Hat tip to Deborah K. Hackerson, Law Librarian & Legal Research Adjunct, Univ. of St. Thomas School of Law, for her FYI Legal Skills Prof Blog post about PACER’s training site. Do note that according to Nota Bene’s Nov. 13,…
Posts Tagged ‘PACER’
PACER Users Training Site
03
Dec
Hat tip to Deborah K. Hackerson, Law Librarian & Legal Research Adjunct, Univ. of St. Thomas School of Law, for her FYI Legal Skills Prof Blog post about PACER’s training site. Do note that according to Nota Bene’s Nov. 13,…
Will the PACER Fee Increase Change Your Research Habits?
19
Sep
Erika Wayne is conducting a quick survey on Legal Research Plus here. [JH]
Time to Use RECAP Instead of PACER?
16
Sep
As a quick follow-up to Mark Giangrande’s earlier post about PACER’s fee increase, it seems worth noting that under the new fee structure infrequent PACER users get a bit of a break as long as they do not download 150…
PACER Fees Going Up
14
Sep
Public access to federal court docket materials is going up from 8 cents a page to 10 cents a page. As the Judicial Conference puts it: In separate action, the Conference responded to inflationary pressures by increasing, effective November 1,…
Redaction Failures in PACER
02
Jun
Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy’s Timothy B. Lee states that “it’s safe to say there are thousands, and probably tens of thousands, of documents in PACER whose authors made unsuccessful attempts to conceal information” for technical reasons relating to…
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.
