Re: drug test***Bob***

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On 2/16/06, Curmudgeon wrote:
> On 2/16/06, Bob R/CA wrote:
>> On 2/16/06, regina wrote:
>>> If you were given a drug test and it came back positive
>> but
>>> the substances are unknown,how long can a person be
>>> suspended? Can the same urine be tested twice?
>>
>> Suspended from what? This is an attorney chatboard, why did
>> you post this here?
>
> Bob, have you considered making the "legal questions" button
> bigger or brighter so its easier to locate?

Thanks for the input, Mudge.

I have a big organizational challenge here, not just how to
display the stuff, but how to conceptually arrange it. It goes
to the heart of this entire website - what is this website's
purpose? Who is its target?

This winter marks ten years for Counsel.Net, and ten years of
wrestling with that question. I have always envisioned this
website as a resource for attorneys and legal professionals, but
without registration (which would destroy the traffic, without
some compelling benefit) it would be impossible to strictly
limit the community to this segment.

Over time it's become obvious that the general public wants
resources to help them solve legal problems, and find legal
assistance. Rather than ignore this need, I have come to
embrace it and am seeking to channel this need into something
that will benefit the attorneys for whom this site is designed.

As you can see from the very top header, I am now dividing the
traffic into three components - the attorneys (and support
fields), law students, and the public.

For the attorneys, I want to provide them a way to network with
other attorneys, and have quick access to referrals and help with
legal matters. A peer support community. While litigators may
be intrinsically adversarial, if a huge support community can be
fostered, in time they can derive a great benefit. What
practitioner doesn't have some challenge every day or week that
they don't have the answer to? In a huge online community,
answers to almost every question can be found, or at least a
referral to someone or someplace that can help.

For the public, help with threshold legal issues. Do I have a
case? Do I need a lawyer? Generally speaking, what can I
expect? And here's where our attorneys can benefit - who
specifically can help me with this matter? If the public
contribution can be managed, without making the practioners feel
they are wasting their time among clowns or pretenders, then
everyone can benefit. And over time, this website will build up
a repertoire of material indexed in the search engines which
will help everyone in similar straits.

For the law students, this site offers promise as a place to
develop their legal analytical skills, to network with other law
students and attorneys, and to develop strategies for optimizing
their career.

So, this is what we have to work with, and my challenge is to
arrange it in such a way that the attorneys properly feel at
home, that the public can quickly find answers and legal
assistance, and where the discussions flow at a dynamic pace.

I've already invested about a month into site redesign and
content, now I just need to get the copy into the proper places
so that the users quickly grasp where to go and what to do.

How are we doing so far? What do you like, and what needs some
attention?