Is it Rodney time?
Across the rest of the internet, it’s time to start patting each other on the back. The ABA Blawg Awards are up (with not a single public defender blog nominated, again; the 2008 Weblog awards are running, so I’ve been thinking about our own dear Rodneys.
Should we have a third go at this? Is anyone interested? Does anyone still read and/or write public defender blogs?
Let’s have it out in the comments and if there’s enough interest, we’ll get started!
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11 comments
Well, I’m not a public defender. I’m just a German activist/abolitionist but I’m reading this blog and A Public Defender, too.
Greetings from Germany.
Joachim
“Does anyone still read and/or write public defender blogs?”
Heh. I feel like this is personally directed towards me (even though it’s not, must be the guilt talking).
Hah. No, it’s not personally directed at anyone. Just noticed that fewer people are blogging, that’s all.
Unfortunately with all of the budget cuts, we are all working much harder to ensure our clients are receiving top notch legal representation, even if it isn’t appreciated.
Interesting post….
As a public defender in a major US city, I’ve been reading criminal defense blogs pretty heavily/consistently for about a year now trying to figure out if blogging is something that I want to actually get into.
Having been in this observing mode for a while now, I still cannot figure out what makes public defenders tick or not tick. I’ve seen some PD bloggers post some REALLY interesting, well thought out & relevant things only to have nobody leave a single comment. Or if there are comments, it’s the same few folks each time.
I know that working as a PD, my colleagues are very opinionated and interested in most of the same things that I’m interested, but it’s like pulling teeth to get even one person to start reading PD blogs or criminal defense blogs, let alone actually leave a comment on one.
Unfortunately, I have not seen public defenders making much attempt to support other public defender bloggers, so I’ve totally ruled out a blog with public defenders as the primary, target audience.
Perhaps I’m not reading or interpreting what I’m seeing accurately, but posts dealing with current events & politics seem to get the most comments and I may end up doing a blog and focusing on that instead.
I’m interested in seeing what other people have to say in response to your question as it may affect my ultimate decisions on what to do myself.
well being simply a PD groupie i can only say that i do rather enjoy reading a bunch of the PD pages myself! and i must admit that at my recent birthday party i relayed a funny situation i’d read on one of the PD blawgs only to learn a fellow party goer had read it already!
so people are reading (and thus removing on of the best sources for my attempts at witty conversations)
Sadly, I cannot blog right now. But I love to read and vote!!!
PD blogs are very valuable, on a number of levels. Write, people!
Woman in Black: Good to know you’re still around! I wondered where you went. Can we hope that your blogging hiatus is only temporary?
As for the Rodneys: They’re a great idea. I’d like to do whatever we can to encourage more PD blogging. Of course, I don’t really do much myself so I see why others don’t, either, but… And it’s easy for me to say “do it” when I’m not the one who would be doing the work. I’d be happy to help, though. So my vote is a measured yes.
I still read the PD blogs, and blog myself occasionally. I find that doing both makes me a better lawyer. I say yes to the Rodneys.
I have a federal criminal defense investigator blog and try to read the other blogs out there as much as I can. Being a public defender myself, there doesn’t seem to be enough time to blog as much as I would like nor to read all the cool stuff out there (which is why my blogging seems to happen at two in the morning). I think the Rodneys are cool and are a good way to keep track of what is going on out there.
Aberrant Dicta debuted in the fall at http://www.dictablog.net–we‘re off to a bit of a slow start, but we’re picking up some speed as we figure out what we can safely write within the limits of confidentiality.
Public Defender blogs were an invaluable lifeline for me getting through a law school where most people thought I was nuts to shirk BIGLAW for public defense; I am still a regular reader of Ipse Dixit, Arbitrary and Capricious, and of course PDStuff.
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