Lawyers should not exist if we are to have an equal society, with citizens across the class and wealth spectrum having equal and fair access to the law. Instead, there should be a public "Law service", for want of a better term, run in a similar way to the police service. When legal services are required - either criminal or civil - an individual or company requests the services of the state-run law service, who provide "lawyers" to attempt to mediate between both sides and carry out the task required, whether it be a dispute, a contract, or anything in between.
Too much in our current society we see the rich and large companies trampling all over those who cannot afford legal representation, or as much legal representation. It baffles me that access to legal services is predominantly a private sector issue when enforcement of the law is a state run service.
Please don't dismiss this as "leftwing" trash because I most certainly do not classify myself as such having been a Jow Forumsack for many years now. I just had this thought and it pisses me off. The thought was spurred on by the fact that I live in military accommodation and we have frequent arguments with the contractors over what they are obliged to provide, with them commonly saying "it's not in the contract" for them to provide such a thing. However, we are not allowed to see this damn contract for some reason.
Zachary Cruz
bump...?
Gavin Perez
Just take it to your CO, why are you arguing directly with the contractors? About the law service though, people could still study law and provide counsel to anybody willing to pay. All of it is public, it's just a matter of putting in the effort to learn to navigate it. How do you plan on abolishing something like that?
Noah Anderson
Haha the CO can't do much. The contractors I speak of are the people that serve us food and clean our rooms etc. We argue over things like why can't the provide bin bags, why can't they provide coffee that doesn't taste like piss...
But none of that is why I really posted this thread. The injustice of the justice system and civil cases is what spurred this thought. In answer to your question as to how to prevent people simply going into private practice and selling their services, it could be regulated much like the police services are regulated i.e. vigilante justice is prohibited in order for the law to be applied fairly and equally. The exact same justification, it seems to me, on the surface.
Jaxon Brooks
I actually like your idea, I would have to think about this for a while to come up with good counter arguments or modifications to it, but it could potentially put an end to rich motherfuckers getting off scot free for doing things that the working class would go to prison for. For example HSBC was laundering money for drug cartels and terror groups, no one went to jail. If law services were state run, and every case treated equally, there’s a good chance those involved would be in prison. Of course lobbying plays a large part in this, and you would basically have to destroy the existing structure of government and lobby groups, but I want to do that anyway so that’s a plus for me. For the record I don’t really believe in equality in general, but the law itself should treat everyone the same. Except maybe niggers.
Jordan Walker
There's a reason good lawyers get paid well, a good lawyer can have a drastically different outcome for the case compared to others.
The problem isn't the existence of lawyers but the complexity of laws. If laws were crystal clear and written plainly there would be a lot less to argue about.
Maybe the real solution is to have AI judges who just look at each case purely on the facts and then make a decision. Very quickly too, because slow justice is no justice at all.
Christian Ward
There is a very simple way to do this - get rid of trial by jury. Then everyone has a state-appointed figurehead making the legal decisions for them.
We tried it and it wasn't particularly just.
Brody Jones
E-X-A-C-T-L-Y
It's so obvious on the surface I can't believe this hasn't been more widely discussed before. The obvious hurdle is that to make this happen you'd have to overturn government as we know it as well as the whole private legal industry, which is exceedingly powerful and wealthy. In saying that, it makes it sound like a revolution is necessary to make these changes - change from within the current system sounds incredibly hard if not impossible.
But who knows. A new political party that managed to overcome the inevitable opposition from the lobbying industry, the private legal industry, and the media bought and paid for by said industries, managing to drum up enough public support, could perhaps bring about some change.
Another thing that spurred this thought in me was that my gf is a corporate lawyer and she always uses the most frustrating, pedantic arguments that somehow invalidate so many common sense ideas.
