THE LAW IS NOT SERVING THE PEOPLE
Let's get one thing clear first: I'm talking about the law in the UK; what I have to say may equally apply elsewhere, but I'm not in a position to know that.
And another thing: I'm no hairy anarchist seeking to overturn the fabric of society (!), nor am I any kind of criminal with some sort of chip on my shoulder about the Law. I'm just an ordinary bloke who sees people being unjustly taken to the cleaners time and time again simply because the Law is completely failing to protect them.
My point is simply that the Law should be equally available for the use and protection of everybody – and it's not. Instead it is the arcane stamping ground of the lawyers and the few people and organisations with lots of money to employ them. And that's all wrong.
Why is this so important? Because the Law is the whole basis of our society – our civilisation even. It is the thing which sets out the rules by which we live and relate to others, and it is the reason why we don't (or shouldn't have to) carry round weapons to defend ourselves against coercion by the thugs that live among us. Make no mistake, there's no getting rid of the thugs, they'll always be there; but it is the Law that should prevent them even considering taking advantage of others, and which should organise redress if they do.
And by thugs I don't just mean the hairy-chested, unwashed, unshaven lurking somewhere out there in the shadows. I also mean faceless big business using their financial muscle against the little man, unaccountable government departments welshing on their responsibilities, or some bossy little Hitler official who likes to chuck his weight around. Or even Governments themselves; – who was it said there should be no authority without responsibility?
The unfortunate reality now is that most ordinary people accept that it is a complete waste of time and money going to Law. Nearly everybody agrees that the only winners are the lawyers. And the end result is that the Law is simply not available to most of us – which, plainly and simply, is injustice.
Some may claim that it is perfectly possible to represent yourself. Bah! To do that you have to have enormous amounts of time to research all the arcane ins and outs so as not to get cornered by some smartass lawyer, and even then you risk being bankrupted by enormous costs from the other side if you should lose. Others may claim that Legal Aid is there to help. Double Bah! Legal Aid is now very limited in scope and availability so as to be practically useless. And in any case, if you should win it immediately takes out all its very considerable costs from any settlement so that you end up with practically NO settlement – so what's the point of using it in the first place?
So at the end of the day, all we have is wealthy individuals, big business and governments using the Law to chuck their weight around and force their views and intentions on all the rest of us. Of course, we see the occasional victory of the little man when some brave soul dares to take them on. But for each of those, what we don't hear about is scores, maybe hundreds, of others who are bankrupted and destroyed. And it's all because the Law is controlled by money.
If you've got lots of money you're fine. If you haven't, you're screwed. If you can afford to spend (and lose) a few hundred thousand you can do what you like. If you can't, you run away and hide. And that's all wrong.
SO WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT?
That's what I want to hear from all of you out there. Does this bother you – or don't you care? Tell me what you think. I don't really want to hear the dismal jimmies saying there's nothing you can do anyway, that's just defeatist talk. But I do want to hear whether you do or don't agree and why.
And I do want to hear your ideas on what should be done to solve the problem. I have some ideas myself, but I don't want to influence others – I'd rather hear from you first. But just to start can I suggest that we need to at least look at three aspects:
1. Access to the Law must no longer be governed by money.
2. The Law must be able to be easily understood by the layman.
3. Judges must be of the highest possible quality and subject to performance scrutiny.
Over to you – let me know what you think.
Regards,
Justice.
