Wednesday, November 09, 2005

FIGHT BACK WITH FACTS!!!

If you are fighting against an unfair dog law in your town or state, it is important to gather court statistics, and to get statistics from your local animal control bureaucracy. You might need the help of an attorney to advise you on how to get these records made public. If you talk to your local bar association, you will find activist, pro-dog attorneys who will do free consulting work in their off hours for you. You will need facts and figures to prove your case to the public and the legislators. You MUST have such statistics if you want to prove your case in court.

Here is the kind of information you need to gather:

You need to define what kind of EVENT happened:

Jury Trial
Deferred Sentence
Pretrial Hearing
Review
Intake
Motion
Sentencing

You need to define the OUTCOME of each case:

Dispositional Continuance
Dismissed/ Dispositional Continuance Successful
Dismiss
Other (specify)
Found Guilty
Plead Guilty
Dismissed/ Proof Problem
Stipulated Order Of Continuance
Dismissed For Cost
Dismissed/ Negotiated Plea

You need to interview the defendants, and all parties you can get on record, and get copies of the documents

Plaintiffs
Defendants
Witnesses
Court papers
Prosecution/ Police/ Animal Control Reports
Case Numbers and Filed Reports
Newspaper articles (especially look for their sources and reporters involved… the press won’t hide all their contacts, and might even help you)

This seems like a lot of work. It is.

Which is why you need to form a local group to help out with the research, documentation and interviews.

Armed with this, you can then build your own report, with a cover letter, narrative report, spreadsheets summarizing the statistical results, and attached supporting documents.

This information can then be wielded like a weapon to your advantage. Your opponents will NOT have done all this research and you will have the upper hand, both with the media, the public and with the decision makers.

You can prove your case. Believe me. You can PROVE there is unjust treatment of dogs and owners in many jurisdictions… AND EVEN SUE FOR MONETARY DAMAGES AND FORCE COURT ORDERS ON YOUR SITUATION! All the tools of the governmental process can be used to your benefit. So, START TODAY!

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