The Cost of No Justice

The history of the practice of the law is as ancient as the history of human dispute. So it seems is the criticism of lawyers. Shakespeare and Voltaire both decried them.

But the defence of a villain, the suit of a pauper, or the impugning of a king were causes as unpopular then as they are now. And for those whose role it is to seek the truth in those causes we can expect the same reaction as belongs to that truth we expose. When human nature ordains such truths loathsome, so too by human nature are we loathed.

This feature of behaviour is one often exploited by those who stand to benefit from the degradation of the justice system.

The powerful, including business and government, resent the empowerment of the ordinary citizen through the courts. That lawyers bear the brunt of the attack raged against it is therefore not surprising.

But these assaults on lawyers are a disguise for an attack on the system itself. With the attention of lawyers and the public diverted to issues such as lawyers’ fees, it has never been easier to achieve its conquest.

While not popular heroes like minstrels and athletes, lawyers will continue to be at the forefront of truly popular causes. Both at the level of government and at that of the individual, their safeguarding of the law and the protection of rights, ensures that they will remain in the last line of defence of the public.

So the question really is not whether we can continue to afford to retain our civil justice system but whether we can afford the cost of not having it.