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You are here: Home / DC Authors / Docsmit: New Tool Helps Regular People Access the Legal System

Docsmit: New Tool Helps Regular People Access the Legal System

November 4, 2018 by Andrew Straw Leave a Comment

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Docsmit: New Tool Helps Regular People

Sometimes, when a person wishes to file a lawsuit to have their rights enforced, the Court requires paper filings through the U.S. Mail. In 2018, this seems like an archaic method of filing documents, and it is archaic. Most courts offer e-filing, but they usually don’t for someone filing their own case, known as filing pro se.  At the federal court level as well as the state level, the initial filings for non-lawyers will need to be on paper.

It took me some time before I found an easy and fairly cost-effective means to get my complaint and other initiating papers to the courthouse.

After trying other services that were terrible, I discovered www.docsmit.com, and was frankly delighted by that service.  It is set up to allow you to upload PDFs and an address, pay by credit card or paypal.  Docsmit will print your PDF, put the paper document in a flat envelope, and you can choose what level of U.S. Mail service you want to the court.  I always use U.S. Mail First Class service because that is what most courts require at a minimum.

Sometimes, the court will allow you to efile after the case is filed with the Court.  This is more common at the federal level, I have found.

I filed 3 cases in the past few days in Virginia state court using Docsmit and I’ll share with my readers the documents I filed, as an example.  First, I filed a cover sheet (original form from the courts), then my Complaint, an Affidavit with exhibits, a Petition for In Forma Pauperis (proceeding without any fees), a Motion to have the court serve my complaint and summons, and however many summons forms it takes to serve everyone (again, from the court website).  This is about the most basic way one can start a lawsuit as a poor person.

Obviously it would be easier to be able to file these online, but you just don’t always have that option.  Docsmit has a limit of 47 pages for a single flat envelope, but this is good enough for most complaints.  Usually, my complaint document is 20 pages or less and the affidavit fills in the details under oath.  All told, everything together is usually less than 47 pages.  But even if you need more, you can simply do another Docsmit mailing.  Technically, there is no limit to the number of envelopes that Docsmit will send for you so long as you pay for it.

Many people with disabilities who want to run for office will have to file a lawsuit of some kind or an administrative complaint in order to get ballot access or challenge some illegal action taken by the State or your opponent.  No problem with Docsmit; you don’t even need to own a printer or go to the Post Office.  It is important to know that there is a service like Docsmit to make churning out your PDFs into paper documents and mailing them to court right away easy.

I don’t like having to file like this because all of my links internal to the documents are flattened and unusable.  It’s important for the Court to know that you have this disadvantage, but the other side does not when they can e-file.

I wish my candidate readers well in their elections this year, and just wanted to bring this service to your attention.

*I am not associated with Docsmit in any way but use it now because it is convenient. I have no printer and using Fedex would be prohibitively expensive.

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Filed Under: DC Authors Tagged With: Money Politics, Voting Technology

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About Andrew Straw

Andrew Straw, a Democracy Chronicles columnist since 2018, is a person with disabilities who practiced disability law and engages in disability law reform advocacy. Straw was a Virginia lawyer and has served as corporate counsel for billionaire Alan M. Voorhees, who designed the Interstate Highway System and the Metro in Washington DC. Straw then worked for the Chief Justice of Indiana and was the assistant dean in charge of the International Programs at Indiana University-Maurer School of Law. Straw remains a member of the bar in good standing since 1999 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

He grew up in Indiana, where his brother, a retired USAF captain and twice a critical care trauma nurse veteran of Afghanistan, ran as a Democratic candidate for sheriff of Hamilton County in 2018. Jason Straw was head of Indiana NORML and still seeks reforms of the state’s marijuana laws like most other states have. Jason is known as “Captain Cannabis.”

Andrew Straw was born at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, where his father was training as a U.S. Marine for his Vietnam War duty. Straw was thus poisoned on the first days of his life but was denied compensation and health care. MDL-2218; Straw v. Wilkie, 843 F. App’x 263 (Fed. Cir. 1/15/2021); Straw v. United States, 4 F.4th 1358 (Fed. Cir. 2021). Straw started a group for people born or poisoned there called Children of Camp LeJeune in 2015. Congress voted to compensate people like Straw and his dead mother from the poisoning (S. 3373, Title VIII, Sec. 804). This new law passed the U.S. House by 342-88 and the U.S. Senate by 86-11. "Camp LeJeune Justice Act of 2022" was signed by President Biden on August 10, 2022.

Straw is a 9/11 victim, having been exposed to the toxic dust South of Canal Street in New York City in October 2001, with respiratory and throat illness.

Straw has visited 16 countries and has lived in the United States, Italy, New Zealand, Turkey, and the Philippines. Straw provided services to the Italian Foreign Ministry as a contractor and passed the written U.S. Foreign Service Officer Test in 1998. A National Merit Scholar, Andrew Straw’s CV can be found here. Straw has lived in the Philippines for over 5 years, starting June 2018, studying disability access in that country, but may one day return to the United States when the human rights violations against him stop.

He is an asylum seeker due to the discrimination and human rights violations of state and federal courts in the USA. Andrew Straw lives just 1374 km from where his father was stationed in Vietnam. See also. Straw is engaging in pro se civil rights and constitutional law reform from a distance.

Straw claims the certiorari system limiting access to the U.S. Supreme Court is unconstitutional under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, the First Amendment, and the Fifth Amendment. If his lawsuit is successful, this will open the gates to 7,000+ appeals to the Supreme Court each year that are arbitrarily denied now without a merits decision in each. Such a reform would be the biggest pro-access change in federal court policy since the American Founding. Straw v. United States, 23-16039 (9th Cir.). He is pursuing these massive changes without any help, pro se and in forma pauperis, after being denied certiorari himself 13x from 2014 to 2022.

Notably, Straw's law license property rights have been denied at all levels, from state trial court to U.S. Supreme Court.

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