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
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