{"id":427,"date":"2006-12-29T15:05:44","date_gmt":"2006-12-29T19:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/12\/29\/lawyers-appreciate-pro-se-friendly-cour"},"modified":"2007-01-01T01:32:18","modified_gmt":"2007-01-01T05:32:18","slug":"lawyers-appreciate-pro-se-friendly-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/12\/29\/lawyers-appreciate-pro-se-friendly-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"lawyers appreciate pro-se-friendly courts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Across the &#8220;blawgiverse,&#8221; law-related weblogs have been closing 2006 with a ten-day <a href=\"http:\/\/westallen.typepad.com\/idealawg\/2006\/12\/10day_countdown.html\"><strong>Lawyers Appreciate<\/strong> Countdown<\/a>\u00a0(find links\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/lifeatthebar.wordpress.com\/2006\/12\/23\/joining-in-the-lawyers-appreciate-countdown\/\">here<\/a>).\u00a0 In addition to writing a piece on what lawyers appreciate, each participant &#8220;tags&#8221; three other webloggers, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.legaline.com\/2006\/12\/lawyers-appreciate-civility-among-their.html\">Robert Ambrogi<\/a> brought me into the appreciation circle with a tag-invitation today.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there is no way that I can say what the million-plus practicing lawyers in America personally appreciate.\u00a0 Instead, my declaration is hortatory and aspirational &#8212; stating what I <em>hope<\/em> lawyers do, or soon will come to, appreciate.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"54\" alt=\"announcerR\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/files\/2006\/08\/announcerS.gif\" width=\"40\" \/>\u00a0\u00a0As &#8220;officers of the court&#8221;, members of the Bar have a special obligation to help assure that justice is available\u00a0to all who come within the judicial system.\u00a0\u00a0As holders of special rights and powers\u00a0within our legal system, lawyers have the additional duty to help <em>assure<\/em> that every person in our society has meaningful access to justice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In this context, <em>lawyers appreciate pro-se-friendly courts.<\/em>\u00a0 Lawyers know:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the courthouse door is effectively blocked for a majority of Americans, if entry can only be accomplished after retaining a lawyer at market-level fees<\/li>\n<li>the fundamental right to appear <em>pro se<\/em> cannot itself assure that justice is done fairly and effectively, if the <em>pro se<\/em> litigant does not understand his or her rights or cannot comply with procedural requirements that are\u00a0prerequities for being heard, or for presenting facts and equities in a competent manner<\/li>\n<li>the image (and reality) of <em>pro-se<\/em>-intolerant or unfriendly courts will keep many individuals from asserting or protecting their rights in court, despite meritorious claims<\/li>\n<li>justice will not be achieved in individual cases, if\u00a0opposing counsel takes unfair advantage of an unrepresented party&#8217;s ignorance of the law or lack of adversarial skills, so that the court is unable to consider all important facts and factors<\/li>\n<li>justice will not be effective, efficient, or timely\u00a0within a court or court <em>system<\/em>, if the court is swamped with unprepared <em>pro se<\/em> litigants\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/09\/08\/a-guide-or-a-guild-where-does-your-bar-group-stand\/\">attitude of the organized bar<\/a> toward self-help assistance in courts is crucial to achieving meaningful access to justice &#8212; and<\/li>\n<li>they must, therefore,\u00a0renounce\u00a0action that opposes self-help assistance (in a misguided attempt to preserve the financial interests of the legal profession), and instead must use individual and organized efforts to promote and create adequate, integrated\u00a0self-help resources in every court (see, <em>e.g.<\/em>, resources and strategies discussed <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/12\/12\/best-practices-guide-from-srln\/\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-admin\/statewide,%20integrated%20programs%20to%20assist%20and%20support%20people%20without%20lawyers\">here<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/08\/17\/what-have-they-done-for-me-lately\/\">there<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"15\" alt=\"tinyRedCheck\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/files\/2006\/12\/tinyredcheck.gif\" width=\"18\" \/>\u00a0p.s.\u00a0 I am hereby tagging George Wallace, in his <a href=\"http:\/\/declarationsandexclusions.typepad.com\/foolblog\/\"><em>Fool in the Forest<\/em><\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/declarationsandexclusions.typepad.com\/weblog\/\"><em>Declarations &amp; Exclusions<\/em><\/a> persona; Martin Grace of <a href=\"http:\/\/riskprof.typepad.com\/\"><em>RiskProf<\/em><\/a><em>; <\/em>and <em>&#8220;Ed&#8221;<\/em>, the anonymous Editor of <em>Blawg Review,<\/em> and hope they will be able to tell us their version of What Lawyers Appreciate. My alter egos at <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/\"><em>f\/k\/a<\/em><\/a> &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/prof-yabuts-favorites\/\">Prof. Yabut<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/dagosans-archives\/\">dagosan<\/a>\u00a0&#8212; may also get into the act before the Dec. 31 deadline.<\/p>\n<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"15\" alt=\"tinyRedCheck\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/files\/2006\/12\/tinyredcheck.gif\" width=\"18\" \/>\u00a0update<\/em> (Dec. 30, 2006): To no one&#8217;s surprise, our <em>Blawg Review<\/em> Editor friend <a href=\"http:\/\/blawgreview.blogspot.com\/2006\/12\/lawyers-appreciate-link-love.html\">Appreciates Link Love<\/a>, and spreads it around rather\u00a0liberally.\u00a0 And, <em>(Jan. 1, 2007):<\/em> thanks to the miracle of time zone differentiation, our multi-faceted weblogging\u00a0buddy George Wallace got his appreciation duties posted in time from his California home in the waning hours of 2006.\u00a0 His piece, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.declarationsandexclusions.com\/2006\/12\/lawyers_appreci.html\">Lawyers Appreciate the Widsom of Socrates<\/a>, is well worth the wait and your time.\u00a0 George echoes Socrates&#8217; &#8220;all I know is that I know nothing&#8221;, an approach that (like the zen concept of &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Beginner's_mind\">beginner&#8217;s mind<\/a>&#8220;) offers the optimal method for finding the right facts and the right answers.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Across the &#8220;blawgiverse,&#8221; law-related weblogs have been closing 2006 with a ten-day Lawyers Appreciate Countdown\u00a0(find links\u00a0here).\u00a0 In addition to writing a piece on what lawyers appreciate, each participant &#8220;tags&#8221; three other webloggers, and Robert Ambrogi brought me into the appreciation circle with a tag-invitation today.\u00a0 Of course, there is no way that I can say [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-viewpoint"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}