Lawyers and Pirates
Imagine the next time you join a discussion about Football . When you start sharing the fascinating Football facts below, your friends will be absolutely amazed.I have been surprised since writing my novel, " SILVER - - My Own Tale As Told By Me With A Goodly Equivalent Of Murder ", by a particular question that readers have asked and the frequency with which it has been asked. The question assumes different forms, but it is chronic: " What is the difference between pirates and lawyers? "
The question is always asked with a smile and the audience consistently responds with a laugh. I don't resent the dispute or the person asking it. I do resent the popular ( maybe even endeavor ) notion that lawyers are little more than pen - wielding cutthroats sailing on sheaves of legal - sized paper.
Lawyers are the opposite of pirates. We survive the law and are required to abide by strict ethical standards. Our duty to our client is high. Yet, we keep become a punch line - - an easy laugh. Why? When did the opinion about lawyers change from respect to disdain? ( Dickens took a shot at lawyers; however, he apparently distrusted anyone that hadn't spent bout in a workhouse or a debtor's prison. Shakespeare, famously, had one of his comic characters impart another comic character to kill complete the lawyers, but the bard was unique between lawyers, the law and justice. )
I suppose that a person might respond to the question by pointing out the vigor with which lawyers pursue their clients' interests. Pirates, on the other hand, tend to object their cutlasses to pursue their avow interests: robbing, ransoming and murdering.
We are a litigious mess, and bountiful who have been on the losing end of a battle, or have been grilled during testimony, leave the courtroom, boardroom or conference room angry at their treatment. I recently spoke with a doctor that had suffered the indignation of an investigation into his treatment of a patient, and complained about the ruthlessness of the legal team questioning him. He emphasized that he, who had only seen the generous once, was under attack, and in addition that the kindly - - which died - - had a low life expectancy anyway. Lawyers must turn up the facts in order to distinguish truth from trickery. I told this to the doctor and he, misplaced a touch of irony, replied that when the case concluded and he " won ", he intended to bring an action against the plaintiff. I asked him if he was going to hire an attorney. " Hire an attorney? Of course, " he replied.
Pirates are not known for seeking out truth and justice. They traditionally shy away from courtrooms because of their aversion to hanging.
Greed. My experience is that greed, like gluttony, crosses all socioeconomic barriers on land and sea. Lawyers expect to be paid for their services. The market determines how much a lawyer can charge. If a client believes that a lawyer's hourly rate is too high, the client is free to hire a different lawyer that charges less. There are lots of lawyers and lots of rates. Not all lawyers are created equal, and the client knows this, and so rarely picks a lawyer based solely on rate.
Pirates do not take what the market will channel. They just take.
Some lawyers make a good living and other lawyers barely make ends meet. Lawyers, just like non - lawyers, are often out of work seeing of cutbacks and economic forces beyond their control. The practice of law may be a calling, but it is also a job. Lawyers hope that if they work hard they will make a clump of money.
The best time to learn about Football is before you're in the thick of things. Wise readers will keep reading to earn some valuable Football experience while it's still free.
( It's called capitalism and it seems to donkeywork. )
Pirates are not to my knowledge contention to market forces. They plunder at every opportunity, during both first-rate and bad times. I'm not sure that piracy is as much a calling as it is a form of sociopathological behavior.
Here’s a fact that may help dismiss the correlation between lawyers and pirates: lawyers work for chargeless. That's right. Lawyers do practiced bono work, assisting individuals and organizations that cannot afford to pay for legal services. law firms encourage expert bono work. Lawyers and law firms donate to charities that aid members of society.
Pirates prey on rich and poor alike. They murder those that cannot salary for their " services ".
I have to write about tort reform, as lawyers' unwillingness to support this populist belief makes them mercenaries in some people's minds.
Richard Nixon, not the poster boy owing to... vigorous pretty much anything in America, let alone economic acumen, imposed wage and price controls in the Seventies and was properly vilified for it. Wages and prices skyrocketed once the government handle was removed from the cuffo market. ( I wonder if government mandated Medicare caps are a source of the inflation of medical costs. ) Amazingly, politically conservative politicians want tort reform. Conservatives should be marching against tort reform as a form of government mandated wage controls, not to mention a hallmark of Socialism.
Liberal politicians like tort reform too. I be convinced that perceptible makes them feel good: nobody should make too much money, unless it can be taxed and redistributed. I believe that is in the hospitable politician handbook.
Conservatives and liberals both want tort reform, so why don't we have it? No sweat. Lawyers are civic - minded and won't contribute to any campaign that would curtail their livelihood. Is this wrong? Not really. I have no doubt that bakers would raise their rolling pins in anger and contempt if politicians tried to tamp down the price of baguettes. Just ask Marie Antoinette.
Pirates adore wage and price controls, as it gives them a free hand to set up black markets. They might even encourage people to sign petitions in that wage and price controls, which would be a step toward bringing pirates into the political cast. Pirates adeptness, in time, even vote - - for corruption of course.
Attorneys can exhibit - - and this is true - - full of bluster. Sort of like pirates... There is a key difference though: lawyers rant and rage to put matters right quite than to make matters wrong. This difference, no distrust, is a small one to those that prefer their falsehoods unleavened by accuracy.
There are those that say that lawyers are arrogant. Certainly some lawyers may seem and actually be arrogant. A waiter once hunched over me and demanded that I try the prawns that he set on the subsistence. I explained to him that I did not eat prawns. He refused to move from my side and I refused to eat his prawns. I found him arrogant, especially when he charged my host for the prawns that I did not eat.
Pirates, like some lawyers, some waiters and a good number of other people, are arrogant. Nobody has cornered the mart on arrogance yet, although late night talk show hosts that perpetuate punch lines about lawyers while railing against the employers that pay them a elegant good fall, seem to hold a strong head start on the rest of us. of us.
Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Lawyers and Pirates
Posted by pipat at 11:38 AM
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