Why Do Lawyers Have Such Bad Reputations ?

[Eadger]

Allen Dershowitz(famous lawyer) says it's " because we deserve it ". Do you agree ?

[Maslin]

People forget that attorneys don?t sue on their own, they represent clients who they work on the behalf of.  And they do the best jobs that they can for their clients.  Yes, someof them may have, in the past, resorted to unscrupulous meanss to acquire clients(ambulance chasing) but that?s pretty much frowned upon and legislated against now.   To answer your question, though, no, I don't agree they should all be despised.  They are just doing a job.

[Chavatangakwunua]

Most of us believe that if a person is guilty of a crime, they should be punished for it.  But, our system of justice seems to defy this basic belief.  First of all, like most things, the more money you have the better lawyer you can afford, and that often means whether you will get off or not.  All of us have seen theatrics and tricks in the court room on the part of lawyers, performing in front of a jury--rather than the case being decided on the facts.  The most infamous case illustrating this was the O.J. Simpson murder case.   This also holds true for injury cases, unethical corporate conduct, etc.  Never mind that a person is crippled for life or developed cancer because of corporate greed and misconduct, the lawyer working for that company has to get their corporation off the hook.  Very often, their job depends upon it.   I understand that other countries have a panel of judges that decide cases.  I?m not sure whether this is better, since I believe in the jury system.  Having a jury made up of several people with different experiences brings different points of view, and that?s a good thing.  If anyone has ever served on a jury and has experienced the dialogue that goes on in the jury room, they know that it?s a pretty intelligent process.  But lawyers are paid to win, and criminal lawyers have a reputation to uphold, so whether your client is innocent or guilty is secondary.  That?s why, in my estimation, lawyers get a bad reputation.

[Arvon]

The average lay-person looks at the "justice" system and expects just that - basic justice. Lawyers, for the most part are much more interested in personal fame and riches. Justice, if it does come into play, is far less important. For most lawyers - They wish to impress. Sure they'll justify injustice by their clients with thousands of words and educated explanations that will baffle the "average citizen", but for the most part, hold their cleverness much higher than any correct guilty or innocent call. And if you look at all politicians(who, speaking for the majority) are lawyers, is it any wonder they have bad reputations?   

[Palben]

In real basic terms: The average lay-person looks at the "justice" system and expects just that - basic justice. Lawyers, for the most part are much more interested in personal fame and riches. Justice, if it does come into play, is far less important. For most lawyers - They wish to impress. Sure they'll justify injustice by their clients with thousands of words and educated explanations that will baffle the "average citizen", but for the most part, hold their cleverness much higher than any correct guilty or innocent call. And if you look at all politicians(who, speaking for the majority) are lawyers, is it any wonder they have bad reputations?    gandg22 65 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.

[watson]

A lawyer friend of mine says:   "95% of the lawyers give the rest of us a bad name."   He is right about that.   Lawyers are the butt of humor for some justifiable reasons and some unjustifiable ones as well.   The unjustifiable reasons are:   the nature of our job requires us to do things that others cannot do lawfully. Sociologists call this being a "boundary role person."  Since what we do makes us both members of the legal mechanism and part of the populace that has to deal with the law. http://books.google.com/books?id=6NyUa1Tv4jgC&pg=PA261&lpg=PA261&dq=%22boundary+role+person%22&source=web&ots=JTDZRWMQko&sig=Nij5h_4Cgj6JbYl8mdIUsaqY0Z0&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result lawyers are in a position to do harm to others--justifiable or not. Power provokes fear, which is often articulated in the form of humor. If you doubt this, ask yourself why F.B.I. agents are just about always portrayed as either villains or disagreeable characters on TV cop shows? My theory is that their power is provokes the ridicule.     The justifiable reasons are:   lawyers have a deserved reputation for being slow moving. There are reasons why this is so, but being slow moving makes one a legitimate target for derision. the legal culture teaches lawyers to speak in a stilted, incomprehensible fashion. The classic joke in this regard is about the lawyer who tried to write a poem. After an hour he gave up, claiming that he had developed a case of writer?s block. That evening, his secretary noticed a draft of a poem in his waste paper basket. All it said was, "Whereas...." law school teaches law students be very left brained, ignoring the human side of every equation. Acting like a computer in real life is to invite criticism and derision. good lawyers have to be aggressive to succeed. Aggressive people are not overly liked. non-routine legal matters are expensive. But, what makes it more difficult is that no one knows whether a given fee is legitimate or not. This problem is inherent in billing by the hour, since the consumer has only asymmetric information as to the costs for legitimate legal services. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_asymmetry lawyers oftentimes represent vile characters. That is not the way to be popular. lawyers oftentimes behave unreasonably and/or take unreasonable positions. That does not improve add to the profession?s popularity. lawyers too often act like pompous asses. The world does not like pompous asses. law has become a big business. There was a time not that long ago, when lawyers had the time to be more active in the community. Nowadays, lawyers are so wrapped up in chasing the big bucks that these ties to the community have been severed to the detriment of both lawyers and the overall community. the work is dull. If you take a normal, lively person and subject this person to three years of law school and a few years of reading obscure, semi-incomprehensible documents, you will develop a dull person. Dull people tend to be figures of fun for good reason.   http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/SatanLawyer.jpg     http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/lawyers.jpg     http://www.stus.com/sv/cartoons/google/lawyers.gif   http://tn3-1.deviantart.com/fs6/300W/i/2005/106/9/d/Lawyers_by_sygnin.jpg  

[dallen47]

Yes, I do, especially defense lawyers who will do anything to win even if they know their client is guilty. Most of us believe that if a person is guilty of a crime, they should be punished for it.  But, our system of justice seems to defy this basic belief.  First of all, like most things, the more money you have the better lawyer you can afford, and that often means whether you will get off or not.  All of us have seen theatrics and tricks in the court room on the part of lawyers, performing in front of a jury--rather than the case being decided on the facts.  The most infamous case illustrating this was the O.J. Simpson murder case.   This also holds true for injury cases, unethical corporate conduct, etc.  Never mind that a person is crippled for life or developed cancer because of corporate greed and misconduct, the lawyer working for that company has to get their corporation off the hook.  Very often, their job depends upon it.   I understand that other countries have a panel of judges that decide cases.  I?m not sure whether this is better, since I believe in the jury system.  Having a jury made up of several people with different experiences brings different points of view, and that?s a good thing.  If anyone has ever served on a jury and has experienced the dialogue that goes on in the jury room, they know that it?s a pretty intelligent process.  But lawyers are paid to win, and criminal lawyers have a reputation to uphold, so whether your client is innocent or guilty is secondary.  That?s why, in my estimation, lawyers get a bad reputation. MaryAnn 65 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.

[Coiseam]

I must admit I do not like or trust lawyers. I was a policeman for 28 years and I found most solicitors were OK at court except a few. They would ask about their clients demeanor or other info and I did not mind giving it.   I had a far bit of contact with our police union's lawyers and I found them to be rude, pretentious and self absorbed. I was treated like a second class citizen, would not even shake my hand at a meeting. I was a tertiary qualified, highly dedicated officer but that meant nothing to this lawyer.   I had another run in with a law firm over our driveway. We have a driveway that starts from the road and extends a fair length of the public nature strip. The next door block owner thought I had it on her property and got her lawyers to demand I rip up my driveway. Didn't even bother to check if this was correct. It was not on any of her property. I complained to our Law Council but it went nowhere. If we were old and easily scared it may have caused much angst.   We seem to always have lawyers disappearing with trust funds and today one high flying lawyer, a female, was convicted of selling drugs from her luxury high rise apartment. What a joke!    We have just had a lawyer write an article on abortion and how wrong it is to kill the unborn when he is defending a prolific drug dealer who has undoubtedly caused the deaths of many young people. His legal fees would have to have come from drug money. Do you think this is ethical?   After completing my degree I was looking for post grad studies and inquired about a few options. I was contacted by a lecturer in law who was pompous, rude, spoke as if all other professional were well below their(lawyers) standing and so on. That put me off a law degree. I did post grad psychology!   So, I know there are some great lawyers, and some bad cops but I just don't like to see guilty people getting off serious offences through the ploys of unethical lawyers. It's just me!!  

[Stem]

Whole heartedly, I agree. A lawyer friend of mine says:   "95% of the lawyers give the rest of us a bad name."   He is right about that.   Lawyers are the butt of humor for some justifiable reasons and some unjustifiable ones as well.   The unjustifiable reasons are:   the nature of our job requires us to do things that others cannot do lawfully. Sociologists call this being a "boundary role person."  Since what we do makes us both members of the legal mechanism and part of the populace that has to deal with the law. http://books.google.com/books?id=6NyUa1Tv4jgC&pg=PA261&lpg=PA261&dq=%22boundary+role+person%22&source=web&ots=JTDZRWMQko&sig=Nij5h_4Cgj6JbYl8mdIUsaqY0Z0&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result lawyers are in a position to do harm to others--justifiable or not. Power provokes fear, which is often articulated in the form of humor. If you doubt this, ask yourself why F.B.I. agents are just about always portrayed as either villains or disagreeable characters on TV cop shows? My theory is that their power is provokes the ridicule.     The justifiable reasons are:   lawyers have a deserved reputation for being slow moving. There are reasons why this is so, but being slow moving makes one a legitimate target for derision. the legal culture teaches lawyers to speak in a stilted, incomprehensible fashion. The classic joke in this regard is about the lawyer who tried to write a poem. After an hour he gave up, claiming that he had developed a case of writer?s block. That evening, his secretary noticed a draft of a poem in his waste paper basket. All it said was, "Whereas...." law school teaches law students be very left brained, ignoring the human side of every equation. Acting like a computer in real life is to invite criticism and derision. good lawyers have to be aggressive to succeed. Aggressive people are not overly liked. non-routine legal matters are expensive. But, what makes it more difficult is that no one knows whether a given fee is legitimate or not. This problem is inherent in billing by the hour, since the consumer has only asymmetric information as to the costs for legitimate legal services. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_asymmetry lawyers oftentimes represent vile characters. That is not the way to be popular. lawyers oftentimes behave unreasonably and/or take unreasonable positions. That does not improve add to the profession?s popularity. lawyers too often act like pompous asses. The world does not like pompous asses. law has become a big business. There was a time not that long ago, when lawyers had the time to be more active in the community. Nowadays, lawyers are so wrapped up in chasing the big bucks that these ties to the community have been severed to the detriment of both lawyers and the overall community. the work is dull. If you take a normal, lively person and subject this person to three years of law school and a few years of reading obscure, semi-incomprehensible documents, you will develop a dull person. Dull people tend to be figures of fun for good reason.   http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/SatanLawyer.jpg     http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/lawyers.jpg     http://www.stus.com/sv/cartoons/google/lawyers.gif   http://tn3-1.deviantart.com/fs6/300W/i/2005/106/9/d/Lawyers_by_sygnin.jpg   Sources: personal opinion and cited above   Snow_Leopard's Recommendations Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and Legal Culture Amazon List Price: $26.95 Used from: $11.59 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5(based on 3 reviews) The New Yorker Book of Lawyer Cartoons Amazon List Price: $22.00 Used from: $0.01 Average Customer Rating: 3.5 out of 5(based on 5 reviews) Lawyers and Other Reptiles Amazon List Price: $12.00 Used from: $0.01 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5(based on 3 reviews) Innocent, Your Honor: A Book of Lawyer Cartoons Amazon List Price: $19.95 Used from: $2.35 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5(based on 1 reviews) Trials and Tribulations: Appealing Legal Humor : A Collection Amazon List Price: $19.95 Used from: $0.06 The New Lawyer's Wit And Wisdom: Quotations On The Legal Profession, In Brief Amazon List Price: $14.95 Used from: $1.94 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5(based on 1 reviews) Best Lawyer Jokes Ever(Humour) Amazon List Price: $4.95 Used from: $0.01 Poetic Justice: The Funniest,Meanest Things Ever Said About Lawyers Amazon List Price: $9.95 Used from: $0.01 Lawyers and Other Reptiles II: The Appeal Amazon List Price: $9.95 Used from: $0.51 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5(based on 1 reviews) Snow_Leopard 65 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.

[Bonar]

It's because they generally take unfavorable positions at the behest of their clients. People forget that attorneys don?t sue on their own, they represent clients who they work on the behalf of.  And they do the best jobs that they can for their clients.  Yes, someof them may have, in the past, resorted to unscrupulous meanss to acquire clients(ambulance chasing) but that?s pretty much frowned upon and legislated against now.   To answer your question, though, no, I don't agree they should all be despised.  They are just doing a job. Schelli 65 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.