Most people are familiar with that phrase, one of the original lawyer jokes, so to speak. Rueful, mocking, this quote often expresses the ordinary person's frustration with the arcana and complexity of law -- and with the chicanery of too many lawyers.
Will Shakespeare must have had a lot of legal troubles himself.
He used lawyers as figures of derision on several occasions. In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio uses the line "O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees." In King Lear, the fool defends a speech in riddles by comparing it to the gobbledygook of an "unfee'd lawyer."
I must confess a possible conflict of interest or two on the subject of lawyers.
I graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1964 and have been a member of the bar for 44 years. One of my daughters, Eugenie Marie Eardley, also a GU Law grad ('91), is a successful and widely known plaintiff's trial lawyer in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Billions for MedMal?
What brought this to mind was an issue raised as part of the debate over national health care legislation now raging in the U.S. Congress. Conservatives have argued that one major way to reduce medical costs is to curb unreasonable lawsuits based on alleged medial malpractice.
Lawrence J. McQuillan is director of business and economic studies at the Pacific Research Institute and coauthor of "The Facts about Medical Malpractice Liability Costs" and "Tort Law Tally."
Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said medical-liability reforms could save about $11 billion annually.
McQuillan claims this assessment is "a gross underestimate of the potential benefits of reform and was intended to give cover to congressional Democrats who say malpractice-liability costs are trifling." He says that "a full accounting shows the benefits would be a hefty $242 billion a year, more than 10 percent of America's health expenditures."
The counter argument is that if medical providers screw up, those injured by their mistakes should have a right to sue and be compensated for their damages.
Ignorance of the Law
According to the U.S. Department of State, in 2008 there were nearly one million lawyers in the United States, a number that represents over 70% of all the lawyers in the world. That total represents an increase of nearly 100% from the 1980 total of 542,000 and an incredible 150% increase from the 1970 total of 355,000.
America has 361 lawyers for every 100,000 people, compared to Britain with 94 per 100,000, 33 in France and a mere seven per 100,000 in Japan.
And all those lawyers do file lawsuits -- about 17 million civil cases were filed in state and federal courts in each recent year. Your chances of being involved in a lawsuit during your life time are one in five.
U Needa Lawyer
Americans have traditionally held a lawyer's assistance to be essential when faced with a legal problem of almost any kind. "After all," a layman's prudence suggests, "what does the average person know about the mysteries of the law?" That's why attorneys are required to go to law school, isn't it - so they can master the intricacies of such a vast, complex field of knowledge?
The corollary fable is that all legal matters are "serious" by their very nature. Thus, the conventional wisdom when a legal problem arises is: "Don't try to do it yourself -- get an attorney." This theme has been repeated so often (usually by lawyers), it has been reduced to a modern aphorism: "One who acts as his or her own attorney has a fool for a client."
Incestuous?
Think about the process: lawyers make the laws (in the U.S. Congress and most state legislatures, the largest single occupational group is lawyers); lawyers, as judges, interpret and apply the laws; and only attorneys are allowed to represent people who find themselves entangled with those same law, (although you can choose to represent yourself).
And when it comes to policing the ethical conduct of lawyers, mostly lawyers administer codes of conduct they write themselves, through bar associations and grievance committees they con¬trol, usually meeting in secret. Most of these committees have a dismal record of disciplining fellow attorneys.
A few years ago Bill Bonner, (left) the founder of head of Agora Communications, asked me to write what he described as "a layman's guide to the law" -- a book that would allow the average person to understand legal problems they face in every day life and tell them what to do, short of having to hire a lawyer.
Do It Yourself
From that suggestion came my book, Lawyer-Proof Your Life, subtitled: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Saving Time, Saving Money and Avoiding Lawsuits.
Granted, you may run into some complicated legal situations that will require the expertise of a professional. But even then, this book will help by giving you the information you need to realistically assess your own position, and to understand the recommendations and actions of your attorney.
My goal in this 245-page book is to help keep you in control of your own life, and your own business and financial dealings. You can think of this book as the legal equivalent of a First-Aid manual. It covers just about every legal situation you are ever likely to face in life (and some after death).
You’ve learned how to self-medicate your sore throat and bandage minor scrapes and burns without first graduating from medical school. My book will teach you how to bind up your own legal wounds -and lawyer-proof your life.
For more information about Lawyer Proof Your Life, this is the place to click.
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