December 2008 Newsletter

December Holiday CLOSURES All branches of the Law Library will be CLOSED on the following days: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 Thursday, December 25, 2008 Wednesday, December 31, 2008 Thursday, January 1, 2009, On behalf of everyone at SDCPLL, have a happy and safe holidays! Share this item with a friend!

MCLE Compliance Deadline REMINDER The deadline for MCLE compliance for attorneys with last names beginning with the letters H-M is February 2, 2009. These attorneys are required to submit a compliance card to the State Bar to verify that they have complied with their MCLE requirement. To meet the MCLE "Regular" Requirement, attorneys need to take 25 hours of MCLE, of which a maximum of 12.5 hours can be "self-study." At least half of the MCLE requirement must be "participatory." Other general requirements include 4 hours of Legal Ethics, 1 hour Substance Abuse, and 1 hour Elimination of Bias in the Legal Profession. To help our attorney members meet the compliance deadline, SDCPLL is adding more participatory MCLE classes throughout December and January. These classes are FREE and open ONLY to our attorney and paralegal members. Visit our Calendar of Events and Special Events pages regularly for updates on classes, or visit the Main or North County Branches to check out our self-study MCLE materials. Share this item with a friend!

Upcoming Classes for December and January All classes are held at the Main Branch, unless otherwise stated. For a complete description of the classes and the most up-to-date information, visit SDCPLL's Calendar of Events. The classes are free to Law Library members and $5 for non-members. Pre-registration is required, as seating is limited. Please sign up for these classes by calling (619) 531-3900. Participants may bring lunch. December Speed Writing* Tuesday, December 9th, 12:00 - 1:00pm Randall Christison, Esq. South Bay Branch (619-691-4929) 1 hour General Participatory credit The following December classes are open to our Attorney and Paralegal members ONLY Main Branch Appellate Practice* Thursday, December 4th, 12:00 - 1:00pm Randall Christison, Esq. 1 hour General Participatory credit Successful Client Relations* Monday, December 8th, 12:00 - 1:00pm Wendy Patrick Mazzarella, Deputy District Attorney and Erin Penning, Esq. 1 hour General Participatory credit - RESCHEDULED for January 20th - Mixing It Up: Ethical Considerations in Business Transactions With Non-Lawyers* Tuesday, December 9th, 12:00 - 1:00pm David Cameron Carr, Esq. 1 hour Ethics Participatory credit Why Mediation Works & What Works Well at Mediation* Wednesday, December 10th, 12:00 - 1:00pm Lawrence A. Huerta, Esq. 1 hour General Participatory credit The Increasing Obstacles for Illegal Aliens* Friday, December 12th, 12:00 - 1:00pm Jonathan D. Montag, Esq. 1 hour General Participatory credit Powerful Trial Techniques* Wednesday, December 17th, 2:00 - 5:30pm DVD - 3.25 hours General Participatory credit Elimination of Bias: Age Discrimination in Law Firms* Friday, December 19th, 3:30 - 4:30pm DVD - 1 hour Bias Participatory credit Electronic and Computer Generated Evidence: Admissibility* Monday, December 29th, 1:30 - 5:30pm DVD - 4 hours General Participatory credit North County Branch (760-940-4386) Defining Substance Abuse* Monday, December 1st, 12:00 - 1:00pm DVD - 1 hour Substance Abuse Participatory credit Ethics: Useful suggestions for handling common dilemmas: PART ONE* Wednesday, December 10th, 12:00 - 2:00pm DVD - 2 hours Ethics Participatory credit Ethics: Useful suggestions for handling common dilemmas: PART TWO* Tuesday, December 16th, 12:00 - 2:00pm DVD - 2 hours Ethics Participatory credit Bias Elimination in the Legal Profession* Thursday, December 18th, 12:00 - 1:00pm DVD - 1 hour Bias Participatory credit Elimination of Bias: Age Discrimination in Law Firms* Monday, December 29th, 12:00 - 1:00pm DVD - 1 hour Bias Participatory credit JANUARY South Bay Branch (619-691-4929) Computer Forensics: Cybercrime, Identity Theft and Computer Security* Tuesday, January 13th, 12:00 - 1:00pm Mitch Dembin, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Southern District of California 1 hour General Participatory credit Identity Theft: Avoid Being a Victim* Thursday, January 22nd, 12:00 - 1:00pm Lamont Siller, Special Agent with the FBI 1 hour General Participatory credit The following January classes are open to our Attorney and Paralegal members ONLY Main Branch Hiring and Firing: How to Avoid Mistakes* Thursday, January 8th, 2:00 - 5:30pm DVD - 3.25 hours General Participatory credit Lawyers and Depression* Friday, January 9th, 12:00 - 1:00pm David Cameron Carr, Esq. 1 hour Substance Abuse Participatory credit Substance Abuse* Monday, January 12th, 12:00 - 1:00pm Moira S. Brennan, Esq. 1 hour Substance Abuse Participatory credit Fee Arbitration* Tuesday, January 13th, 12:00 - 1:00pm Carl Ingwalson, Esq. 1 hour General Participatory credit Bankruptcy* Thursday, January 15th, 12:00 - 1:00pm Kathleen Cashman-Kramer, Esq. and Lisa Torres, Esq. 1 hour General Participatory credit Mixing It Up: Ethical Considerations in Business Transactions With Non-Lawyers* Tuesday, January 20th, 12:00 - 1:00pm David Cameron Carr, Esq. 1 hour Ethics Participatory credit Ethics: Useful Suggestions on Handling Common Dilemmas* Monday, January 26th, 1:30 - 5:30pm DVD - 4 hours Ethics Participatory credit To Bias Or Not To Bias: Developments in Discrimination Law* Thursday, January 29th, 12:00 - 1:00pm Rupa G. Singh Esq. and Robert Lauchlan Esq. 1 hour Bias Participatory credit CRAM DAY DVDs Friday, January 30th Defining Substance Abuse* 9:30 - 10:30am 1 hour Substance Abuse Participatory credit Elimination of Bias: Age Discrimination in Law Firms* 11:00 - 12:00pm 1 hour Bias Participatory credit Ethics: Traps, Snares and Pitfalls* 12:30 - 4:30pm 4 hours Ethics Participatory credit North County Branch (760-940-4386) Law Firm Technology on the Cheap* Tuesday, January 6th, 12:00 - 1:00pm Craig Coombs, Esq. 1 hour General Participatory credit Electronic and Computer-Generated Evidence - Admissibility PART ONE* Monday, January 12th, 12:00 - 2:00pm DVD - 2 hours General Participatory credit Electronic and Computer-Generated Evidence - Admissibility PART TWO* Wednesday, January 14th, 12:00 - 2:00pm DVD - 2 hours General Participatory credit Hiring and Firing: How to Avoid Mistakes: PART ONE* Tuesday, January 20th, 12:00 - 1:30pm DVD - 1.5 hours General Participatory credit Hiring and Firing: How to Avoid Mistakes: PART TWO* Thursday, January 22nd, 12:00 - 1:30pm DVD - 1.5 hours General Participatory credit *MCLE Participatory Credit hour(s)available for these classes. The San Diego County Public Law Library is a State Bar approved MCLE provider. Share this item with a friend!

San Diego Superior Court Reduces Office & Phone Hours Funding issues, staff shortages, and a backlog of cases has led the San Diego Superior Court to reduce its public business office hours starting Monday, December 1, 2008. Hours vary by location, but generally public service counter hours will be reduced by one hour per day. This reduction will not affect the courtrooms. The hours reduction will enable, in part, court staffers to deal with piles of files that need to be processed. It's not all service reduction, though. In an effort to ameliorate the hours change impact, the Court has added new services on its website. Certain services, such as paying traffic and court fines and other information are now available on an enhanced Court website. For your convenience, the San Diego County Public Law Library's hours at all four of our branches remain unchanged. Share this item with a friend!

Holiday Children's Book Drive San Diego Area Law Libraries (SANDALL) and SDCPLL are partnering for a children's book drive to benefit UPLIFT's "Kids at Heart" program. UPLIFT offers tutoring and mentoring for low income and racially diverse children in grades K-12. Many of these children struggle in school because of language barriers and poverty. Through UPLIFT's tutoring programs, their overall reading levels have increased an average of 83.5% in the last two school years. Bring your new or gently used children's books to any branch of the San Diego County Public Law Library during the month of December. Share this item with a friend!

Featured New Resource & New Materials Added to the Collection Our featured resource this month is: Fiancé & Marriage Visas: A Couple's Guide to U.S. Immigration You're engaged or married to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, and all you want is to be legally together in the U.S. You think it should be easy, right? It's not. This self-help book, published by NOLO, will make obtaining a visa and green card easier and less painful. It covers the fees involved, sponsorship requirements, provides samples of essential forms and directs readers to the most current forms online. This resource helps you decide the best visa strategy for you, whether you are married or unmarried, living in the U.S. or overseas. It gives you helpful advice on protecting and renewing your green-card status. There are tips to help you prepare for meeting with government officials and how to prove your marriage is real. Fiancé & Marriage Visas also discusses what to do if you have children or other family members, and even family pets, immigrating with you. Available at all of our branch locations, this book will help you through the bureaucracy and avoid making the most common, often serious, mistakes. New Materials Added to the Collection The Law Library regularly adds new materials to its collection. To see new books added to the collection in the last month, CLICK HERE. Share this item with a friend!

Get a Free Personal Assistant with "I Want Sandy" Not good at remembering to print out your flight confirmation code, go to meetings, or when to give your pet's monthly flea medication? While a glut of applications help you organize appointments on a calendar, there's a lot of activity in your daily life that doesn't fit neatly into your calendar's time slots. Send a message to Sandy and she'll remind you by email or by text message to your cell phone or Blackberry. You can easily set up and receive reminders for appointments, contacts, and random information. She also has a Google calendar gadget, which allows her to place the reminder in your Google calendar. And the best part? Sandy is free. From what I can tell she's never called in sick or been late to work. Share this item with a friend!

2009 Witkin Award Recipients Announced The Law Library Justice Foundation of the San Diego County Public Law Library is pleased to announce next year's Witkin Award recipients in the following categories: Educator: USD Legal Clinics Judicial: Justice Richard D. Huffman Attorney: Milt Silverman, Esq. Leadership: Bonnie Dumanis, District Attorney San Diego County This month's profile honors San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. Ms. Dumanis has a reputation as an innovative law enforcement professional. She is an experienced felony prosecutor, criminal trial judge, and seasoned law enforcement manager who promised to restore integrity to the office of the District Attorney. She officially took office on January 6, 2003. She began her career as a vigorous, hard-hitting Deputy District Attorney for the San Diego DA's office. She earned community recognition and respect as a prosecutor who tried more than 50 jury trials and headed up the San Diego Metropolitan Homicide Task Force. Voters first elected Ms. Dumanis to the Municipal Court in 1994, after she had worked four years as a Juvenile Referee on the Superior Court bench handling serious violent juvenile cases. After only two years as a Municipal Court judge, Ms. Dumanis was elected by her peers to the position of Assistant Presiding Judge. By that point, she had developed the San Diego Central Division Drug Court, which was recognized as a national model for partnering law enforcement with the courts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and treatment providers to fight substance abuse. In 1998, Ms. Dumanis was elected to the Superior Court with 72 percent of the vote in a countywide race. On the Superior Court, Ms. Dumanis played a primary role in shaping the Domestic Violence Court, stressing accountability and treatment for batterers with the goal of reducing repeat offenses. These successful innovations have received statewide recognition. She was elected by her colleagues on the bench to serve on the Superior Court Executive Committee. The Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court appointed Ms. Dumanis as the Presiding Judge over the Appellate Division of the San Diego Superior Court. Ms. Dumanis is also active in the legal community. She is a past president of the Lawyers Club of San Diego and served on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Bar Association. She teaches ethics at the University of San Diego Law School and conducts classes for the National and California Judicial Colleges. Ms. Dumanis' many contributions have been recognized over the years, including: YWCA TWIN (Tribute to Women) Award The California Women in Government Law and Justice Award The 1998 Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary Women of Dedication Award Lawyers Club Belva Lockwood Award. Share this item with a friend!

From the Director This year has flown by and the holidays and the New Year are right around the corner. Perhaps it is time to reflect back on the year, while still looking ahead to the future. 50th Anniversary Celebration This past October marked the fiftieth anniversary in our downtown location. Unfortunately, because of the cancellation of the "Legal Roots" joint fundraiser with the First Courthouse, we were unable to really celebrate this occasion properly. To remedy this situation, we are planning a party during the Witkin Event in March. Stay tuned for more information on this gala. Main Branch Renovation Looking at our downtown library today, it is hard to imagine that this same facility was considered "state of the art" when it was first built. Unfortunately, the facility design and work-flow has not kept pace with changes in the practice of law and librarianship. We are looking at options for renovating the facility to make it more inviting and user-friendly for both our patrons and our staff. Strategic, Technology & Marketing Plans Although we saw many technology and service improvements in 2008, there is still much work to be done. In addition to our attention to the above Main Branch facilities issues, we are busy creating our strategic, technology and marketing plans. Grants for Law Librarians We are also collaborating with both the SERRA Regional Library Consortium and the Law Library Justice Foundation on educational grants to help our law librarians who are attending a Masters in Library and Information Science program. Looking ahead to 2009, we are excited about our plans; 2009 will be a seminal year for setting our direction and determining our course of action. We thank all of you for your participation and support in making the Law Library an important community resource. Share this item with a friend!

Cartoon by Stu Rees Stu's Views are "Cartoons About Law and Lawyers." Stu Rees is a local entertainment lawyer who represents mostly visual arts creators. Share this item with a friend!

We hope you've enjoyed our newsletter! If you are a guest and would like to subscribe, please CLICK HERE. We're hard at work on the next edition. In the meantime, please visit us online at www.sdcpll.org or stop by one of our four locations. For more information or to send comments about this newsletter contact Tina Jagerson, Media Coordinator and South Bay Branch Librarian.