Encounters with the Law

You do not have to be a lawyer to learn the law!

• Nashua Public Library,
• Boston Public Library (government records section and the reserve section),
• Nashua District Court library,
• law library of Hillsborough County Superior Court at Manchester,
• SCOPE session at Hillsborough County Superior Court (including a Q&A session with the Clerk),
• Nolo Press books, including Represent Yourself in Court, a wonderful text with instructions on court procedures, writing motions, making objections, conducting discovery, and so on,
• the United States Code (available on CD from the Government Printing Office for less than $40),
• Black's Law Dictionary,
• one lawsuit against the Department of Safety successfully litigated pro se,
• University of Massachusetts at Lowell library,
• the office of the New Hampshire Secretary of State,
• hearings of the New Hampshire Senate,
• three New Hampshire legislators,
• the office of the Delaware Secretary of State,
• my article "Bill of Rights Status Report," published in The Whole Earth Review 70 (Spring 1991): 28-32 as "Attacks on the Bill of Rights,"
• the New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated,
• the General Laws of Massachusetts,
• the United States Constitution,
• the New Hampshire Constitution,
• the Massachusetts Constitution,
• the Federal Register,
• the Code of Federal Regulations,
• indices into court cases,
• court cases at state superior, state supreme, federal circuit, federal appellate and federal supreme levels,
• summaries of legal points in various books,
• the Congressional Record and other federal documents,
• the Rules of New Hampshire Superior Court,
• one federal jurisdiction's model jury instructions,
• the Rules of New Hampshire Supreme Court,
• the Federal Rules of Evidence,
• Nashua Ordinances,
• documents obtained from the New Hampshire Attorney General under the Right to Know law,
• some requests and responses under the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act,
• correspondence with various agencies, including the New Hampshire Department of Revenue (which in 1997 used text I wrote for them for their Privacy Act notice),
• the Boston federal building,
• the Concord federal building,
• the New Hampshire Supreme Court Clerk's office,
• the New Hampshire Department of Labor,
• the United States Labor Department, and
• the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission.

The above list shows lawyers do not have a monopoly on legal information. In fact, there is no law preventing any person from giving legal advice. In my state, New Hampshire, you do not even need to be a lawyer to represent somebody in court; any person of good character may do it.

© Copyright 1996 by Eric Postpischil.