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First: ...young lawyers are less concerned with right and wrong than with chasing dollars. then: But matching people who need help to lawyers who have the ti

by edw519 11y ago

First: ...young lawyers are less concerned with right and wrong than with chasing dollars. then: But matching people who need help to lawyers who have the time and institutional resources to take on these projects pro bono isn't easy... Sounds like an excellent opportunity for a startup that is more concerned with right and wrong than with chasing dollars. Any takers?

dswiese 11y ago
doubtful. it can't be delivered in under an hour by a contractor.
SonicSoul 11y ago
Isn't this what EFF does ?
- pc86 11y ago
  Do they do it for traffic stops in rural Louisiana?
briandear 11y ago
Right and wrong is great -- but so is paying the bills. "Startups" the don't care about money are a fools game.
sandworm101 11y ago
Right and wrong is also a subject of opinion. Even the story in the OP is based on some real lawbreaking. We might all agree that these traffic stops go way to far, but they often do start with legitimate infractions (no insurance etc). Perhaps the better answer is to change these petty laws, or amalgamate them into something less difficult to obey. Frankly, the american approach of license+registration+insurance on three separate plans with three separate expiry dates is a minefield.
- chetanahuja 11y ago
  "We might all agree that these traffic stops go way to far, but they often do start with legitimate infractions (no insurance etc)." Umm... Did you read the story? The original stop was illegal to begin with (that is, the cop was doing an illegal activity). Then the driver in question had all her papers in order (which she proved to the Mayor/Judge with documentation). But the fine was not just not dropped... they arrested her for not paying that unjust fine and threw her in prison for 25 days.
  - sandworm101 11y ago
    Lawyers can argue about the stop, but it happened. They happen all the time. The cop might not have had probable cause, he stopped the car for no better reason than he wanted to, but that isn't the cause of all the difficulties. It hit the fan when the cop starts running the paperwork. "When Godwin ran Parker’s license, the computer said it was suspended. He also said the registration card was expired." That's the root problem, not the stop. There was, from the cops perspective, a real infraction here. So rather than debate the constitutionality of the stop, we should address the overly-complex system that resulted in this perceived infraction. If the computer was wrong, fix the machine. If the paperwork was actually expired, why are they still using paper? If we don't want cops issuing onerous citations for these things, change the laws so they cannot. We should not patch over bad laws by simply not enforcing them. In many jurisdictions (ie mine) the entire stop would have been perfectly legal. We display out registration/insurance details on a license plates. So cops are perfectly justified in pulling cars over with expired registration/insurance/plates. They need not speculate. They cannot claim suspicion or the need to check paperwork when the plate shows validity. And and driver stepping into a car can see on the plate whether everything is correct. Every cop should be able to lookup a plate and check all the paperwork prior to pulling anyone over.
    - anu_gupta 11y ago
      > That's the root problem, not the stop. No, the root problem is that a police officer decided to unconstitutionally stop a car with 3 African Americans, because they had committed the crime of being African American.
rhino369 11y ago
There are plenty of non-profits who do this. I work with one on my pro bono case. They partner with my firm and they've been helpful at giving me advice to help my client. My buddy at the ACLU work with firms in the same type of arrangement. The real problem is that a traffic stop isn't worth litigating.
- BHSPitMonkey 11y ago
  Judging by the article and the other comments, I don't think this case was about the traffic violation itself.
fennecfoxen 11y ago
You can tell you're in some kind of Silicon Valley echo chamber when people start calling every new ongoing businesslike concern a "startup", even if it departs radically from the model of "build something, attract investors to pay for building more, grow and eventually make lots of money". We have other vocabulary terms like "business" and "firm" (e.g. a law firm) and "nonprofit" and "charity"; I suspect that one of them would probably describe what you have in mind better. :)

by edw519 11y ago

dswiese 11y ago

doubtful. it can't be delivered in under an hour by a contractor.

SonicSoul 11y ago

Isn't this what EFF does ?

pc86 11y ago
Do they do it for traffic stops in rural Louisiana?

briandear 11y ago

Right and wrong is great -- but so is paying the bills. "Startups" the don't care about money are a fools game.

sandworm101 11y ago

Right and wrong is also a subject of opinion. Even the story in the OP is based on some real lawbreaking. We might all agree that these traffic stops go way to far, but they often do start with legitimate infractions (no insurance etc). Perhaps the better answer is to change these petty laws, or amalgamate them into something less difficult to obey. Frankly, the american approach of license+registration+insurance on three separate plans with three separate expiry dates is a minefield.

chetanahuja 11y ago
"We might all agree that these traffic stops go way to far, but they often do start with legitimate infractions (no insurance etc)." Umm... Did you read the story? The original stop was illegal to begin with (that is, the cop was doing an illegal activity). Then the driver in question had all her papers in order (which she proved to the Mayor/Judge with documentation). But the fine was not just not dropped... they arrested her for not paying that unjust fine and threw her in prison for 25 days.
- sandworm101 11y ago
  Lawyers can argue about the stop, but it happened. They happen all the time. The cop might not have had probable cause, he stopped the car for no better reason than he wanted to, but that isn't the cause of all the difficulties. It hit the fan when the cop starts running the paperwork. "When Godwin ran Parker’s license, the computer said it was suspended. He also said the registration card was expired." That's the root problem, not the stop. There was, from the cops perspective, a real infraction here. So rather than debate the constitutionality of the stop, we should address the overly-complex system that resulted in this perceived infraction. If the computer was wrong, fix the machine. If the paperwork was actually expired, why are they still using paper? If we don't want cops issuing onerous citations for these things, change the laws so they cannot. We should not patch over bad laws by simply not enforcing them. In many jurisdictions (ie mine) the entire stop would have been perfectly legal. We display out registration/insurance details on a license plates. So cops are perfectly justified in pulling cars over with expired registration/insurance/plates. They need not speculate. They cannot claim suspicion or the need to check paperwork when the plate shows validity. And and driver stepping into a car can see on the plate whether everything is correct. Every cop should be able to lookup a plate and check all the paperwork prior to pulling anyone over.
  - anu_gupta 11y ago
    > That's the root problem, not the stop. No, the root problem is that a police officer decided to unconstitutionally stop a car with 3 African Americans, because they had committed the crime of being African American.

rhino369 11y ago

There are plenty of non-profits who do this. I work with one on my pro bono case. They partner with my firm and they've been helpful at giving me advice to help my client. My buddy at the ACLU work with firms in the same type of arrangement. The real problem is that a traffic stop isn't worth litigating.

BHSPitMonkey 11y ago
Judging by the article and the other comments, I don't think this case was about the traffic violation itself.

fennecfoxen 11y ago

You can tell you're in some kind of Silicon Valley echo chamber when people start calling every new ongoing businesslike concern a "startup", even if it departs radically from the model of "build something, attract investors to pay for building more, grow and eventually make lots of money". We have other vocabulary terms like "business" and "firm" (e.g. a law firm) and "nonprofit" and "charity"; I suspect that one of them would probably describe what you have in mind better. :)