JP Boyd on Family Law Editorial Manifesto

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An editorial manifesto for a new public legal education resource[edit]

By John-Paul Boyd, April 2013[edit]

When Courthouse Libraries and I first started talking about the 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 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:

  1. Free
    The information should be available for free, to anyone, without restriction and without expectation of reward.
  2. Plain language
    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.
  3. Up-to-date and accurate
    The information should be timely and accurate, within reason and practicality.
  4. Recommendatory of subject matter
    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.
  5. Promoting of good behaviour in the justice system
    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 the court registry services, chambers applications and trial processes.
  6. For sharing and redistribution
    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.
  7. Helpful
    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.