Here’s FAQ #1 (edited for brevity, emphasis added):
1. Can you give me advice about a legal problem I have?
Our site cannot give any legal advice or help with anyone’s specific legal problem; If you have a serious legal problem, there is no substitute for working with a lawyer. . .
If you cannot afford an attorney, contact your local Legal Aid Society . . .
NOTE— For some legal matters (e.g. a situation that is not a criminal matter, and no one is opposing you, and not much money is at stake), some people can handle some or all aspects of the legal issue themselves with the help of information and forms from very reputable sources (one such source is Nolo Press). Fairness.com LLC generally does not encourage this approach. For most people, even in low-stakes situations, we feel that self-help is not the best option; if the matter is serious or high stakes, don’t even consider it.
We sure wouldn’t want to encourage choice or fairness for consumers, some of whom do not have unlimited legal budgets or disposable income. [I’m not sure it’s relevant, but three of the five-member Advisory Board are lawyers]. For legal consumers, apparently, life is unfair and should stay that way.
The strange thing for me is that this anti-self-help-law position is the only policy position taken by Fair.com on any topic that I could find on the website (unless you count the fact that they only want sponsors and advertisers with a “squeaky-clean” image and reality).
- an information clearinghouse to help you research any topic related to fairness
- a communications medium to let you broadcast your opinions, arguments, tips, and warnings about what’s fair (through informal Message Board postings or by writing articles for our site)
- a source of ideas and discussion topics for those in academic settings; ethics and philosophy classes, social and applied science classes, debate classes and teams, etc.
Topics covered include:
Arts & Humanities
Businesses & Organizations
Computers & Information Technology
Education
Family & Friends & Interpersonal
Government & Politics / History
Health & Medicine
Law & Justice
Media & Journalism
Personal Finance & Career
Philosophy & Religion
Recreation & Entertainment
Science & Technology
Social Sciences & Groups
David Giacalone courteously emailed me a note concerning his comments about Fairness.com LLC, and I want to pass on a few clarifications:
1) Our organization is Fairness.com LLC and our URL is http://www.fairness.com . “Fair.com” as we’re referred to is some other (unknown to me if active) organization.
2) Historically I’ve been very much in favor of self-help (e.g. I’m a long-time supporter of HALT). While my support for HALT and the importance of making the legal system accessible for those who want to represent themselves has not changed a bit, my thinking about what how large a percentage of the population can competently handle self-representation has changed over time. My feeling is that it’s a fairly small percentage of the population who can do this well, and my fear has been that advocating self-representation as a good option on our site is likely to lead many with little money into believing that it might be a good money-saving option for them, with frequent bad (sometimes disastrous) results (not that bad and disastrous outcomes aren’t possible with representation). Those with the skills to represent themselves are likely to disregard my advice (note that I view the site’s audience as the very general public, i.e. including those with limited formal education and no legal/business background).
3) I’m completely in agreement with you that reliance on pro-bono lawyers is not a reasonable approach… as you note the demand for affordable (or free) services is far greater than the supply, and I believe our society’s lack of timely and affordable legal access is truly shameful. As Fairness.com matures we will be working on some initiatives to address those issues… please stay tuned!
[Note— the organization is still in its formative stages, e.g. no staff other than me and a few volunteer contributors.]
4) “The strange thing for me is that this anti-self-help-law position is the only policy position taken by Fair.com on any topic that I could find on the website…”
Fairness.com present activities consist solely of acting as an information clearinghouse site; we don’t take positions for or against issues. The only reason my comments on self-help are posted is because I get many email requests from site readers/users for legal advice, and I finally had to post some general suggestions to try to stem the tide of emails that I otherwise try to respond to personally. So… my views on self-representation are absolutely *not* an official position in any way central to Fairness.com LLC’s mission or agenda.
I hope these comments are helpful to understanding the site’s intent.
Dan Doernberg
President, Fairness.com LLC
dan@fairness.com
http://www.fairness.com/
Comment by Dan Doernberg — March 15, 2004 @ 12:49 pm
David Giacalone courteously emailed me a note concerning his comments about Fairness.com LLC, and I want to pass on a few clarifications:
1) Our organization is Fairness.com LLC and our URL is http://www.fairness.com . “Fair.com” as we’re referred to is some other (unknown to me if active) organization.
2) Historically I’ve been very much in favor of self-help (e.g. I’m a long-time supporter of HALT). While my support for HALT and the importance of making the legal system accessible for those who want to represent themselves has not changed a bit, my thinking about what how large a percentage of the population can competently handle self-representation has changed over time. My feeling is that it’s a fairly small percentage of the population who can do this well, and my fear has been that advocating self-representation as a good option on our site is likely to lead many with little money into believing that it might be a good money-saving option for them, with frequent bad (sometimes disastrous) results (not that bad and disastrous outcomes aren’t possible with representation). Those with the skills to represent themselves are likely to disregard my advice (note that I view the site’s audience as the very general public, i.e. including those with limited formal education and no legal/business background).
3) I’m completely in agreement with you that reliance on pro-bono lawyers is not a reasonable approach… as you note the demand for affordable (or free) services is far greater than the supply, and I believe our society’s lack of timely and affordable legal access is truly shameful. As Fairness.com matures we will be working on some initiatives to address those issues… please stay tuned!
[Note— the organization is still in its formative stages, e.g. no staff other than me and a few volunteer contributors.]
4) “The strange thing for me is that this anti-self-help-law position is the only policy position taken by Fair.com on any topic that I could find on the website…”
Fairness.com present activities consist solely of acting as an information clearinghouse site; we don’t take positions for or against issues. The only reason my comments on self-help are posted is because I get many email requests from site readers/users for legal advice, and I finally had to post some general suggestions to try to stem the tide of emails that I otherwise try to respond to personally. So… my views on self-representation are absolutely *not* an official position in any way central to Fairness.com LLC’s mission or agenda.
I hope these comments are helpful to understanding the site’s intent.
Dan Doernberg
President, Fairness.com LLC
dan@fairness.com
http://www.fairness.com/
Comment by Dan Doernberg — March 15, 2004 @ 12:49 pm