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"Ghostwriting: Filling in the Gaps of Pro Se Prisoners' Access to the Courts"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this interesting new piece by Ira Robbins available via SSRN. Here is the abstract: Compared with other litigants, pro se prisoners are at an inherent disadvantage when they try to vindicate their rights.  They lack many of the resources enjoyed by non-prisoner litigants. They have limited finances and limited access to legal-research materials.  Even if they had such access, their illiteracy would lessen its effectiveness.  Moreover, many attorneys are unwilling or unable to undertake full representation of prisoner litigants.  As a result, pro se prisoners struggle to navigate the complex legal system, often losing their cases on procedural grounds before ever reaching a decision on the merits. This Article argues that, in order to provide pro se prisoners with the access to the courts that law and justice require, attorneys (and sometimes non-attorneys) should be permitted to ghostwrite pleadings for them ? that is, to draft pleadings that prisoners will then file pro se...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 05, 2010 (boomark / email).