"Ours
is a sick profession marked by incompetence, lack of training, misconduct, and
bad manners. Ineptness, bungling, malpractice, and bad ethics can be
observed in court houses all over this country every day...the harsh truth is
that...we may well be on our way to a society overrun by hordes of lawyers,
hungry as locusts, and brigades of judges in numbers never before
contemplated." Former Chief Justice Warren Burger
"The legal process, because of its unbridled growth, has become a cancer which threatens the vitality of our forms of capitalism and democracy." Lawrence Silberman, Former U.S. Attorney General
"The legal trade is nothing but a high class racket." Professor Fred Rodell
"A lawyer is a learned gentleman who rescues your estate from your enemies and keeps it for himself." Lord Brougham
"Most lawyers are as crooked as a dog's hind leg." Grandpa
Province
"By law's dark by-ways he has stored his mind with wicked knowledge on how
to cheat mankind." George Crabbe
"Those (lawyers) who lie, conceal and distort everything and slander
everybody." Jean Giraudoux
"Those (lawyers) whose interests and abilities lie in perverting,
confounding, and eluding the law." Jonathan Swift
"The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent
expediency." Henry David Thoreau
"A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with
guns." Mario Puzo
"A judge is simply a malignant lawyer and should be removed."
The Outlaws
"Law is quite overdone. It is fallen to the ground, and a man must
have great powers to raise himself in it to either honor or profit. The
mob of the profession get as little money and less respect, than they would by
digging the earth."
"(Upon retirement) the lawyer has only to recollect how many, by his dexterity, have been cheated of their right and reduced to beggary."
"Their (lawyers) trade is to question everything, yield nothing and talk by the hour. That one hundred and fifty lawyers should do business together ought not to be expected."
“Law students are taught that civil procedure is more important than truth. Licensed lawyers use civil procedure to delay, obfuscate, and avoid the truth."
"Law students are taught that morality has no place in the practice of law. Lawyers now refer to their 'code of ethics' as the 'code of professional responsibility.' They are correct in making this name change as ethics has nothing to do with the practice of law."
"Licensed lawyers have no incentive to work efficiently or in the best interests of their clients, the public, or the legal system."
"While hiding behind the nobility that every person deserves a vigorous representation, the truth is that licensed lawyers represent their own economic interests ahead of any other consideration."
"It is nearly impossible to get a judge to levy sanctions on a licensed lawyer who has lied and misrepresented the law and facts before the court. Judges act as if nothing improper has occurred when perjury by an officer of the court has been called to their attention."
"Many licensed lawyers prolong legal disputes for the sole purpose of billing more hours. Since they charge by the hour under a system where the client has no idea whether the bills they present are works of fiction or fact, and as they have NO economic incentive to settle disputes quickly, honestly, forthrightly, or in the best interests of their clients, licensed lawyers strive to extract as much money as possible from their clients."
From an article in the October 2007 issue of the ABA Journal titled "Pulse of the Legal Profession."
"Litigation costs have become prohibitive in recent years, according to the majority of those surveyed, and attorneys have become less civil to one another."
"(Some)
people (licensed lawyers) are so motivated to win at any price that they become
very uncivil to each other--and play all kinds of games--which makes the
litigation process much more costly."
"In-house counsel say they're tired of dealing with lawyers who are more
concerned about billing hours than solving problems, who are taking the
adversarial process to the extreme,' says Elwork, the author of Stress
Management for Lawyers.