shlep: the Self-Help Law ExPress

[in pre-launch status, as we search for a shlep team — can you contribute?]

The Coalition for Public Awareness, in Jersey County, Illinois, filed a lawsuit earlier this year to stop collection of taxes that would have residents pay back bonds issued in 2003 and 2004, to finance the building of two public schools. The Coalition argued that the bonds were issued illegally, because the majority of voters voted against building the new schools. (The Telegraph [Alton, IL], “Suit against Jersey schools dismissed,” Sept. 22, 2006)

[in pre-launch status, as we search for a shlep team — can you contribute?]

In Part III of its Broken Bench series on New York State’s “justice courts” (see our prior post), the New York Times describes today how old-fashioned parochial politics have prevented reform that would bring better justice to those appearing in town and village courts across the state.   (NYT, “How a Reviled Court System Has Outlasted Critics,” Sept. 27, 2006)

I’m happy to counteract that news by pointing to two states that are using new-fangled* videoconferencing programs to help bring the benefits of self-help assistance to populations in small towns and rural areas that do not yet have, or might never warrant, their own fully-staffed and equipped self-help center.

The New York Times started a three-part series called Broken Bench, today, about the “second class system of justice” afforded by the justice courts of New York State.  “In Tiny Courts of N.Y., Abuses of  Law and Power,” Sept. 25, 2006).  [via Law Librarian Blog] There are 1250 justice courts in towns and villages across the State.   Although many in the public see the justice courts as “quaint holdovers from a bygone era, handling nothing weightier than traffic tickets and small claims” a year-long NYT investigation “found overwhelming evidence that decade after decade and up to this day, people have often been denied fundamental legal rights” the those courts.

The SCOTUSBlog, which covers the U.S. Supreme Court very well, reported yesterday (Sept. 20, 2006) that the Justice Department has urged the high Court “to clarify when a non-lawyer parent of a disabled child may file a lawsuit, without a lawyer, to enforce the child’s rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).”

[in pre-launch status, as we search for a shlep team — can you contribute?]  

David Crouch at Patently-O reported yesterday (Sept. 20, 2006) on the recent decision in Kim v. Conagra Foods (Fed. Cir, No, 15-1414, 2006).  Crouch notes “Here’s another case where technicalities of the patent system apparently trapped an unsuspecting patentee,” and quotes the federal appellate court:

“[W]e reject Kim’s position that she should be treated differently from other patentees because she was pro se during some parts of the prosecution.”

   [pre-launch status, as we search for a shlep team — can you contribute?]  

This post has notes from around the country: comments about self-represented litigants by Ohio’s Chief Justice, news of an eviction self-help clinic at Harvard Law School, notes on small claims court in Illinois, and new rules on unbundled legal services in Ohio…