How To Get Free Legal Help

My bloggy friend Joanna Plichta Boisen just posted "How To Get Free Legal Help

"At some point in your life, you will be faced with a legal issue. But even if you are lucky enough to avoid it, it is almost inevitable that someone you know, whether a family member or friend, will need legal assistance so learning about pro bono options can be valuable.

The trouble with the word "justice" is that it's not free. In fact, the costs associated with hiring a lawyer, paying for litigation, and filing necessary motions in court can add up quickly, and in an economy where the unemployment rate is around 9.4%, many people will end up navigating the legal system pro se. Thankfully, Washington has a very strong network of nonprofit organizations, online resources, and social service agencies for the public to access. So, where do you begin?..."

I would suggest beginning by reading the rest of How To Get Free Legal Help

World Peace Thru Law Newsletter: April 2010

Washington State Bar Association
World Peace Through Law Section Newsletter
April 2010

April 27:
Building Peace Through Environmental Justice

The Section's meeting on April 27, 2010, entitled “Building Peace Through Environmental Justice”, is our program in honor of Earth Day, focused on the rapidly developing field of human rights and the environment.

Carmen Gonzalez, Professor, Seattle University Law School, will speak on “NAFTA, Biodiversity and Human Rights.” Jim Puckett, Executive Director at the Basel Action Network, a US-based advocacy organisation targeting the trade of toxic waste, will speak on “The Case of the International Trade in Electronic Waste: Justice and Poisons Adrift on a Tide of Globalization.” Join us for a mini-CLE on building peace through environmental justice, from noon-1:30 p.m.! Approved for 1.5 general CLE credits.
Time/Place: Noon – 1 p.m. at the WSBA office, 1325 4th Ave., Ste. 600, Seattle.
Approved for 1 general CLE credit.

Cost: Free for Section members and law students; $25 for others. Register now! We hope to see you there!

From “The Global Food Crisis”

“The right to food is recognized as a fundamental human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child …

… Ecosystem biodiversity and food crop diversity are essential to food security for at least two reasons. First, highly diverse ecosystems are more resilient to environmental perturbations (such the droughts, heavy rains, and outbreaks of new pests that may be associated with climate change) and provide a wide range of “free” ecosystem services (such as pest control, pollination, and enhanced soil fertility). Second, modern plant breeders depend on wild crops to furnish the fresh germplasm that can be used to produce crops capable of withstanding a variety of environmental stresses and of serving as new food sources. Alarmingly, the expansion of industrial agriculture is exacerbating the vulnerability of the world’s food supply to catastrophic climate change by narrowing the number of food crops cultivated, reducing the genetic diversity within these cultivated crops, degrading ecosystem services, and encouraging reliance on non-renewable petroleum-based agrochemicals whose production and use release greenhouse gases….”

--- Carmen G. Gonzalez , The Global Food Crisis: Law, Policy, and the Elusive Quest for Justice, 13 Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal (2010). Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1567231

2010 Upcoming Events

• May 25: Rick Lorenz speaks on “The Legal Obligations of an Occupying Power under International Humanitarian Law.”
• June – December: Programs tbd. Let's hear your ideas!

From the Basel Action Network website

“…There is an ugly underbelly of economic globalisation that few wish to talk about.

Under the guise of simply utilizing the “competitive advantage” of cheap labour markets in poorer areas of the world, a disproportionate burden of toxic waste, dangerous products and polluting technologies are currently being exported from rich industrialised countries to poorer developing countries.

In effect, rather than being helped to leap-frog over dirty development cycles directly toward clean production methods, developing countries are instead being asked to perpetuate some of the world's most toxic industries and products and are even asked to become the global dumping ground for much of the world's toxic wastes….”

“About the Basel Action Network …” at http://www.ban.org/main/about_BAN.html

Seattle Draft and Military Counseling Center
Seeks Volunteers for Hotline

SMDCC’s mission is to provide accurate, comprehensive, and objective information about Selective Service, military law, military regulations & administrative procedures to anyone in need of this service, and to assist them in applying this information to their own situation and goals. Sometimes callers wish to leave the military, sometimes they wish to stay in; SMDCC’s job is to be an objective source of information and support for the individual’s decision. SMDCC also supports conscientious objectors and promotes individual and collective resistance to war and preparations for war.

SMDCC’s primary program is fielding the Washington state calls that come into the National GI Rights hotline (877-447-4487 http://www.girightshotline.org/).

Our next volunteer training is scheduled for late spring/early summer. This is a valuable opportunity to work with active duty military members to provide unbiased support. You will also benefit from the ongoing support of current volunteers. Please join us! See http://www.sdmcc.orhg for more information; contact Cindy Sousa, Volunteer Counselor Coordinator at cindygirights@gmail.com or 20734-5040

I’m on the board of SMDCC and find this a very positive organization to work with. Center volunteer do not engage in the practice of law (sometimes there’s a referral to an active lawyer) making this an attractive choice for persons on inactive status. I hope you will consider joining us! ---REW

---

“At noon we cut stalks -
Perspiration drips to earth -
Rice grows from hardship”
- Chang Chan-Pao

“Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized”
- Universal Declaration
of Human Rights


“Give me spots
on the apples,
but leave me
the birds and
the bees,
please!”
- Joni Mitchell
“Big Yellow Taxi”

---

This is a publication of a section of the Washington State Bar Association. All opinions and comments represent the views of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by WSBA, its officers or agents.

---

I'm the editor of the above newsletter of the WSBA World Peace Through Law Section, and experimenting with different ways to get the information out there. Anyway, it's one of my compositions so it belongs in this scrapbook.

Mar 30/Seattle: "Female Faces of War"

The documentary film “Female Faces of War: The Untold Story” on the impact of the Iraq war on women: Tuesday, March 30, 2010  4:00-6:00 p.m.  Room 127, UW Law School. There is no admission charge.
I've seen it, and it's well worth your time!

"The effects of the Iraq war on women are grossly overlooked. This film features personal stories of a mother who lost a child to the war, a female soldier traumatized by Military Sexual Trauma, and refugees displaced by the war. This moving 48 minute documentary has been featured in the Amnesty International Film Festival and a forum at the Seattle Art Museum."

Director: Kiya Bodding
Executive Producer: Moni T. Law
Narrated by: La’Chris Jordan
Original music by: Nan Avant

Panel discussion following viewing of the film:

• Zahra Al-Kabi, founder of SaveRefugees
• Susan Avila-Smith, founder of VetWOW

The University of Washington is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, activities, education and employment for individuals with disabilities. To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at least ten days in advance at: 206.543.6450/V, 206.543.6452/TTY, 206.685.7264/FAX, or by e-mail at dso@u.washington.edu

So God is Tending Bar, and in walks ...

... a Creationist, a believer in Intelligent Design, and an Evolutionary Biologist.

"Whatdya wanta drink?" He says.

The Creationist says, "I don't want anything more than 6000 years old."

The Intelligent Design fan says, "I'm o.k. with something older than that, so long as you've been tinkering with the brew the whole time."

The Evolutionary Biologist says, "First off, I complement ya, you keep your place spotless; you haven't left a fingerprint anywhere!"

The Origin of Life

How could the 1st cell have come about?

This is not a fancy, fancy video; it just explains things that I'd never really figured out in a nice clear way.


There's more to the series and when the video is over, it tells you how to continue.

Quite apart from the content, I'm impressed with how easily YouTube makes stuff like this available. Formerly, an explanation like this might reach 100 students at a time, maixmum; and once you're out of school, you basically stop learning except for stuff pertaining to your work. Now stuff like this can be seen by anyone, anytime, and we never have to stop learning!

So, while 98% of the internet may be games, gossip and porn, that other 2% is making us, as a whole, a lot smarter.

Rule 34 vs. Rule 35 Explainer

Our Washington State Supreme Court is considering two changes to its general rules with confusingly similar names and aims: GR ("General Rule") 34 and GR 35. The purpose of this explainer to summarize each so you can decide how you stand and make a helpful comment if you so choose.

Basically, it's about money, and under what circumstances a court can or will charge people for access to justice. One rule (34) provides a systematic option for judges to waive fee; the other (35) prohibits court clerks from imposing fees without going through a certain procedure.

Both rules have advocates for and against, and I'm not going to get into that save to say that money is a problem both for people seeking to use the legal system and for people who have to support the legal system. Here's the bare facts, and then some links to where you might find more.

Titles:

GR 34
WAIVER OF COURT AND CLERK’S FEES AND CHARGES IN CIVIL MATTERS ON THE BASIS OF INDIGENCY

GR 35
CLERK’S FEES AND CHARGES

Purpose:

GR 34 establishes the process by which judicial officers may waive civil filing fees and such other costs for which judicial officers have authority to grant a waiver.
See http://www.courts.wa.gov/court_rules/?fa=court_rules.proposedRuleDisplay&ruleId=231

GR 35 ensures that only those fees and charges that have been specifically authorized by statute or the Supreme Court will be assessed as a prerequisite to access to the judicial process.
See http://www.courts.wa.gov/court_rules/?fa=court_rules.proposedRuleDisplay&ruleId=236

TEXTS

GR 34
WAIVER OF COURT AND CLERK’S FEES AND CHARGES IN CIVIL MATTERS ON THE BASIS OF INDIGENCY
(a) Any individual, on the basis of indigent status as defined herein, may seek a waiver of filing fees or costs from a judicial officer in the applicable trial court.
(1) The application for such a waiver may be made ex parte in writing or orally, accompanied by a mandatory pattern form created by the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) whereby the applicant attests to his or her financial status or, in the case of an individual represented by a qualified legal services provider (“QLSP”) or an attorney working in conjunction with a QLSP, a declaration of counsel stating that the individual was screened and found eligible by the QLSP.
(2) The court shall accept an application submitted in person, by mail and where authorized by local practices, electronic filing.  The process for presentation of the application shall conform to local court and clerk processes for presenting ex parte orders to the court directly or via the clerk.  All applications shall be presented to a judicial officer for consideration in a timely manner and in conformity with the local court’s established procedures.  There shall be no locally imposed fee for making an application.  The applicant or applicant’s attorney filing by mail, shall provide the court with a self-addressed stamped envelope for timely return of a conformed copy of the order.

OFFICIAL COMMENT
This rule establishes the process by which judicial officers may waive civil filing fees and such other costs for which judicial officers have authority to grant a waiver.
(3) An individual who is not represented by a qualified legal services provider (as that term is defined below) or an attorney working in conjunction with a qualified legal services provider shall be determined to be indigent within the meaning of this rule if such person, on the basis of the information presented, establishes that:
(A)  he or she is currently receiving assistance under a needs-based, means-tested assistance program such as the following:
(i) Federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF);
(ii) State-provided general assistance for unemployable individuals (GA-U or GA-X);
(iii) Federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI);
(iv)  Federal poverty-related veteran’s benefits; or
(v) Food Stamp Program (FSP); or
(B)  his or her household income is at or below 125% of the federal poverty guideline; or
(C)  his or her household income is above 125% of the federal poverty guideline and the applicant has recurring basic living expenses (as defined in RCW 10.101.010(4)(d)) that render him or her without the financial ability to pay the filing fees and other fees or costs for which a request for waiver is made.
(D)  other compelling circumstances  exist that demonstrate an applicant’s inability to pay fees and/or costs.
(4)   An individual represented by a QLSP,  or an attorney working in conjunction with a QLSP that has screened and found the individual eligible for services, is presumptively deemed indigent when a declaration from counsel verifies representation and states that the individual was screened and found eligible for services.
(5)   As used in this rule, “qualified legal services provider” means those legal services providers that meet the definition of APR 8(e).


GR 35
CLERK’S FEES AND CHARGES
Court clerks shall neither charge nor collect any fee or charge, except as authorized by statute or by the Supreme Court.

OFFICIAL COMMENT
None (yet).

MORE:

• Search Washington State Legal Community for "GR 34"
• Search Washington State Legal Community for "GR35"
• Per http://www.courts.wa.gov/court_rules/, questions or general comments regarding Washington State court rules may be sent to rulescomments@courts.wa.gov.

Planted This Week - Ending March 14, 2010

• Carrots - St. Valery. From the huge lot of heirloom seeds we ordered from Baker Creek, as are the items below unless otherwise noted.
• Potatoes - Purple Fingerlings, from the West Seattle Farmer's Market. We had a good chat with the potato vendor, two guys who really seemed to like talk growing spuds. We have hopes of building a potato box to get lots of taties in a small space (see picture below, and read the article)
• Oregano - Vulgare. These seeds are so very fine that I couldn't really tell, but I think I planted some.
• Strawberries - Variety Unknown. These seedlings were from a potlach at the Mercer Island recycling center, which is now closed. RIP old friend! You served the community so well that the community demanded even more recycling; now there's curbside pickup of recycling so in a sense, you succeeded. But now what community gathering place will replace you?
• Sunflower - Mongolian Giant. I figured I might as well get one started in a cup so as to get a headstart. The seeds are more than an inch long!

A Word on Water

So far, all our plantings have been supported by water reused from dishwashing or captured from the sky in various ad hoc containers. I was turned on to this possibility by the accident of leaving a cooler outside with the lid up; one rainshower later and I had over a gallon of rainwater, utterly free.

I set out a few more containers and discovered that this can serve multiple purposes. First, Puget Sound Country is anticipating water difficulties later in the year because our snow pack is so low; a gallon saved today is a gallon we might want later. Second, runoff goes into our Puget Sound and in intense storms, it can overload the system, allowing untreated water into the wild, negatively impacting our fish and so on. Finally, I like to save money; water is cheap but if I can get it for free, why not?

I have not had time to get fancy with collecting rainwater yet, but anyone can see that our buildings' roofs act as natural rain collectors. I therefore positioned a few containers under the edges of unguttered eaves and, as common sense would tell you, collected far more than in more randomly positioned items. In the long run, I'll want to work out a guttering solution but let's take advantage of what we can.

This can't go on forever; when the mosquito season starts, that'll be an end to open containers. I hope that by that time, we will have moved into the Hummingbird House where improvements will be permanent, so I can experiment with attaching flexible bladders to downspouts, the reuse of clothing wash water, and so forth.

Thanks to my bloggy friend Small Footprints for suggesting writing about water conservation for the current Change the World Wednesday!

Potato Box

From the "TipNut" article "Grow 100 lbs. Of Potatoes In 4 Square Feet: How To" comes a great diagram that really needs no explanation (but read the article anyway!).
I love how this item can be built from found materials; you just start small and expand as needed, which is often a good design philosophy!

Weigh In on WSBA's Website!

The Washington State Bar Association needs and wants your help in figuring out how to improve its web presence which currently sucks. Potential users, who include lawyers, other legal system professionals, and anyone who has contact with or interest in our justice system, have been asked:

• Think of the wsba.org site holistically from an outside perspective – initial thoughts?
• Audiences of the website – who and what are they looking for?
• What would you like to see on the site when you first come to it?
• Now, think of wsba.org as a member, a volunteer or as a lawyer:
• What do you like as a user of the site?
• What do you dislike as a user of the site?
• What features would you like to see on the site?
• What is missing that would make the site more easy to use and obtain information?
• Are there other website examples you find that offer what you would like to see?
• If you are a bar leader (Sections, Access to Justice, Committee Chair, etc.)
• how would you like to see your areas treated in the site?
• What functionality needs does your specific focus area need?
• What are your thoughts on Social Media integration for wsba.org as well as other areas of the site with their own identity?
• The wsba.org website will also be going through a rebrand, which will be carried through to other marketing materials. The logo will remain the same, but what are your thoughts as to other styles that can be applied?

What You Should Do

• Think. Then ... 
• Post your comments 
• At wsba.org (Oh wait! There's no way to do that!), or
• Below (I promise to pass it on), or
• In the discussion on WYLD's Facebook Discussion, or
• In the discussion on Washington State Legal Professionals' LinkedIn, or
• In another venue, but please tell me about it so I can add it here.

As I See It

As a licensing organization, WSBA is necessarily controlling and conservative (in the classical sense): staid, stodgy, careful, meticulous, planned and more concerned with fulfilling rules handed down from above than in being responsive to those it licenses. That's not necessarily a bad thing; you don't want the people who wield the power of the State to flail around with it capriciously.

As a service organization, it should have precisely the opposite dynamic: innovative, risk-taking, and above all driven by the needs of its membership. This is fundamentally at odds with the licensing function! WSBA's services are compromised by its need to control information, which may work in old-school media but, as we say in the industry, The Internet treats censorship as a communications failure and routes around it.

Let's give props to WSBA for trying (look, it's even got a Twitter!) and now ... let's help fix the problem!

Tuesday's Tiny Election in King County

Did you know that Tuesday March 16, 2010 is an election day in King County, Washington?

No? I didn't either, until yesterday's Sustainable Belltown meeting, where I met one of the guys running for King County Conservation District Board of Supervisors.

As the Seattle Times explained it today:

"On March 16, an election for countywide office will be held, but hardly anybody will notice. It will receive scant coverage in this paper or on the Web, and none on the TV news. There will be no absentee ballots, and the actual polling places won't be listed on the King County Elections Web site.

But the winner will help control a public agency with millions of dollars and the power to help shape land use and conservation in the 13th-most-populous county in the nation.

Welcome to the campaign for King Conservation District Supervisor. The Conservation District is an agency authorized by law in 1939 to support land and water use and conservation. It is funded by your property taxes and governed by both appointed and elected members..."

There is a longrun issue about how an election can possibly be fair when only a few thousand out of the more-than-a-million potential voters even know about it (only 196 people voted in the 2008 race!) When there's only one polling location in the entire city of Seattle, and half-a-dozen others throughout King County (a county that is larger than Rhode Island!), we have a problem. The solution to the problem is to have the County take over this election and absorb the cost, running the election along with our normal elections, but the County doesn't seem eager to absorb new costs in this difficult economy. For now take note:

Voting sites

AUBURN
King County Library/Auburn Branch
1102 Auburn Way South, Auburn WA 98002
Poll hours 10:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

BELLEVUE
King County Library/Bellevue Regional Branch
1111 110th Avenue NE, Bellevue WA 98004
Poll hours 10:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

CARNATION
King County Library/Carnation Branch
4804 Tolt Avenue, Carnation WA 98014
Poll hours 10:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

DES MOINES
King County Library/Des Moines Branch
21620 11th Avenue S., Des Moines WA 98198
Poll hours 10:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

SEATTLE
Seattle Public Library (Downtown Main Branch)
1000 Fourth Ave., Seattle WA 98104
Poll hours 10:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m.

SHORELINE
King County Library/Shoreline Branch
345 NE 175th, Shoreline WA 98155
Poll hours 10:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

VASHON
King County Library/Vashon Island Branch
17210 Vashon Highway S.W., Vashon Island, WA 98070
Poll Hours 10:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Voters must present proper identification, like a driver’s license, passport or birth certificate, at the polling location.

I'm endorsing Kirk Prindle, because he went out of his way to come to our Sustainable Belltown meeting and talk about the issues (calling it "the most important election you've never heard of".) He says the other candidates in the race are o.k. too, and I like a guy who won't disparage the competition. But mostly, he seems to have the technical knowledge and positive attitude that I like to see in public service.

• More about Kirk Prindle