I received an email the other day (as, I assume, did any number of my fellow blawgers) from a woman named Tracey.  It read:

I learned of your site through the poll on the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer blog–congratulations! I wanted to let you know about my legal blog, inthiscase.com, which posts true stories about people’s experiences with the legal system. I thought you might be interested in some of the criminal experiences…

Being an open minded and curious fellow, I paid a visit.  The first thing I noticed was that Tracey wanted me to check out here blog, but didn’t include mine in her blogroll.  If I’m worth soliciting for your website, then at least show me the courtesy of including my blawg in your roll.  Okay, so that’s a little rude, but so what. 

I then read her content.  What there is of it.  Hey, I always want to hear about people’s “criminal experiences,” right?  Well, Tracey’s language was a little imprecise.  This blog, inthiscase.com, invites people to write about their personal miserable experiences with the legal system.  OMG, these are the stories that we listen to day after day from clients about how unfair, how terrible, how unjust it all is.  And Tracey thinks we want to voluntarily read more of this? 

We’ve all been there a thousand times over, and frankly we’ve all experienced far worse than any of the stories on this website.  These stories are, to be blunt, unbearably common to a criminal defense lawyer.  Even when we’re paid to hear them, it’s painful.  To read them voluntarily would be torture.  So why am I writing about this?

After some due deliberation, it occurs to me that Tracey’s website does have some real potential, though not as a read for lawyers. One of the things our clients desperately need is catharsis.  Their experiences, though often pedestrian to us, are overwhelming to them.  They need to vent, to let out that anger and frustration they feel when first confronted with the absurdity of the criminal justice system.  Tracey provides a place to do this.

Send your clients to this website (it looks like it could use the content anyway) and tell them that there’s a place where they can write all about how awful and unfair their experience has been.  How bad the cops treated them.  How the judge was rude and uncaring.  How the prosecutor was mean and wrong.  All the stuff that clients think happened only to them, and never happens on those Law and Order TV shows where the cops and the system are a perfect reflection of truth and justice.  Not only is it cheap therapy, but it will free up the lawyers’ time to actually represent their clients rather than hand-hold. 

Just one caveat: Make sure that they don’t give their names.  The last thing we need is one more place for our client’s to confess, and you know that it will be “used against them.”