My Archives
Long before the Internet and hi-speed broadband, computer users could share ideas with "Bulletin Board Systems", or BBS. I got online back around 1990, with a commercial service called CompuServe. Just as my sons can't imagine life without cable TV, people who have only known Web browsers might have trouble imaging a system where you had a dialup modem, at 2400 baud (or less), with no graphics or links. Not only was the experience crude, but you paid a high hourly rate for the privilege. But Compuserve had a great legal forum.
Back in the day, Compuserve had a very active exchange of views going on in its discussion forum, and a file storage area. Most sections of the forum were open to all Compuserve members.
Lawyers on the forum would try to answer questions that people had about the legal system, and we'd write FAQ files about various topics when the questions became frequent enough. For an example, I'm going to dig out the Personal Injury FAQ I wrote back then, and post it on the Legalview site, and you can find it here: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Personal Injury.
Another terrific essay was an answer, well, not really an answer, but an explanation why we couldn't answer, a very important question: How Much Is My Claim Worth?. I can't really take credit for this: it was a collective effort of forum members and I just edited it a little bit.