Studying the Law


Lawless are they that make their wills their law.

- William Shakespeare
An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.
The law is an ass

- Charles Dickens
Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.

- Mark Twain

These quotations represent just some of the most common perceptions regarding the law and lawyers. Hollywood films for over 50 years have had a field day with lawyers; portraying them as protectors of the vulnerable (To Kill a Mockingbird), as instruments for the devil (The Devil’s Advocate), as battlers against corporate negligence (Erin Brockovich) and as detectives uncovering high level conspiracies (A Few Good Men).


Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were lawyers. Clinton famously treated one Presidential Race debate as if he was a lawyer and won over a lot of the electorate. People hold lawyers in awe and in contempt in equal measure.


The battle of liberalism vs. conservative Christian values is largely played out in the Supreme Court. G.W. Bush famously tried to pack the Supreme Court with right leaning judges to bring about a change in the abortion laws in the States. No doubt, to his chagrin he failed.


Perceptions of lawyers have a big impact on the way that America is perceived by other countries around the world. Less litigious countries in Europe and in Asia commonly see American lawyers as opportunists, as ‘ambulance chasers’. Many people still cannot believe that a woman got scolded by a cup of coffee in a fast food chain and successfully sued for damages amounting to millions of dollars. It seems that lawyers can make a lawsuit out of anything. It also seems that lawyers can just about get anyone off the hook. If you don’t believe me think O.J Simpson.


All these perceptions of lawyers and the business of litigation, prosecution and defence are exceptions. The truth is that most lawyers are involved in very mundane cases. Most lawyers don’t strut ponderously around weaving a web of rhetoric around the courtroom. Most lawyers are not involved in star studded cases or take on corporate giants.


I’m a law student and I can tell you that the law is frequently just plain boring; without glamour and without any important connection to the main contentious causes of the day.


Many of my fellow law students are planning on being corporate lawyers specializing in financial matters. They plan to draft and lock down exchanges of huge sums of money. They will never appear in court. They will never argue for a man or woman’s life. They will just earn a very healthy salary.


They do this because to the outside the law looks opaque, incomprehensible; like the esoteric arts of a sorcerer. It is this image that stops people from downloading forms from the internet and making their own will, from organizing their own small claims appeal, from doing their own conveyancing. Anyone with an average IQ and a bit of patience can do these things for themselves.


I should not be complaining since I hope to make a living from the law. I’m not sure about what type of lawyer I want to be. At the moment I’m learning about all aspects of the law. It is fascinating to study. What is frustrating is people’s stereotypes about lawyers.


That is why I’ve set up http://www.droitconstit.org/. The right of the constitution. I am exercising my rights under the constitution to free speech. My free speech will be about me, a law student. I’m not Demi Moore, Erin or Gregory Peck. I’m simply a young person struggling to make his way in a highly competitive field. These articles are aimed to dispel stereotypes about lawyers and about the law profession. I don’t believe the law or lawyers are an ass. We are neither angels or devils, and most of the time those who break the law are not Martin Luther, Jnr. or Mahatma Gandhi.


Jan
03

I’d Like To Specialize In Medical Malpractice Law

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Yesterday I attended my first lecture on medical malpractice and I was hooked. I’m not going to make a decision just yet, but I think it’s the area of law in which I’d like to specialize. I think it’s the complexity that I find interesting. Looking at the cases we discussed in the lecture, it’s clear that they are very challenging to prosecute and patients need to understand their rights upfront.

I left the lecture understanding just how difficult it is for a patient to prevail in medical malpractice actions. There are many things stacked against them. Not only is there a central malpractice defense fund that hospitals and medical professionals are supported by, but many States have passed legislation making it difficult for patients to get the “certificate of merit” needed to move forward.

Of course I don’t support a litigious culture or ambulance-chasing by attorneys, but I do think that if a hospital or a doctor has been negligent to a patient and injured them in some way, the right to pursue compensation should be available to them. But patients also need to take responsibility for their own actions. And it’s incumbent on them to follow instructions they receive from the medical community.

The whole notion of “following instructions” led us into an interesting discussion. The lecturer brought up health information that is available online and asked us to discuss whether this should be wrapped into the whole medical malpractice debate.

Most of us in the lecture theater were broadly supportive of the growth in transparency available online about medical issues. This covers the gamut from serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease right through to less serious ones such as nail fungus treatment, skin infections or indigestion. But most of us also agreed that patients should not trust this information blindly. Reading a website is not the same as consulting with a doctor and patients need to know the difference.

Next week we will be discussing the difference between medical malpractice committed by a hospital employee (where the hospital itself may be liable as a result of “respondent superior“) and that committed by a doctor.