Tuesday, August 02, 2005

7. I read about crazy lawsuits for trivial reasons where people win money - so why can't I find a lawyer to fight serious issues of legal corruption?

It's true that there are lots of bogus, malicious, and perverted lawsuits filed in America, for all sorts of trivial and dishonest reasons. And it's true that some of these lawsuits even win money, where somebody gets a big pile of money for some silly complaint.

But that doesn't mean you will be able to get legal help to fight a crooked lawyer or judge, even though you have massive proof of misconduct and felony crime by the lawyers and the judges.

The legal profession likes the media to tell all those general lawsuit stories. They like the way these stories create terror among people and small businesses, and help induce people to pay more money for lawyers.

The legal profession also likes the media to tell the stories of a few people who win millions of dollars in lawsuits. It is just like in gambling casinos, where the casino will very proudly announce that someone has won a huge jackpot. A few people win big, but most people will lose, and the stories of a few people hitting the 'jackpot' give false hope to all the many people who lose money.

Also, many people who win lots of money in a lawsuit, are people who have serious injuries and medical problems, and who need to spend all that money on America's hugely expensive medical care system.

Lawyers also like to create the impression that, 'You can find a lawyer to sue anybody for almost anything'. This, however, is a lie. It's true that you can find lawyers to file all sorts of silly, worthless and dishonest lawsuits, but only against certain targets.

If you want to make up some lies and sue a doctor or a hospital, lawyers will jump out of the woodwork to help you. If you want to make up some lies and sue a small business, a business that doesn't have any political connections, lawyers will be glad to take your money and play this game along with you. If you want to harass your poor neighbor down the street, and your neighbor doesn't have political protectors, lawyers will be glad to take your money and play the lawsuit game.

But if you want to sue a big powerful company with political connections, lawyers start to slow down a bit. They might take your money and file a lawsuit against that kind of company, but they will start to be a little timid about what they do. And they well might pocket your money, and then take a bribe from the lawyers for the big company to sabotage your case, your lawyer knowing in advance that he will betray you, and you will lose, even as he cashes the first cheque you pay him.

If you want to file a lawsuit against some politician or the government, now things really start to slow down. Lawyers, even broke lawyers desperate for money, will start to walk on eggshells here. They might be willing to file some sort of general administrative lawsuit about this or that, but they also will be very hesitant to expose real wrongdoing by some powerful official, politician or government agency, unless the big corporate media tied to the oligarchy, is itself making a target of that government official. Sometimes, there is a standard framework encouraging the lawyers, such as in charges of police brutality, allowing the lawyers to make claims. But overall, lawyers often hesitate before taking legal action against the government, and will first check to see if higher powers won't be angry at them.

But if you want to sue another lawyer, or file some lawsuit that exposes the misconduct of a dishonest judge, then you will likely hear: No way, buster! This is the territory of career suicide for a lawyer. He might end up losing his license to practice law, and both the lawyer and you might wind up in jail on phony charges. You can keep on asking several thousand lawyers, like other people have done, and yet never find a single lawyer who is willing to file a lawsuit against another lawyer who is crooked. You can have lots of money, and total proof of crime by the guilty lawyers, and yet you may never find a lawyer to truly help you.

That's the reality of 'how the game is played' in the USA legal system.

Click here to go back to the FAQ table of contents.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3, or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.