NEW RESOURCES & RESEARCH TIPS – November 3, 2011

NEW Research Tips and New Resources:  November 3, 2011

People have been asking questions regarding the new Uniform Power of Attorney Act and about Power of Attorney forms.  The Legislature adopted the Uniform Power of Attorney Act (UPAA), MCA 72-31-301 et seq. http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/mca_toc/72_31_3.htm  during the past session replacing the earlier Statutory Form Power of Attorney Act, MCA 72-31-201 et seq, http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/mca_toc/72_31_2.htm . The bill, which went into effect 10/1/2011, had support from a broad group of organizations such as AARP, Disability Rights Montana, financial institutions and governmental agencies.  It was seen as a significant step forward to protect the rights and property of an incapacitated principal.

 Highlights of the UPAA are that a Power of Attorney (PoA) is durable, unless otherwise stated;  there are standards of agent conduct and liability as well as remedies and sanctions for the abuse by the agent;  as well as provisions for putting a PoA into effect  upon the occurrence of specified events.  Another group of changes focus on protecting those people who rely upon a PoA and remedies or sanctions against those who refuse to honor a PoA.   Montana is among the first group of states to adopt the UPAA .  For background information about the uniform law, see commentary from the Uniform Law Commission,  http://www.nccusl.org/Act.aspx?title=Power of Attorney .  

There is a new MontGuide about the UPAA authored by Marsha Goetting  of the Montana State University Extension Service http://www.msuextension.org/publications/FamilyFinancialManagement/MT199001HR.pdf  .  Accompanying the information are forms to prepare a simple Power of Attorney,  http://www.montana.edu/estateplanning/powerofattorneyform.pdf and http://www.montana.edu/estateplanning/agentcertification.pdf .   These fillable PDF forms comply with the requirements of MCA 72-31-353, http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/mca/72/31/72-31-353.htm .

NEW RESOURCES & RESEARCH TIP – October 5, 2011

New Resources and Research Tip – October 5, 2011

For those of you doing federal litigation, there are Free Federal Rules Ebooks by LII . The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI)  and the Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII) have published three federal rules ebooks:  Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,  Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and  Federal Rules of Evidence.  The ebooks are compatible with many different devices such as Kindles, Nooks, iPads or just your pc with the right app and are available for download at the CALI elangdell site .  These ebooks are based on the LII Federal Rules Collection . LUNO Law Library Blog (Loyola New Orleans College of Law)  reported on and reviewed these  just released ebooks.  They compared the ebooks with the West Pamphlet editions of the federal rules and found that the CALI ebooks were seven months more current.

The Law Library at the UCLA School of Law has done a good list of mobile applications for law students and lawyers,  http://libguides.law.ucla.edu/content.php?pid=112286&sid=845584 .  So far there are no Montana specific apps being offered.

If you are not familiar with LII, it is a wonderful open access online legal research resource, http://www.law.cornell.edu/ .  My suggestion is open up the link, bookmark it to Favorites and then explore.   There are treasures hidden away in unexpected places.  This is my teachable moment.  The new MT Rules of Civil Procedure went into effect on 10/1 and are patterned on the Federal Rules.  Looking at Montana’s Rule 3,  http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/mca/25/20/CP3.htm , you wonder what the commentary behind the corollary Federal Rule is.  Go to LII> Federal Rules>Civil Procedure> Rule 3,  http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/Rule3.htm  and click on Notes.  There are the official Advisory Committee’s Notes for free!