Thank God for Lawyers

They still believe we are a society that strives for treating everyone equally. And, they still believe civility is better than barbarism. Thank God for lawyers.

by Timothy W. Hooker

Happy News Citizen Journalist

I've heard the jokes and you have, too. You know the one about the shark that wouldn't eat a lawyer out of professional courtesy. You've probably heard the one about how divorce is practically impossible in heaven because they have to import the lawyers from hell. And, if you even hint at being literary, you know "Wild Bill" Shakespeare wanted to "kill all the lawyers."

But, I've come to the conclusion that the only thing worse than a world with lawyers is a world without them. Still, I know you don't believe me. Someone is probably reading this and thinking, "I hired a lawyer once and he sold me out." Well, maybe not.

In case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of people in this world that just don't play well with others. That creates two big options for settling disputes: you can have dueling in the streets or you can have lawsuits. Presently, in America, we have lawsuits.

That means a mountain of work sitting in front of judges. And, that means a bunch of people in black robes who want to cut to the chase. Enter the rules of discovery. At least in my home state of Tennessee, and probably in yours as well, the rules of discovery are a set of laws that require lawyers to get together with the lawyers on the other side of the lawsuit and figure out what they agree on and what the judge/jury will have to decide.

So, the next time you see your lawyer yucking it up with the opposing side's lawyer outside the courtroom, it is not because he's sold you out. He's just doing his job.

I'd bet money, though, there's still somebody reading this, thinking, "They're shysters, they're nitpickers, and they're hair-splitters." Well, not really. Behind every argument over every little bit of every little aspect of a case is one big controlling idea-- what kind of society do we want to have?

What do we hold precious? What is worth fighting for? Behind the minutia is probably something bigger. I hold civil liberties to be quite precious, so I want every law enforcement official in this country to know that if he or she doesn't treat every citizen with the due process they deserve, bad things will happen.

And, that, leads to the biggest complaint I hear about lawyers-- they put crooks back on the street. Well, yes and no. Actually, you and I put crooks back on the street because we are not willing to pony up the bucks to build more prisons and we certainly don't want them built in our backyards. And, trust me, everyone in that courtroom knows that just because a lawbreaker walks out of the courtroom does not mean he walks free and clear.

Courtroom justice and karmic justice are two different things. When that crook goes back to his old neighborhood, everyone is going to be well aware of who he is and what he's done. Family, friends, neighbors, victims, potential employers, and everyone else he encounters will see that "mark of Cain" on him. And, at some point, what goes around will come around.

See, at their core, lawyers are all about drawing order out of chaos. The world is full of people who only want to see the world their way and, if you don't agree with them, they won't think twice about running over you. They don't want to encounter someone who may be smarter than them, or who at least have a broader perspective. They don't want to take anyone's advice or, at least, hear about their world from an objective standpoint. There are plenty of people who don't want all the cards on the table. They want to muddy the waters; they want to hustle the world to their advantage. And, chances are, they're not going to like lawyers.

But, the lawyers soldier on, because at the end of the day, they still believe we are a nation of laws, rather than of men. They still believe we are a society that strives for treating everyone equally. And, they still believe civility is better than barbarism. Thank God for lawyers.

---

Timothy W. Hooker is a citizen journalist from Cleveland, TN. For more info, visit www.timhooker.com.

This story was produced by a Happynews Citizen Journalist.

For more information on contributing to Happynews, click here.