The Annual Report of the Anne Arundel County Public Law Library for FY2022 has been posted to this site. This report provides a picture of library use, programs, resources, services, staff and finances. The strategic plan with goals and actions taken is included.
As we celebrate Pro Bono this week, it is a good time to recognize those attorneys who have donated their time helping those in need of legal assistance by volunteering for the Lawyer in the Library program.
Last year 11 attorneys helped 143 people by providing 86 hours of legal advice. Issues included landlord and tenant; wills and estates; consumer problems; and HOA neighbor disputes. Steve Migdal, last year’s recipient of the AABA President’s Award, was responsible for more than half of those hours. We would like to send a special thank you to all of the Lawyers in the Library:
Joe Gormley
William Moomau
Jessica Corace
Richard Ronay
Jennifer Jones
John Lynch
Carole Brown
Saul McCormick
Leonard Englander
Jack Paltell
Steve Migdal
Emergency relief is a temporary order of protection from imminent, substantial harm or harassment for you or a minor child. To receive emergency relief, you must be able to show that you or a minor child are truly at risk of imminent, substantial harm or harassment.
Because an emergency relief order is temporary, the court requires you to file for permanent relief, such as for divorce, custody, or custody modification. This additional petition needs to be filed at the same time or earlier than the motion for relief.
The Emergency Custody Packet includes:
To receive emergency relief from the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, do the following:
The time length of the relief order depends on your situation.
There are attorneys at the the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Family Court Help Center who can help with this and other family law matters.
The Law Library is closed today, Monday, October 10, 2022, for the Columbus Day holiday. Read about the holiday at History.com.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is also celebrated on the second Monday in October. There was a Presidential Proclamation in 2021 recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Anne Arundel County Resolution 41-20 was passed in 2020 recognizing Monday, October 12, 2020 as Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Anne Arundel County.
H.R. 5473 was introduced but not passed in the United States Congress last year “to designate Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a legal public holiday and replace the term “Columbus Day” with the term “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
Records of the indigenous peoples of Maryland can be found at the Mayis Indigenous Records site of the Maryland archives.
The Law Library will reopen tomorrow, Tuesday, October 11, 2022. Except on Court Holidays, the Library is open Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. A list of Court Holidays is available on the Circuit Court’s website.
The United State Supreme Court begins its term today, the first Monday in October. Here is a repeat of our post last year outlining where information on the Court can be found – the SCOTUSblog is the place for all information on the Supreme Court.
Information there includes a listing of cases to be heard this year, petitions, supreme court statistics and the newsfeed. Find even more under the “CATEGORIES” tab to find Book Reviews , the Academic Round-Up for “news about recent court-related scholarship,” and discussion of Cases in the Pipeline
The official website for the Supreme Court is here . Supreme Court Opinions can be found in the law library using Lexis and Westlaw.
October 1, 2022 marks the day when most of the legislation passed during the 2022 legislative session goes into effect. There were 783 laws passed in 2022. Listings of bills for the House and Senate introduced and passed can be found on the Maryland General Assembly website.
New laws enacted include the following:
CH484/SB290 THE BUDGET
CH41/SB691 & CH42/HB459 Juvenile Justice Reform
CH18/HB425 & CH19/SB387 Untraceable Firearms
CH722 /HB 521 Shielding of certain landlord and tenant court records
CH619/HB 808) & CH620/SB508 – Guardianship of Minors
CH175/HB83 Marriage of Minors
CH45/HB1 Constitutional Amendment – Cannabis – Adult Use and Possession
CH56/HB937 Abortion Care Access Act
See the “The 90 Day Report: A Review of the 2022 Legislative Session” for more information on the 2022 session. There is a similar report that covers the last five years: Major Issues Review 2019-2022.
In an August 31, 2022 Press Release, the American Association of Law Libraries announced that the AALL Advancing Access to Justice Special Committee has developed a new resource, the Online Legal Information Resources (OLIR, “for information professionals—law librarians, legal information professionals, and public librarians—and members of the public to easily locate online primary legal materials.”
“The new Online Legal Information Resources (OLIR) includes information for U.S. states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, the U.S. Federal Government, and Canada. The OLIR includes links to session laws, statutory codes, registers, administrative codes, and court opinions. To help users easily identify reliable online sources, the OLIR contains information about whether the legal materials are official, authentic, preserved, and copyrighted. The OLIR also includes contact information for state and local public law libraries, covering whether services to incarcerated people are provided.”
According to a press release of the American Library Association in April of this year:
Library staff in every state faced an unprecedented number of attempts to ban books. ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 729 challenges to library, school and university materials and services in 2021, resulting in more than 1,597 individual book challenges or removals. Most targeted books were by or about Black or LGBTQIA+ persons.
“The 729 challenges tracked by ALA represent the highest number of attempted book bans since we began compiling these lists 20 years ago,” said ALA President Patricia “Patty” Wong. “We support individual parents’ choices concerning their child’s reading and believe that parents should not have those choices dictated by others. Young people need to have access to a variety of books from which they can learn about different perspectives. So, despite this organized effort to ban books, libraries remain ready to do what we always have: make knowledge and ideas available so people are free to choose what to read.”
The National Consumer Law Center has published an article outlining changes affecting student loan debt relief: Twelve Dramatic Changes Offering Relief for Student Loan Borrowers.
More information on student loans can be found in the NCLC publication, Student Loan Law, which is available in the the law library in print and online at law library computers by using the NCLC Digital Library.
The Anne Arundel County Public Law Library and the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court are closed today, September 5, 2022 for the Labor Day holiday. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, “Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” Read more on the DOL’s page, the History of Labor Day.
The Law Library will reopen tomorrow, Tuesday, September 6, 2022. A list of Court Holidays is available on the Circuit Court’s website. Except on Court Holidays, the Library is open Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
AACPLL Blog: Law Library News 