My Sunday Feeling

As some of you folks know, I do a good bit of pro bono work for a couple of Legal Aid type organizations.  The most recent one is a website put out by the American Bar Association called "Free Legal Answers."  The format is simple.  Clients who are screened for eligibility (I guess)  can write the site an email concerning their legal issues.  The attorneys can pick the messages to which they wish to respond based on their area of expertise.  The attorneys can see the name and county of the client and the potential adverse party (if any). However, the attorney responding to the question is anonymous.  And the website records the time you spend answering the question and sends it to the Clerk of the Arkansas Supreme Court for credit on your license.  

This is a great idea.  I wonder what took them so long.  Hell, I wonder why I didn't think of it.

The last couple of days I have been struck down with the worst case of bronchitis I've had in 5 years easy.  My doctor read me the riot act about being on the verge of pneumonia and how I was on strict orders to take it easy at least through the weekend.  Since there's only so much baseball a man can watch or reading a man can do, I figured that under the circumstances this was as good a time as any to take a crack at giving the Internet the benefit of my vast legal knowledge augmented by antibiotics and steroids.  And a gin and tonic.  Like I said, this was a great idea.

I mostly did money and property stuff back when I toiled in the vineyard for Uncle.  So I tried to find questions in those areas to respond to on the website.  

It's interesting to read the thoughts of strangers.  And I was pleasantly surprised to see that the email format evidently caused the clients to gather their thoughts more than they sometimes do when they come see the lawyer in person.  I have done 2 or 3 so far.  But I have looked at some of the divorce/custody questions just out of curiosity.  Hoo boy.  A lady in a European country wants to know how to get a divorce from a husband here on the state.  Another wants to know how to do a custody on a pro se basis.  Although I don't do family law, I know the answer to that one.  Don't.  

Then there's the predictably crazy stuff.  One person wants to sue a judge.  Another wants to sue a lawyer for malpractice.  One person-in so far as I can glean from the disjointed and rambling email-wants to sue somebody for allegedly misappropriating his likeness in a YouTube video.  I'll just bet.

I read those messages for the purpose of amusement.  I stuck with what I know.

One person wanted to know about adverse possession.  He didn't qualify.  Another is burdened with debts and wanted to know options available.  The saddest case was a person whose mother gave her power of attorney to her husband who the client says has siphoned her money away from her.  Boy did this sound familiar.  My buddy Rick and I sued the sister of a man who was confined to the nursing home with a stroke.  She did the same thing with his POA.  It's a story as old as the Bible.  Rick and I somehow got all but about 5 grand back.  Which never happens.  And I fear that it won't happen for the writer of the email.  But all you can do with "Free Legal Answers" is give them advice and wish them luck.  

But like I said, it's a great idea.  And the client has no idea who I am and can't see that I am wearing a Ramones tee shirt and drinking gin while answering their question.  

Why didn't they think this up years ago?

***

The Deacon and I went up to Bentonville last weekend to spend the day at Crystal Bridges which is a world class art gallery stuck in the Northwest corner of the state.  When I was a kid, there was absolutely nothing in Bentonville.  Now it's a financial powerhouse due to Wal-Mart and it's also pretty much an artist's colony.  

The area around the town square has walking and bicycle path as does the area around the museum.  It was relatively pleasant for July and we spent a good bit of time walking around the place.  Bentonville is proof what can be done with sound urban planning and, granted, virtually unlimited private money.  

I thought about Bentonville as I drove past War Memorial Golf Course which was recently closed for "repurposing" by the geniuses in our new Mayor's office.  I noticed that they had torn up all the greens.  I guess they didn't want walkers out there playing golf or folks practicing chipping from what had been fairways for the last 80 years or so.  

A task force has been formed to come up with a new "purpose" for the old course.  This, despite the fact that the city claims that it is broke.  If they are really serious about this, and there are doubts about this as well, members of the task force would do well to go up to Bentonville and see how it's done right.  If only for show before they "repurpose" it as a condo community called "The Villages at War Memorial" or some dumb shit.  Which many people, myself included, halfway believe was the plan all along.

But they ought to check out Bentonville.  And from what I hear, El Dorado too.  

If only for show.  Before they sell War Memorial to some real estate developer in Dallas.