Nina Mason

Georgia Civil Justice Foundation: Are Lawyers Necessary?

Watch the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation’s “Are Lawyers Necessary?”

The comments posted after my first blog post (Georgia Civil Justice Foundation Launches Values Based Access to Justice Campaign) introducing our reframing work for Georgia Civil Justice Foundation, puzzled at what it was we are trying to advocate with these animations. But that’s the point. We’re not trying to
“advocate” anything. We’re trying to engage people in a “conversation” about civil justice so they can be better informed and more discerning. We’re trying to build a new, values-based frame for people to use to think
about civil justice differently (if they think about it at all). Our work is built on the premise that people will make smart decisions if their discernment is triggered. That’s why our narrations talk “with” them; not “at” them.

I don’t expect everybody to “get it.” This is pioneering work and I can’t find anybody else who’s doing the same thing in the same way. I think we’ve all grown too accustomed to being “told” what to think, “told” what to
believe, and manipulated by fear-based rhetoric. Isn’t that the whole basis of tort “reform”?

The second animation in our series concerns the adversarial process, the basis of our justice system, both criminal and civil. We wanted to help people understand how the system works at a fundamental level, why we use
lawyers as our advocates, and why the system was chosen by the founding fathers as the most fair.

These are not easy topics to make engaging. And, apparently, Bob finds the first one boring. Let me know what you think about the second on Adversarial Process.

Feedback and client referrals are more than welcome Nina Mason (nmjustice4all@hotmail.com). I’m in the process of starting my own values-based issues management consulting firm. It is called Lex Communications (lex is Latin for law). You can also reach me at lexcommunications@gmail.com.

Posted at 10:10 AM, Dec 19, 2006 in Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)