Texas Code Revision - The Venerable Probate Code Gets a Name Change

Jessica R. Alexander, J.D.,M.L.S., Reference Librarian.

Effective January 2014, the Texas Probate Code will be replaced by the Estates Code. The Probate Code revision project involves a non-substantive revision of the code. Follow the foregoing link for a full explanation of the project. West has issued an interim pamphlet (2009) Pamphlet Vernon's Texas Codes Annotated Estates Code) (KFT1230.5 V4 E88) with the changes approved by the 81st Legislature. This unannotated pamphlet is shelved just after the Elections Code and contains Title 1 - General Provisions and Title 2 - Estates of Decedents. Further revisions will be presented by the Texas Legislative Council to the 82nd Legislature in January 2011. The council is responsible for the Texas code revision project that has been going on for more than forty years. The goal of the project is to simplify Texas law by turning the old statutory alphabetical arrangement into subject matter codes. The Probate Code existed before the revision project, and was placed alphabetically between the statutory arrangement in Vernon's Texas Revised Civil Statutes Annotated. These statutes were last revised in bulk in 1925, and changes and additions to the laws made these "Black Statutes," confusing.

An in depth explanation of Texas statutory history is contained in Chapter 11 of Texas Legal Research: an Essential Lawyering Skill by Lydia M. Brandt. (1995). Some of the material in this book must be brought up to date by the reader.

Google Scholar

By Jessica R. Alexander, Reference Librarian

I am just beginning to use Google Scholar to perform legal research. My first impression is: wow! I was using the search engine to locate the source of the famous quote by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes using the word "penumbra." Using 'Oliver Wendell Holmes and penumbra as terms, I found an article in a law journal. When I clicked on the article the search engine opened up the article from our subscription database HEINONLINE. More on Google Scholar later.

OUR TRACFED SUBSCRIPTION

The library subscribes to a database called TracFed. We have described this database in prior posts. See post of 5/5/08, Our TracFed Database. A recent front page article in the New York Times by Eric Lichtblau, December 24, 2008, "Federal Cases of Stock Frau Drop Sharply," demonstrates that this database enjoys prominence in the American journalistic and political sphere.

TracFed is a source of government information compiled from government data about its law enforcement efforts, spending and personnel allocation. If the government itself has not compiled the information, TracFed professionals make freedom of information requests and compile the data for publication. Portions of the information offered is free and some data searches require a payment or subscription.

In this case the article uses TracFed data to highlight the fact that federal fraud prosecutions have dropped because law enforcement was diverted to the war on terror after 9/11. The article characterizes the TracFed data this way:

There were 133 prosecutions for securities fraud in the first 11 months of this fiscal year. That is down from 437 cases in 2000 and from a high of 513 cases in 2002, when Wall Street scandals from Enron to WorldCom led to a crackdown on corporate crime, the data showed.

I was delighted that the article quoted co-director, David Burnham, who made a personal trip to South Texas to talk to librarians about using TracFed:

David Burnham, co-director of the Syracuse research group, which is known as the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, said the decline in stock fraud prosecutions growing out of the F.B.I. “really is no surprise. It’s a reflection of a choice that was made right after 9-11 to move investigators into terrorism, and this is the cost of that.

Mining Texas Courts Online

Jessica R. Alexander, Reference Librarian

Texas Courts Online is the official site of the Texas Judiciary. Opinions of the Texas Supreme Court, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the 14 Courts of Appeals are online.
While this website provides the full text of the opinions, a major drawback is a user cannot conduct a unified search of all the courts. In addition there are no embedded links to the cases cited in the opinions. The user must click on the site for each court and perform a search. Despite this, the sites are useful for specific tasks that the user may not have explored. For example, a box in the lower right column of the Texas Supreme Court site has links to the following areas:

1. case search,
2. opinion search
3. electronic briefs
4. oral argument information
5. oral argument audio
6. oral argument video - co-sponsored by Saint Mary's University School of Law (unfortunately, only the Texas Supreme Court has the audio and video features)

There are also several uses for the websites that may not be apparent from the face of the sites:

• verifying the accuracy of Westlaw and Lexis , etc. subsequent history
• examples of briefs
• finding leading experts and attorneys by area of practice
• identifying major cases to aid in further electronic or paper research, saving time and online access fees
• preparing for oral argument by listening to or watching videos of past oral arguments
• links to administrative procedures, brief filing requirements, forms and rules of procedure

As always, the user may discover many uses and advantages of exploring these official sites in the course of legal research.

Our TRACFED Database

Jessica R. Alexander, Reference Librarian

My blog entry about authoritative sources for federal government statistics Are We a Nation of Prisoners, first posted on April 23, 2008, omitted mention of a database called TRACFED. The library has a subscription which can be accessed by the South Texas community through the alphabetical database list on our Stanley home page. (This database can also be accessed directly through their website by the public, although free access is more limited.)

This database publishes and analyzes government data gleaned from statistics that the federal government itself chooses to compile and from other sources such as Freedom of Information Act requests generated by the TRACFED experts.

For example, my blog entry referenced Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations, a New York Times article about the rate of imprisonment in the United States. At TRACFED, a researcher can access a report on the number of prison sentences (per criminal offense) of one year or more handed down in January 2008.

For a researcher, TRACFED is a valuable resource. CAVEAT: For custom analysis, etc., an additional charge may apply.

Library Resources for Transactional Forms

Jessica R. Alexander, Reference Librarian

STELLAour online catalog is the starting point for finding transactional forms both in paper and online databases. Click on the STELLA link from either your STANLEY account or the library's home page. Begin with a Keyword search (one of your words should be “forms”). For precision add relevant key words such as contracts and construction. Click submit. Click the modify search button to use the Limit/Sort Search box. If the search is modified and limited to years after 1979 (randomly selected) more precise results are obtained. They represent the best sources for construction contract forms in the library. Practice searching from the keyword screen and modifying your search. A Subject search modified in the same manner will also be productive.

For more help in formulating your search ASK A REFERENCE LIBRARIAN!

LEXISNEXIS MATTHEW BENDER ONLINE-
This subscription database contains some of the most important resources for forms. Search online versions of the Texas Transaction Guide, Business Organizations with Tax Planning, Commercial Finance Guide, Construction Law, Computer Law and others. We have paper versions of many of the Texas and non-state specific items in the library. See the database lists on the library tab in STANLEY.

Online access to current United States Code provisions

Jessica R. Alexander, Reference Librarian

The official United States Code is published in its entirety ever six years, e.g., 2006, 2000, 1994, 1988…). These editions are commonly referred to as the 2000 Code, the 1994 Code, the 1988 Code, etc. In between these major issue dates, cumulative supplements are issued yearly containing new laws and amendments.

The Code is published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel and printed by the Government Printing Office (GPO). Sessions laws (Public Laws from a particular Congress, i.e. 110th are slotted into one of the 50 United States Code Titles.) The publication of the Code is complex. The intricacies of the process are described in detail at the website.

Problem:

Bluebook Rule 12.2.1, requires if at all possible, citation to the publication date of the official code. The printed version runs years behind the designated publication date. In our library we have received all of the volumes of Supplement V of the 2000 version in paper. The 2006 volumes are yet to come.

Solution:

PDF versions of the 2006 edition, published to date are available on the Download PDF Version of the Office of Law Revision Counsel website. Titles 1 through 9 are available. According to the Bluebook Rule 12.2.1, "...federal laws enacted after the most recent publication of the Code should be cited to an unofficial code until publication of the next edition of the United States Code. As of this date a writer can cite to the official codes Titles 1-9. The other 41 codes should be cited to an unofficial code such as United States Code Annotated and United States Code Service. These publications are up to date in our library.

Also see the GPO Access portal to official publications of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of the United States Government.

(A later post will contain information on the interplay between the Statutes at Large and the United States Code.)

The Bluebook Gets Electronic!

The Bluebook has gone electronic! Students and faculty may now purchase
an electronic key for $25/year, or $55 for 3 years and access the rules
from their desktop.

No, it won't put the citation in blue book form for you, but it will
make finding the rule a whole lot easier. There is an alphabetical
index, or you can execute an advanced search. Or, if you prefer, there
is a table of contents framed on the left side of your screen, just
click and go to the rules you need.

For more information and a quick tour, check our their website at
www.legalbluebook.com