Little Brother

Are you concerned about the new surveillance methods being implemented in New York City? Do you believe that it is stupid that we have to take our shoes off while going through airport security? Do you think it is stupid even after hearing the head of TSA explain the reason for it? Does security theater, for theater’s sake annoy you? If so, you need to read Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.

I know that this book is being marketed as a YA book. However, just because teens can read it doesn’t mean that adults shouldn’t. Further, I think that the fact that it is marketed as a YA book makes Little Brother much more accessible than his previous books. For example, I loved Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. However, I would not suggest the book to just anyone.

If you don’t know who Cory is, he describes himself as “an activist, a writer, a blogger, a public speaker, and a technology person.” He used to be the Director of European Affairs for EFF and he is the co-editor of Boing Boing.

Little Brother resolves around Marcus, a teenage computer geek, who along with his three friends gets picked up by the Department of Homeland Security because they happen to be at the wrong place when terrorists attack the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.

After being held incommunicado for several days, some but not all of the group is released. After being released, Marcus realizes that DHS has essentially suspended civil rights in San Francisco and is treating everyone like a suspected terrorist.

Marcus spends the rest of the book fighting against DHS and trying to expose the things that they have done. One of the good aspects of this book is that Doctorow explains, in accessible language, how the various security systems work and why some systems provide effective security and why other systems provide only security theater.

The only knock I have on the book is the most of the “bad guys” are one dimensional. However, the individual bad guys appear to be intended to be stand ins for DHS rather than individual characters in themselves. Given this, I really didn’t have a problem with their single dimensionality.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it. In addition to picking it up at a your favorite bookstore (brick and mortar or online), you can also snag a copy from Cory’s website, where he has released it under a Creative Commons attribution, noncommerical, share alike license.

While you are there, check out his other novels as well, including Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which I think provides an interesting foreshadowing of Web 2.0 and social networking.

2008 ISBA Solo and Small Firm Conference

Early Bird Registration is now open for the 2008 ISBA Solo and Small Firm Conference. I was on the planning committee for this event and I believe that this will be another great conference. As with previous years, the conference will have three tracks to choose from: Substantive Law, Effective & Ethical Practice, and Legal Technology.

On the Legal Technology track, we are offering sessions on digital dictation, online applications (including Software as a Service), tech for tightwads, and developing a paperless office. We will also have sessions on ediscovery in small litigations and using Adobe Acrobat for more than creating a PDF.

Once again, the technology track will include nationally known speakers such as Ross Kodner, Nerino Petro, Rick Borstein, Catherine Sanders Reach, and Todd Flaming.

The conference will be September 4-6, 2008, at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Illinois.

Check out the website, and take advantage of the early bird discount by registering now.

Even More Filing Problems

I know that I have been bagging on the Cook County Clerk’s office lately. See this, for example. It’s not that I want to pick on them. However, the reality is that they are the ones that I have problems with.

For example, after I was unable to find a complaint or answer in the file that I looked at yesterday, I had another court appearance, this time on a motion in the municipal division. For the record, I hate appearing in muni in Cook County. This division handles civil cases in which the amount in controversy is less than $30,000. There are lots of these cases filed in Cook County. Consequently, these are high volume courtrooms.

To understand the story I am about to relate, you must understand a little how Cook County operates their muni call. In an ideal world, this is how the call is supposed to work.

The Plaintiff files a lawsuit and sets a return date.
The Sheriff obtains service on the Defendant.
The Defendant files an appearance on or before the return date.
If the Defendant files an appearance, the matter is set for status at a date in the future.
If the Defendant files an appearance with a jury demand, the case is set for status in the jury call courtroom.
If the Defendant does not file an appearance, an order of default is entered and the case is set for the entry of a default judgment in the future.

Leaving the fantasy world and returning to reality, this is what actually happened in my case when I filed it.

I file a complaint and set a return date.
The Defendant timely files an appearance and a jury demand.
The case is transferred to the jury call courtroom for a day in the future.
AND an order of default is entered against the Defendant because, despite the fact that the Defendant filed a timely appearance, that information was not entered in to whatever system sends out the default notices. The case is thus set for a prove up date in the future in the original courtroom.
We appear in the jury call courtroom, however, the case is not on that call any more because the order of default had been entered.
Because no order was entered in the jury call courtroom, our case is dismissed for want of prosecution.
Thereafter, the judge in the original courtroom straightens everything out, vacates the default, vacates the DWP, and transfers the matter to the jury call courtroom.

This case has quite a history so far. Once in the jury call courtroom, the case is automatically set for arbitration. That date happened to conflict with my schedule. Thus I was appearing to continue the arbitration date. When I stepped up, the clerk informed the judge that a DWP had been entered in my case. The judge asked me what I knew about that. Rather than explaining everything above, I just told the judge that the prior judge had vacated the DWP and that had all been taken care of months ago.

The clerk swore that it had never been vacated. I guess that the order I have vacating the DWP means nothing because some other clerk did not properly code or key in the previous order. Anyway, as I was stepping away from the bench, the judge suggested to me that I “clear up the matter of the DWP with the Clerk’s Office.”

My only question. Just how am I supposed to do that? The whole problem with the DWP in this case started because the Clerk’s Office screwed everything up. If an order from a judge vacating the DWP is not sufficient for the Clerk’s records, I am not quite sure what I am supposed to do to convince the clerk that the DWP was vacated.

Travel: St. Louis Westin

I recently traveled to St. Louis and stayed in the Westin that is across the street from Busch Stadium. Apart from Seattle’s Hotel 1000, which I loved, this has to be one of my favorite hotels. It is conveniently located across from the stadium and has easy access to the highway. Plus, the amenities are great.

The shower was beautifully appointed and contained two showerheads. The bed was very comfortable and I had a great view (as you can see in from the picture).

Additionally, this a fine hotel to be able to work from. The desk was more spacious than most and provided easy access to electrical outlets. Further, although the hotel provides wired internet access for a fee, the rooms also had wireless internet access. The WiFi had very good signal strength and worked just fine without having to pay for wired access.

Self parking is available in an open lot next to the hotel. Valet service is also available. I saw on a travel site where people were complaining about the cost of self parking. The cost is $17 and is added to your hotel bill. I don’t find that amount unreasonable. It is certainly less than what I pay in Chicago and is in line with what I have paid in Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Seattle.

All in all, if you are visiting St. Louis, I would recommend the Westin as a very nice place to stay.

Defending Gary by Mark Prothero & Carlton Smith

I am a true crime junkie. Thus, I jumped on the chance to read Defending Gary, a book about the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway, written by one of his attorneys, Mark Prothero.

This is not your typical true crime book. If you want the details of the investigation or how forensic evidence finally solved the case, this is not the book for you. Fortunately, there are plenty of other books on the Green River Killer for you to choose from.

Instead, this book focuses on the legal aspect of the case, including how to best represent the most prolific serial killer in America. The first part of the book details the relationship between Ridgway and his attorneys and how they planned to defend him at trial. The second part, details the plea negotiations between the defense and the prosecutors for Ridgway to exchange information on the killings in exchange for not being sentenced to death. The second half also details the extreme difficulty faced by the investigators in trying to get all of the information from Ridgway.

This is not a suspenseful book, nor is it intended to be so. However, it is a fascinating look into the entire process of defending a serial killer. In a nice twist, the book also points out the public relations risks that Norm Maleng, the prosecutor, took in accepting a plea and not pursuing the death penalty against someone who has pleaded guilty to killing 48 people.

If you enjoy true crime books, and want to get a behind the scenes look at the legal machinations rather than the investigative portion, then I would recommend this book.

Why is Illinois Stuck in the 19th Century?

I am still fuming from an experience that I had in a local court clerk’s office yesterday. I had a meeting outside of the office. While I was out, one of my partners contacted me and asked me if I was near the courthouse. It seemed that one of his divorce clients had another case pending against her. He wanted copies of the important documents in the file, as it appeared that she would be hiring us to represent her in that matter as well.

Given that I was near the courthouse, I figured that it would be no problem for me to stop by and check things out. Despite the fact that I have been wrong before (cue snarky comment from wife), I have rarely been more wrong than I was in this situation.

First, it’s ridiculous that I have to go to the courthouse to find out basic useful information about a case. Nevertheless, it is the only option. So off to the courthouse I went. Unfortunately, it turns out that the one person who can order up files from the file room was otherwise occupied. Thus, I had to wait approximately 20 minutes before anyone bothered to order my file. After that, I had another 20 minute wait before I finally got my file. After getting the file, I had to review it, identify the documents that I wanted copies of, and then have them copied.

Finally, after almost an hour in the courthouse, I finally had paper copies of my documents. The kicker of course, is that when I got my copies, the clerk did not copy the physical document from the court file. Instead, she simply printed it from the electronic version on the computer system.

I then took my paper copies (which had been printed from electronic versions, which had been scanned from paper documents) back to my office and gave them to my assistant, who promptly scanned them back into electronic documents so that I could actually work with them.

People often complain about the amount of time that litigation takes as well as the high cost of legal services. Here is one reason for that time and cost: Institutionalized inefficiencies. The reality is that I performed this task in the most efficient manner possible, yet it was horribly inefficient.

Further, the process is no better for the clerk’s office than it is for me. With a proper efiling and electronic access to documents, the clerk would no longer need to take the paper documents and scan them in. Also, the clerk would not have to allocate employee time to scanning documents, making documents available to the public, or making copies of the documents. Changing the system benefits both the attorneys and the clerk’s office. Yet, because of the institutionalized inefficiencies that were currently face in Illinois, I see little hope for meaningful change in the near future.

As I have noted before, people from outside Illinois are dumbfounded at the fact that we have no electronic access to court files.

The reality is that I should have been able to access the court documents from my desk and obtain an electronic copy of the ones that I needed. At least in this county, the hard work as been done. All of the documents exist electronically. The fact that I am prohibited from accessing them or obtaining copies of them unless I drive to the courthouse is simply asinine.