_   I have been working for months now on a project that has the potential to provide ample, sustainable, non-general-revenue funding for legal aid services so desperately needed by ordinary folks in Oregon these days, as Oregon and the feds keep cutting their support, and more and more people are ground up by the legal system simply because there is nowhere for them to turn.  Imagine if the $13 BILLION that the big banks made reinvesting money lent to them at near-zero interest by the Feds had gone to support legal aid services.

   (That's right, banks got huge piles of free money from the Feds at the Federal Reserve discount windows and then turned around and LENT that same money back to the federal government at interest, using the profits to pay bonuses that already exceed the pre-crash-year bonuses of 2007 and 2008.  Whoever said there is no free lunch meant "for real people" -- because the banks sure as hell have enjoyed a lavish free endless banquet at our expense.) 

     Stay tuned here this year, I hope to have good news on this front in 2012.  Meanwhile, a good essay by a top consumer lawyer. 

Equal Justice under the Law
An Essay by O. Max Gardner III

• As consumer lawyers, we are trained to believe that our legal system should be fair - equal justice under the law - yes, the same law and the same order for all of us.  But, for those of us in the trenches doing mortgage defense litigation or representing consumers in bankruptcy cases, we all know that there has been one set of rules for us and another set of rules for the banks and the law licenses they rent. . . .
  
  The truth of the matter is that we have been playing on a field that has been tilted about 90 degrees in favor of the financial institutions for decades.  But, the truly astounding fact is that we are still playing.  We are still in the game.  And, somehow, someway, we score a few touchdowns now and then, hit a few field goals once in a while and sack the quarterback once in a while.  In fact, we have scored more points in the last year than in the last five years combined.  So, the bottom line for us as this year comes to a close is that there is hope.  We have made some real progress.  We have opened the eyes of many judges and many more trustees.  We have taken our true facts to the media and many reporters have seen the true light and have written about it.  David J. Stern is no longer in business and a lawyer by the name of Baum no longer has his truly scary foreclosure mill in New York.  And, we have accomplished all this while running either uphill or downhill on every single play.
  
  But the truly sad and indeed bad news for our system of justice is not directly related to us but to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who do not have any level of legal representation.  It is not fair and there is really no hope when an untrained and non-represented consumer must go into court alone.  As hard as the battle is for us, the trained lawyers, what about the family that goes before a judge alone in an effort to avoid a foreclosure on their home?  I mean these folks don't have chance in hell of winning.  I have a better chance of winning the Mega Millions or the Powerball lottery than these consumers have of avoiding the demurrer or the motion to dismiss.  The bottom line is that the right to have your day in court should not depend on whether those in need can afford to retain an attorney.  But this is how it is in our America.  Money talks and the rest of us walk right out of the courtroom with a signed dismissal order.  Civil legal assistance to low-income people has been available in the United States since 1967 but always with shoestring resources. 
  
  For many years, any mode of representation for the less affluent has fallen on our legal services programs.  But, the second Great Depression has hit beyond the families that legal aid organizations serve - it has also struck a severe blow to the organizations themselves and the funding they must have to do their work. On November 15, 2011, the United States Congress cut $56 million from the Federal Legal Services Corporation for next year.  As a result, federal support for the specific purpose of providing legal services to low-income people will drop by 15 percent in 2012.  But, the full picture is even worse. Federal legal services funds for all programs were already cut by hundreds of thousands of dollars this year....
  
  And, remember, this is not just about the unrepresented consumers or about the judges and trustees we deal with every day but about saving our system of justice and due process from the unprecedented level of fraud and the endless lies of the creditors and their lawyers.  In short, it is time for us to clean up the biggest national crime scene in the history of these United States of America.  Law and Order must be restored and our system of just must be preserved.  The torch is in the air and like it or not we are the only ones left to catch it!

Training without travel for mid-valley nonprofit leaders!

Friday Fundamentals for Flourishing Nonprofits

Eight carefully designed, targeted 90-minute workshops, with attendance limited to eight nonprofit leaders, so you will get the personal attention to the questions that matter to you and your nonprofit.    Training that gets right to the point, right here in Salem, created and presented by an attorney focused on helping nonprofits do more good while having more fun.

9/9
“First things first?  So how do we know what’s first?”
     (Priority-setting for nonprofit leaders)

9/23
File, forget, and flounder.
    (Using minutes to help make better use of your hours.)

10/7
By law or not by law? 
     (Bylaws for the bewildered.)

10/21
“Procedures?  We don’ need no stinking procedures!”
     (How and why nonprofits can learn to love doing things “by the book.”)

11/4
What taxes?  I thought we were a nonprofit!
     (“Excuse me, your unrelated business income is showing.”)

11/18
“We do the Lord’s work, so why do they act like Satan?”
     (Conflict on boards.)

12/2
“We love mankind.  It’s the employees who drive us mad.”
     (Employment law for nonprofits.)

12/16
“But Judge, . . . !” 
(How to raise funds without having a lawyer on speed-dial.)

Each workshop will be at 11 am on Fridays in downtown Salem. 
Tuition is just $35 for each one (paid in advance)
or $40 (paid day of) – or guarantee your seat by enrolling for all eight for just $250 (save $30). 

Workshop creator and leader is John Gear of the John Gear Law Office, LLC. 
See http://JohnGearLaw.com for more information. 

To enroll or for questions, call John at 503-339-7787.

   For those trying to understand or navigate the state court system on their own.  (H/t to Oregon Legal Research blog.)
   One thing though: If you're trying to research the Oregon Revised Statutes, OregonLaws.org is a lot better format that is a lot easier to use.
  One other thing:  It's the cheap person who usually winds up spending the most.  Some of the most expensive cases I saw when I worked at an appellate court were started by people who tried to save a couple hundred bucks in attorney fees and wound up having to litigate for years.  There are definitely a few things you can do for yourself in the legal system but, as a general rule, it's not a system set up to support self-helpers.  Grab your favorite piece of "legal" software and read the fine print -- the first thing it says is that it is not intended to replace qualified legal counsel.  Of course that's utter BS; nobody would buy the software if it wasn't sold as the solution to your legal problems at big savings.  But it's an important point to remember -- if a licensed attorney screws up your matter, there's a bar association Client Assistance Office and a bar complaint process ready to help you.  The software companies refer all their consumer complaints to Helen Waite, as in "Go to . . . . "  Just sayin'.

OregonLaws.org is such a great service -- it lets "civilians" (non-lawyers) find the statutes and see them presented in an intelligent, useful format.  I like it so much that this office is only the second OL.org sponsor ever.  But you can sponsor or assist too!  Before John Gear Law Office opened, I was contributing a measly $2 a month to OregonLaws.org, just because it is such a cool project.  If you ever turn to the site for help, consider becoming a participating member -- surely it's worth $2 a month to have access to the laws in a clear, helpful format.

  Attorneys have a variety of databases at their disposal for researching the law.  But what about you, the regular person?  Where can you go to find the Oregon statutes?   Alas, the state website is horrible, because the Legislature ignores everything we've learned about printing and displaying information intelligently since Gutenberg brought movable type printing to the Europe.

  To the rescue comes a law student, Robb Shecter and his partner in making law accessible for the people, Lisa.  They have done an amazing job posting the Oregon Revised Statutes at OregonLaws.org, and presenting them in a thoughtfully formatted way that makes completely and effortlessly readable and usable.  Hats off to them both!

  John Gear Law Office, LLC is very proud to be just the second paid sponsor/supporter of OregonLaws.org.  Sponsorships for  OregonLaws.org help make this site the best way for you to find out just what the law says.

  OregonConsumer.org -- a great resource.