May 18 is Armed Forces Day. This day is a celebration of the Armed forces of the United States. It is observed on the third Saturday of May and it honors active duty personnel and the abilities of the services. According to the Department of Defense, it was established to make civilians aware of the jobs done by the military in times of peace and war.
There are many good resources for military personnel. Military OneSource is an online resource for active military members on money, health care, education, jobs and family.
From the Defense Finance and Accounting Service you can find information on military pay tables, debt information, garnishment of wages and an abundance of other information.
Also check out our Law About Veterans page. It has information for current members of the military, such as the link to Servicemembers.gov which explains the laws protecting the civil rights of military personnel and veterans.
A good print resource is The Military Advantage which is available to borrow with your Massachusetts Trial Court Law Library card.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Friday, May 17, 2013
Massachusetts mulch fire safety regulations
With gardening and landscaping season underway, it is a common practice to use mulch to prevent weeds from growing. The most common type of mulch is made of wood product which is combustible. After several fires caused millions of dollars of property damage, a new Massachusetts regulation went into effect last fall. The regulation prohibits building owners from placing mulch less than 18 inches away from a structure's wall. Residential buildings with less than 6 units are exempt. Even if your property is exempt, it is a good idea to use stone or crushed rock for the first 18 inches around your foundation as a barrier. For more information on this regulation, visit http://www.mass.gov/eopss/agencies/dfs/dfs2/osfm/pubed/fs-topics/fs-topics-a/mulch-fire-safety.html
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Happy (slightly belated) 20th Birthday, WorldWideWeb!
The WWW celebrated it's 20th
birthday on April 30, 2013, 20 years after it was officially launched
in 1993. It's hard to imagine that this
lean webpage (below) gave birth to the internet as we know it today!
Everything there is online about W3 is linked directly or indirectly to this document, including an executive summary of the project, Mailing lists , Policy , November's W3 news , Frequently Asked Questions .
World Wide Web
The WorldWideWeb (W3) is a wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents.Everything there is online about W3 is linked directly or indirectly to this document, including an executive summary of the project, Mailing lists , Policy , November's W3 news , Frequently Asked Questions .
- What's out there?
- Pointers to the world's online information, subjects , W3 servers, etc.
- Help
- on the browser you are using
- Software Products
- A list of W3 project components and their current state. (e.g. Line Mode ,X11 Viola , NeXTStep , Servers , Tools , Mail robot , Library )
- Technical
- Details of protocols, formats, program internals etc
- Bibliography
- Paper documentation on W3 and references.
- People
- A list of some people involved in the project.
- History
- A summary of the history of the project.
- How can I help ?
- If you would like to support the web..
- Getting code
- Getting the code by anonymous FTP , etc.
The
research lab, CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), announced that the project they were developing would provide a free and open platform which would connect computers world-wide. CERN is now trying to preserve the digital assets which are associated with the creation of the
web and pulled this page from November 1992. They believe that this
was the first website, though they're hoping to locate an older copy.
(W3 was an alternate name for the web, which was eventually
abandoned.)
The WorldWideWeb was envisioned as a royalty-free environment, free for anyone to use. By the end of 1993, there were some 500 web servers (which then accounted for 1% of internet traffic), and today, it is estimated that there are some 630 million websites online. Long gone are 300 baud modems and the use of terms such as Archie, Veronica, Jughead, Gopher, telnet, and WAIS.
The WorldWideWeb was envisioned as a royalty-free environment, free for anyone to use. By the end of 1993, there were some 500 web servers (which then accounted for 1% of internet traffic), and today, it is estimated that there are some 630 million websites online. Long gone are 300 baud modems and the use of terms such as Archie, Veronica, Jughead, Gopher, telnet, and WAIS.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Medical marijuana regulations finalized
The Department of Public Health has finalized the regulations governing medical dispensaries for prescription marijuana. The 52 page regulations were finalized on May 8th and will be effective May 24th. The regulations cover the registration or qualification of all parties concerned, cultivation, security, inspections and revocation.
Some cities and towns have attempted to ban the dispensaries, but the Attorney General's office has issued decisions that support towns' rights to a temporary moratorium of dispensaries, but rejects their power to ban the facilities as being contrary to state law.
See also our page on Law of Prescription Drugs, Medical Marijuana.
Some cities and towns have attempted to ban the dispensaries, but the Attorney General's office has issued decisions that support towns' rights to a temporary moratorium of dispensaries, but rejects their power to ban the facilities as being contrary to state law.
See also our page on Law of Prescription Drugs, Medical Marijuana.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Legal Tactics available as an eBook
The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries have released the eBook version of their very popular title, Legal Tactics : Tenant's Rights in Massachusetts. The book is uploaded in the same way as our court rules eBooks and has been updated with more current information than is on the web site at this time.
For more free eBooks, including the Guide to Evidence and the Rules of Civil Procedure see our page here.
For more free eBooks, including the Guide to Evidence and the Rules of Civil Procedure see our page here.
Massachusetts companies have been cited for thousands of child labor law violations
Sixteen-year-olds on the job for more than nine hours straight, and sometimes over 48 hours in a week. Minors operating forklifts and motor vehicles or handling alcoholic beverages. Teenagers working late without adult supervision.
Those are some of the charges that have resulted in the state's levying child-labor fines to more than 100 Massachusetts companies.
According to a recent article on BostonGlobe.com employers have racked up 3,550 violations and about $314,000 in civil fines since 2007. With summer fast approaching and thousands of teenagers
looking for summer jobs - more information on this subject can found on the Trial Court Law Libraries website under Law About Child Labor.
Those are some of the charges that have resulted in the state's levying child-labor fines to more than 100 Massachusetts companies.
According to a recent article on BostonGlobe.com employers have racked up 3,550 violations and about $314,000 in civil fines since 2007. With summer fast approaching and thousands of teenagers
looking for summer jobs - more information on this subject can found on the Trial Court Law Libraries website under Law About Child Labor.
Monday, May 13, 2013
"Appealing" Assistance
When you consider appealing the final decision in your court case, our libraries have useful resources to help you be effective in Massachusetts state and federal courts.
For Massachusetts
You can link from our website to the Massachusetts Rules of Appellate Procedure, Massachusetts Appeals Court Rules, Standing orders of the Appeals Court
Contents of Notice of Appeal in state cases
Contents of Notice of Appeal in state cases
For appeals under the Mass. Rules of Appellate Procedure: sample notice of appeal. (Appellate Rule 3 sets out the content for a notice of appeal.)
Sample defendant’s notice of appeal in an eviction case (also provides instruction for initiating an eviction appeal.)
Sample defendant’s notice of appeal in an eviction case (also provides instruction for initiating an eviction appeal.)
Massachusetts District/Municial Rules Appellate Division Appeals Rule 3: Appeal-How Taken (describes the required content of the notice in an Appellate Division appeal.)
Information for appeals under the Mass. Rules of Appellate Procedure: Clerk’s Guide to Appeals for Lawyers & Self-Represented Litigants (from the Massachusetts Appeals Court Clerk's Office. Besides useful information, includes links to sample forms such as the notice of appeal, certificate of service, table of authorities, and certificate of compliance.)
For Federal court cases
You can link to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, the Federal Court Local Rules for the First Circuit and Appendix of Forms (Appendix of Forms contains sample notices of appeal.)
Information for appeals under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure:
You can link to Forms and Instructions (from the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Includes instructions for: Briefs and Appendices, Case Opening, In Forma Pauperis, and Miscellaneous Matters, such as "Ten Pointers for An Appeal".)
You can link to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, the Federal Court Local Rules for the First Circuit and Appendix of Forms (Appendix of Forms contains sample notices of appeal.)
Information for appeals under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure:
You can link to Forms and Instructions (from the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Includes instructions for: Briefs and Appendices, Case Opening, In Forma Pauperis, and Miscellaneous Matters, such as "Ten Pointers for An Appeal".)
Print and CD Resources
Appellate Practice in Massachusetts
Effective Appellate Advocacy (MCLE seminar on CDs)
Appellate Procedure (Massachusetts Practice Series, vol. 41, state appeals)
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Annotations for the Bobblehead of Massachusetts’ first U. S. Supreme Court Justice
Justice William Cushing “was the first member of the U.S. Supreme Court appointed from Massachusetts. As the story goes, he set out to walk to the Court’s first sitting in New York in 1790, wearing a large traditional English wig, but returned to his lodgings for a change of headgear after drawing stares and comments in the street.
The third volume (3 Dallas) of the U.S. Reports contains Ware v. Hylton, 3 U.S. 199 (1796), in which Cushing and his colleagues issued opinions seriatim exercising for the first time the Court’s authority to pass judgment on the constitutionality of state laws.”
- From “Justice William Cushing: the Annotated Bobblehead” by The Green Bag, Inc.
A complete list of The Green Bag’s bobbleheads (all U.S. Supreme Court Justices) is available on their website. Ross Davies, editor in chief of The Green Bag, has designated the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale Law School as the official Supreme Court Bobblehead archive. Mark s. Weiner has produced a video featuring Yale’s bobblehead collection called “A Philosophical Reflection on Judicial Bobbleheads”
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