Richard Zorza once wrote that, after his death, he would continue to blog from hell. I would not be surprised if Richard, who died April 13 at the age of 69, is still blogging somewhere, but I am quite certain it isn’t hell.
On my short list of must-read blogs, Richard’s Access to Justice Blog was at the top. Since 2010, he wrote there about access to justice — and about the use of legal technology to enhance access to justice — with the passion and insight that reflected his more than 25 years of advocacy for A2J.
A prolific writer, it was only natural that, when he was diagnosed with cancer several years ago, he started the Richard Zorza’s Health Updates Blog to keep his friends updated on his medical situation. His last post there, on March 31, was poignantly titled, Maybe Moving Towards the End, I Fear.
Two weeks later, his wife Joan Zorza and stepson Arloc Sherman posted news of his death. He wanted everyone to know, they wrote, that he was profoundly thankful to everyone for the support given to him and for the support given to “the many individuals who lack access to justice in a number of ways.”
Richard was a Harvard Law School graduate who devoted his career to public service work. Early in his career, he was a public defender and legal services attorney. In 2005, he was the driving force behind the founding of the Self-Represented Litigation Network, an organization devoted to ensuring due process and equal protection for self-represented litigants.
One measure of Richard’s impact over the years is the many honors he received. Among them:
In 2014, the American Bar Association honored him for lifetime achievement with its Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access. “Since the 1990s,”
