Legal aspects [was: anybody else see darl on teevee?]

[Alma J Wetzker]

dep wrote:
> quoth Matthew Carpenter:
> 
> | I'd vote for that...  I've also thought about privatized lawyers
> | becoming only a government employment opportunity, or imposing a 70%
> | tax on privatized lawyers, or cap their income some other way.  If
> | law wasn't such a lucrative profession, perhaps we would have less
> | laws and less lawyers in politics.
> 
> one state recently passed a law that limited tort actions. the state bar 
> association quickly swung into action, and it now seems likely that 
> they will elect enough lawyers to the state legislature to rescind the 
> law. numerous state bar associations are campaigning -- i have much of 
> their literature -- to pack the legislatures with more lawyers. so, if 
> there were laws to make vampir^h^h^h^h^h^h lawyerism less attractive, 
> there would probably be a rush by the state bars to rescind them. or 
> else, as is more frequently the case nowadays, the imperial judiciary 
> would simply throw them out, as they have thrown out the first 
> amendment for the month leading up to elections.
> 
> the solution overall comes in several forms: first, make it more 
> difficult to become a lawyer. open the doors for those who seek the 
> profession out of respect for and love of the law, but make it 
> marginally less convenient for those who choose it because it's more 
> financially lucrative than, say, accountancy or armed robbery. second, 
> which is part of the first, retest them periodically -- say, every 
> three years. and make it difficult for there to be cram courses, so 
> they would actually have to be proficient in the law. third, take the 
> resolution of issues of legal ethics out of the hands of the bar, and 
> put them before a civilian review board instead, and at the same time 
> greatly broaden the definition of unethical behavior. fourth, as long 
> as we get to screw around with the first amendment, as the supreme 
> court says we may, reinstitute the proscription of advertisements by 
> lawyers. fifth, strip state and national bar associations of any power 
> beyond that of a social organization. if lawyers want to unionize, 
> great: let 'em face the same pressures other unions do. sixth, grant an 
> automatic change of venue upon defendant's request in civil cases. 
> sixth, ban contingency fees and establish what amounts to the english 
> system in civil cases. (in that system, someone who has been wronged 
> but who lacks the money to pay a lawyer appears before a panel of 
> barristers and makes his case to them; if they conclude that he has a 
> case, it is assigned to a lawyer who is paid per hour. there *is* a 
> contingency fee in such cases, but it is paid to a fund from which the 
> lawyers in such cases receive their hourly rate, which does not vary. 
> and, of course, in english law, the loser pays the winner's legal 
> fees.) sixth, in civil cases give the defendant the right to decide 
> whether there will be a jury trial. seventh, establish a uniform 
> schedule of fees for lawyers covering all but the hourly rate. this 
> reduces the oodles of hidden charges that show up on legal bills. 
> eighth, establish strict controls on lawyers' escrow and retainer 
> accounts and fees. ninth, hold the law firm in addition to the 
> plaintiff liable for costs and damages in nuisance, malicious, and 
> other questionable lawsuits. tenth, modify the law of class action such 
> that lawyers may be paid only an hourly rate.
> 
> of course, none of that will happen because the legal profession will 
> not allow it to happen. and that sorry situation will continue to be 
> the case until society as a whole comes to view lawyers in the same 
> light that it views pedophiles, rapist-murderers, and the like. only 
> this will force the legal profession to clean up its act, to return to 
> the respectable position in society that -- it's true -- it once held. 
> we have gone from john adams to john edwards, and it's time now to 
> reverse the trend.

You left out only be able or file a suit in ONE jurisdiction, especially class 
action suits.  The current practice is to file in multiple jurisdictions and 
pursue the case assigned to a "favorable" judge.  You just drop the others.

My daughter was hit by a car while riding her bike this last summer.  Daughter 
is fine, bike is a total loss.  There was a police report.  Three days later 
we got no less that eight (8) letters from lawyers offering to file a suit.  I 
was disgusted.

     -- Alma