Serial liars: how lawyers get the money

Bonaparte began reforming the investigative system in 1800. That system now affects some 1.6 billion in European countries, their former colonies, and Japan and South Korea. The adversary system affects a similar number in Britain and its former colonies.

Further differences. A civil hearing in the adversary system can take months or years; the record is 117 years A civil hearing in the investigative system takes a total of about a day. In serious criminal cases, 99 per cent of accused are guilty. The adversary system convicts fewer than 50 per cent; the investigative system puts away 90 per cent.

The above 700 words is the product of the drudgery and three books, Trial by Voodoo, The Cartel, and now Serial Liars, which some think is quite useful, perhaps because it is mercifully brief primer on the two systems. For example:

Alex Wade, a British lawyer, wrote in The Times (September 22, 2006). “Serial Liars … should be required reading for all law students … in fact, it should be read by everyone involved in the law … [The] core argument [is]: “The European process is controlled by trained judges and is largely about truth; the Anglo-American process is controlled by trained lawyers and is largely about money.”

Brett Dawson, former Hong Kong Crown Prosecutor, wrote: “[Serial Liars] provides ordinary members of the public with the proof they need to demand that the adversarial system be abandoned in favour of inquisitorial method. Make no mistake. This is eventually going to have to come. Of course there will be monstrous opposition from the legal profession, backed up by every dishonest argument imaginable, and then some. Serial Liars confronts all the major lawyer arguments, and disposes of them.”

Phillip Knightley, twice British Journalist of the Year, wrote: “Serial Liars is a masterpiece.”

The system will change when non-lawyers understand how and why the adversary system is not interested in truth, and express their outrage to lawyers in legislatures. As a small gesture towards that understanding, Serial Liars can be downloaded free from a website in progress.