When it comes to the law and lawyers, most Americans have a cynical view of the profession and its accompanying “system” as a whole, whether justified or not.
However, a Florida attorney has become disgusted with system as well as the cynicism and has embarked on a seemingly gargantuan project to reverse the ill feelings and disconnect between the public and the legal community, which includes both attorneys and judges.
Frederick Groves of Jurisdictionary says it is that cynicism and mistrust that is ruining the legal system and preventing decent, honest folks from getting a fair shake in court.
Groves told WorldNetDaily that his vision is to simplify the legal process by providing fundamental legal assistance to “common, ordinary people.” He says he’s been accused of being a visionary, but he argued that his interpretation of how the legal system should operate is founded in the country’s roots.
Explaining the legal system in a way everyone can understand “is the culmination of the vision of ‘self evident truths’ espoused by the country’s Founding Fathers, as well as years of soul searching,” he said. After spending a decade watching the legal system trounce on the rights of citizens, he concluded that what is lacking the most is education. Quite simply, he said, most people allow themselves to be abused by the legal system because they just don’t know any better.
“You can’t just rule a country blindly,” Groves said in a telephone interview, alluding to aspects of poll-driven legislation coupled with an in-kind legal system. “There must be, for lack of a better phrase, the ‘rule of law,’ and it must be re-taught to the people.”
He said the most important aspect of Jurisdictionary and the surrounding public relations campaign he has built around the concept is a simplified legal system all can use, based on the premise of public education.
“Ultimately this project will succeed based on the absolute necessity of education,” Graves said. “The public will essentially be taught the very basic rules of law, and that is the cornerstone for reforming the system for the entire country.”
Graves said he came into the game late, so to speak. He didn’t attend law school until he was 39 and before then held a number of jobs that exposed him to “everyday folks with everyday problems.”
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist. You don’t need a law degree. All that’s needed is the will to demand your rights, the courage not to bend, and the desire to learn how the game is played so good people win and bad people lose,” goes a passage from Graves’ web site. And that summarizes what his message is all about — simplicity and granting everyone equal access to courts of law.
One day, he said, while researching a rule in “a rule book the size of a large telephone directory,” a thought occurred to him that there ought to be an easier way for people to access law information about procedure. “I discovered that the rules of evidence were only about ten pages, and the rest of the book was filled with rulings, opinions and precedence cases,” he said. “It hit me that I could find an easy way to explain this to people so that the good guy doesn’t get taken advantage of in court.”
“What I’m pushing for is public legal education, period. People need to understand that representing yourself in court doesn’t have to be a complicated process.”
Graves said he isn’t telling people to go to court without a lawyer.
“Not at all,” he told WorldNetDaily. “Rather, what I want to see is better lawyering, and to teach people that the rule of law is really not rocket science. These are not difficult concepts for people to understand.”
One problem to his ambitious plan that he foresaw early on was the likely rejection of his vision by his colleagues, the legal community as a whole, and those who held judgeships. But he said he has been pleasantly surprised because a number of legal professionals have contacted him about his ideas and praised his efforts.
First of all, Graves said, “I’m not ‘inventing’ anything and my colleagues realized this. This will just help people sort of guide their own proceedings and, in turn, help attorneys do a better job for their clients if both of them understand the processes.”
“Some attorneys have contacted me and said they thought this was a much needed service and will ultimately help the legal industry.”
Regarding arrogant lawyers who don’t want to be “told” what to do by a client, Graves said, “People who know the rules of law will not be satisfied with lawyers who will not follow them. They’ll start telling these folks, ‘Hey, you’re not the only lawyer in town.'”
“The only way we’re going to have fairness in the legal system is to get Mom and Pop up to speed with the rules,” he added.
Graves said his organization has some publications coming out soon that help explain these concepts. “They’ll portray baseball as more complex than a citizen’s basic legal rights,” he said.
Fundamentally these principles exist in all 50 states and in the federal justice system, Graves said. However, there are some limitations and differences from these basic premises, although nothing that changes those key concepts. “That’s why our program can be taught to the whole country,” he said.
Besides various short descriptive publications, Graves said Jurisdictionary would soon release a CD-ROM with all the rules of law for each individual state and the federal government. And, he said, he has written a book that is being shopped to major publishers that would teach the process of litigation and the rules of evidence.
“With this process Americans will see that the balance really isn’t tipped against them, that the rich and powerful are not the only ones who can seek and get ‘justice’ in court.”
With America’s legal system, “Everyone gets to be heard,” Graves said. “Everyone gets to use the power of the court to obtain discovery of evidence in support of his cause, i.e., to use the power of the sheriff if necessary to compel the other side to answer questions under oath and to permit inspection of private property. Everyone gets this power. Everyone. Absolutely everyone, not just a favored few or those presently in political favor with people seated in the high places of public government.”
