Principles of law

Naturally, when you have a tool that explains a certain kind of reality, you can be tempted to apply it to everything. For example, physicists may be right in saying that the world consists of subatomic particles, just as lawyers say that everything is, or should be, governed by principles of law.

But I think physicists must have more common sense than lawyers. I don't see physicists pretending that they can just grab the principles that guide subatomic particles and use them to provide a meaningful guide to, for example, the workings of the human mind. Lawyers, by contrast, don't hesitate to apply their insights to everything, as though written laws and agreements do, or should, rule all human interactions. And with enough aggressive lawyers, we might indeed see that kind of nightmare world someday.


But that's not what we want. Now, and then, and forever, it will always be crazy to give, to the law, such unstoppable power to rule things it does not understand.

The Right to Receive Humane Legal Assistance

Lawsuits often deal with the most intense, sensitive matters of your life, and yet lawyers and law firms are as cold as ice and judges act like they don't care if you live or die. Your friendliness or good intentions won't necessarily warm up the situation, either.

As a client, I have been repeatedly appalled at how my lawyers have seemed so indifferent to the real details of my cases. For a while, I thought that was because I was such a novice and didn't know what was really important. I wanted to believe in my attorneys, and tried to avoid second-guessing them. Eventually, however, you learn that, sometimes, the attorney who seems so unconcerned about the things that seem most important in your case really is unconcerned, and that those really are the most important things in your case.

It's always amusing to hear one attorney express surprise at the way another attorney acts in a personal lawsuit. I've heard such phrases as, "You're a lawyer, but you're acting just like a typical client." Or, as a couple of lawyers described it in the ABA Journal,

Sending out legal bills is a difficult process. Reviewing and paying them, I will certify to you, is significantly worse.

An associate in our firm was sued for malpractice. He had a very different goal for the litigation than the firm did. The definition of "winning," for the firm, was finding the cheapest, quickest, easiest way out, while for the associate, it was vindication. He was warned not to volunteer information, but when he got into the courtroom, he made speeches. I was stunned to find that in a lawyer. He turned out not to be much different from any other bright, interested client.

It is infinitely, infinitely more difficult to be a client than an attorney.

Unique among the industries in our market-oriented economy, the law acts as though the goal is to turn off, disappoint, and get rid of the customer. There are no guarantees or warranties. There's no "truth in justice" that requires your attorney or the court to give you full information on what is happening to you.

And that's dumb. Treating consumers well is what makes our economy grow and leads to improvement of our products. What's good for America is good for business. Surely it makes no sense to let the legal system use sales tactics that would be considered tacky, if not downright illegal, in other industries. But what is it, if not a bait-and-switch,406 when attorneys promise, or let you believe, all kinds of good things about what you can get from your lawsuit, and then, after you've paid a lot of fees, gradually lead you to see how tough it'll be to really win anything. Not to mention the high-pres-sure sales tactics in which they tell you that the judge is unavailable and that you'll have to wait forever for a trial date; but then, the moment you cave in and decide to settle your case, the super-busy judge is miraculously available, and they get you to agree to everything as quickly as possible.

When consumers lack confidence in the legal system, they'll tend not to use it if they don't have to. That means two things: Lawyers will not do as much business as they could, and consumers will not get from the legal system what they need.

The Right to Be Meek

Let's suppose that I belong to a certain passive religion. My religion believes that it's wrong to argue. Thus, people in my religion do not sue, and when we are sued, we automatically give up everything. Obviously, an adversary system of justice gives us no justice at all.

You don't need to go that far to understand what happens to the meek and the sweet people in this country. They lack the sheer blood lust that it takes to enjoy litigation and to continually come up with hostile, aggressive approaches to their problems. A hardened jerk will usually get more from the legal system than would a meek person. Even in their own defence, the meek will avoid using the system, so that, rather than protecting the innocent, it becomes a useful weapon for the attackers, allowing him/her to pretend to be civilized.

It may be irritating to meet people who are this passive. You want them to wake up and become practical. But, ultimately, that's not for you or me to decide. People have a right to live the way they want. Before we give a jerk the power to invade a meek person's life, there ought to be a good reason for it.