My first blog post at cuttingedgelaw.com

Just signed up at Cutting Edge Law, a really interesting-looking legal community. Here's my first blog post there.

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Today at Family Court, I found myself running out of patience with a client who was reluctant to accept the best settlement that I could negotiate under the circumstances. That may sound to many lawyers like an everyday occurrence, but for me it is a distress signal and wake-up call. I felt that I was doing my best, in the circumstances handed to me by "the system," and the client felt that "the system" was inherently skewed. The problem is that both of us were right. I was doing the best that I could with the options available to me, but the options which were available to me to present to the client were far more limited than I would have liked to offer. I wasn't conspiring against my client, but when my client complained that what was happening was not fair, the client wasn't completely wrong, either.

In Family Court, more than in any other forum, the "system" needs to maintain a sensitivity and flexibility that goes beyond sifting differing versions of the facts to reach a conclusion about what really happened. We need to go beyond who is right and who is wrong, beyond fact-finding and finger-pointing, to a view toward a solution that is best for all the individuals involved.

Twenty years ago, when Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" was published, everyone was talking about win-win thinking and about paradigm shifts, but now the topic seems so yesterday to most people that they will no longer listen. Unfortunately the need to change our thinking in the legal system has not gone away. Many of us are still thinking in terms of winners and losers, good guys and bad guys.

It has been over three years now since I attended a collaborative law training, and I have yet to handle a collaborative case because no one in my somewhat rural area is interested. It takes at least two to collaborate, and it takes a community to make real changes in the philosophy and attitude of the court system. None of us can do it alone, and trying to change the system alone is a surefire recipe for burnout: keep it up and you're toast. Only by working together on changing our goals, for our clients, for the system, for ourselves, can we achieve any deep or lasting change.

The FTC weighs in on virtual worlds

Virtual Worlds and Kids: the FTC advises parents on the potential risks

Reading an article by Nathaniel T. Noda

I'm just reading an article from the Sturm College of Law Sports and Entertainment Law Journal, Fall 2008 issue (you can "log in as guest"), entitled "When Holding On Means Letting Go: Why Fair Use Should Extend to Fan-Based Activities," by Nathaniel T. Noda, 5 U. Denver Sports & Ent. L.J. (2008)[26]. This one's a keeper.

My thanks to the "Fandom Lawyers" community at LiveJournal for pointing me to this one.