Read the rest of the thread buddy.
Nobody said eliminate law schools. Just make them optional. Either way, its hard to argue the effectiveness of law school if half the people aren’t going half the time. Also, most of these people will learn on the job as well.
Who pays for the mistakes lawyers make now? These “mistakes” aren’t being mitigated by the presence of the Bar because the bar is not doing it’s job, and those mistakes probably wouldn’t rise to the standard of legal malpractice. Like any job where training is needed, every company will have training requirements before giving a new person work they can’t handle.
Hey, congratulations! You just described my law practice, and that of every non-government lawyer I’ve ever known. I’m glad we can finally agree that lawyers operate in a free market system, by your definition.
Next hot topic: Is The Man really in charge of all the taxi drivers? Is it secret? Does paying twenty-five bucks at city hall make them tools of a plot designed to set a monopoly on fares?!
Bar association are sometimes part of the gov’t. They regulate who can practice and how they practice. This is not a free system.
Actually, something did stop this guy. A judge grew suspicious of him and asked his bar card number, which she then called in to the state bar. The number he gave didn’t match his identity, so he was investigated by the unlicensed practice committee, which discovered what he’d been up to and instituted felony criminal charges for falsely holding oneself out as a lawyer and unlicensed practice of law. So instead of hurting people, he’s behind bars. Under your system, as you yourself admit, nothing would prevent this guy from doing the same thing over and over.
Most are, if for no other reason that the system requires them to be and they’ll get spanked if they aren’t. How does your system solve any problems?
It certainly negates his general point if he’s claiming that lawyers in that region enjoy a significantly higher income than they actually do. If you’re billing 40 hours a week, you’re actually working 50 or 60.
Wouldn’t work. Most of my indigent clients don’t have internet access, especially the incarcerated ones.
Even if they did, the guys I represent often aren’t very good judges of whether or not I’m doing them a good job. The guy I wrote the appeal for would have written that I was the worst lawyer in the world, and I ended up winning his case for him. At least grievance committes have some objective standards and training to determine if I’m falling below a minimum level of competence. What’s the guy looking at capital murder going to do? “Well, I may be looking at a mandatory life sentence, but I left him a very sharply worded comment in his feedback section!”
Oh my. Paper, files, envelopes, more paper, stamps, new printer when the old one caves in, stationary, business cards, fax machine…do you have any idea what a copier costs? Just the copier will run you about $5000. You’ll be better off renting than buying, so expect to spend about $250 a month on just your copier, not counting all the many, many other things it’s going to take to keep your office running efficiently.
Maybe no bar dues if there’s no bar, but you’re still on the hook for your occupation tax, about $300.
Internet $300 a year, and internet legal research database up to $300 a month. Working from home may keep your electric bill down, but won’t do a damn thing for your phone bill, ink and toner cartridges, and everything else you’ll need to run your business, and it’s going to cost you a good deal more than $3000 a year. Heck, the copier alone is $3000 a year. Additionally, part of the reason I have an office is that I don’t have rapists, ax murderers and burglars knowing my home address, but whatever floats your boat.
If you don’t hire anyone, who’s going to go buy the office supplies and run grab a new toner cartridge while you’re billing hours? Why would anyone work that cheaply for you when they could open their own law practice doing the work for themselves that they’d be doing for you?
Your optimism would do a first year law student prouds, as your estimations of how much you’ll make are way too high, and your estimations on what you’ll be spending are way too low. In 2000 in Texas, the average income of the private practitioner with three to six years experience was $81,908, and the average billable hour was $197. A guy from the above cite states that in 2003, Michigan attorneys had a median net income of $73,500 per year and were billing at $170 an hour, and that median office expense per attorney were about $55,000 per year, or about $27.50 in office expenses for each hour billed.
Every attorney I spoke with expressed astonishment at Massachusett’s pay rate for court appointments. $37.50 an hour would be a great salary for someone punching a clock who didn’t pay his own overhead, but for a self employed lawyer, it’s bordering on bankruptcy. If people could bill as efficiently as you say you can and keep costs as low as you claim, a Texas lawyer three years out of law school could make between $400,000 and $500,000 a year. There’s a reason why they don’t - it’s impossible.
Wait, now you’re saying there will be some standards of establishing competence? That’s a 180 from what you said before. Who is going to do this?