lawyers

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[was: Fwd: [PEN-L:3302] Re: Re: Fwd: BIG Ithaca HOUR News!]

> Tell it to Rolando Cruz here in Illinois, who is now free, off death row,
> and won a substantial settlement for having been framed. Point is, depends
> on which lawyers and what job they do. --jks

The value of lawyers depends primarily on the value of the legal system. If
the law is f*cked up, its application, interpretation, etc., will be too.

I'm afraid that socialists can't embrace Shakespeare's slogan "first let's
hang all the lawyers" (especially since old Will didn't endorse it but put
it in the mouth of someone he perceived as a bad guy, the leader of the
"rabble from Kent," whose name I've forgotten). There will be disputes
amongst individuals and between individuals and the collectivity over the
interpretation & application of the law, even with socialism. Something
like the legal profession will be needed to deal with these conflicts.  One
of the reasons that lawyers have such a bad reputation is that they're
associated with conflicts, but to get rid of them is like killing all the
doctors because they're associated with disease. Of course, we can get away
from the current system of commercialized lawyers. There are lots of other
reasonable ways to reform the law profession to improve it.

(BTW, did anyone notice that Al Bore sounded like a cable-TV advertising
shyster in Tuesday night's "debate"? "I'm Al Bore and I'll fight for YOU!")

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine