[lbo-talk] jury duty/Real expertise

[andie nachgeborenen]

OK, you are a lawyer hater, a common type. All we have
to do is toa dopt a simple set of commonsense rules
that reasonable people can agree on and we do without
these greedy and arrogant parasites. Alas, for reasons
I've explained here, this is a fantasy in the modern
world,a nd indeed was a fantasy as soon as societies
became reasonably articulated with a moderately
complex division of labor and clash of interests. The
reason is obvious. Such societies generate conflicys
and need predictable and enforceable rules to resolve
these peacably. Rules are hard to write and interpret
and nerver cover all the situations you want to cover.
Hemce the need for specialists. And yeah, writing and
interpreting and arguing rules and their application
is every bit as necesasry for the operation of society
and every bit as much a real skill -- a techne --as
medicine. There is a lot a nonlawyer can do ny himself
-- you make contracts every time you buy a quart of
milk -- but there's a lot of simple medicine you can
practice without an MD. And the MDs aren't any better
that the lawyers about monopolizing areas of practice
that you don't need an MD for -- best Dr I ever had
was a a PA, she just had to get the Drs sig on the
prescription pad. But no matter, we've been hated
since Hammurabi, so I suppose I should be more thick
skinned. 

--- jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net wrote:


> On 19 May 2006 at 17:49, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> 
> > Unfortunately there is such thing genuine
> authority
> > and real expertise. Not all lawyers are competent
> and
> > half of them are below average, but if you are
> sued
> > for real money or, God forbid, have trouble with
> the
> > cops, you want the help of someone who knows the
> rules
> > and can put her or his hands on the right levers
> to do
> > something to stop the machine from rolling over
> you.
> > Likewise with physicians; if you are sick, you
> want
> > someone who might know something about how to make
> you
> > better. 
> 
> 
> Part of the animosity towards lawyeys comes from the
> fact that the legal system )predominantly put in
> place 
> by lawyers) in unnecessarily fucked up in a way that
> directly benefits those lawyers.
> 
> My last trip to the courthouse was to file a
> quit-claim deed on a piece of property I inherited.
> It should be 
> simple process. No liens on the property, owned by
> the same person the last 40 years, blah, blah. I
> only 
> need to transfer legal ownership from a trust to my
> SO. One form, one office.
> 
> Every trip to the state building ended with the
> admonishment, "get a lawyer". Fuck them, I already
> have 
> more than one and that lawyer did nothing I could
> not do and tried to do. In the end the state
> accepted the 
> exact same form with the exact same description of
> the property from my lawyer that they refused to
> accept 
> from me. I won't go into all the details but the
> entire process was total BS. This was hardly an
> isolated 
> instance. I was billed $75 to fill out a form (I had
> already filled it out and needed to provide the info
> anyway) 
> and deliver it. He didn't even do it himself but
> rather had a clerk do it. I have dealt with dozens
> of lawyers in 
> several states and while none of them were assholes
> who cares? Almost without exception they did 
> something that any normally intelligent person could
> have done if the institutional hurdles in place did
> not 
> exist.
> 
> The powerful members of the legal profession do
> their damnedest to make certain they are
> indespensible in 
> as many peoples lives as they can in order to
> increase their income stream. This is not wild
> conjecture on 
> my part either.
> 
> So many lawyers like to use the doctor analogy as
> andie does above but doctors knowledge is a 
> specialized knowledge about physiology and
> chemistry. Physical systems they had nothing to do
> with 
> creating. They don't have specialized knowledge
> about a deliberately obfuscatory system that they 
> implemented themselves often times but not
> exclusively for personal gain. This is a big
> difference and most 
> common folks are bright enough to see this
> difference and not fall for this poor analogy to
> explain the 
> necessity of lawyers. The fact that there are decent
> and nice lawyers is of no consequence to this fact.
> 
> John Thornton
> 
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> 

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com