[blindlaw] Updated blindlaw listserv purpose statement and rules

[Nightingale, Noel]

Blindlaw listserv colleagues:

In an interest to keep up to date in the evolving nature of listservs in general, and ours in particular, the board of directors of the National Association of Blind Lawyers has adopted a revised purpose statement for our list and made explicit rules that have already mostly been followed on this list.  We hope the revised purpose statement and rules don't cause too much of a fuss.  Please read on to understand our intent.  In the meantime, any list participants who don't think that this is the list for them, should go to www.nfbnet.org<http://www.nfbnet.org> and check out the large variety of listservs that are available to see if there is one that better fits their needs.

Noel

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The purpose of the Blind Law listserv is to serve as a resource for blind lawyers, paralegals, and law students, those blind people interested in a career in the legal profession, and others interested in techniques used by blind attorneys in practice.  Discussions focus on blindness-related aspects of the practice of law, legal employment, technical resources for the legal profession, law school admissions, and law school admissions tests and bar examinations.  The Blind Law listserv is also a means for sharing information about laws and cases that affect the blind and for disseminating information about programs and activities of the National Federation of the Blind.  This discussion area is moderated by members of the National Association of Blind Lawyers, a division of the National Federation of the Blind, and by the listserv owner.

The primary purpose of the Blind Law listserv is to serve as a resource to the members of the National Association of Blind Lawyers, and thus, NABL membership is encouraged of all listserv participants.  To become an NABL member, visit www.blindlawyer.org.

The Blind Law listserv is not intended to be a forum for providing legal advice about individuals' particular legal matters.  Blind Law participants in the Blind Law listserv do not represent individuals who post to the listserv.  All listserv participants should be aware that archives of postings to Blind Law are accessible on the internet and should refrain from posting personal information that they would not want read by people outside of the Blind Law listserv.  What follows are some rules specific to blindlaw.


*        Blind Law participants are generally busy legal professionals or law students and do not have time to determine the topic of an e-mail thread other than from the subject line.  We recognize that it is easy to forget, but Blind Law participants should take extra care not to reply to a post without changing the subject line when the discussion has moved along to a different topic.

*        Be courteous when contributing to a discussion on the Blind Law listserv.  However, Blind Law participants should not send posts that merely thank others for their posts or offer a "ditto" of another's post because posts of that type increase the volume and discourage subscribers.

*        Blind Law listserv moderators are people with better things to do than address off-topic or inappropriate postings.  Moderators will err on the side of keeping Blind Law clean of posts that may drive away busy legal professionals and law students.  Any Blind Law participant who is identified as a regular abuser of the purpose and rules of the list may be subject to banishment from the list for a specified period of time or permanently, depending on the nature of the abuse, and such determination to ban a participant will be at the discretion of the moderators in consultation with the leadership of the National Association of Blind Lawyers.