Why I Like Lawyers Part 673

Opinion by G. Norman Smallwood 26 December 2006

I was in a diatribe the other day (imagine?) about how lawyers are the ruination of the United States. Let’s face it, our legal system is about as far from reality as it could possibly be. Only something as far removed from Justice could bring us the OJ trial. Marcia Clarke, loses the case but rakes in millions writing a book about the trial. If she was a successful prosecutor she could have written a book on how she won the case. The overwhelming majority of politicians are lawyers. As opposed to bringing good governance, we have a political system wracked with corruption and favoritism. It’s all about reelection, tossing the old people and AARP a bone and getting while the getting’s good.

One of Greg’s neighbors works in a law firm as a paralegal. Greg likes talking to people in the legal profession about as much as he likes going to the dentist. They both trade in human suffering but at least the dentists provide something tangible. One of the neighbor’s most ridiculous arguments was that she worked on the state case to sue the tobacco companies to save Greg tax dollars. She was most indignant in her argument and wondered why Greg is so naive that he doesn’t understand the benefit that all her enlightened work produced. Greg basically argues that she should get a job where she did something productive.

Here’s why Greg thinks she is full of shit. The states don’t need any legal assistance in recovering money from the tobacco companies. They can raise the tax on tobacco at will. Suing the tobacco companies for health care costs for a conspiracy that the states profit more than the tobacco companies is laughable. But a political system that allows legal cronies to profit from suing tobacco companies is stupid. The state could have easily taxed the cigarettes the amount of money they were seeking. The same consumer will bear the cost as he will in the tobacco suits, the states will profit and no time and energy would be wasted in the court system and the state would save the 25% of the money they were going to pay in legal fees. The same weak addicted smokers would end up paying for their own health care problems through higher cigarette prices where the states are the largest profiteers.

Here’s some news background on the size of the legal pie given away to the law firms….

May 19 2003 -- "Law firms in tobacco suit seek $1.2b more". Massachusetts: "As Beacon Hill grapples with a fiscal crisis, the lawyers who worked on the state's lawsuit against the tobacco industry are demanding the state now pay them an additional $1.25 billion in legal fees.  In recent court filings, four law firms, led by Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels of Boston, asked a Superior Court judge to enforce a contract that called for the lawyers to be given 25 percent of whatever proceeds Massachusetts received in the case. ... The lawyers' push to obtain more of the tobacco funds [on top of the $775 million they have already been awarded] has roiled the legal community in Massachusetts and nationally, with some worrying that the case will reinforce an image of avarice that dogs trial lawyers."  (Frank Phillips, Boston Globe, May 4)(see Jan. 2-3, 2002).  (DURABLE LINK)