision Service Alerts on the New Jersey Law Journal web site had been limited to LexisNexis subscribers. I was informed today by our account manager at NJLJ, and have verified by looking at the site, that that blockage of access has been corrected. NJLJ subscribers now have full access to the DDS Alert archive, back to January 1994. NJLJ subscribers also have access to the archives of case summaries, notices to the bar, judicial guides, supplements such as the “New Partners Yearbook,” and the various columns such as “Inadmissible” and “On the Move.” It is only for feature articles and some other content such as editorials and “Voice of the Bar” that access is limited to LexisNexis subscribers when the material becomes six months old. – PAX

 

Supreme Court Rules Committee Reports

Back in 2009-10, at the recommendation of NJLLA, the Judiciary web site added a single index page leading to the biannual and annual pages that provide links to the reports of the various Supreme Court Rules Committees. That index page, which was at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/reports/, has now been missing for some months, while a dead link to it remains in the “Quick Index” to the Judiciary web site. Communication to the Judiciary webmaster has been unavailing. The biannual and annual pages of reports are still on the site, and their addresses are consistently constructed, using the final year of the reporting cycle. For example, the page for the reports of the 2000-2002 cycle (the earliest reports on the site) is found at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/reports2002/, and those of the the 2009-2011 cycle (currently the latest ones) are at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/reports2011/. The Rutgers Law Library has compiled links to all the report pages at http://law-library.rutgers.edu/ilg/njlaw.php#reports.

Visit NJLLA’s web site at http://www.njlla.org.

article on N.J. legislative history

In a recent issue of Legal Reference Services Quarterly appears as article by Barbara H. Garavaglia (of the University of Michigan Law Library), entitled “Using Legislative Histories to Determine Legislative Intent in New Jersey,” 30 LRSQ 71 (2011). Of particular interest in the article is the section on “use of legislative histories in New Jersey Courts,” 30 LRSQ at 73-78 and the accompanying notes.

Visit NJLLA’s web site at http://www.njlla.org.

BPU orders to be on the web

P.L. 2011, c.63, approved May 4, 2011, requires Board of Public Utilities orders to be in writing and to be posted on the BPU’s Internet website. The law is to be effective 30 days after enactment. [Follow-up: As of June 2nd, 2011, BPU orders from 2007 forward, current to mid-May, are available on the BPU website at http://www.state.nj.us/bpu/agenda/orders/.]

Visit NJLLA’s web site at http://www.njlla.org.

Legislative/regulatory "impact" features gone from Lexis.

The “State Legislative Impact” and “State Regulatory Impact” features from Potomac Publishing Company are no longer found on LexisNexis. Pending bills amending a statutory section can be found by Shepardizing that section. Proposed amendments of an N.J.A.C. section can be found by searching the N.J.Register for the section number.

Visit NJLLA’s web site at http://www.njlla.org.

Bill affecting ALJ opinions

As noted in this Monday’s New Jersey Law Journal, 203 N.J.L.J. 590 (Feb.28,2011),
Assembly Bill 2722 [First Reprint] (passed by the Assembly Feb.17th) would authorize certain Administrative Law Judge decisions to be made either without written opinion or with a decision in the form of a checklist, and would also eliminate the power of several agencies to reject or modify ALJ decisions.

The bill would amend N.J.S.A. 52:14B-10 by adding this language in subsection (c):

Unless the head of the agency requests that the recommended report and decision be filed in writing, the recommended report and decision of the administrative law judge may be filed orally in such appropriate cases as prescribed by the director and if a transcript has been requested pursuant to subsection (e) of section 9 of P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-9). ….
An administrative law judge may file a recommended report and decision in the form of a checklist in such appropriate cases and formats as prescribed by the director after consultation with each State agency.

and would add a subsection (g) reading in part as follows:

With regard to contested cases commenced with an agency on or after the effective date of … this bill…. that are described in this subsection1, the report and decision of the administrative law judge shall be the final decision upon the filing thereof with the agency, notwithstanding any other provision of State law to the contrary. In such contested cases, the head of the agency shall not have the opportunity to reject or modify the administrative law judge’s report and decision pursuant to subsection (c) of this section and the final decision by the administrative law judge shall comply with the requirements of and shall be given the same effect as a final decision of the head of the agency … This subsection shall apply to any contested case from:

  • (1) the Department of Community Affairs;
  • (2) the Department of Education;
  • (3) the Department of Environmental Protection;
  • (4) the Department of Children and Families involving placement on a child abuse registry;
  • (5) the Department of Health and Senior Services involving placement on the nurse aid registry, and penalty matters;
  • (6) the Division of Family Development in the Department of Human Services;
  • (7) the Division of Civil Rights in the Department of Law and Public Safety;
  • (8) the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission;
  • (9) the Civil Service Commission; and
  • (10) the Department of Law and Public Safety under P.L.1988, c.123 (C.56:12-29 et seq.).[the lemon law]

Under another added subsection (f), other agency heads could order that in certain categories of cases the ALJ decision would be final.

Visit NJLLA’s web site at http://www.njlla.org.

Public Web Access to Civil Dockets

The Automated Case Management System — Public Access (ACMS-PA) containing docket information on New Jersey civil cases, is now available via the Judiciary’s web site. On the Judiciary homepage, follow the link “Civil Case Public Access” under “Online Resources” in the left-hand menu. Internet Explorer must be used.

Visit NJLLA’s web site at http://www.njlla.org.