THE EMMY AWARD-WINNING HOST OF COURT TV’S "CATHERINE CRIER LIVE" DESCRIBES AN AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM DANGEROUSLY OUT OF CONTROL – AND FINDS THE LAWYERS GUILTY AS CHARGED. As a child, Catherine Crier was enchanted by film portrayals of crusading lawyers like Clarence Darrow and Atticus Finch. As a district attorney, private lawyer, and judge herself, she saw firsthand how the U.S. justice system worked – and didn’t. One of the most respected legal journalists and commentators today, she now confronts a profoundly unfair legal system that produces results and profits for the few – and paralysis, frustration, and injustice for the many. Alexis de Tocqueville’s dire prediction in Democracy in America has come true: We Americans have ceded our responsibility as citizens to resolve the problems of society to "legal authorities" – and with it our democratic freedoms. The Case Against Lawyers is both an angry indictment and an eloquent plea for a return to common sense. It decries a system of laws so complex even the enforcers – such as the IRS – cannot understand them. It unmasks a litigation-crazed society where billion-dollar judgments mostly line the pockets of personal injury lawyers. It deplores the stupidity of a system of liability that leads to such results as a label on a stroller that warns, “Remove child before folding.” It indicts a criminal justice system that puts minor drug offenders away for life yet allows celebrity murderers to walk free. And it excoriates the sheer corruption of the iron triangle of lawyers, bureaucrats, and politicians who profit mightily from all this inefficiency, injustice, and abuse. The Case Against Lawyers will make readers hopping mad. And it will make them realize that the only response can be to demand change. Now.

People need lawyers for many things, including tax and immigration advice, drafting contracts, preparing wills, buying and selling houses, forming and dissolving companies, and representation and advice during divorce, probate, personal injury and criminal charges. But many people do not trust lawyers. With good reason, they fear that lawyers will neglect or overcharge them, betray them out of self-interest or on behalf of others, or obstruct the pursuit of justice out of overzealousness. Although the legal profession drafts ethical rules, law schools teach those rules, the bar exam tests lawyers' knowledge, and disciplinary bodies enforce them, we know that violations by lawyers are all too common. Lawyers on Trial: Understanding Ethical Misconduct by California Attorneys, by Richard L. Abel, presents six dramatic accounts of California lawyers who betrayed their clients and the legal system. Through the detailed records of the disciplinary proceedings, it examines some of the most common complaints about lawyers: chasing ambulances, charging excessive fees, violating conflict of interest rules, and displaying excessive zeal. These complex and compelling dramas serve to make the ethical rules, and the temptations they seek to curb, come vividly alive for law students, lawyers, those thinking of becoming lawyers, anyone who has been or might some day be a client, and the general public. The lessons to be drawn from these situations can help the legal profession and the public devise better strategies for ensuring that lawyers abide by the rules.

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

Grutman gives readers a rollicking behind-the-scenes tour of American law--and a scathing indictment of its frequent excesses.

How do lawyers resolve ethical dilemmas in the everyday context of their practice? What are the issues that commonly arise, and how do lawyers determine the best ways to resolve them? Until recently, efforts to answer these questions have focused primarily on rules and legal doctrine rather than the real-life situations lawyers face in legal practice. The first book to present empirical research on ethical decision making in a variety of practice contexts, including corporate litigation, securities, immigration, and divorce law, Lawyers in Practice fills a substantial gap in the existing literature. Following an introduction emphasizing the increasing importance of understanding context in the legal profession, contributions focus on ethical dilemmas ranging from relatively narrow ethical issues to broader problems of professionalism, including the prosecutor’s obligation to disclose evidence, the management of conflicts of interest, and loyalty to clients and the court. Each chapter details the resolution of a dilemma from the practitioner’s point of view that is, in turn, set within a particular community of practice. Timely and practical, this book should be required reading for law students as well as students and scholars of law and society.

Discusses issues surrounding such cases as Watergate, the Rosenbergs, the Civil Rights Movement, the Taft-Hartley Act, and the McCarthy Committee.

The legal rights of Americans are threatened as never before. In No Contest, Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith reveal how power lawyers--Kenneth Starr perhaps the most notorious among them--misuse and manipulate the law at the expense of fairness and equity. Nader and Smith document how corporate lawyers File baseless lawsuits Use court secrecy to their unfair advantage Engage in billing fraud Nader and Smith sound the warning that this system-wide abuse is eroding our basic legal rights, and propose a positive, commonsense vision of what should be done to reverse the corporate-inspired corruption of civil justice. Timely, incisive, and highly readable, this is a book for all citizens who believe that prompt access to justice is the backbone of democracy, and a precious right to be reclaimed.