Ever though about filing the TRO or PI yourself ?
Sure. Over the past several years I've
thought of filing dozens of lawsuits on various issues (Mostly when my OIPA requests for documents are denied or ignored even on appeal, and the only remaining option is litigation. The ACLU has refused to help, and Judicial Watch has other fish to fry.) There are two problems. 1. I am not a lawyer. The chances of me being successful in navigating the many "traps" for those of little to no knowledge of the intricacies of state and federal court rules and procedures are slim and none. 2. It costs $400 to file for the TRO, which is relatively simple, but wouldn't last for more than, at most 10-14 days. The PI would last much longer, but is also a more complex filing, which amount to mine fields for someone with no legal system knowledge. If one judge were to deny the request it can be "shopped around" to other judges, but it costs $400 each time (is my understanding). That is chump change to the national "gun rights organizations", whereas to me, unfortunately, it's money I don't have to gamble with. Remember,
SAF hired Gura [EDIT: My mistake, it was the NRA that hired Clement] at about $2,000 an hour to litigate Peruta, likely flew him first class to California for the orals and likely had him staying at some kind of quality hotel. And he LOST, BIGLY. They obviously have plenty of money. The $400 or $800 or $1200 or whatever it would be is not the issue. They won't do it for some other reason... and it can't be that "a judge will throw it out"... because that is the result they got from
Peruta and many other lost lawsuits where they have tried to argue, against Scalia's very clear words in
Heller, that concealed carry is a right.
George Young asked 17 attorneys in Hawaii to take his case, and none would. That's when he committed to spending literally thousands of hours studying law and his pro se cases were still thrown out of court without ever getting an actual hearing/presentation of evidence in a courtroom... but merely dismissed on essentially procedural grounds. Only with the assistance of an attorney was his case able to actually start to get a fair hearing. The deck is completely stacked against any non-lawyer who attempts to enter the realm of the lawyers (which includes the judges of course). It is
extremely ironic, or perhaps and indication of the grandiose incompetence of the "national gun rights organizations" that the only three major cases in the Ninth Circuit to win an overturning of ban type laws (now
Young, and previously the NMI cases of
Radich v. Deleon Guerrero, and
Murphy v. Deleon Guerrero) were by pro se individuals, who either plead the cases themselves, or started by themselves and then got pro bono legal aid. I'm just sayin'...
The purpose of getting the TRO/PI would be to then attempt to receive an open carry license in conformance with the Young ruling, which would be in effect, and then upon denial have grounds to sue for not conforming to the precedent in effect. So the TRO/PI is only the first step, and the succeeding steps would be much more complex. Any takers?
I've looked for and asked attorneys for help in the past, and no one wants to volunteer for the pro bono, that's for sure.