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Letters to the Editor

In desperate need of change

I was aghast at your story crying over the budget reduction for the court system (August). I think every practitioner should consider the relatively poor cost- effectiveness of the judicial/legal system. Although the many small initiatives to improve the efficiency of dispute resolution implicitly recognize the problem, none of them have touched reform of our system of litigating civil cases that has become increasingly ineffective and inefficient over my 30 years of practice. 

Legal professionals need to take responsibility for our system. We attorneys are the ones who file frivolous motions, exhaust every procedural option to represent our clients regardless of the merits or the consequences, claiming that we are doing a “better” job or we are afraid that we will be sued for malpractice if we don’t. There is no good reason for a civil case to take five or more years to be resolved. Is it reasonable to have a three-year-long jury trial? The judicial system has been dysfunctional for years. No one seems to have noticed.

If anyone is concerned about the difficulties in getting a verdict, drastic and fundamental reforms are needed, not complaints over the reduced budget.

Rick Nemcik Cruz
Rio Grande, Puerto Rico

Pass or prison?

Is it just me? Or is there anyone else out there who thinks that any lawyer who fails to pass the MCLE audit should face criminal charges and eventual disbarment?

Michael W. Szkaradek
Santa Ana

The same everywhere

Martha Jo Patterson’s letter (July) regarding the state of the California bar took the bar to task for a number of things; and I salute her observations. It may not be much consolation, but the state of the bar may be the same in many parts of the country. The very same castigation could be made about the Utah bar as well. It is very frustrating to be a small firm and solo practitioner these days when all the bar wants to do is take your money and your time and about the only thing they are willing to give back is grief.

Walter C. Bornemeier
North Salt Lake, Utah

 

California Bar Journal letters must include full name with a daytime telephone number
and complete address. Send letters to cbj@calbar.ca.gov.