C|M|LAW Library Blog

The Ohio General Assembly recently passed HB258, a bill “to generally prohibit an abortion of an unborn human individual with a detectable heartbeat and to create the Joint Legislative Committee on Adoption Promotion and Support.”  The bill provides exceptions to prevent the death or “serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” of a pregnant woman, but no exceptions for pregnant women who are victims of rape or incest.  The bill also states the Director of the Ohio Department of Health may adopt rules “specifying the appropriate methods of performing an examination for the purpose of determining the presence of a fetal heartbeat of an unborn individual based on standard medical practice,” and specifies “the rules shall require only that an examination shall be performed externally.”  HB258 was sent to Governor John Kasich on 12/14/18.  Per the Ohio legislative process, if the Governor does not sign or veto the act after 10 days (excluding Sundays), it becomes law without the Governor’s signature.  Kasich vetoed a similar act in December 2016, and says he will veto this new act after waiting 10 days. [See 12/14/18 Columbus Dispatch post.]  The Ohio Senate and House have scheduled sessions on 12/27/18, but it is unlikely there are sufficient votes for a 3/5 veto override.

Adjunct Professor David E. Schweighoefer has taught “Psychiatry and the Law” for over a decade at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.  This year, several of his students are working on an independent study with him and St. Vincent Charity Medical Center with the objective of amending Ohio law concerning the mandatory transfer of patients needing psychiatric care to a licensed inpatient psychiatric unit.  The students are particularly looking at how current law may negatively impact patients who are primarily receiving care for medical, not psychiatric, reasons.  Schweighoefer is chair of Day Ketterer’s Health Care Law Practice Group, and he organized the collaborative project with C|M|Law and St. Vincent.  Students have met with St. Vincent physicians, staff and general counsel, as well as the Ohio Hospital Association Behavioral Health Work Group.  Students will soon meet with Ohio Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services staff and selected Ohio legislators to seek support for drafting legislation to give hospitals the ability to provide the best possible medical care to patients who may also need psychiatric care.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) has reported that the Camp Fire in Butte County burned 153,336 acres, destroyed 13,972 residences and 4,821 other buildings, and killed at least 85 people.  [See the Camp Fire Incident Information page and Butte County Sheriff’s Office Camp Fire page.]  At least 200 people are still missing.  The Butte County Sheriff’s Office is working with ANDE’s Rapid DNA instruments to help identify victims and human remains.  Immediate relatives of missing persons are being asked to donate their DNA by submitting cheek swabs at a local police station.  [DNA samples must be accompanied by consent forms; the DNA samples and data will be destroyed after a family member is identified.]  A Rapid DNA instrument can generate a DNA ID in a few hours.  A DNA ID contains approximately one-millionth of the information in a genetic profile, but it can determine gender, and two or more DNA IDs can be compared to determine if people are close biological relatives.  The Rapid DNA Act of 2017 [see Pub. L. No. 115-50 (August 18, 2017)] required the Federal Bureau of Investigation to issue standards and procedures for using Rapid DNA instruments, as well as allowed DNA samples prepared by using Rapid DNA instruments to be included in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

Bloomberg Law recently summarized several reports on increasing cyberattacks in the healthcare sector.  The Cylance 2017 Threat Report examined “anonymized threat data collected between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2017, and found 58% of ransomware attacks impacted healthcare industries in 2017, a dramatic increase from the 34% in 2016.  In 2018, the SamSam ransomware has been used in numerous cyberattacks.  A 10/30/18 Symantec blog post reported 24% of the SamSam attacks affected the healthcare sector.  The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Healthcare’s Most Wired: National Trends 2018 report found only 29% of healthcare organizations have a comprehensive security program.  At least 90% of healthcare organizations have a dedicated chief information security officer as well as report security deficiencies and progress to their boards, but only 76% provide at least annual security updates and only 34% had a board-level committee responsible for security program oversight.  Perhaps most significantly, less than 1/3 of healthcare organizations participated with formal analysis organizations such as the Department of Homeland Security Cyber Information Sharing and Collaboration Program (CISCP) and National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), and the Department of Health & Human Services Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3; formerly known as the Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center or HCCIC).

Students, do you have a bit of time before or during the upcoming Thanksgiving break?  Why not refresh your research skills and take a few Law Library Legal Research Seminars?!  The Seminars are conveniently available online, via the Westlaw TWEN platform.  You earn points for completing a Seminar by correctly answering 3/4 of the questions on that Seminar’s quiz.  Your Seminar points are good for the entire time you are here at C|M|LAW.  When you earn 100 points, you are awarded a Law Library Legal Research Letter of Recognition and a Digital Badge, which you can post to your LinkedIn page.  You can earn multiple Letters and Digital Badges.

Here are descriptions of seven of our Law Library Legal Research Seminars:

• Starting Research with Secondary Sources – Why recreate the wheel? Examine how secondary sources explain and analyze “the law” for you, as well as cite primary authority. [17:02 mins; 12.5 points]
• Bluebooking – For faster legal drafting, review how to effectively apply citation and style rules, as well as abbreviation and jurisdiction tables. [38:47 mins; 25 points]
• Administrative Law – Break through the mysteries of agency rulemaking and case adjudication. Learn the key resources for finding federal and Ohio agency regulations and decisions. [29:59 mins; 25 points]
• Cost Effective Federal Legislative History: Congress.gov & GPO.gov – Understand the importance of, and materials generated in, the federal legislative process.  See how to find key materials in the freely-available Congress.gov and GPO.gov. [17:33 mins; 12.5 points]
• HeinOnline – Review the wide array of content (eg, law journals, session laws, foreign law), date coverage, and unique features of this full-text “database of databases.” [16:49 mins.; 12.5 points]
• Practical Law by Westlaw – Review the specialized practice areas, resources and features of this unique Westlaw product. [13:44 mins; 12.5 points]
• Bioethics Resources & Scholarly Writing – Examine a wide array of bioethics resources, as well as learn how these resources can be used to select a paper topic and conduct effective research on that topic. [28:33 mins; 25 points]

We also have six Law Library Legal Research Seminars on the major legal research platforms.  In these Seminars, you will learn big box & pre-filtered searching, how to print/download/email search results, how to use citator services to update and expand your research, and the basics of combining terms & phrases in effective search statements:

• Westlaw Overview [20:03 mins; 12.5 points]
• KeyCite [10:16 mins; 12.5 points]
• Lexis Advance Overview [21:11 mins; 12.5 points]
• Shepard’s [11;54 mins; 12.5 points]
• Bloomberg Law Overview – Also reviews content not available on Lexis Advance & Westlaw. [25:39 mins; 12.5 points]
• Terms & Connectors Searching [10:48 mins; 12.5 points]

For more information on the Law Library Legal Research Seminars, contact Laura Ray, Outreach & Instructional Services Librarian.