Lawyers Under Fire
What a Mess Lawyers Have Made of the Law!
by
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Lawyers seemingly believe that the all too frequent phrase,
“I hate lawyers” is simply a rhetorical uttering with a faint smattering of
truth. But not so! There is a vast reservoir of animosity
because of the way that many, maybe most, lawyers have conducted themselves
while representing their profession.
People resent the greed. They
resent the failure to live up to suitable standards of professionalism. They resent the lack of integrity and the
arrogance of lawyers. And they resent
the incivility and lack of attention to the concerns of clients.
Let’s...consider what is wrong with the legal
profession. Many of the lawyers
themselves are deeply concerned by the flaws in the American court system. Books have been written that fault the
exclusionary rule, the jury system, the judges, the loss of professionalism,
the appellate court system, the Supreme Court Decisions, the high cost of legal
work, the inadequacy of pro bono work, the Miranda rule and virtually every
aspect of legal practice. And if the
problems have been so well identified, solutions or improvements have also been
recommended but little ever happens.
The following paragraphs are the initial lines of the
introduction to Alan Dershowitz’s book, The Best Defense:
“A conspiracy of silence shrouds the American justice
system. Most insiders – lawyers and
judges – won’t talk. Most outsiders –
professors and judges – don’t really know.
Few of those outside the club ever get close enough to the day to day
operation of the system to appreciate how it really works.
“Some insiders won’t talk because they have a stake in not
exposing the dark underside of the legal profession. Others are in fear of reprisals. Indeed, the formal rules governing the legal
profession discourage lawyers from criticizing their ‘professional brethren,’
and encourage them to promote ‘public confidence’ in our courts and in the
‘honor of our profession’. Equally
important is the understanding among insiders that they should criticize the
system only within the club and not in public.
The dichotomy between insiders who know but won’t say and outsiders who
will say but don’t know has deprived the public of a realistic assessment of
the American justice system.
“The American justice system is corrupt to the core: It depends on a pervasive dishonesty by its
participants. It is unfair: it is
discrimination against the poor, the uneducated, the
minority groups.”
Several writers have reported that 90 per cent of the legal
matter that is learned in law school will never be used. And 90% of what will be needed is not
taught. Instead, the principal training
is to be argumentative, combative, abusive, uncommitted to any given set of
beliefs and, unfortunately, arrogant.
Author (and Lawyer) Scott Turow has written
that law school drums the humanity out of lawyers.
Current methods for attempting improvement depend on some
single dedicated, high-principled lawyer writing a book with recommended
changes in one area and another such lawyer writing a book suggesting changes
in a different area. Then other lawyers
write articles arguing against the proposed changes. Eventually some board or panel takes action
to inject little more than cosmetic changes into the system. In the end, no real benefit is achieved, only
that which hurts the fewest possible number of lawyers.
This book will review the damaging actions that are harmful
to the practice of law, and present proposed improvements as recommended by
dedicated, respected, totally professional members of the bar.
Ultimately, the entire sorry mess can be blamed on all of
the decisions made over the years by United States Supreme Courts, the state
supreme courts and the various courts of appeal. The myriad decisions have been both
inconsistent and politically motivated.
As far as the highest profile field of law, where we seek to
improve the criminal justice system, the intent of proposals described in this
book is to provide an improved means of arriving at accurate verdicts without
significantly violating the constitutional rights of any accused person. The only hope for an improvement of the
justice system is that a national consensus must be generated demanding that
the legal system shall at least be reformed.
Today, the number of people who are practicing law in the
Two giant scams have been created by lawyers but, being lawyers, they have been created in an entirely lawful manner and indeed the scams are operated as part of the legal process. They provide two great pipelines from the consumer, particularly from the insurance buy
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About the Book
One of the nation’s most
prominent lawyers has written that the American justice system is corrupt to
the core. Numerous others express
similar sentiments particularly emphasizing the loss of professionalism.
Lawyers Under Fire provides ample basis
for concluding that the legal profession is in a failing condition
characterized by flawed practices and deplorable ethics. Respected, experienced lawyers call for key
improvements but nothing more than cosmetic changes ever happen. Anecdotal evidence demonstrates the need of
drastic reforms but the real push for correction must come from the non-lawyering public.
Criminal trials must become something more than lotteries. The adversarial system must eventually be
eliminated.
To solve one of the most serious
shortcomings of all, inadequate legal service for all of the poor, the
profession must turn to the only logical change that can answer that problem.
From the book – “American
acceptance of the conduct of trial lawyers should make clear something that has
disturbed people for over half a century.
How could the great mass of German people have tolerated the evils of
the Nazi regime when they had to have known at least in part what was
occurring? The German people permitted
themselves to believe that the death camps and the torture chambers were the
realm of the Storm Troopers and that what that group did was not the concern of
the greater German populace. They had
been fully occupied with their own concerns.
“Now we deal with a lesser
magnitude of evil but one in which most Americans know full well what is
happening. Yet, we do nothing. We continue pretending that the criminal
justice system is the realm of the lawyers and therefore that what they do is
not the concern of the greater American populace whose members are fully
occupied with their own concerns.”
About the Author
After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, Sampson
anticipated a Naval career, but to avoid extensive
separation from family, he made tough decisions to use a graduate degree to
switch to industrial management.
By writing this book after his 80th birthday, he posts a
standard of performance to inspire potential writers everywhere.
During 35 years of engineering and management, Al studied
aspects of law at two universities. Through
work experience he gained considerable background in law and supplemented that
by reading over 25 books by lawyers who have urged revolutionary changes in the
practice of law.
With this book, the goal is to enroll the American public in
the push for reform. The profession of
law must serve all Americans.