Planning Forms Completed 1Q12 Legal

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= WG name: Legal Working Group =

= Meeting Schedule/Place =

About once a week, recently they have been on the weekends in Cambridge.

= Contact Info =

Kat Johnston (619) 886-2977 kat@occupyboston.org

Bradford Adams (207) 423-2282 bradfordtadams@gmail.com

= WG Purpose or Mission =

Provide or coordinate for the provision of: legal observing of OB actions, training on how to interact with police (civil disobedience, know your rights), jail support for arrestees, legal representation at arrestees criminal hearings, access to advice on legal implications of OB actions, access to legal instruments that support OB goals.

= Actions Planned =

Steps (objectives) the Working Group hope to take over the next 6 months toward achieving this purpose or mission:

Continued legal observing, jail support, and coordination of legal representation; documentation of and education about human rights as they relate to protesters’ rights and the goals of the movement.

= Resources Required =

Itemize resources, including money that might be needed to accomplish these objectives:

Currently have approximately $6,000 in cash and an additional $2,000 in recoverable bail money.

We would like to have ready access to about $6,000. This is the amount required to pay about 150 “cheap” bails (bail commissioner fees without any additional bail) or 50 “moderate” bails (bail commissioner fees plus bails of $50-$100). We expect to incur additional cost to support court fees for pending civil cases that relate to 2011 arrests. These costs will probably not arise until the summer. We don’t know exactly how much they will require.

We have incurred incidental costs such as purchase of legal observer hats that have amounted to $100-$200, and some collect call charges from arrestees that have amounted to about $40.

= Actions to Get Resources =

Actions we expect to take to help get the resources and money needed for the work we are planning:

In the event of future large-scale demonstrations with large-scale arrests, we will likely continue to use the online donations account at WePay.

If the court costs associated with filing civil cases are excessive, we may need to consider additional fundraising activities, however we haven’t really thought about this as we don’t yet know how much that will cost.