Cleveland Law Library Weblog

Law Grads Who Can't Find Jobs Blame Their Law Schools

The downturn in the economy is not enough of a reason for law grads who cannot find jobs. Now, according to an article from USAToday.com, they are also blaming their law schools for failing to inform them about job prospects, or the paucity thereof, before they incur huge debts for tuition. There are probably a number of factors that contribute to the inability to find work in the current legal market, but are the law schools to blame?

Google Translate Translates an Entire Web Page

Google has come out with a new product that will translate an entire web page at one time. Google Translate can be incorporated into a website to allow for the translation of text into 1 of 57 current languages.I thought about posting this message in Irish, but decided not to test our subscribers. To see an example of a website incoporating Google Translate, go to the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations website. We will soon be incorporating this feature into the Cleveland Law Library's homepage so that we can reach more patrons in more countries.

Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Will Be Sending Hearing Notices by Email

The Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court will soon be sending all notices of hearings to attorneys by email. As a result, the Court is requiring all lawyes who are practicing before the Court to register their email addresses with the Court by September 30, 2010. Click here to dowload or complete the form to register your email.

Child Support May Get an Overhaul if S.B. 292 Passes

The process of awarding child support in Ohio is a mess, and it has needed a fix for a very long time. Once parents finally receive an award, it never grows despite inflation, and the numbers they receive are very, very low. Some custodial parents also get saddled with high expenses for health care and insurance. My informal survey of divorced child support recipients shows that they all receive the same amount, despite ex's with different incomes, and many have to pay all costs for health insurance, which is not inexpensive. The drive behind S.B. 292 explains why. According to Senator Smith (D-Cleveland), the courts are still awarding support based on figures from 1992, and there are no escalators in the law for inflation. All that and more could change, hopefully for the better, with S.B. 292. As a starting point, before adjustments, an average child support recipient from a divorcing couple with a combined income of about $150,000 would receive about $5,000 more per year. Even that modest increase would help a lot of mothers, who the stats  have shown experience a reduced standard of living when they get divorced. 

West Publishing Is Now Renting Casebooks to Law Students

The latest news for poor law students is that West is renting its casebooks for 3, 6 or 12 months. Renting a hard-copy book apparently comes with e-access to an online version of the same book. It is hard to believe, but students are allowed to highlight and mark up the books as much as they want, giving the rentals much greater utility. Just hope you aren't the second person to borrow a book where every other sentence is highlighted in different color highlighters. West is also offering an online library of Gilbert outlines, Nutshells and other handy tools for helping to get through classes and study for the bar exam.

Court Filings in Ohio Are Down, Especially Traffic Cases

This year's Ohio Courts Statistical Summary from the Ohio Supreme Court shows that case filings are down eight percent (8%). The largest decrease appears to be in traffic cases, the fines from which fund the Cuyahoga County Law Library, and all other county law libraries in Ohio.  In contrast to a decrease in traffic cases, the numbers for breach of contract, non-tort civil cases and domestic violence cases are all up. Click here to review the actual statistics. Click here to read the Court's Press Release.

S.D. Ohio Judge Upholds Ohio's Lethal Injection Procedures

S.D. Ohio federal Judge Gregory Frost has issued 2 decisions in the last week upholding Ohio's lethal injection procedures. According to an article from the Columbus Dispatch, these decisions and an earlier decision from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals affirm the constitutionality of both the current method and its 2-drug back-up for execution. An example of a recent 6th Circuit case where a defendant was unsuccessful in staying his execution under Ohio's new lethal injection process is Reynolds v. Strickland, March 5, 2010.

Judges Won't Tolerate Disrespectful or Uber-Casual Clothes in Court

USA Today reports that judges around the country are becoming less and less forgiving of litigants who come to court dressed in jeans, flip-flops, skimpy clothes, and clothes with inappropriate sayings. The report even mentions a recent Hamilton County Municipal Court case where a party was warned not to return to court wearing anything like the slasher-movie t-shirt he initially wore to court. Without saying so, the article alludes to Mark Twain's famous quote: "Clothes make the man." [and woman] It seems that judges are just insisting that litigants show respect and take their cases seriously, but at least one person mentioned in the article is challenging a court's dress-code in court.

Cuyahoga County Asking Non-Violent Criminals to Turn Themselves In in September

According to Cleveland flyer, non-violent criminals within Cuyahoga County are being asked to turn themselves in September 22-25, 2010 at the Mt. Zion Church. The event is jointly endorsd by multiple entities, including the Cleveland Police, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's office, and many others. Attorneys and judges will apparently be on-site for consultation.

Ohio Secretary of State's Office Now on YouTube

The Columbus Dispatch reports that the Ohio Secretary of State's office has joined YouTube to post various videos with information about the SOS's office and elections. One of the videos covers new electronic poll books, and another discusses a recent conference for county elections officials.