wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Thanks for this segment, Brian. It is great radio when you moderate with an alternative viewpoint.

Has this lawyer ever hired a lawyer?

Hmm, he reminds me of the below-mediocre professors I've unfortunately come across in school -- which make one ever more appreciative of the good ones.

I hope WNYC forwards these comments to Mr. Lubet. Then he can get an HONEST view of what is out there. Truth is so very relative to lawyers and they benefit from the ambiguity.

I just checked the mp3 from yesterday's show and the discussion regarding Cynthia Mckinney (forgive the spelling) was about why the racial issue was elevated above the sexisism that revolved abround her treatment in the mass media.

this is a joke, in a recent survey 60% of law students admitted to cheating. Law students are overwhlemed with pressure to cheat, if they don't finish in the top 10% of their class so they have a shot at getting a job with big law, they are going to struggle for the rest of their life to pay off 120K or more of law school debt.

What happened with Scooter Libby again last year?

Well, if every lawyer presented a fair and balanced assessment of a situation, nothing would get done. No court cases would ever be decided. Each side has to essentially present their best case which means omitting details that might otherwise compromise their case. Omitting facts is essentially another form of lying, but it's necessary.

Oh please. The one (and hopefully last) court case I was directly involved in featured an opposing lawyer who knowingly lied about me and my actions in court documents. In another case where I was a defense witness, the lawyer on our side coached me on how to testify. Not to lie directly, but to strengthen the helpful parts of my testimony and omit the unhelpful. Maybe it's not lying in pure legal sense, but yeah, I lied, with his coaching and blessing. All for a good cause, however, which I'm sure is how the lawyers see it. But let's not kid ourselves that lawyers don't "lie," as the word is used commonly.

From what I have seen in malpractice litigation, the truth doesn't matter. I was involved in a case where the opposing lawyer stated that if my co-defendent's state sponsored mal-practice fund (Becuase his provider went bankrupt in NJ) paid out, I would get dropped from the case. And I did get dropped. No matter that the person suing me waited for 2 months before seeing the specialist that I recommended. The tax-payers lost and the lawyer got his money. That is what drives the system.

Honest Lawyers? Horse droppings. Not to mention gross incompetence.

Most -- or far too many -- individual practitioners dabble in many kinds of law, and are barely conversant in many areas.

Would you allow an internist to perform neurosurgery on you? But any shyster with a shingle out front will do a real estate closing, wills & estates, matrimony, etc, and do a sloppy job in all. They just don't know enough and don't have enough experience to NOT miss so many important points, and their clients are just lucky when it doesn't come back to bite them on the rear end.

My room-mate in Montreal spoke english with a strong Quebec accent. Lawyer sounds like "Lier". I used to love to hear her say, "I' studying to become a professional "li'er"

What drives me crazy about our legal system is that the cost of defending yourself must be borne by the individual, whether or not the case has merit. In the UK, when you bring a lawsuit and lose, you must pay the defendant's legal costs.
My husband and I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees defending our small business against litigation. Even though we won, we are much poorer for the experience.

Libertarians....

Let's not go there..

but really what does honest mean. eye of the beholder stuff

Wait..a lawyer is telling us lawyers are honest...I think he should recuse himself.

Bush has got the smile and the wave perfected, he can smile and wave like a Miss Universe pageant winner.

Look at Bush he clearly lied to the American public about the danger of Sadam Hussein and the law won't hold him accountable.

No one media or politicians will even say Bush lied.

Rice and Cheney lied about the mushroom cloud.

When will an American president be tried in the international court?

what will it take?

What more does an american president have to do?

Better to be honest and say what you need to say than to live life regreting that you never said what the honest truth was and what you wanted.

Be honest and express yourself to get what you want in this life, people!