the unbundled weblogger
Each of the items that I had planned to mention today has a connection to both unbundling and weblogging — the first stems from an article on employees with weblogs, the other is part of shlep’s own recruitment campaign:
Archive for September, 2006
pro se potential leads court to invoke laches doctrine
[in pre-launch status, as we search for a shlep team — can you contribute?]
The Coalition for Public Awareness, in Jersey County, Illinois, filed a lawsuit earlier this year to stop collection of taxes that would have residents pay back bonds issued in 2003 and 2004, to finance the building of two public schools. The Coalition argued that the bonds were issued illegally, because the majority of voters voted against building the new schools. (The Telegraph [Alton, IL], “Suit against Jersey schools dismissed,” Sept. 22, 2006)
(new-fangled) self-help videoconferencing
[in pre-launch status, as we search for a shlep team – can you contribute?]
In Part III of its Broken Bench series on New York State’s “justice courts” (see our prior post), the New York Times describes today how old-fashioned parochial politics have prevented reform that would bring better justice to those appearing in town and village courts across the state. (NYT, “How a Reviled Court System Has Outlasted Critics,” Sept. 27, 2006)
I’m happy to counteract that news by pointing to two states that are using new-fangled* videoconferencing programs to help bring the benefits of self-help assistance to populations in small towns and rural areas that do not yet have, or might never warrant, their own fully-staffed and equipped self-help center.
HALT studies pro se practices & paralegals in California
[in pre-launch status, as we search for a shlep team – can you contribute?]
The legal reform group HALT has released two studies that should be of great interest to the self-help law community. Both focus on practices in California and offer positive assessments and “best practices” suggestions:
spread the news: kvetchin’ & kvellin’
An editorial over the weekend in the upstate New York based North Country Gazette reminded me that self-help-law advocates can advance our cause in two important ways : 1) get our message to the mass media (as news and opinion) and 2) make sure we’re both kvetchin’ and kvellin’ – complaining about what’s wrong and needs to be done in the current system, but also pointing (often with with pride and pleasure) at what has been accomplished and is already available to the public.
“second class justice” in ny’s justice courts
The New York Times started a three-part series called Broken Bench, today, about the “second class system of justice” afforded by the justice courts of New York State. “In Tiny Courts of N.Y., Abuses of Law and Power,” Sept. 25, 2006). [via Law Librarian Blog] There are 1250 justice courts in towns and villages across the State. Although many in the public see the justice courts as “quaint holdovers from a bygone era, handling nothing weightier than traffic tickets and small claims” a year-long NYT investigation “found overwhelming evidence that decade after decade and up to this day, people have often been denied fundamental legal rights” the those courts.
Two Law Librarians Join The shlep Team
[in pre-launch status, as we search for a shlep team – can you contribute?]
If things go smoothly, this weblog will be “officially launched” on October 1st, when shlep’s founding team of authors and contributors will be announced and start posting on this Home Page. However, I’m too excited to wait a week to tell you about our first two recruits.
frivolous pro se litigants: who’s to blame?
An interesting debate started on lawyer weblogs this week: Do pro se litigants bring meritless lawsuits because they are underlawyered or because our overlawyered judicial system has too many attorney-supported incentives for bringing marginal claims?
can a parent be the “self” in “pro se”?
The SCOTUSBlog, which covers the U.S. Supreme Court very well, reported yesterday (Sept. 20, 2006) that the Justice Department has urged the high Court “to clarify when a non-lawyer parent of a disabled child may file a lawsuit, without a lawyer, to enforce the child’s rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).”
no special rules for pro se patentees
[in pre-launch status, as we search for a shlep team – can you contribute?]
David Crouch at Patently-O reported yesterday (Sept. 20, 2006) on the recent decision in Kim v. Conagra Foods (Fed. Cir, No, 15-1414, 2006). Crouch notes “Here’s another case where technicalities of the patent system apparently trapped an unsuspecting patentee,” and quotes the federal appellate court:
“[W]e reject Kim’s position that she should be treated differently from other patentees because she was pro se during some parts of the prosecution.”
Zorza describes pro se trends in state courts
Self-help law guru Richard Zorza (Coordinator of the Self-Represented Litigation Network) has succinctly described ”Trends in Self-Represented Litigation Innovation” (6 pp. pdf.) in an article appearing in Future Trends in State Courts 2006, from the National Council for State Courts.
could “for-profit charities” fund self-help lawyering?
MyShingle weblogger Carolyn Elefant is rightly skeptical [as was ethicalEsq] about the ability of traditional pro bono efforts to make a dent in the access to justice deficit in our society — even when sponsored by large corporate law firms (see Law.com article, Sept. 18, 2006). After thinking about Google’s efforts to use for-profit entities to achieve public interest results (see NYT article, Sept. 13, 2006), and checking out Prof. Eric Posner’s recent thoughts on for-profit charities, Carolyn used her forum at Law.com’s Legal Blog Watch yesterday to ask “What About a For-profit Pro Bono Corporation?” (Sept. 18, 2006). She wondered:
__(’Read the rest of this entry »’)
thanks for the links
[in pre-launch status, as we search for a shlep team — can you contribute?]
We’d like to add the following persons, weblogs and websites to the Linker List we started at the foot of our Help Wanted posting two weeks ago. Linkages have already helped place shlep in the top ten Google Search results for “self-help law”. (In fact, we’re the only site with two listings, but who’s counting?). Our selfless gratitude goes out to:
self-help short-takes
[pre-launch status, as we search for a shlep team – can you contribute?]
This post has notes from around the country: comments about self-represented litigants by Ohio’s Chief Justice, news of an eviction self-help clinic at Harvard Law School, notes on small claims court in Illinois, and new rules on unbundled legal services in Ohio…
