Why I Like Lawyers

Lawyers are repeatedly joked about, often held in derision, and sometimes openly hated. This is tragic. If it weren't for lawyers: Innocent people who are unable to defend themselves in court would be convicted of crimes they didn't commit. Guilty people who are especially talented in deception would not be punished for their crimes. Companies would be able to advertise falsely with no consequence. Food and drug producers could easily distribute harmful products to the public. Divorces would be an even more difficult process where the spouse with the least amount of intelligence and/or communication skills would simply lose out on their fair share of the assets. Artists would have their creative works stolen and/or reproduced without permission and they would be unable to seek out any sort of just compensation. The constitutions of the federal and state governments would lose their significance. Their power would slowly erode away. Crime would escalate, as people realized no one was professionally or occupationally committed to prosecute crimes with quality and excellence. Legal errors would virtually never be overturned through the appeals process. Victims of negligence would rarely see restitution. Governments would be able to abuse their powers over the citizens in their jurisdictions. I really could go on and on. But to sum it all up, lawyers help restrain evil, punish lawbreakers, and protect innocent citizens. Sure, there are corrupt lawyers who abuse their role and actually help further evil, protect lawbreakers, and punish innocent citizens. But that is true of all of the "law" professions; there are corrupt judges, police officers, legislators, and politicians. Frankly, there are corrupt people in every field, even those outside the legal profession including doctors, firefighters, teachers, priests, janitors, and journalists. The reason this is true goes back to the first point: Human beings do bad things. The fact that some lawyers are "corrupt" isn't evidence that we "don't need lawyers." It is actually evidence supporting the other side. We do need them. As long as there are corrupt people in any field in this country we need lawyers to help us to restrain and punish them while protecting the victims they hurt.