Kill all the lawyers!

Well now, that's bit harsh, isn't it? That was the opinion of William Shakespeare, back in the day.

On NPR I was reading about a case in California where a 28 year old male teacher was convicted of lewd behavior with a minor for having sex with a 14 year old, female student. He's in prison for the crime and that's not the issue. A civil suit against the school though is in appeal because a lawyer has positioned that the girl was at fault, that she knew what she was doing when she lied to her parents and willingly met the man at a motel to have sex with him. The school didn't know what was going on and surely didn't approve. In California the law puts the age of consent at 18. It varies from state to state.

I guess the big deal is that the school, not knowing about the incident when it happened, is not financially liable for it having happened. I can see that. Unless you actively hire help from Pedophiles R Us, how do you know what all your personnel are up at anytime?

What irks me about this is the lawyer putting the blame on the kid. If you have kids or were ever one yourself, you know that they say and do the darnedest things and that they make a lot of mistakes. They are kids. You should see them skateboarding! What are they thinking.

What are lawyers thinking? Whoever this one is, is it his mission to lower the age of consent? How low can it go? If 18 is arbitrary, does he think lower is better? Kids that young have been tried for murder. They kill. They have sex. They may rape but, not adults. They are kids. In some civil courts kids have been found liable for their actions in similar cases to the California one. These kids are not being arrested for rape, mind you, they are just being found complicit in their own rapes by civil courts.

Tort reform is always an issue with conservatives. Our governor-elect here has said he would agree to a modest hike in the minimum wage if the courts agree to deny legal action against businesses by employees, including workman's comp claims. Just don't get sexually harassed or hurt at work and some people will get a small raise and everything will be fine... And isn't everyone just sick of people making millions off of frivolous lawsuits in stead of earning their reward by playing the lottery like everyone else?

People forget that there are people behind these cases- actual living, breathing people who have been wronged- and that it is lawyers who bring these cases to the light of a court room. Why do lawyers do this? Well, it's their job. Why do they blame victims? Well, that's their job too. Very few of them think logically. Their whole being is to think monetarily. They constantly are on the prowl for loopholes in the law and will use practically anything to get an advantage. People get upset when a criminal gets away due to a technicality in the law and I understand that part of a lawyers job is to keep the law itself honest. So yeah, if the cops beat a confession out of a guy, they did not uphold the law and that is wrong. We can't have our police disrespecting the law as the criminals do. I surely get that. They are supposed to be better than that. Lawyers, oddly enough, do not have to be better than that.

The infamous "Hot Coffee" case was successfully argued by a lawyer. The interesting thing is that the same lawyer could easily have argued against the elderly woman who brought the case. It makes no nevermind to them. Many don't take a stand until they see the dollar signs. This is why I respect so few lawyers. They are very chaotic in what they actually believe in because rather than logic or personal beliefs, they argue all too often for what pays better. It's like the high school debate team. Defend a position even though you don't believe in it. Then, WIN!

The good guys don't always win. The best, most expensive lawyers, often do. The law itself seems to respect that and pay homage to it. It's hard to pick a side. Prosecutors make mistakes and sometimes those mistakes get buried via executions. This is why I am against the death penalty. Innocent men have been executed and often saved from execution by DNA and prosecutors faced with that, rarely admit their mistakes. An "Well, I'll be damned...i was wrong..." is too much to ask for, it seems. They just keep arguing no matter how wrong they are, Therein lies the rub.