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Posts Tagged ‘pro-se’
How Constitutional Rights Are Enforced
Nolo is Acquired by Internet Brands as Part of Legal Roll Up
After 40 years of leading the self-help law movement, Nolo, is being acquired by Internet Brands an advertising driven Internet company. Nolo was created by two frustrated legal aid lawyers, Charles (Ed) Sherman and Ralph (Jake) Warner, who wanted to figure out a way to help the thousands of consumers with their legal problems who could not afford an attorney and were turned away by legal aid because their incomes were too high.
Based in Berkeley, California, the center of the counter cultural revolution of the 1960’s, Nolo assembled a group of radical lawyers, editors, and writers who were determined to do something about a broken legal system where 90% of the US middle class were priced out of the legal system. Championing legal reforms that would make the U.S. justice system accessible to everyone, the company has seen these reforms become mainstream in the US.
Courts now offer their own automated self-help legal forms, legal aid agencies publish state-wide legal information web sites and also distribute automated legal forms, legal form web sites give away legal forms for free as a way to generate traffic, small claims court limits have been raised in many states, and lawyers are delivering "unbundled legal services" and creating virtual law firms, figuring out ways to deliver legal services online for a fixed and affordable fee.
Its ironic that Nolo is being acquired by Internet Brands, for an amount rumored to be in the range of $20,970,000, by an advertising company that is focused primarily on generating leads for law firms through their directories and advertising properties. How does self-help law fit into this business model?
The amount being paid is little more than one times revenue — not exactly a premium. Although, Nolo publishes Willmaker and several other excellent web-based legal software programs, it is still primarily a book publisher. In its hey day, before the Internet penetrated almost every household in America, Nolo self-help law books were the primary source for accurate do it yourself legal information and forms.
As the web expanded hundreds of legal information and legal form web sites also emerged, plus national brands such as LegalZoom. These web-based alternatives also provided legal solutions without the need to use a lawyer — the same need that Nolo was meeting. Except that instead of reading a 200-300 page book in order to get to a legal solution — web-based applications delivered a legal solution more efficiently, faster, and at less cost.
Nolo has migrated many of its legal forms online, too little and too late, and except for a few major products, non-automated forms. Here is another example of a print publisher whose business, despite the excellence of its product, has been eroded by the Internet.
It is well known that Nolo’s book business actually declined during this recession and growth has been flat. The fastest growing area of Nolo’s business is their Lawyer Directory. This is ironic for a company that prided itself in developing self-help legal solutions that don’t require the assistance of an attorney.
The challenge for Internet Brands will be to figure out how to unlock the assets buried within Nolo’s vast collection of self-help law books and turn these assets into web-based applications that can be distributed over the Internet. It remains to be seen whether the quality of Nolo’s self-help legal content will deteriorate under the management of an advertising-driven company that measures results in page views and unique visitors.
Internet Brands, previously a public company, was recently taken private private when it was acquired by Hellman & Friedman, a private equity firm, based in San Francisco, in December, 2010. Internet Brands has acquired over 70 vertical web sites in areas ranging from travel to cars to real estate. Internet Brands derives more than 70% of its revenues from advertising on its portfolio of web sites.
In December, 2010 Internet Brands also acquired ALLLAW.com , a consumer legal information portal and AttorneyLocate – an Attorney Directory Service. Both of these web sites are relatively weak properties. Compete.com shows that in March, 2011 Nolo had 498,769 unique visitors ( an 8% decline for the year), ALLLAW.com had 190,069 unique visitors, (for the of March, 2011); AttorneyLocate.com was especially weak with only 18,277 unique visitors (for the month of March, 2011). Internet Brands also owns ExpertHub, which in turn manages web sites in verticals markets such as dentists, plastic surgery, accountants, tummy tuck, and of course lawyers. The ExpertHub site for lawyers only generates 96,289 unique visitors a month (March, 2011), so I wonder if that level of traffic is high enough to support their advertising rates.
There is irony in the fact that LegalZoom, a company that prides itself on offering legal solutions from a non-law firm generates more traffic than any of the sites mentioned above at 889,762 unique visitors in March, 2011, trailing only Findlaw and Lawyers.com, (both of which offer similar services as the Internet Brands properties). With the traffic that LegalZoom gets, maybe LegalZoom should consider creating their own lawyers directory for consumers who need just a bit of legal advice to go with their forms to keep them on the right track? I wonder what solos and small law firms would think if LegalZoom moved in that direction?.
It will be interesting to see how Internet Brands integrates these legal properties to leverage the assets in each acquisition as its tries to compete with the likes of Findlaw and Lawyers.com . It will also be interesting to see whether the quality of Nolo’s self help legal content deteriorates under the management of an advertising company that measures results in impressions, clicks, and unique visitors. If Jake Warner, the present CEO stays involved, I am sure the quality of Nolo’s products will remain "top of class."
It’s an odd mix, –the best in class self-help legal book publisher with an excellent reputation, with some less than best in class lawyer directories and a legal information web site. Only time will tell whether this combination will work. (Although Internet Brands may intend to run each of these properties as separate brands, which would help Nolo maintain the quality of it self help legal content).
The Law Wizard – from Great Britain
I discovered an interesting web site called The Law Wizard, still in beta, for pro se parties doing their own probate, in the United Kingdom. The site promises to offer a unique package of online interactive tools, guides and videos. The Probate Wizard is initially designed for individuals who want to probate their own estates, but the site states that the tools will be made available for law firms as well.
The site is scheduled for launch later n 2011. The site looks interesting because it combines a web-enabled document automation system with extensive video and other information guides that takes the user through a complicated process step by step. We will see more web sites like this, both in the legal form market space and the virtual law firm space.
When “The Law” Breaks the Law!
Read carefully what I tell you today!
The Wild West was won by a small number of folks smart enough to bring along:
They settled lawless cowtowns like Tombstone and Dodge City – not with faster guns and bigger fists, but with popular support of the local townsfolk who believed in the principles of Justice found in those two books: the Bible and Blackstone.
Each of you faces the threat of similar lawlessness.
Yes, even today!
Yes, perhaps especially today!
It may be a bank using fraud to foreclose on your home.
Or, a corrupt business partner, ex-spouse, or next-door neighbor out-of-control.
For many of you, it’s the threat of government officials refusing to follow the law – tax collectors, police officers, and worst of all corrupt judges who allow fraud to prevail.
When “the law” is an outlaw, there’s only one remedy.
The Rules!
I’ll bet you didn’t know the Federal Rules of Evidence are only 16 pages … the very same rules of evidence that control every federal judge, every lawyer arguing in federal court, every giant corporation suing you or being sued by you in federal court, and every government agency trying to pull the wool over your eyes to rob you of your rights,because you don’t yet know the rules as you need to know them …how to use the rules to stop corruption!
State court rules are just as simple and powerful!
Your legal problems today can be solved the same way those western settlers brought lawlessness to its knees in the prairies and remote mountain communities west of the Mississippi more than one-hundred years ago.
The Rules stop lawlessness, once you know how to use the rules to control corrupt judges and crooked lawyers so you can get Justice!
The Rules of Evidence and Rules of Procedure are your protection from lawless legal officials, crooked lawyers, and corrupt judges …Rules that are very easy to learn with my popular, affordable, 24-hour Jurisdictionary step-by-step self-help course!
You have a remedy at law … if you know how to use it.
If a fraudulent lender, bill collector, tax man, corrupt judge, crooked lawyer, or anyone else uses unlawful force to deprive you or your family of your rights, you have a powerful remedy!
THE RULES OF COURT!
The Rules of Evidence and Procedure RULE the courts!
This is true only for those who know how to use them!
Those who know how to use the rules can easily control everyone by the court, in court, and through the court. Parties, judge, lawyers – all are subject to the rules and must obey the rules when you know how to use the rules effectively.
The rules control courts just as surely as the rules of baseball control ball players and umpires!
The Rules of Court are the People’s power to control our government and command our leaders to protect us and redress our grievances with court orders that command even those in the highest offices, the richest of the rich, the biggest of the big.
The Rules are what makes America great!
The Rules are what make YOU POWERFUL!
Yes, even as an individual doing battle with a powerful bank or the county commissioners or a state-supported hospital or an ex-spouse who wants to take you to the proverbial cleaners, YOU HAVE POWER TO WIN BECAUSE THE RULES GIVE YOU THAT POWER.
The Rules are what the 4th of July is all about!
The Rules give every one of us not only the “right to enjoy our rights” but “power to enforce our rights”!
Liberty and Justice are for ALL who know the Rules!
The Rules give you power to (1) make a public record of your grievance, (2) force opponents to answer questions and produce documents and things under oath, (3) force judges to act lawfully, (4) require everyone in court to act lawfully, and (5) have people sent directly to jail if they don’t comply with the rules!
Bet you didn’t know you had that much power!
But, you do have this power … all of you do!
Once you know the Rules of Court and how to use them effectively the way I make easy-to-learn with my 24-hour step-by-step official Jurisdictionary course, nobody will ever again kick sand in your face!
Nobody ever again will rob you under color of law.
Nobody ever again will abuse you and get away with it!
If you don’t yet know what I teach, you cannot imagine how much fun it is to force people to do what’s right by using the rules against them – whether it’s your opponent, some crooked highly-paid lawyer, or even a judge!
Being an American has real advantages!
Everyone gets to use the Rules to stop foreclosure.
Everyone gets to use the Rules to prevent financial loss due to fraud, breach of contract, or unlawful acts.
Everyone gets to use the Rules to see their own children after an ugly divorce!
Everyone gets to use the Rules to command government leaders to either justify their actions by law or back off!
That’s how the West was won!
That’s how you will win once you know what I teach in my popular, 24-hour, step-by-step Jurisdictionary self-help course.
It’s affordable. Less than what it will cost you to sit and chat with a lawyer for one brief hour … and you will learn what it takes to control lawyers: other people’s and your own, if you have one!
I wish I could have been the lawyer who questioned Bill Clinton when he smarted-off with that famous response, “Depends on what you mean by ‘is’.”
What a blast it would have been explaining he was for the duration of that deposition no longer President of the United States. He was being deposed. For that hour or two he had no privileges to ignore the law that binds the rest of us. If he persisted in not answering myquestions with proper responses, I’d have stopped the deposition and moved the court for an order to show why he should not be held in contempt for failing to answer according to the Rules that control every one of us in America!
If he continued to refuse after being ordered to show cause, I’d have moved the court for an order finding him in contempt and jailing him until he agreed to answer me with proper responses according to the Rules!
These are the Rules our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to protect.
You may ask, “Do you mean I can have the President of the United States jailed for refusing to answer questions at a deposition?”
Yep!
That’s YOUR POWER!
That’s the power that belongs to every American who will take just 24 hours to learn how to use the Rules of Court to their advantage!
And, once you have POWER TO CONTROL THE COURT, you have power to control the executive branch of our government (state and federal), the legislative branch of our government (state and federal), your local politicians, your local school board, the bank or mortgage company that’s using fraud to foreclose on your home, the liar who slandered you to an employer, the ex-spouse who’s trying to get revenge, the doctor who failed to properly diagnose your illness, your next door neighbor whose tree fell on your roof, and anyone and everyone else who injures you!
Once you know the rules the way I explain so easily an 8th grader can learn, understand, and use in just 24 hours, you have the power every American should seek!
Justice doesn’t fall from the sky.
Justice doesn’t grow on trees.
Justice is a prize that can be won by those who know how to win!
Knowing how to use the Rules is how you win!
Don’t take “no” for an answer.
Don’t just roll over when the other side objects to your requests for production or ignores your interrogatories.
Don’t give up when the other side cites some bogus case that has nothing to do with the issues in your pleadings.
Use the Rules and tame that Wild West spirit that too often takes advantage of those who don’t yet know what I make so easy-to-understand in my popular and affordable 24-hour official step-by-step Jurisdictionary self-help course.
Read the testimonials! ⇒
All 4 CDs plus instant internet access as soon as you order, still only $249 (plus 7.50 for Priority Mail delivery).
What do you have to lose?
Losers believe in fables and get their legal education at the barbershop or expensive weekend seminars or websites run by people who never practiced law, never went to law school, and don’t know mud from sand about the Rules or how to use them to control the court.
Jurisdictionary was created by me to help you with the knowledge and practical experience I gained in 25 years of practicing law in state and federal courts.
Take advantage of what I learned about holding judges’ feet to the fire, devastating crooked lawyers with incisive discovery weapons, getting truth out of liars and frauds.
Protect yourself from courtroom corruption!
If you have a lawyer, you will save thousands in legal fees just by knowing what your lawyer should be doing to earn his or her fees andwin your case instead of bowing and scraping before the judge like many lawyers do!
If you don’t have a lawyer, you’ll know how to stop the opponent’s crooked tactics and get the judge on your side!
The key to winning is knowing how to use the Rules!
That’s how you win!
To learn more, go to: www.Jurisdictionary.com NOW!
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My affordable 24-hour step-by-step course includes:
Save legal fees!
Control judges!
Defeat crooked lawyers!
www.Jurisdictionary.com
Ask anyone who has my course: “Jurisdictionary Works!”
Posted in pro-se guidance, self help course, U.S. Courts