For legal aid lawyers, a technology portal

If the bad news was the shutting down of the Equal Justice Network, the good news is a site that spun off from it, LStech.Org. Recognizing that few legal services programs have the budget to hire dedicated technology staff, LStech.org is a portal to technology services and information tailored to a legal aid audience. Funded by a Legal Services Corporation Technology Initiative Grant, it is operated as a partnership by the University of Michigan Law School, Legal Services of South Central Michigan, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and the National Technology Assistance Project. Its most substantive section is its Tech Library, an extensive collection of articles on technology management, Web development, software, technology for advocates, telecommunications, networks, hardware and the Internet. Another section compiles information on technology projects implemented by poverty law programs throughout the U.S. The site includes online collaboration spaces, listings of tech jobs, and current technology news of interest to the poverty law community.
Bob Ambrogi | 11/30/2003 03:26:00 PM   >> Post a comment >>   |

  Equal Justice Network shuts down

I just noticed that the Equal Justice Network has shut down. It operated as a joint project of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association and the Center for Law and Social Policy, serving as an online meeting place, information source, and connection mechanism for lawyers and other advocates involved in efforts to provide civil legal assistance to low-income people. According to the notice at the site, some of the features have been moved to the NLADA site.
Bob Ambrogi | 11/30/2003 03:22:00 PM   >> Post a comment >>   |

  How Appealing's Bashman to present online seminar

Howard Bashman, the publisher/editor of the much acclaimed, widely read and quoted legal weblog, How Appealing, will be the guest speaker for the appellate process segment of the Cybercourts and Online Dispute Resolution seminar that will run next in the Network-Lawyers discussion group. His weblog is at http://appellateblog.blogspot.com

Howard's portion of the seminar, the appellate process, Cybercourts of Appeal, will be begin on Wednesday, December 3, and run through Friday, December 5. The idea of courts going online, Cybercourts is no longer fanciful. With the advent of electronic filing and the trend to limit, and in many cases eliminate oral argument, the courts of appeal are becoming Cybercourts of Appeal. This evolution of the appeals courts and the affect of technology and the internet on the appellate process will be addressed during Howard's segment of the program.

The seminar organizers are seeking judges, court administrators and other lawyers experienced in appellate practice to join the panel to assist in the presentation of Howard's segment of the program. Please let John DeBruyn at jdebruyn@debruyn.com know if you would be available to join the panel and take an active part in the appellate process discussion that will run Wednesday through Friday.

The trial court segment will begin on Monday, December 1, with Judge Gafni who will be joined by Judge Shelton on Tuesday for a discussion of the impact of the internet and other technology on the trial process including preparation, filing, discovery and case management, trial testimony, documentary evidence and argument.

The speakers will be joined by two dozen other experts on various aspects of online, electronic, technology-enhanced resolution of disputes. There are also tracks on negotiation and mediation as well as public and stakeholder dialogue and policy negotiation with the courts, administrative agencies and legislative bodies. Here is an executive summary about all four segments of the Cybercourts and Online Dispute Resolution Seminar Program:

Negotiation and mediation track

Professor Ethan Katsh, University of Massachusetts Department of Legal Studies, who is the chair of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's Expert Working Group on Online Dispute Resolution. He is also the moderator of the dispute res discussion list for mediators, arbitrators, lawyers and other professionals interested in alternative dispute resolution.
The seminar is a joint venture between the dispute res and network-lawyers discussion lists.

Trial process track:

Judge Abraham Gafni, retired Pennsylvania state trial court judge who is a Professor at Villanova Law School teaching alternative dispute resolution procedures, and Judge Donald Shelton, Michigan trial court judge who was involved with that state's Cybercourt program which was established by the legislature but not yet funded.

Appellate process track

Howard Bashman, Buchanan Ingersoll, PC., Philadelphia, shareholder and chair of their appellate group. Howard Bashman is publisher/editor of the celebrated and most quoted legal blog, How Appealing, which covers the appellate courts and cases on appeal that are significant or otherwise in the news.

Collective negotiation and dialogue track (third party and stakeholder involvement in the judicial, administrative and legislative processes)

John Helie, mediator and principal, Mediate.Com, a leading online publisher of dispute resolution articles and provider of design and space under the Mediate.Com umbrella of web sites for mediation professionals, their firms and providers of mediation training. John is recognized nationally as an expert on the design and presentation of face-to-face and online dialogues and collective policy negotiations between public agencies, their stakeholders and the public-at-large.

How register to take part at no charge plus links to more information:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/network-lawyers
John | 11/26/2003 11:32:00 AM   >> Post a comment >>   |

  opensourceCMS demonstration site

opensourceCMS demonstrations This site was created with one goal in mind. To give you the opportunity to 'try out' some of the best php/mysql based free and open source software systems in the world. You are welcome to be the administrator of any site here, allowing you to decide which system best suits your needs.
John | 11/09/2003 06:42:00 PM   >> Post a comment >>   |

  Scientific knowledge base to be freely accessible

Stuart Levine in his Tax & Business Law Commentary notes the appearance of a new organization called the Public Library of Science. This organization will publish on-line journals containing referred papers concerning various aspects of scientific research. Access to the journals will be free and open to the public. It is hoped that the effort will spawn a host of competing publications that will replace the subscription based system currently in place for the publication of scientific papers. The costs of those subscriptions significantly limits the access of researchers, particularly in poorer countries, to research material.

And the context of this item an examination of the expenditure of significant expert resources and corresponding cost to determine questions in the context of our adversarial legal system exposes Stuart's special talent as a renaissance lawyer with a most inquiring mind and, of course, dry wit that makes his ponderings most digestible. More or less a social inquiry about the role of the courts and the public's right to know in New York state where newly formed entities, of a particular flavor, are required to publish written notice upon their formation. The publication requirement was sustained. Stuart observes:

"Something has continued to bother me about the opinion which, as I said, in a narrow sense (i.e., courts should not step on legislative prerogatives), might be correct, but in a broad sense (can anybody really defend the underlying policy behind the requirement without a smirk) is totally unjustified. Yet, substantial intellectual capital was expended by the litigants and the court in determining the issue of whether or not the Emperor really had no clothes."

And more as Stuart pulls these events together.
John | 11/09/2003 06:01:00 AM   >> Post a comment >>   |