Without going into specifics, I work in law enforcement dealing with some straight-up characters on all sides of the law. To be short, everyone I work with has at least a story to tell (usually far more than one), from the harrowing to the hilarious. I think those stories would be well appreciated by all kinds of readers, and it'd be a snap for me to collect them (I figured that an oral history would be the perfect format for this). Thing is, I'm worried about legalities. Can I use the name of my employment site without permission? I can get waivers signed by my coworkers/ story donors, but not from some of the people in their stories. Is merely changing their names enough?
After an evening dancing with Google, I'm sure that speaking with a lawyer will be helpful. Does anyone recommend a specific type of lawyer, or will any old one do? Are they multipurpose, like legal Swiss army knives? I've never written anything nonfiction and I'm not very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the process, so any and all help is welcome.
