Author: KarinsDad
Date: 00:11:44 01/21/99
Go up one level in this thread
On January 20, 1999 at 20:48:13, Steve wrote:
>
> As a lawyer, I really must take issue with your characterization of the
>American legal system. I admit that judges and juries occasionally render
>bizarre judgments, but those mistakes are frequently corrected on appeal and
>they do not occur as often as you might think. They get featured in the news
>precisely because they are so unusual ("man bites dog").
>
> There are some highly litigious individuals in this country who do believe
>that they should be able to collect millions of dollars for the slightest
>inconvenience, real or imagined, but both judges and juries (if it ever gets
>that far) tend to regard them with the contempt that they deserve.
Is that a South American legal system that you are talking about?
The US legal system has a serious of nice rules, which get ignored a lot. For
example, I know for a fact an estate case where the judge ruled that one lawyer
should give an itemized accounting of assets to another lawyer. Lawyer 1 walked
into lawyer 2's office and said, "The estate is worth about x amount of dollars.
I don't quite remember." and walked out. Hello? No penalty applied.
My sister is a district attorney who has told me many stories of justice gone
blind. If you have enough money in the US, you can get away with a lot of things
here. I'm proud to be an American, but boy do we desperately need tort reform.
Let me ask you a question. On average, how long does non-criminal cases take to
go through the courts? I rest my displeasure on that question alone. A case
should take 3 months maximum. It should not drag year after year after year,
just to make the lawyers wealthy.
A typical lawyer's fee in a fair sized city like Kansas City: $350 per hour, 12
minute duration minimum (i.e. $70 if you call them on the phone and ask why your
bill was screwed up). If you talk to them for 12.5 minutes, it's $140.
Accountability for a lawyer: once every few months you get a one or two page
letter (large print, nice header that takes up a quarter or more of the page, 10
to 30 sentences) saying what they have been doing (which amounts to spending
your money with usually no results).
I guess the legal system is pretty sweet when you are on your side of the fence.
I apologize for getting off topic here.
KarinsDad
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