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shlep: the Self-Help Law ExPress

Self-help law – “a multifaceted movement that strives to give legal consumers the tools and assistance necessary to solve most of their legal problems themselves” – gets its own blog in shlep: the Self-Help Law ExPress.

Shlep’s subtitle is “news & views on self-help law and pro se litigation.” But driving the blog’s creation and title is this line, which we believe should be considered the unofficial motto for shlep – “We shouldn’t have to shlep around with a lawyer on our backs in order to get justice.”

In context:

“The average American is not an illiterate serf who cannot understand and handle — with a little bit of guidance — most of his or her own everyday legal problems. Put bluntly: given the right tools and minimal assistance, the average American consumer doesn’t need lawyers to solve most legal problems and shouldn’t have to pay a “lawyer tax” everytime he or she has a legal problem.”

In other words, we shouldn’t have to shlep around with a lawyer on our backs in order to get justice. The best way to ensure that the non-rich also have access to necessary legal and judicial services is to give them the ability and the option to formulate adequate solutions themselves, including acting as pro se litigants in court.

Shlep will be providing news and commentary on the world of self-help law, which includes “hundreds of court-based and private self-representation programs in existence, commissions in most states to promote access to justice for all, and an enormous unmet need for legal services and information by the American consumer.” Find out more about shlep.

Shlep is the creation of David Giacalone, perhaps best known as the author of the early leading legal blog ethicalEsq and currently blogging on law and haiku at f/k/a.

The blog is in “pre-launch” phase – meaning only occasional postings for now – as Giacalone searches for likely co-editors to contribute content to schlep. Shlep needs “pro se practitioners; law librarians; and lawyers, law professors or students committed to achieving access to justice for all Americans (especially through the use of assisted self-help programs and information technology) are likely prospects. Good writing, good manners and good sense are prerequisites — along with enthusiasm.”

Interested in joining the editorial team? Check out the full help-wanted sign and get on board.

Sources: Socially-responsible librarians, Inside Opinions: Legal Blogs