Central District Consumer Bankruptcy Attorney's Association

Re-send from March 2010 -
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For the record, I think things are mostly functioning well in our little
self-regulating community. Every now and then, a kerfuffle kicks up to
liven things up, but for the most part, it's going well. I agree with
something that David Tilem once wrote that, for the most part, it's best to
err on the side of robust discussion instead of stifling. Social pressure
and similar factors will help filter out a lot of stuff.

But since you asked, "Rules" are things that are things like "shall" or
"must" whereas I think of "Etiquette" as "should" stuff. Discipline should
of course fit the crime, with possible degrees ranging from having one's
posts moderated, one week/month suspension from list or outright banning for
something egregious and repeating. (note that for possible consequences
being moderation of posts, that implies that a change and suggestion that
all others should be UNmoderated!) With that in mind, merely as a draft
starting point of discussion, what about something like this?

Rules:
* Attorneys shall avoid personal attacks on any member, judge,
trustee, etc.
* Attorneys shall avoid any posting that is discriminatory, racial,
sexually explicit, political, religious or libelous.
* Attorneys shall respect confidentiality re: disclosures about
trustees and judges regarding preferences, temperament, etc. to foster
healthy discussion.
* Attorneys shall expect that anything published on the list is
published by the group (example: posting a case, brief or motion).
Etiquette:
* Attorneys should research (search the database at the very least!)
before posting a question. Chances are it's come up before.
* Attorneys should consider that this is a community of your peers;
your posts are shaping perceptions about you, ethics, work ethic, and
general overall character. Once something is posted, it will be kept in the
Yahoo database for a long time. Thus...
* Attorneys should not post something incendiary or controversial
without saving it as draft and re-reading it in the morning with a cool
head.
* Attorneys should thank someone who helped them, if they choose to
thank, offline and in a direct email.
* Attorneys may consider truncating or "snipping" the history of a
long-running thread post if poster's recent remark is not germane to the
original post but a reply to something more recent in thread and thus, save
everyone having to download the whole thing all over again.
* Attorneys should think about whether a reply is something best for
one person one-or-one or something to be broadcast to everyone.
* Attorneys should use blue or black type, at least 12 point font. If
you survived law school's reading with good vision, most of us others
haven't.
* Attorneys should post their reply at the top of a thread and not the
bottom so it's easily found and readable.
* Attorneys should avoid using ALL CAPS and other forms of
"NETIQUETTE"
* Never generalize.
Hale
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The post was migrated from Yahoo.