View source for JP Boyd on Family Law Editorial Manifesto

==An editorial manifesto for a new public legal education resource==
===by John-Paul Boyd, May 2013===
When Courthouse Libraries and I first started talking about this wiki project, there were some core values that I wanted the wiki to maintain. I’d never thought about these things before, but when we started talking about how the wiki would look and be run, I realized that there were in fact certain qualities of my old website that I wanted to preserve. From this came a set of guiding principles for the editorial tone of what is now called ''[[JP Boyd on Family Law]]''. My hope is that this resource will continue to be:
# '''Free'''<br/>The information should be available for free, to anyone, without restriction and without expectation of reward.
# '''Plain language'''<br/>Information should be as accessible as possible and couched in colloquial language to the extent possible, without being inaccurate. It should avoid lawyer’s jargon to the extent possible, and may use humour, when humour is appropriate and relatively inoffensive.
# '''Up-to-date and accurate'''<br/>The information should be timely and accurate, within reason and practicality.
# '''Recommendatory of subject matter'''<br/>The information should not solely be about describing the options, but be prescriptive and recommendatory, when being prescriptive and recommendatory is appropriate. To some extent this will be an expression of policy and preference.
# '''Promoting of good behaviour in the justice system'''<br/>The information should promote the overall functioning of the justice system by promoting behaviours that are helpful and facilitate resolution and discouraging those which do not and, in particular, behaviours that degrade the efficiency of court registry services, chambers applications and trial processes.
# '''For sharing and redistribution'''<br/>The information should be broadly shared, and sharing and redistribution should be encouraged on the conditions that the source of the information be identified and that any subsequent reuse not be for a commercial purpose.
# '''Helpful'''<br/>Above all, the information should be helpful. It should be practical and pragmatic and the wiki should provide other resources, like court forms, charts and checklists, where they would serve a practical purpose.

The bit about this resource being prescriptive and recommendatory needs a bit of an explanation. Writing as an individual I have always felt free to express my views on things through my website, although I took care to ensure that my employers wouldn't be tarred with my opinions. As a result, rather than trying to provide a legally complete, politically neutered website that in trying to say all things for all people wound up saying nothing, I have felt free to use the forbidden terms “should” and “shouldn’t;” I have said that parenting coordination can be expensive (it can), that grandparents will have a hard time getting parenting time over the objections of a parent (they will) and that the cost of resolving a legal dispute through trial can be prohibitively expensive (it is). There is value, I think, in being able to say “yes you can make an application for an order restraining the children from having their hair cut on Wednesdays, but you shouldn’t because it’s not worth the time, the money, the conflict or the anxiety.”

Finally, I was reading the 2012 report of the [http://www.cfcj-fcjc.org/sites/default/files/docs/Report%20of%20the%20Family%20Law%20WG%20Meaningful%20Change%20April%202013.pdf Family Justice Working Group of the Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters], and gained further insight into the purposes behind my website. In discussion about court-provided information programs, the working group commented that: 
<blockquote>“Beyond the obvious value of orienting and helping to organize the parties, these programs are premised on two ideas. The first is that information is essential to a fair resolution. The second is that information is a dispute resolution tool, or put in the negative, misinformation can generate and prolong disputes. … Early information has been demonstrated to be sufficiently effective in reducing conflict and expediting resolution that many provinces have elected to make it mandatory.”</blockquote>
I took two principles from this. First, that accurate legal information is essential to the fair resolution of family law disputes. Second, that accurate legal information is itself a tool for the resolution of family law disputes. That was kind of what I had always had in mind for my website.
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