Over the course of years, I have come to realize that there is world of the legal "haves" and legal "have-nots".
The legal "have-nots" suffer and are victimized in unimaginable ways because they are unable to speak or understand "legalese". They live in the spectre of uncertainty and fear of loss. People who are normally very smart and confident become emotional putty once they enter the legal world. It is heart-breaking to see and very unfair.
ELI has never been a legal website per se, but we do end up having to discuss "legalese". I've also brought to light many non-traditional and unorthodox (but entirely legal) ideas and solutions to the forefront. And with the exception of Oscar Michelen, everyone else on ELI is a non-lawyer who volunteer their time to help other non-lawyers. Next to Oscar, I have the most legal experience because of my personal experiences and practice in legal self-representation matters. Additionally, I have interacted and learned from several lawyers over the years.
The fact of the matter is that, unlike me, most lawyers are not the education business. There is no money to be made in educating non-lawyers. Their money is made being HIRED by non-lawyers. Oscar is the one exception here. While he doesn't actively participate here on the ELI Forums as much as before, the impact of his work ripples forward. By virtue of his educating the ELI Defense Team, we then pass it forward to all of you readers.
My power and talent lies in my ability to tap into the First Amendment and the power of technology and publishing. I also have a background in marketing, presentations, and business education. I synergize the aforementioned in creative ways to help others.
A Getty lawyer who shall go unnamed wrote a complaint about me accusing me of "practicing law", in effect trying to silence me. My rebuttal was that I represent no one but myself. The First Amendment gives me the right to report and give my personal opinions on a wide-ranging material include law and legal matters. I have a right to discuss with anyone or share my non-lawyer opinions on legal matters. I have never represented myself as a lawyer (and never will) and people have always been free to accept or discard the information I publish. But it goes to show you the lengths some people have gone to silence me.
Part of solving the problem of the legal "haves" and legal "have-nots" is non-traditional education. That is one reason why the ELI Forums exist. We educate people in ways that could never happen in any seminar or classroom. We occasionally use social media, we also use outpost websites like YouTube and Scribd as teaching tools. I brought together people into a "mindshare" to create a small army of eyes and ears.
But some people believe just because they have some money at their disposal, the fall in to the legal "haves". Unfortunately, it is only when they spent all their money, they realize how little they had to begin with. They had no idea what their lawyers knew or didn't know. They had no real-world perspective as to the practicality of the advice they are getting. They had no ability or skills to properly interview, select, and manage their lawyers.
There is no shortage of people who spend thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, in legal fees and realize they got ZIPPO. They got ZIPPO because although they had the ability to hire a lawyer, the person never got any smarter and they were ENTIRELY DEPENDENT on what a lawyer tells them.
They were legally ignorant and they didn't realize how badly their legal ignorance hurt them until their lawyer pumped all their money from them and got shitty results. You don't need to spend lots of money to get shitty results. People can do it all by themselves without any help whatsoever. It is a very old story and continues to happen to this day.
Part of the solution is not throwing dumb money to hire a lawyer. A big part of the solution is learning and getting an education in "practical legalese". Reading a law dictionary will do nothing for someone unless they know how to apply it in real life. And law schools are notoriously bad for teaching "practical law" and "practical legalese". By being smarter in "practical legalese" and becoming more "legally informed", you will then have much more success and satisfaction in hiring a lawyer.
How do I know? As I have gotten smarter over the years, my interactions with lawyers have become remarkably better and the results are far superior. And I become less dependent on lawyers for smaller matters because I have learned basic skills of being a legal practitioner on behalf of myself.
To be clear, learning all of this "practical legalese" is not something I intentionally set out to do. Some if just "happened" to me. Some of it was because of business necessity.
Outside of the copyright extortion arena, I have seen all kinds of bad legal stuff happen to others in areas such as publishing, real estate, tenants, free speech matters, etc. And some spent LOTS of money on lawyers with very little good results. They were suckered and had no idea whether their lawyer was any good or not. I still see people I know get all tangled up in legal matters but clueless in how to chart a course out. It is tough to watch but you cannot force another person to learn "practical legalese". They have to want to learn it.
What this is all leading up to is that I be releasing a series of reports on Amazon Kindle this year that will directly deal with the things people need to know when choosing, interviewing, and managing lawyers. And what you can do even if you don't have a lawyer. I am a non-lawyer and I cannot give legal advice. But what I can do is share my own experiences and opinions on different matters.
I promise you what I will be reporting, no lawyer will ever willingly tell you or teach to you. In fact, I will go so far as to say that many lawyers don't want their clients to know what I plan on teaching because they will be fearful the information will be used against them if you ever become unhappy with them. It is entirely legal but your knowing certain things can dramatically shift the power of influence into your direction as a client.
People who have read ELI have some insights because I have, over time, shared my information. However, I have never attempted a comprehensive document of everything I have learned. It is information every non-lawyer needs to learn. I have seen too much power imbalance and too many people unfairly taken advantaged of because of their legal ignorance. And while I cannot save the world, I can save a few people willing to learn and support my efforts.
Believe me, legal information is power and lawyers ain't teaching. Law schools teach theory, I focus on "street law", the information that you can actually apply and use.
For those of you interested, I will make periodic updates but I will also make updates on Defiantly.net, a first-cousin website to ELI.
Topic: The Legal "Haves" and Legal "Have-Nots" (Read 4364 times)