New human-friendly “research trail”

A trail of links for re-tracing your steps which shows up in two places. There's an intuitive always-present sidebar view: for example, today's research steps are simply marked "Today" --- instead of cluttering the display with today's date.The second, more detailed view of the trail (see screenshot below), is under the "My Laws" tab. The … Continue reading New human-friendly “research trail” →

It’s the little things that count: new spell-corrections in the search results

A lot of small subtle pieces go into making a search experience that's smooth and keeps the visitor in control at all times: breadcrumbs ("Home > Search results"), a new search "form" pre-populated with the previous query, a prompt clearly explaining the results of the last action ("Your search..."), an offer to continue on from … Continue reading It’s the little things that count: new spell-corrections in the search results →

Five superseded Oregon ORS editions: 2005, 2003, 2001, 1999 and 1997

Last night I discovered a great source of vintage versions of the Oregon Revised Statutes: The Internet Archive's WayBack Machine. I had a true Homer Simpson moment --- "Doh! Why didn't I think of this before?" For research-aholics, this is nothing short of nirvana. Great but not perfect The WayBack Machine isn't a perfect solution, … Continue reading Five superseded Oregon ORS editions: 2005, 2003, 2001, 1999 and 1997 →

Now serving secondary sources — relevant articles that give context and news

Articles from newspapers and other publications are now feeding into the OregonLaws.org database and are beginning to appear alongside the primary sources. For example, the page for ORS 447.233, Accessible Parking Space Requirements, now points to a recent Oregonian article, When Disabled Parking Disables the Disabled. Another is ORS 737.320, Review of Certain [Workers' Comp … Continue reading Now serving secondary sources — relevant articles that give context and news →

New automatic error checking

We've added a new feature to the site: it now automatically detects many of its own errors. It does this by correlating the text of the statutes with the information in its database. In the interests of transparency and quality, visible error messages will appear where the system finds a mismatch; see the first screenshot. … Continue reading New automatic error checking →

Everything gets cited

Each of the 30,000+ pages now has a citation to its source, including a live hyperlink and the last accessed date.

Introducing the Law Robot

I've always wanted my own personal assistant. But I'll settle for a program I call a "robot". So here's the idea: I usually have an IM window open, and I've got two classes where the professors will often call out an ORS section number for us to quickly turn to ... The law robot can … Continue reading Introducing the Law Robot →