While I was googling the Wisconsin Supreme Court to look into one of their rulings regarding the definition of practice of law, (for yesterday’s blog post), I ran across their decision on necrophelia, and the bizarre story of some kids digging up a corpse. Sounded like the kind of thing these kids are going to look back on in the future and say, “Well, we thought it was a good idea at the time”.

The link is below, you have to read it to appreciate it:

WisconsinNecrophelia

One of the groups that I contribute to is HALT (Help Abolish Legal Tyranny). This group was founded in 1978, and is dedicated to fighting for consumer rights in the legal field. Given the significant amounts of money and power that are lined up to protect lawyers and judges, this group has done relatively well fighting for the little guy. They help push for public access to discipline hearings and results against lawyers and judges, as well as fighting against the always present “unauthorized practice of law”.

The “unauthorized practice of law” rules are unfortunately designed more to protect a legal monopoly than to serve the public interest. One of the latest examples is from March, when the Wisconsin State Bar submitted a proposal to further restrict the definition, and force consumers to hire lawyers for mundane things that otherwise could be done by a real estate agent, an income tax preparer, or a legal document assistant. The Bar claimed (as usual) it was to protect the public from scam artists that claim to be attorneys. However, after two years of beating the bushes, they could produce only six complaints by consumers about non-lawyers.

This stands in contrast to the over 2000 complaints Wisconsin consumers filed against Wisconsin lawyers. That statistic just about says it all.

After testimony from HALT and from Wisconsin businesses and others, the State Bar asked the Court to put a hold on any decision. I wouldn’t be surprised if the proposal surfaces again when the Bar thinks things have cooled down.

One new website that HALT profiled in their recent newsletter is Avvo. This is a website that is bringing consumer reviews of lawyers to the public, as well as providing answers to legal questions. The answers are by attorneys. I think this website is an idea that is long overdue. Given the secretive nature of lawyer discipline and the lack of public information, this may be the future route to put more power in the consumer’s hands and truly protect the public.

Avvo

HALT

Matt Maiocco writes a great blog about the 49ers. In a recent post, he had a link to a heartwarming story about a young kid playing Little League baseball with cancer. I’m posting links to both below:

MattMaioccoFootballBlog

LittleLeagueStory

A friend of mine sent me a funny link to a short animated film about Italians. It may not be 100% accurate but it was sort of funny.

ItalianFilm

Thanks to the comment by capananda in yesterday’s post, I checked out The Week and Harpers. I knew about Harpers but had not heard of The Week. When I hit the Harpers website, I saw an article about the Air Force and POGO. POGO is another new group (Project On Government Oversight), sort of a whistleblower / investigative group. Interesting to read a little and I’ll have to check further.

Anyway, there was an article in the Washington Post as well as other places. While the troops travel in beaten up, falling apart seats, the Air Force brass spend time and money designing luxurious travel pods for themselves. You’d think that the Air Force heads would say “Hey, you travel the same as the grunts.” Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. The Air Force brass seem to be taking their cues from the CEO’s of private industry, living lives of luxury while the grunts get stepped on, abused and mistreated.

To see the contrast, click on the Pogo link for pics of what the troops have, and the Washington Post link for what the top brass have. It’s eye opening.

Pogo article with pics of what the troops travel in now:
TroopTransport

Washington Post story:
AirForceTravel