news, views and info on self-help law and pro se litigation
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At long last, Shlep is returning from its long hiatus. As Terry and myself adjusted to new jobs, we ran into some difficulties balancing the time commitment of our new positions with the necessity of frequent, useful and accurate blog posts. However, we are now ready to roll, and you can expect new posts in about two weeks and then regularly thereafter. See you soon!
I am very pleased to announce that 1] shlep is scheduled to resume posting “news, views and info on self-help law and pro se litigation” on Tuesday, May 29, 2007, with activity increasing in the coming weeks; and 2] shlep will be in the good hands of two able and enthusiastic advocates of the self-help law movement. The new co-editors of shlep are (in alphabetical order):
Teresa L. Conaway, who is just leaving her position as Head of Reference & Instruction, Texas Tech University School of Law Library, to become the Head of Public Services at the University of La Verne (California). Terry was a professor of paralegal studies for 12 years before becoming a law librarian. [You can contact Terry at: terry [AT] keleka [DOT] net ]
Tammy Pettinato, who received a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2005, and just finished her Masters in Information Science at the University of Michigan. On May 16th, Tammy began working as a Reference Librarian at the UCLA Hugh & Hazel Darling Law Library. [You can contact Tammy at: trp [AT] yahoo [DOM] com ]
I will let Tammy and Terry tell you more about themselves and their vision of what shlep will become. (They will also decide whether to keep the fresh green look I have chosen today to signal the weblog’s new regime and spirit. Which color theme do you prefer?) Please stop by regularly to keep abreast of the self-help law movement as seen through their eyes, and help create a shlep community, by leaving your thoughtful Comments. Also, as you did for me, if you know of weblog postings, articles, reports, news or other resources that might be of interest to T&T and the readers of shlep, tell them about it.
Team Shlep? If you are interested in joining Team Shlep (which would entail a commitment to write regularly for the site) get in touch with Terry or Tammy and see if your interests and skills fit with their needs. Self-representation practitioners — people who work directly with pro se litigants or create the programs and materials they use — are particularly urged to consider joining the Team.
p.s. Thanks again to all who supported shlep in the nine months since its conception — by visiting often or spreading the word about this weblog and its important mission. Special thanks to the original members of Team Shlep. A final hat tip to the still-anonymous Editor of Blawg Review for his continuous encouragement. (Speaking of gratitude, see the special Memorial Day Blawg Review #110, at Norman Gregory Fernandez’s Biker Law Blog.) You can count on my lurking here often, and find me at my original weblog f/k/a.
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It’s been four weeks since I announced my retiring as Editor of this weblog and my hope to pass the SHLEP torch to a group of committed persons willing and able to continue its important role in the pro-se/self-help community and movement. To date, I am sorry to say that no candidates have stepped forward to adopt shlep. Despite the posting hiatus, we’re still getting about 250 visits a day, most from search engine queries, taking advantage of our deep content. Please browse the site, and see our prior post and About page, describing why shlep deserves to be an ongoing, frequently-updated weblog, Our high search engine profile also suggests that it would make a great resource as part of a website with complementary goals.
If shlep were active over the past month, it surely would have informed you of such stories as:
Until shlep is once again updated regularly under new management, check out the SelfHelpSupport.org homepage and the HALT website and bi-weekly newsletter (which you can have delivered free by email) for a bit of news and commentary about pro se and self-help issues. Meanwhile, if you can help find a good home for shlep, please let me know or urge the likely candidates to step up and grab this opportunity.
I thank David for his tremendous commitment and hard work in dreaming up shlep and providing such great content and commentary!
And I echo David in his plea for someone to pick up the torch. I hope there’s an organization or group that would like to carry this on.
It takes a lot of commitment to keep a blog active, watching for relevant news and posting regularly. My own relationship to shlep illustrates that. Early on, I said I could post about once a week, and I was good at my word for a while, writing when I came across something on the topic. But in recent weeks, I’ve been snowed under at my regular job (and, I’ll confess I left town for five days during spring break). When I did have time, I wrote for my own blog. Truth be told, I hadn’t even looked at shlep for a few weeks.
The successor editor should be aware of the commitment needed to keep a blog fresh. An organization or group of people might be able to share the work so that no one person would be swamped (as David was, when he made sure there were daily posts by writing them himself).
I also want to say that being part of an enterprise like this can be fun and rewarding. I enjoy the medium — it’s great to be able to gather some information, write a comment, and then instantly have it available to readers. If you occasionally have someone comment that what you’ve done is useful, all the better! (I thank David again — this time for giving me the opportunity to be part of the shlep team.)
So if you’re interested in providing a service and enjoy writing and sharing information, do write to David about this opportunity.
In the meantime, I came across something applicable to self-help law, so you’ll see another post from me soon.
We’ve shlepped a long way, since I started building content last August, assembled a Team, and officially launched the SHLEP weblog on October 1, 2006. We’ve reported news, stated views, and assembled information in more than 230 postings. Our efforts have already brought us well over 300 visitors a day, hundreds of website and weblog links, and recognition from Blawg Review as “Best Law Blog In the Public Interest.” In fact, even if no new content were posted here, the resources already assembled will continue to attract scores (perhaps hundreds) of search-engine visits every day, with useful information and direction for consumers wishing or needing to solve their legal problems on their own.
As satisfying as shlep‘s accomplishments have been, I’m sorry to say that this is going to be my last posting here — except (I hope), for one final announcement that the weblog is being handed over to a new editor, group or organization ready and willing to continue its mission.
Thanks to everyone who has given us encouragement and shown such appreciation for shlep during our first stage (with special thanks to Mary Whisner and the rest of Team SHLEP). My gratitude and admiration will remain for all those making the self-help-law revolution a growing reality.
My urgent request is that readers who have valued this weblog, as well as other members of the self-help-litigant community, consider adopting SHLEP — either as a group of individuals coming together to manage and produce the weblog, or as an organization or joint venture committing the resources of its members to make the Self-Help Law ExPress a continuing enterprise. My hope is that groups of pro se practicitioners (like the Self Represented Litigant Network), law librarian or court staff associations, and bar or law school access to justice programs, will consider taking on this job. The weblog could stay here at the Harvard webserver at no cost, or be migrated to a new website or domain, and the new proprietors would, naturally, be able to fine-tune the content and mission (and perhaps the name) to their own specifications.
p.s. After far too many months of neglect, I plan to make f/k/a (the home of legal punditry and genuine haiku poetry) a daily weblog again. Visits from my many shlep friends would be much appreciated.
Blawg Review‘s Anonymous Editor and Christmas Angel: For two years, I’ve had the pleasure of frequent typo alerts, pointers to items of interest, and words of encouragement, from Ed, the anonymous person who created and edits Blawg Review, the original carnival of law-related weblogs. I’ve been amazed over how thoroughly and consistently he covers the world of lawyer weblogging (and beyond). I’ve called Ed my “guardian angel” at times, but never knew his angel duties were global, and in partnership with that other all-seeing and omni-present creature of myth, Santa Claus.
Their unique joint venture became apparent for all to see this morning, when Angelonymous Ed and his alter ego Santa Claus presented the Blawg Review Awards 2006. Awards are given for the best law weblogs in numerous categories. “The list isn’t exhaustive, . . . . But those law blogs that have been given awards this year are certainly worth your attention. In many cases, they’re obvious choices. But there are a few surprises.”
Forget the false shows of modesty, the Shlep Team is far too pleased to downplay our bright new Blawg Review Award 2006 — “Best Law Blog In the Public Interest.” It is a great honor to receive this particular award, which goes to the heart of our mission: presenting consistently useful information that will allow the public to be both better aware of its rights and better able to assert them and achieve meaningful and affordable access to justice (with or without lawyers).
More important, the award is a big nudge for the shlep Team to build on our four-month foundation, by consistently providing materials of high-quality, that are of practical use for consumers and practitioners, interesting enough to keep readers coming back often, and helpful resources for those seeking answers through search engines. [It it also a great opportunity to point out once again that the Editor continues to seek a co-Editor — or two — who will contribute a significant amount of time, knowledge and enthusiasm to making shlep fresh and timely every day.]
Many worthy law weblogs were honored in Blawg Rewiew Awards 2006, and deserve your attention. Of the more substantive awards, I’d like to call you attention to, and congratulate those that you will find below “under the fold.” Long-time weblogger buddies Carolyn Elefant, Robert Ambrogi, Evan Schaeffer, Denise Howell, Walter Olson, and J. Craig Williams get a special personal Hat Tip.
__(‘Read the rest of this entry »’)
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Our Teammate Mary Whisner is hoping to create a shlep relay event, by tagging the rest of us with the “5 Things You Didn’t Know about Me Meme.” Taggees are expected to “list 5 things about yourself that your blog’s readers are unlikely to know, and then tag 5 other people to do the same.” You will learn a lot about the multi-talented Mary Whisner in her “5 things about me, ” (Trial Ad Notes, Dec. 19, 2006. (For another About Me example, see Legal Andrew, “I’m It!“)
Earlier this year, I was cursed honored by a similar tagging at my dagosan’s haiku diary, where I was infected burdened blessed with the Weird-Tag — which requires a list of 5 of your weird habits your readers might not know about. Because the dagosan weblog features only haiku poetry, I transferred that tag obligation to my multi-faceted site, f/k/a, where I wrote “i’m just not that weird (honest),” in an attempt to postpone making that list.
Prof. Yabut, Self-Help-Tag Facilitator 
Four days later, when I hadn’t fulflled the Weird Tag requirements, Prof. Yabut, one of my f/k/a alter egos, stuck his nose in facilitated my reply, by writing the prolix (not pro se) posting “yes, prof. yabut can be quite weird” (Feb. 12, 2006). It includes such nuggets as Aging Up, Backseat Desire, and Dangerous Pizza.
To be honest, that’s all the confessing I’m willing to do for one year, so the curious should head over to that posting at f/k/a, where my weird-soul is bared. (Please excuse the formatting problems over there, caused by migrating to a new webserver and weblog software.)
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Editor’s Note: I’m sorry to report that the legal reform group HALT has withdrawn from Team shlep.
Two days ago, I expressed to HALT’s Executive Director James C. Turner a preference for postings by HALT that relate to self-help law issues (rather than, in that instance, a suggested piece amplifying on the recent Legal Times article, “Is He a Qualified Candidate”?, Nov. 13, 2006, which related to court challenges, by political opponents, to qualifications for candidates for state Attorney General). In response, Jim announced the organization’s withdrawal from participation in shlep and asked that I remove HALT’s materials from this website.
I’m sorry that a relationship that seemed so promising has been ended. I want to thank HALT staffer Mary Thuell for her goodwill and hard work putting together HALT’s weekly shlep posting over the past month. I wish Jim and the entire HALT staff well in their efforts, as they say, “helping all Americans handle their legal affairs simply, affordably and equitably.” I want to assure our readers that I will continue to report here on important HALT activities (from advocacy, to reports, to publications) of interest to self-help law consumers and practitioners. Meanwhile, in a world filled with legal reform issues, I hope to keep shlep focused on its mission: helping to expand and improve the self-help law movement.
p.s.
Don’t forget HALT’s compilation of Do-It-Yourself Best Buys and its special primer Going It Alone In Court.
What does a person do when falsely accused of defamation? I’m not sure, since yesterday’s charge by “victim-of-the-law” June Maxam of the North Country Gazette was the first time it has happened to me, despite 30 years as a lawyer and over three as an opinionated and sometimes grumpy weblogger. I don’t think I’m going to set up a Defense Fund like Ms. Maxam’s. However, as a shlepper, there is one thing I can do that might help myself and our readers: collect links to a few good online resources on defamation. So, here we go:
— You can find very helpful FAQs on Defamation (especially in the internet context) at both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and The Chilling Effects Clearinghouse. As EFF says in its Bloggers’ FAQ on Online Defamation Law, “Generally, defamation is a false and unprivileged statement of fact that is harmful to someone’s reputation, and published “with fault,” meaning as a result of negligence or malice. State laws often define defamation in specific ways. Libel is a written defamation; slander is a spoken defamation.” The FAQ also points out that truth is an absolute defense, and “For a blog, a court would likely start with the general tenor, setting, and format of the blog, as well as the context of the links through which the user accessed the particular entry. Next the court would look at the specific context and content of the blog entry, analyzing the extent of figurative or hyperbolic language used and the reasonable expectations of the blog’s audience.”— The AOL Legal Department has put together a page on Online defamation Decisions and litigation.— Prof. Euguene Volokh posted a piece just today that explains: “In a defamation case, at least when the speech is on a matter of public concern, “the plaintiff [must] bear the burden of showing falsity, as well as [the defendant’s] fault, before recovering damages.” This is true whether the plaintiff is a public figure or a private figure. See Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. v. Hepps, 475 U.S. 767, 776 (1986). The common-law rule was that the defendant must prove truth, but Hepps changed that for First Amendment reasons.”Ironically, my accuser, legal pundit June Maxam stated last month in a North Country Gazette editorial that “In a libel and defamation suit, truth is the best defense.” With that principle in mind, Mike at TechDirt.com asked today “Can You Sue For Defamation If Someone Points Out Publicly That You Are Wrong?” (Oct. 26, 2006) Unfortunately, unless blocked from courts due to a pattern of vexatious lawsuits, just about anybody can sue for just about anything. Although sanctions can be levied for frivolous lawsuits (as we recently discussed here), responding to baseless charges is never enjoyable, can be very time-consuming and stressful, and very expensive. Nonetheless, spending a little time understanding the law and its protection for truthful speech, can help a shlepper with a clear conscience sleep even better.p.s. Although she is the one who has repeatedly hurled threats at me, I’ve also been accused of harassment by Ms. Maxam. Just looking at its definition in the Law.com dictionary, however, was enough research for me tonight. I’m going to be sleeping like a baby.
CORRECTION (Oct. 27, 2006): Yesterday evening, I erroneously stated in this Comment that NCG had copied from this article in the Westchester News, when it wrote this story — showing that at least five sentences from the NCG article were identical to the sentences in the Westchester.com article. It has been brought to my attention that the source of the NCG article was this release from the Westchester County District Attorney. I apologize for my error. Clearly, NCG did not take the information from Westchester.com. If NCG had attributed its story and facts to the Westchester DA’s press release, my mistake would not have occurred. My main point remains, however, that NCG was claiming exclusive rights to use materials that the public has every right to reproduce, when it placed the statement “This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed by anyone without the express written permission of the publisher. This article is copyright protected and Fair Use is not applicable” at the end of the article.
To no one’s surprise, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin of the Canadian Supreme Court was voicing her concerns recently over the numbers of self-represented litigants throughout the court system. (see, Canada.com, “Chief Justice warns of ‘epidemic’ of self-representation in courts,” Aug. 13, 2006; cbcNews, “Self-representation creating chaos in courts:chief justice,” Aug. 12, 2006) Perhaps the reporters covering Justice McLachlin missed other salient points, but it is disconcerting that the only solutions for the “epidemic” that are mentioned in the above articles are her suggestions that lawyers might lower their fees and that judicial vacancies be filled more quickly.
Of course, my survey of self-help law in Canada was too brief and incomplete. It does suggest, however, both that shlep needs a regular contributor with a Canadian perspective and that the discussion between Canadian and American slef-help advocates would be mutually beneficial.ø
Beyond his intense interest in applying technology to the practice of law, Rick has been using the unbundling of legal services to serve clients in his solo practice. We hope he will share that experience with us — hopefully showing that, like life, discrete task lawyering can be “simple, really” with a bit of thoughtful planning. Welcome, Rick! ø
That “pre-launch status” notice has been sitting at the top of this page for too long. As of today, October 1, 2007, shlep: the Self-Help Law ExPress is officially in business and ready to begin regular operation. There are many definitions of the word launch, but we especially like “to enter enthusiastically into something,” and take note that the word is derived from the Latin and French terms for wielding a lance.
Although our Help Wanted sign is still out, and we hope to be announcing significant new additions to our line-up in the near future, your editor is proud to announce that Mary Whisner, John Cannan and Orijit Ghoshal will form our core team of contributors. Click About the SHLEP TEAM to learn more about them.
Many people have worked long and hard to bring the self-help law movement to its present status and potential. shlep will do its best to chronicle their continuing achievements and, we hope, hasten the day when access to effective, fair and affordable legal services is available to all Americans.
If you are a new visitor, please scroll down this page and check out our prior postings and SideBar, to see that self-help law and shlep have much to offer.
