I’m wondering if pleading guilty to a speeding ticket will really make my insurance rates go up. ANSWER: Yes, a moving violation being recorded against
Posts Tagged ‘cause’
What if the Negligent Driver Who Hits Your Car Has Expired Auto Insurance?
13
Jan
Uninsured driver cause you property damage? Dont assume you cant get your damages paid. Demand payment from the driver, the owner(s) and even the employer(s) before you decide whether or not to sue everyone. Continue reading
(Trying) to go Green
14
Nov
At the Univeristy of Hawaii, being “green” is a very ‘in’ shade with the cool kids. And the law school is no exception to the rule. And I invite you and your institution to take up the cause – and…
2012 Men of the Stacks Calendar
13
Oct
The Blog Widow loves the gallery on the calendar’s website. (Hum… .) Proceeds are going to a good cause, the It Gets Better Project. See the New Yorker’s The New Sexy Librarian for details. Hat tip to LISNews. [JH]
Using The Internet For A Dual Attack Pro-Se Strategy
28
May
By: Rich Bergeron (www.suckssite.com, www.xyiencesucks.com)
You’re a fool in the judge’s eyes in most courtrooms before you even open your mouth if you don’t pay good money for the advice of a lawyer. If you represent yourself, you’re not paying into the system. To judges and opposing lawyers your attempts are considered laughable or hopeless. In many cases, if you go pro-se, it is almost a foregone conclusion that you’re fighting a lost cause. You have to go above and beyond the traditional approach to win in this climate.
Fortunately, there is an equalizer. It’s called the Internet. There are two important ways you can use the World Wide Web to win your legal scuffles.
First, you can use the Internet to put yourself through a rigorous, informal law school. There are law libraries available online and vast free resources. It’s all about how much time you want to spend on learning the nuances of the legal process. You will have to at least be proficient at crafting pleadings and understanding “courtspeak.” Being a Law & Order nut only goes so far in a real courtroom in front of a real judge. You may have to go as far as an appeal, which is almost a scientific process. Some things are beautiful in their complication. The law is complicated in a convoluted way, and it’s ugly and vicious to those who don’t know how to use it to their advantage. Educate yourself to the best of your ability on the legal process using the Internet to gain free access to valuable information and guidelines.
Register for a PACER System (pacer.gov) password as soon as you can. This database of all kinds of official court records can be crucial for finding hidden secrets about the opposing client and law firm. You can also follow the day-to-day activity in your own case there. This is a lawyer’s tool the other side won’t expect you to know about. If you can master your ability to comb this database for dirt on your opposition, whatever investment you make in the site (they charge 8 cents a page for downloads) will be worth its weight in gold.
Now that you are ready for a sound legal attack, you can move to the second prong of the Internet strategy: the promotional process. You can publish your court documents on sites like www.docstoc.com and www.jdsupra.com and then embed them on a blog or a social site created specifically to publicize your plight. You can even register a domain for a “Sucks Site” like the guy who created www.Taubmansucks.com did. That site opened my eyes to the possibility that you can shine your own spotlight on your case without having to rely on the media or politicians in high places to champion your cause. I registered several of my own “Sucks Sites,” and you can, too. Just go to www.godaddy.com and pick a URL name that’s catchy and inclusive of your issue or opposition. You don’t even need any real Web design skills. There is a great cookie-cutter program on GoDaddy.com you can use for as little as $5 for three months (WebSite Tonight), or you could just forward the domain to a, Google Blogger account, a MySpace page, or a Facebook page.
If you go for a protest site, just remember to keep your content factual and designed to bring attention to the issues of your case. Don’t delve into scandalous accusations or rumors, and don’t use abusive language. Explain the issue in an informative and educated manner, and research the law that is supposed to be working in your favor. Just tell the truth and let your voice be heard. In all your postings, name your opposition in the title and descriptions. Use words like corruption and injustice in the tags if that’s what you are experiencing. Be creative and don’t stop building links and content to further your goals.
You may not even have to spend more than a few nickels and dimes to get your message out (GoDaddy offers .info domain registration for .89 cents a year) and learn to fight for yourself in court. Meanwhile, your opponents will have to spend thousands upon thousands in legal fees if they utilize an attorney or law firm. At this point in my own ongoing legal matters, winning at long last will not be as gratifying as knowing the other side has already lost. Use this same approach, and you’ll find the power of free speech and human ingenuity combined with the global reach of the Internet is immeasurable.
Richard Fine, Found Guilty of Moral Turpitude?
Our friend Richard Fine, (ex-Esq.) sat in one of the worst jails, the Men’s Central jail in Los Angeles, alone and ignored for a year and a half. He believed in a cause, the cause of honesty and fair dealing by the exalted arbiters – Judges – who hold sway on the lives and well-being of our citizens.
How is it that this can happen here in California? We are the only state of the union that has a special Court presided over by judges. If the State Bar determines that an attorney’s actions involve probable misconduct, formal charges are filed with the State Bar Court by the bar’s prosecutors (through the office of chief trial counsel). There, it’s considered whether lawyers have misbehaved. The court hears the charges and also has the power to recommend that the California Supreme Court suspend or disbar attorneys found to have committed acts of professional misconduct or convicted of serious crimes. When a finding is made, the decision then goes before the Bar, where they decide whether they agree with it. If you see signs of self-dealing and conflict of interest, you will find it here.
Richard appealed. What were his serious crimes? Read the following, from the introduction to their Opinion and Order:-
And so, by this decision, we can assume that they think that Richard has been immobilized, rendered harmless. I disagree, for what they’ve done is to anger the electorate. They will rise up in protest when enough individuals have been deprived of their freedoms, a number which is growing by the day.
Meanwhile, Richard is now one of us. He intends to file motions as an honorable Pro Per, seeking to immobilize each and every judge guilty of taking funds from Los Angeles County tax-payers, to which they were not entitled. And we can do the same, as he teaches us here.
Don’t forget that Judicial Watch has been doing its thing too. It carries more weight than Richard Fine, and it would be most unlikely that one would see their West Coast lawyer Sterling Norris, Esq., who wrote and filed the paperwork, finding himself removed from the rolls of active lawyers. They filed their original complaint back in April 2006, in the Sturgeon vs. County of Los Angeles case, and while it has been beaten at every turn, it remains to be seen whether they’ll take it to the United States Supreme Court. You can read the history of the twists and turns here.
Watch American democracy in action, because it’s fascinating and very very important. The Supreme Court will most likely not want to dirty its hands and will deny consideration of the issue. As a last chance, it will be left for action from the White House. Obama now has a record of stepping into places usually avoided by his predecessors. He recognizes that America has a stake in preserving the integrity of the Constitution and our Rule of Law and not just in name only. It needs to be demonstrated as a significant arm of his foreign policy, and he does have a safe law degree.
Posted in COMMENTARY-Passing parade, Links to Cases & Litigants, Links to Courts & Judges, Links to new justice