Most of the articles that appear in the Hearing Views section are contributed by people from outside the Hearing Health Matters family. But, from time to time, editors of other areas of this blog are invited to opine in this space on matters of interest to them and, we hope, to our readers.
This week, two of our regular bloggers explain why they blog—a topic that other editors at HHM will take on in the future. Those doing so here are the only two of our group who are not hearing care professionals of any kind. But that doesn’t prevent us from having opinions on hearing issues.
By Fred Cohen
Editor, Law & Hearing
Why do I blog at hearinghealthmatters.org? Certainly not because I am an expert on audiology. I am a consumer of advanced “hearing assistance,” but I will not write about that since I have nothing of substance to offer.
I am a retired law professor—constitutional and criminal law—who has recreated himself as an author on legal and correctional topics. My specialty is correctional mental health. In my writing, I walk the tight rope between addressing lawyers and non-lawyers alike on a particular topic without giving the lawyers some indigestible, legal pabulum and the non-lawyers a Dick & Jane coloring book.
I did not undertake this blog to stay busy, make money, become famous, or attract clients. When invited to join, I accepted because I believe I can “translate” the law as it impacts the numerous areas of hearing issues both for audiology experts and for those who come to Law & Hearing with more of an interest in law.
We tend to gravitate to the subjects that we know best. I have blogged more about prisons than perhaps I should have. But now I am moving into a vast new territory, including movie theaters, workman’s compensation, a wide variety of Americans with Disabilities Act claims, First Amendment issues–and more.
I’m very interested in learning what viewers would like to know about legal issues and audiology. If I can address those matters without spending a week at Yale, I will. Meanwhile, I am pounding my way through Westlaw, a great legal research tool, and searching for topics: legal decisions, legislation, legal writing, and general developments in the area.
Why I blog? It is just fascinating to take one’s legal training and experience and then try them out in a new area. If my trial is your learning, if my intellectual expansion stimulates yours, then I will continue to blog.
Fred Cohen, LLB, LLM, Yale Law School, has been a full professor at a number of leading law schools and was a founder of the Graduate School of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York at Albany. He has written widely on legal issues.
