>
>The other night, Bob Fitch told Liza & me about a worker in
>Connecticut with an 8th grade education who'd taught himself enough
>law to sue the union that fucked him over and had him beaten up for
>challenging the leadership. A federal appeals court just accepted his
>case. Was he wasting his time studying law? Or is there something
>admirable and inspiring about that?
>
>Doug
I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but as someone who works in the system, let me tell you that almost all appeals to the Circuit Courts of Appeals are appeals of right, not discretionary, and most pro se filings are losers. Probably he filed a loser claim, lost, and took it upstairs, where the 2d Circuit will let a staff atty squash it. Of course this doesn't reflect on this worker's potential legal ability, or whatever benefit he got from exercising his mind to study law, but that benefit almost certainly did not involve learning enough law to win on appeal what he lost in the district court. I have had pro se filers--indeed, quite illiterate and uneducated ones--make excellent--winning! arguments, sometimes quite ingenious. But I had to usea certain amount of creativity, and the license the law gives the courts in directing su to be nice to pro se plaintiffs, to write the opinions to make it come out right. Most people in the system don't do that.
--jks
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