[blindlaw] Being unable to see relevant evidence in a legal case

[Paul Sullivan]

Hi amy,

I wrote the original email you referenced in your message. Many people
on this list seem to believe that a blind attorney needs a lot of help
in terms of sighted assistance with things like documents, etc. I'm
not sure I agree, though I've only been practicing four 7 months and
in a field (employment law) which is not a high-volume area, meaning I
have a fewer number of large cases, rather than a large number of
small cases.

Regarding your question, having evidence described to you is not a
problem. Hearsay applies to evidence and testimony offered by
witnesses. So, as the attorney, you are not offering evidence or
testimony, whether you describe something or have something described
to you by a sighted person. Rather, you are responsible for producing
witnesses who will offer testimony or evidence, and the hearsay rule,
which is quite complex, will apply to their offered testimony or
evidence. The long and short of this is to say that a blind attorney
should be fine, provided he/she does an adequate job of preparing the
case.

I personally chose to stay away from high-volume practice areas like
criminal defense and family law. These are practice areas that would
have put me in court very frequently, often with little time for prep
and little time to review evidence, either with sighted assistance or
otherwise. I know this can be done--there's a person from a public
defender's office on this list--but it would require a lot more
sighted assistance. I'm a pure solo practitioner, so I have only
myself to rely on, so I decided to work in an area that would allow me
more time to review evidence and build my case.

I hope some of that made sense. Best of luck going forward.

Paul

On 8/24/13, amy a <amynick100 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, everyone,
>
> I am new to this mailing list.  As a person exploring the field
> of law, I have a question about an obstacle blind people run
> into.
>
> How can you be a fair judge, jury member, or similar professional
> when you cannot see relevant evidence?  By evidence, I mean
> visual indicators, such as a video of a robbery, but I am also
> referring to cues such as witnesses' facial expressions and body
> language.  I am mainly using examples relating to criminal law
> here, but only because I know that the best, and it is the first
> thing I can think of.  Feel free to refer to other types of law
> when answering if it is relevant.
>
> I read the thread from September 2012, "Handling paper docs at
> hearings" written by someone named Paul.  (If I am misquoting, I
> am sorry.)  Anyway, the general consensus was that blind people
> who are doing hearings require visual readers for the documents.
> However, I am talking about the case of a judge or jury member.
> From what I know about law, which is not much, I assume that one
> can correctly argue that if someone merely describes the evidence
> for you, and you do not see it for yourself, it is only hearsay,
> and the fact that you cannot directly see the evidence means that
> nothing was proven "beyond a reasonable doubt".  Are there people
> who go to law school to become readers and describers for blind
> judges and jurors, so that what they describe can count as
> legally admissible evidence?
>
> When answering my question, please keep in mind that I have no
> official legal training whatsoever.  Therefore, please avoid too
> many technical terms that I might not be familiar with.
> Furthermore, if this topic has been discussed previously, and it
> probably has, I am sorry to repeat it, but I was honestly too
> lazy to figure out how to search the archive.
>
> Thank you all so much in advance for your time, consideration,
> effort, and comments.
>
> All the best,
>
> Amy
>
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-- 
Paul R. Sullivan, Jr.
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paul at paulsullivanlegal.com
www.paulsullivanlegal.com