Years ago, in the 1990s, I recall seeing statistics about the average wages of lawyers in the State of California. I was shocked - it was way less than 30 k. The explanation being that many lawyers in this state don't work as lawyers or only do so part time. In California, at least, there are a surplus of lawyers. This is primarily due to the fact that the state allows unaccredited law schools.
It is hard to take seriously the claims of the lawyer bashers. Given the hurdles that have been imposed upon various forms of litigation, so of which are of recent origin (i.e., restrictions on medical malpractice cases) or which have been around a long time (i.e., the presumption of at will employment) a lot of lawsuits which should be brought, can't be.
Even worse is the rise of private, binding arbitration - which is essentially private justice, before retired judges, closed to the public and not subject to appellate review. Federal and state law favors binding arbitration. Increasingly, private, non union employers are imposing binding arbitration on their employees - to say nothing of HMOs and other companies that use it. Steve
-------------- Original message -------------- From: andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com>
> You're averaging data from people at high powered
> firms and from big schools who earn big money and the
> rest of lawyers, who do not. I'd be surprised if most
> my Ohio State classmateswere making more than $65K.
> Btw, a starting Public Defender or Asst State's Atty
> in Chicago makes around $30K, how do you like them
> apples? The ACLU pays more. It pays more to be a
> public school teacher in a poor district.
>
> Anyway, even if most lawyers made $200,000 a year,
> they are still going be less likely to take
> contingency lawsuits most of which they are going to
> lose anyway if they are limited to fees and 1/3 of
> compensatory damages. Before you advocate
> d! eprivatizing punitives, just bear that in mind.
>
> --- info at pulpculture.org wrote:
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From: srobin21 at comcast.net (Steven L. Robinson)
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Punitives and Attorney Pay
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 00:17:27 +0000
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