Jake Warner Profile: The Self-Help Legal Trailblazer

We all know that legal fees are sometimes unaffordable by those with limited income.

We all know some people will not have the capacity to hire lawyers and represent them in every dispute they may find themselves in.

So, placed in a difficult situation, these people turn to free legal aid given by the government. The problem however, is that there are thousands of low-income people needing legal assistance and there are not enough lawyers to go around – the outcome is a long waiting list.

One of the problems is that the legal aid system is limited in helping only the poor, which leaves out the middle class income earners who also need the financial help with their legal expenses, which can make these people unable to afford hiring private lawyers to represent them. This is where Ralph “Jake” Warner got his idea when he co-founded Nolo Press in 1971. He believes in reshaping the legal system and makes it easy for everyone to understand. The motto of the company is “Law for All”. Jake Warner believes that law is an integral part of democracy and he is passionate about it. His goal, achieved through Nolo Press, is to reshape the law by putting it in layman terms and make it easily accessible by everyone.

Jake Warner must have been greatly influenced by the prevailing “free living” concept of his era in 1966. The sentiment at that time was anti-corporate and all about communal living and free love. Many of his fellow graduates eschewed the traditional path out of law school of getting into the big law firms and getting big money. His classmates liked the idea of working pro-bono, helping others get legal representation at low costs or even free.

Jake had the dream of making law accessible to all and this goal has driven him to find a way to make it accessible to middle class income earners who were previously not qualified to get help from legal aid. In 1971, Warner and his business partner Ed Sherman, published their first book titled “How to Do Your Own Divorce“. The book was written by Sherman and for quite a long time they lugged cases and cases of this book door-to-door to various bookstores until they found a distributor that was willing to represent them.

Today Jake Warner serves as chief executive for Nolo Press, and they put out dozens of self-help law books a year covering varying topics such as landlord-tenant rights and estate planning. He remains aggressive and passionate about making law accessible to all by publishing books like “Nolo’s Quick LLC: All You Need to Know About Limited Liability Companies” and many more. His company also produces software, like “Quicken Willmaker“, which is a bestseller and they are also launching a bid to sell legal forms and products online.

Thanks to people like Jake Warner, people of limited means now have a choice when it comes to representing themselves in court. While no one will deny that the services of a lawyer are without comparison, NOLO has given people an option and has given many people a taste of the law – perhaps spawning more than a few future law students looking to further their legal education.

Jake Warner received his law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley and his undergraduate degree from Princeton.

How Libraries and Museums Get Sued for Public Domain Scans

From Library Law Blog:

Minow: The central question I’ve been asked to explore is whether museums, archives and libraries can charge for the use of scans they’ve made of items that are in the public domain.

Edwards:  I believe that the answer is a qualified “Yes”.  The qualification depends in part upon the financial situation of the institution.  In our case it’s very important to us.  It’s about 15% of our revenues. Our budget is only about $20,000 a year and we’re all volunteers.  Also, I would suggest that there needs to be a service charge included to cover the institution’s cost to provide the copy.  It’s also true that many institutions do not require additional funding enabling them to provide copies of photos at nominal prices.  If the provided photos are to be used for a commercial endeavor, why shouldn’t the institution receive some additional benefit for its efforts.  We price a personal use 8”x10” photo at $8 to members and as much as $50 for commercial use in a publication.  Over the course of the lawsuits against us, we learned the importance of the “value added” to these photographs by the society. The collecting, researching, cataloguing, digitizing, protecting and preserving of the photographs makes it possible for people to use and enjoy them.  And these benefits are not accomplished without costs.  When providing these images, you need to have a contract signed by the user that specifies exactly what the authorized use will be, such as personal study, one-time use for publication, etc.  Regarding the value added concept, we’ve had Archives Committee meetings during which we’ve reviewed photos and have found them useless. Without the context – who’s in the picture, who took it and when and where – historic photos can be of little value.  When we find such pictures without any context, we often sell them for about 25 cents, because that’s all they’re worth.

Minow: Tell  me about the lawsuit.

Edwards: Actually, there were two.  In the first in 2004 a local author sued us in state court. The claims were 1) defamation of character, 2) interference with contract and 3) interference with business advantage.  We attended a full day of mediation, with the mediator going back and forth between two private rooms stating positions and concessions.  Then the attorney would explain the legal terms to me.  I thought we had an agreement, but afterwards, our counsel gave us a 4 or 5 page letter that had us relinquishing much more than I had originally thought, so we rejected it.  Plaintiff subsequently dismissed the suit.  I believe that plaintiff and his counsel were aware that our insurance-funded counsel would defend us so long as the law suit was for damages.  By suing us in federal court seeking declaratory relief and costs of the suit and counsel, plaintiff knew that BHS would be stranded without insurance-paid counsel.

Minow: What happened next?

Edwards:  As expected, the author filed in federal court, making a copyright claim.  Since the photos were in the public domain, he said that trumped our contract agreement [17 U.S.C. § 301 Preemption clause].  We received great pro bono attorney help from Howard Rice (Simon Frankel and Shannon Scott), but we (really me and the BHS) couldn’t afford the expense nor the time to litigate.  We settled out of court.

Minow:  Can you tell me anything about this settlement?

Edwards:  As with the first law suit, it was dismissed by plaintiff.  In fact, there was a settlement agreement, but the terms are confidential.  I’m unable to comment on any of the events that led up to these dismissals which are not part of the public record.  The only statement that I was authorized to make is:  “The Berkeley Historical Society and [the author] have resolved their dispute regarding access and use of photographs of the Berkeley Historical Society.  The resolution permits [the author] to continue his historical efforts using the copies he has obtained of photographs of the Berkeley Historical Society, while at the same time preserving Berkeley Historical Society’s policies for usage of its photograph collection.  To clarify any possible misunderstanding of any previous statements or emails, there was no judicial determination regarding the claims of either party in the previous lawsuit between [the author] and the Berkeley Historical Society.”

Minow: Tell us about the role of insurance.

Edwards: This is extremely important.  We belong to the California Conference of Historical Societies.  Through our membership with CCHS, we had a policy that defended us since we were sued for damages [money].   We were paying about $500 / year for the policy and we had $2 million aggregate liability coverage. Our insurance company, Nonprofits’ Insurance Alliance of California (arranged through Truex Insurance), served up counsel which defended us in the state lawsuit.

All our state case expenses were paid by the insurance.  Separate from one’s organization’s liability insurance, it’s important  for  the individual to have an umbrella policy as part of home owner’s insurance.  I was sued both in a personal capacity and in my role as the society’s president.  My personal insurance did not cover these claims.  Lesson learned:  Get an umbrella policy as part of your homeowner’s insurance if you volunteer with a historical society or similar group.    Make sure the group has a  liability policy that protects you, or don’t volunteer.

Minow: Didn’t the insurance pay to defend you in the federal case?

Edwards:  No. That suit did not ask for damages. [It asked for a declaration that our policies were unenforceable as violating the Copyright Act. It also asked for attorneys’ fees and costs.]   We asked everyone we knew for help.  Thanks to a Board member’s connection we received a recommendation to approach the law firm Howard Rice.  Partner Simon Frankel generously agreed to accept our defense on a pro bono basis.   As an all-volunteer organization with a $20,000 annual budget, this law suit could have bankrupted us without pro bono counsel.

Minow:  What about using technological protection measures, like digital watermarks?

Edwards:  We started “selling” photos in the late 90s, and that was all new territory for us.  Remember, we’re all volunteer.  It required much effort for us to assemble our original One-Time-Use agreement, and commercial sales were rarely made.   More recently, we’ve discussed the introduction of digital watermarking, but we have a certain inertia, with limited resources and a vast need for technically savy volunteers.  We still don’t use digital watermarking, but we would if we had the resources.

Minow: So how do you control the images today?

Edwards:  For a start, we no longer provide photos in a digital format.  We make exceptions on rare occasion, but these have to go through our Archives Committee.  Our normal resolution is 300dpi which doesn’t support further quality copying or scanning.  We require users to sign our vastly improved one-time use agreement.

Minow:  What would you do if you found someone was violating the use agreement? Your insurance wouldn’t pay if you’re the plaintiff, right?

Edwards:  That’s right.  But we could go to small claims court.  I think the filing fee is on the order of $70.  You can file it yourself if your claim is under $5000, as I’d expect ours would be.

If I had it to do over

1)    Ensure that your organization has liability insurance with coverage extending to its directors and volunteers.  BHS is a member of the California Conference of Historical Societies; University of the Pacific; Stockton, CA  http://www.californiahistorian.com/ which offers such insurance.  This paid our defense costs in the state case.

2)    Individually, I would have an umbrella policy. I was sued in both an official capacity, as President of the historical society, and as an individual in the state law suit.  This points to the importance for a volunteer to have umbrella coverage with one’s home owner’s or renter’s insurance.  I’d had umbrella coverage in my State Farm homeowner’s policy some years earlier, but I had let it lapse without appreciating the potential consequences.

3)    Invest some time, money and effort in developing a tighter one-time use agreement for sharing your photos. We thought it was satisfactory, but we know more now, and have tightened it up.  Now it reads:    [ed. note: click here: BHS-OneTimeUseAgreement.doc]

complaint.pdf and dismissedprej.pdf

Why Businesses Should Address Disputes Early

From Online Guide to Mediation: 

One of the biggest–and costliest–mistakes that businesses make is the failure to properly address disputes early in their life cycle. More and more though in-house counsel recognize the virtues of alternative dispute resolution as a cost- and time-saving device for the organizations they advise.

Case in point: in a Law.com interview, Mark LeHocky, general counsel at Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, advocates the use of early dispute resolution to keep costs down and prevent disputes from, in his words, “metastasizing”. As LeHocky explains,

…Litigation costs typically account for the biggest portion of expenditures that companies spend on outside counsel. And the proper management of disputes is in turn the biggest cost control opportunity most companies have before them…

… I actively pursue a package of early dispute resolution tools — starting with a disciplined internal review process and the use of mediation and other ADR devices regardless of the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the positions of each dispute matter. I have served as a mediator for the federal courts for 10 years — one of my few pro bono activities now that my kids are grown up enough that I can stop coaching soccer teams. That experience, together with my background in private practice, has transformed my thinking about how disputes arise and, more importantly, how they grow and metastasize unnecessarily.

More often than not, disputes go on longer than they should and become bigger than they need to be due to misunderstandings as to facts as much as legal issues. Sorting those items out as soon as possible is the best for everyone concerned and helps to avoid the unnecessary buildup of litigation fees and other costs. That doesn’t mean we don’t litigate. We do so when the situation warrants and we use the best and the brightest lawyers. But that happens only after we have pursued the early dispute resolution path in rigorous fashion.

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