Why Do People Hate Lawyers?

Q: Why did the shark not eat the lawyer?

A:  Professional Courtesy!

Q: What's the difference between a dead dog in the road and a dead lawyer in the road?

A:  There are skid marks in front of the dog.

If you google Lawyer Jokes, you will get some of the nastiest and most vile depictions of attorneys you could and maybe even couldn't ever come up with. As an attorney and someone who has always had a great deal of respect for the legal profession and the law, I always wondered why this is the image that attorneys have in our society. 

Lawyers seem to take the brunt of many jokes and negative feelings about our legal system and our society, but what causes these feelings of discontent and guile towards our profession? Lawyers are generally intelligent people, they possess a Doctorate in Jurisprudence (JD), they went to school for many years, went through the tortures of testing and the Bar and the majority of us have taken out massive loans in order to pay for or subsidize our education, yet we are treated with disrespect and angst. 

Indeed, attorneys get a lot more flack than firemen, police officers even sanitation workers; what could cause such a great deal of societal hatred for our profession? While most attorneys are good and honest people; individuals who fight for their clients and safeguard the constitution, there are those bad apples that make us as a profession look bad; those that lie and cheat, those that steal client's money and betray their confidences as their fiduciary’s. However, that doesn't seem to be a valid answer either, because every profession has it's share of bad apples and and unsavory persons, so why do lawyers receive such guile, while other professions do not.

Perhaps the answer lies in our profession itself. As any lawyer (or at least any good lawyer) knows; learning statutes and codes, rules and regulations, and even case-law is only one part of our profession, after all a computer can seldom be a good lawyer. The other part, the part of our profession that turns science into craft, that turns the technical into the artistic is the creative argument. Yes of course, a great lawyer can take a law; massage it with case law, twist it with proper word organization and evidence, and polish it with a creative flare and spectacular courtroom performance and you've turned an unfavorable law into a victory for your client. But how does the public react to the artistic part of our profession. They certainly react favorably when their lives are on the line, but how do they react when it's someone else in the crosshairs of the law. Indeed this "artistic flare" can be seen by many as dishonest and wrong, and it is this that fuels the fire of this anger that our society has against lawyers. 

Indeed though this hatred of Lawyers goes well beyond murder trials and Ponzi schemes, it goes into billing and even client relations. I have heard much anecdotal evidence over the years on client's billing disputes, but it took personal experience for me to realize that people don't understand or even appreciate the complexity and difficulty with which legal services are provided. Numerous client complaints about fees, especially when the fees are given at a discount have caused me to really look into the way people feel about paying for legal services. The examples which I'm discussing all had services provided competently and quickly and the desired results reached for the client; thus the client complaints and discontent have left me baffled. So I thought to myself, maybe the bad economic climate can explain this discontent over prices, so I continued on in my search for the answer. However, the severity of people's disrespect for attorneys only became fully clear to me when I saw how clients simply wouldn't wait for their turn to see either myself or another lawyer in our firm. Numerous complaints over 15 minute waits were rampant. However, I didn't truly pay much attention to this, until a particular day when I had to leave work early in order to attend a Doctor's appointment after dealing with several complaints over waiting times. There I sat and I sat in the waiting room, along with several others that had their appointments even before me for hours. Yet nobody got up, nobody complained, not a single person started any sort of fuss; and it dawned on me, these people simply have much more respect for Doctors than for lawyers, and I still couldn't figure out why.

Most attorneys (as with most doctors) do great work, we treat our clients (or patients) with respect, we provide an invaluable service and in many instances have people's livelihoods, citizenships, children, freedoms and even lives in our hands. Yet, still lawyers are the professional hit-men of civil society. We are hated, feared and loathed; but we are kept around simply for our usefulness in a time of need. We as a profession are treated like nuclear or biological weapons by most of the populous of non-attorneys. They feel that in most cases we shouldn't be around, that we are vile and offend the very sanctity of life and freedom, yet when S--t hits the fan they want us there as their protectors. 

After my first year of law school ended (after many sleepless nights and much difficulty) I said to myself and to several of my friends, "nobody that hates lawyers ever went through this." However the truth is that no matter what people may feel (or say they feel) about lawyers; perhaps they say that we pad our bills, perhaps they joke how we lie and cheat for our clients, perhaps they jest at how criminal attorneys get their dangerous clients off on technicalities (although I don't think the constitution should be considered a technicality). Two things are and always shall be universally true; (1) society will always need lawyers to understand, interpret and advocate the law. And (2) and most importantly no matter how much someone hates lawyers they will never hate them so much that they don't want one when they need one and they will never hate us so much that they won't want their child to be one or marry one.

While I don't really have the clear answer to the question, this article was meant to address the issue and come up with at least some explanations for what is going on with the outside perception of our profession. I do hope that soon society at least begins to appreciate how much lawyers do and how much we are needed to safeguard the freedoms of our society. Someone once told me and it has always rang true with me that "lawyers are the only force standing as the defenders of law and order against the forces of anarchy."

By Mike Usher, Esq.

CRIES OF THE SILENT

                As the population ages and the baby boomers continue to retire in larger numbers, the issue of elder abuse becomes more widespread. It concerns and affects not only the elderly but also those considered to be incapable of taking care of themselves and placed into guardianships.

                Guardianships are typically initiated when the elderly person is incapable of taking care of him/herself. In those instances, a guardian is typically appointed in order to look after the person and run his/hers affairs. The extent of the power exerted by the guardian depends on the type of guardianship. The plenary guardianship is the most extensive one, with the most rights ceding from the incapacitated person, or the ward, to the guardian. Unfortunately, the people who are entrusted with the care of those who cannot take care of themselves are most likely to be the abusers.

                The most obvious examples of elder abuse involve violence and exposure to dangerous environments like leaving the ward outside on bad weather or making the room too hot or too cold. Others forms of abuse involve mental or psychological cruelty. Humiliation and threats of an elderly person are also considered abuse. Removing decision-making powers from a ward who is still capable of that is also abuse.

                Working for the administrative judge of the probate division of the Broward County courthouse, Judge Mel Grossman, showed me how widespread elder abuse really is. The abuse by those entrusted with the care of the vulnerable elderly people extends to financial abuse as well. There have been many instances where court appointed guardians have stolen money and valuable after isolating the ward’s from the outside world, making them unable to call for help. Other forms of abuse were far more complex. In one instance and elderly person married someone much younger than him with ulterior motives. His new wife robbed him blind of almost all of his life savings. Such a complicated scheme is difficult to detect largely because the victim was under the impression that the money was going for something other than a lavish lifestyle and, otherwise, not aware of the fraud.

                Unfortunately, elder abuse is oftentimes difficult to detect. Aside from being cut off from the outside world, sometime purposely by their guardians, sometimes the elderly do not report the abuse. Sometimes, the elderly themselves do not recognize the abuse, to them being insulted by a child or grandchild could seem like rudeness but not abuse, even though it is. In other instances, the elderly are afraid the abuse will become even worse. If the caretaker is someone close to them, the elderly are afraid of being abandoned if they report abuse.

                Hopefully, all instances described above are clearly abuse to all the readers. However, there are also forms of abuse that are not as clear. Have you ever gotten into an argument with a grandparent? Insulting an elderly person and treating him/her as a child constitutes mental cruelty. If you are responsible for taking care of an elder person and do not visit him/her enough, do not provide timely medication, do not clean after them, then you would be responsible for elder abuse.

                Continuing financial difficulties will perpetuate and exacerbate the problem of elder abuse. Retirees and their families cannot afford professional care and end up in the hands of less than scrupulous guardians and facilities. Budget cuts to the agencies that monitor and prevent elder abuse make the issue even worse. The issue will continue and create more victims to this easily preventable and heinous crime.

By Vadim Fesenko