Alright, well. Since I'm going to be taking these notes anyways, I figure it'd only make since to take them down here.
What this legal research thing really comes down to is freelancing. There are two skills or pursuits that must manifest. The first is legal research. I must become good at this skill before my name gets out there and before I can even consider making money. The second is freelancing, and all the self-promotion, networking, and time management which that requires.
I empathize with both sides of this coin. Any projects which take more than an afternoon, should be projects which I leverage. Either for traffic or for money. That said, there is likely a place for small tidbits of research that I share for nothing in return.
Now here's one that just came up as I started to write this: guest blogging, duh. Law blogs of professionals and students are a dime a dozen, for both videos and written mediums. Twitter, hive, mastodon, etc. So why not leverage those as well?
An obvious challenge is that the person with a larger budget can always out-perform me. At least in quantity of research and the "turnkey" quality of that research. However, we are always on a level playing field with the matter of depth of understanding.
Communicating this understanding may not be hard (while avoiding 'legal advice') but it needs to be considered. Whether the tidbits are put together with visual cues (as in a mind map) or whether I summarize my findings in a "Personal Opinions and Conclusions" section.
For now I will be sticking to topics within the context of North Carolina. I don't want to get bogged down with the process of various jurisdictions. So that part of these topics will only become quicker and more polished. Which is great, it'll make it much easier when I can map out the potential directions a case may take.
Based on the previous thought about conclusions, how do people best absorb legal information? Better yet, how best to present this stuff to someone who's going to use it as defense or offense?
One option is to lay it out as a unidirectional map, another is a web of possibilities, and perhaps there are other structures. With these options, the best way to do it is probably like video game designers handle their storytelling. And in this case I can cater it to the capabilities of the reader.
Like if I got contacted by a serious pot-head: No matter how much effort I put in, or how earnestly I try to help him with some bogus charge, if he's in the clouds all the time, what can I do? Then again, if the necessary solution isn't straight forward, and the defendant lacks the capability, I should probably just walk away.
So, back to the structures, we have unidirectional set of instructions, a web of possibilities, a tree that branches with the major choices, a set of potential plays, or just an educational dive into the laws surrounding a topic. Those are all equally valid.
At least this part of things is pretty straightforward. Either I get some form of certification(s) or I get a lot of reviews and testimonials. There may be a middle ground. If a general and inexpensive research certification exists, I might bite. For the most part though, I think this has to be handled by referrals.
Now I may try to augment generic reviews by being transparent about my process. Because, if I want to keep stepping up my game, having standards is necessary; and they can't just be qualitative standards. At some point there must be very specific and quantifiable ways of doing this work.
One of my larger challenges will be getting my face in front of people. Once I've cut my teeth on smaller projects, I won't feel out of place going to law firms to state what I do and how I can help. Until then, I'm going to make money off of confused individuals who need some guidance through the minefield of law. So how the heck do I connect?
There are the obvious registries of criminals and listings of people in prison. The only problem with those, is that 80% of them are people I don't want to work with. Then again, there will still be diamonds in the rough. Public facing businesses are easy to pick out, the biggest challenge with them is that their challenges are much more complicated than those of a typical person.
I still have the option of posting to physical bulletin boards and linking back to my website. Mass email campaigns are also an option. Time-consuming, but not impossible. As are physical mail campaigns. What if I put business cards next to the statutes in a library? Meh, that doesn't seem so potent either. Bulletin boards at courthouse? Oh wait!
Visit court on my off days and leave business cards in the court room, make small talk, or pass it to people who would benefit. Not a perfect strategy, but that's something.
This is the real truth of the matter. Because of the local nature of what I'm trying to do, I'm not prospecting as a freelancer per se.
This one is harder for me to wrap my head around, yet possibly a bigger payoff. Could start with just emailing all the law offices in a 10 mile radius, state that I'm a newbie who is interested in the field, offer my time.
To keep tabs on any legal research I publish: evandibona.com/v/lglr
