One Example of Why Many People Dislike Lawyers
or why some people suggest there was an even better reason for Sidney Carton meeting the fate he met.
2010 ONCA 230 and 2010 ONCA 400.
There are court proceedings whose existence is explicable (to me) only on the assumption that the client found a lawyer who would represent the client for a fee that the client was prepared to pay and the lawyer prepared to accept.
It’s my view – I know others disagree – that in this country lawyers who practice civil litigation are not ethically required to accept a brief just because it’s in their area of expertise and their clerk quoted an outrageous fee that, remarkably, the client agreed to pay.
I hope the successful defendant’s legal fees were borne by his insurer and wonder if that isn’t why the costs award was so low. If it isn’t, then there’s a subtext to the reason for the amount of the award which isn’t obvious.
Years ago – publication was in 1976 – Larry Niven and Jerry wrote Pournelle a book called Inferno (TOR, 2009), modern retelling of the Inferno portion of the somewhat older and more famous, and epic, Dante’s Divine Comedy. Dante’s version was written in the early 1300s. Niven and Pournelle have written a sequel called Escape From Hell.
Many current era science fiction and fantasy writers take an especial delight in mocking the legal profession and the justice system – the fish in a barrel problem. Robert Heinlein (while living) was a very good at it as is David Gerrold. Niven and Pournelle continue the practice, nicely. For example, at p. 319 of the paperback edition, there’s a discussion – it takes place in the 8th Circle of Hell- between Carl Sagan (CS) and the novel’s main character Allen Carpenter (AC). The back-story is that Sagan has gone to work for prosecutorial branch of a department of the Hell hierarchy’s whose task is judging the extent to which sinners have repented and determining their place in Hell. Sagan’s boss, a former New Orleans District attorney – Dante didn’t much like his era’s equivalent of lawyers, either – has sent him to the 8th Circle to find a persuasive liar. The premise is that “a persuasive liar might be a good addition to [their] trial preparation staff. As of the conversation, Sagan hadn’t been able to find a suitable candidate. What follows is the explanation why. The view point is Carpenter’s. Sagan is the first speaker.
Should we have a contest to see who can find the most recent quotation in reasons for judgment where there’s a “but” after the current legal system’s version of the purpose of trials, the reason for the search? [g].
I’ll provide one of the most eloquent: the House of Lords is “now engaged, not in the bold development of principle, but in a practical attempt, under adverse conditions, to preserve the general perception of the law as system of rules which is fair between one citizen and another.” (White v. Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, [1998] UKHL 45, [1999] 2 A.C. 455 at 511, Lord Hoffmann.)
Apart from this, those who liked N&P’s Inferno will probably want to read Escape from Hell because it nicely continues and wraps up Carpenter’s story. The book has some interesting sections. Inferno was deservedly nominated for awards. The sequel won’t be (or shouldn’t be). So, read it you want to find out what happened to Carpenter after Mussolini was last seen crawling down Satan’s leg on his (Benito’s) escape from Hell, but don’t buy the hardcover version unless you can find it in a remainder bin for less than what the paperback will cost you.
Or, if you subscribe to Fictionwise.com or similar sources, perhaps it’s available as an e-book. Save some trees. I didn’t. I bought the paperback (new). Amazon.ca’s price for the Kindle version, by the way, is slightly more than the new paperback price.