Introducing the Litigation Wiki Project
I've alluded a few times in recent posts that I'll gradually begin focusing on law and legal issues in this blog, while maintaining the connection to my core interest in resilient, sustainable, and decentralized civilizational systems. As part of that effort, and in an attempt to combine theory with practicality, I'm launching the Litigation Wiki Project.
Open-source and collaborative legal tools, such as the Litigation Process Checklist component of the Litigation Wiki, has great potential to:
- Reduce costs of litigation (thereby increasing access to the judicial system)
- Reduce the barriers to entry for small firms or solo attorneys, resulting in a more decentralized legal profession
- Improve the opportunity for innovation and accelerate information processing by reducing the systemic noise created by hierarchal control and distribution of information
If you aren't an attorney, this process may still be of interest as an exemplar of the spread of open-source and decentralized systems. The wiki is still in early stages of development--for the moment I've left the permissions open to everyone to view and edit. If I run into problems with spam, I'll shift to requiring registration, but for now I'd like to make it as easy for other to contribute as possible.
At this early stage it is certainly far from a complete tool, but I'll point to one example of its potential: the Affirmative Defense checklist component of the Litigation Checklist. Over 100 affirmative defenses and counting to date--certainly the most extensive list of affirmative defenses that is freely and openly available. While this may not seem like a significant accomplishment, the identification of all relevant affirmative defenses is a significant task in most civil litigation. In just the past week I've already used it to identify and plead an affirmative defense that will be potentially significant and that I most likely wouldn't have otherwise thought of. With a bit of open-source collaboration--including brief explanations of each defense, related case law in various jurisdictions, and strategic considerations for use--this list could easily become the standard for the legal community on this subject. Significantly, to my knowledge this would be the first free and open-source legal reference standard.
If this kind of project interests you--or if you know of people or resources that could contribute--please contribute.
Open-source and collaborative legal tools, such as the Litigation Process Checklist component of the Litigation Wiki, has great potential to:
- Reduce costs of litigation (thereby increasing access to the judicial system)
- Reduce the barriers to entry for small firms or solo attorneys, resulting in a more decentralized legal profession
- Improve the opportunity for innovation and accelerate information processing by reducing the systemic noise created by hierarchal control and distribution of information
If you aren't an attorney, this process may still be of interest as an exemplar of the spread of open-source and decentralized systems. The wiki is still in early stages of development--for the moment I've left the permissions open to everyone to view and edit. If I run into problems with spam, I'll shift to requiring registration, but for now I'd like to make it as easy for other to contribute as possible.
At this early stage it is certainly far from a complete tool, but I'll point to one example of its potential: the Affirmative Defense checklist component of the Litigation Checklist. Over 100 affirmative defenses and counting to date--certainly the most extensive list of affirmative defenses that is freely and openly available. While this may not seem like a significant accomplishment, the identification of all relevant affirmative defenses is a significant task in most civil litigation. In just the past week I've already used it to identify and plead an affirmative defense that will be potentially significant and that I most likely wouldn't have otherwise thought of. With a bit of open-source collaboration--including brief explanations of each defense, related case law in various jurisdictions, and strategic considerations for use--this list could easily become the standard for the legal community on this subject. Significantly, to my knowledge this would be the first free and open-source legal reference standard.
If this kind of project interests you--or if you know of people or resources that could contribute--please contribute.
Labels: Law, Litigation, open-source
posted by Jeff Vail at 4:27 AM
2 Comments:
Great idea.
Are you going to include resources such as trial graphics and forensic animation?
I'd like to share our white paper on "Using 3D Animation in the Courtroom." http://www.scenesystems.com/landing-page/courtroom-animation-white-paper
Hey Jeff,
I like your idea alot and had contemplated getting such a scheme up in New Zealand. I envisioned it being particularly beneficial to local Community Law Centres here as I believe it would significantly reduce their costs.
I had the idea after reading of Smari McCarthy's Shadow Parliament concept that dovetails quite cloely to your idea.
http://smari.yaxic.org/blag/2008/05/27/the-shadow-parliament-project/comment-page-1/
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