The Decline Of The Blawg

I'm clearly not an attorney, but being an investigator in a Public Defender office, I've considered my blog a blawg (or a semi-legal blog) since I first heard the term.

At the end of July this year, one of the first legal blawgers I ever started reading, hung up his keyboard. Skelly at Arbitary and Capricious who had been writing about his life and work since 2004, shut his site down.  Actually, the site is still up but Skelly has taken a "Hiatus" as is the title of his final post, and is no longer updating his site.

Fellow Blawgers and a few attorneys I know have been discussing the recent cases and stories of attorney blawgers who have lost their jobs and more for blawging about work related issues and experiences.  I find it all very unfortunate.  In my time, I've seen a lot of blawgs come and go, most by authors with a TON more interesting and useful things to say than me.  NOTE:  If you click on the link for the New York Times Story, you'll find an extremely well written comment by fellow blawger and producer/writer favorite legal show, David Feige.

Personally, I've had more than a few hiccups in my time blawging.  Three years ago, a co-worker figured out who I am from an out of office experience I wrote about and we just made an agreement to never talk about it.  I've had a few people ask me if I ever read PDIblog.com and hinted at me being the masked author.  We laughed about it but it never went farther than that.  A few other things have occurred that I can't write about without giving up the whole enchilada but all are things that have in the last year or more, caused me to be the Myspace Investigations Expert instead of a blawging Public Defender Investigator...and it sucks.  Its one of the reasons that my posts have become more and more infrequent.

I'm not embarrassed or ashamed of being found out but I do love my job and I worry about losing it.   Is this still the place for me to share my work experiences?  I don't know yet but Skelly's exit is looking mighty nice

Focused...Like A Shotgun

Posting has been slow going for me lately...Not because I haven't had anything worth writing about,  but quite honestly I've been getting my ass handed to me so much lately that I'm just a tad on the discouraged and beaten down side.

I could use a nice vacation.

I guess its kind of a dickhead arrogant thing to be saying considering I just had a paid, three day weekend but I really could use it.  

I've worked up a few trials to death with a multitude of reports, only to have them plead out the week/day trial is scheduled to start.  In the meantime, my other active cases have not gotten the attention they've deserved while I'm focusing like a laser beam on the cases supposed to be going to trial and I'm put in a position where I have to really dig in and just get shit done on my initial and supplemental investigation requests...I wish we got paid overtime.

I really shouldn't complain.  Writing reports is way better than digging ditches or spreading hot tar on roofs, both things I did when I was in high school to make money...high school sucked.

Getting the morning started with a glass of orange juice and an avocado sandwich...the perfect fuel to start a day which will consist of interviewing the mother of a 288 victim (In some cases, I would ALMOST rather have my fingernails pulled out with pliers) and canvassing a neighborhood for witnesses to a shooting last month.

The good times continue.