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

[Russ Thomas]

One necessary tool for any blind attorney is a scanner. Scan the document
and then read it on your screen reader. Admittedly this does not work very
easily for pictures or diagrams. 

Most federal and state courts require the parties to exchange exhibits in
advance of trial. With a scanner and screen reader you will have time prior
to trial to review these documents. 


-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Paul
Sullivan
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 5:25 AM
To: Blind Law Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Being unable to see relevant evidence in a legal
case

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.
100 Fifth Avenue
Suite 503
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 456-2200
paul at paulsullivanlegal.com
www.paulsullivanlegal.com

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