The Price of Justice

Ronald Goldfarb

Description

“Attorney and literary agent Goldfarb (editor, After Snowden) delivers a lacerating critique of inequities in America’s criminal and civil justice systems and the role of lawyers in perpetuating them… Legal professionals will want to take note.” – Publisher’s Weekly

With foreword by Senator Bernie Sanders

Real civil and criminal Justice is long overdue

InThe Price of Justice: Money, Morals and Ethical Reform in the Law veteran Washington Lawyer Ronald Goldfarb reveals the injustices in our legal system and how money and power have exceeded ethics in the legal profession for far too long.

Justice reform has become an increasingly present topic in the news and media, with movements like “I Can’t Breathe” and Black Lives Matter prompting national outcry from the public over the unethical actions of law enforcement, and remains one of the most controversial and highly debated issues for politicians and citizens today. With more than 2 million American’s incarcerated, it is beyond apparent that the justice system intrinsically ensures that lower-income people and minorities are shockingly under represented and offered little to no legal protection.

In The Price of Justice, Goldfarb offers powerful testimonies, media evidence, and first-hand expertise from working in the Justice Department as a longtime public interest lawyer to reveal how both the criminal and civil justice systems fail to serve lower and middle-class citizens, and makes an undeniable case for the profound justice reform that is so desperately needed. Goldfarb asks that we examine closely a legal system that has become largely pay-to-play, benefiting the administrators and those wealthy citizens who can afford to “lawyer up”, and shows little mercy for the lower-income citizens who fall victim to an endless cycle of conviction, fines, bail, lack of counsel and capital punishment.

Goldfarb exposes a system that values money over ethics and lawyers who value winning cases over finding truth and serving justice, pointing out that civil aid and public defenders are grossly under-staffed and under financed, making it nearly impossible to meet the challenges of well-paid private lawyers. This book begs the legal profession to consider it’s ethical code when considering cases to represent, not just represent crooks who can pay and turn away worthy clients who cannot afford absorbent fees, and equips the public with the knowledge needed to advocate for justice reform.

Sujets

• Droit privé
• Droit privé
• Droit privé
• Droit privé
• Professional Responsibility
• Droit et juridique
• Ethics
• Law
• Droit pénal
• droit pénal
• Droit pénal
• Droit pénal
• Droit pénal

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 06 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781684425044
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE PRICE OF JUSTICE

Money, Morals and Ethical Reform in the Law
RONALD GOLDFARB
FOREWORD BY SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS
TURNER PUBLISHING COMPANY
Turner Publishing Company
Nashville, Tennessee
www.turnerpublishing.com
Copyright 2020 Ronald Goldfarb
The Price of Justice
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to Turner Publishing Company, 4507 Charlotte Avenue, Suite 100, Nashville, Tennessee, [phone], fax [phone], E-mail: [e-mail] .
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Cover design: Rodrigo Corral
Book design: Tim Holtz
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Goldfarb, Ronald L., author. | Sanders, Bernard, writer of foreword.
Title: The price of justice : the myths of lawyer ethics / Ronald Goldfarb ; foreword by Senator Bernie Sanders.
Description: [Nashville?] : Turner Publishing Company, [2020?] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: The Price of Justice by Ronald Goldfarb with Foreword by Senator Bernie Sanders is a fascinating and edgy look at the shortcomings of our legal justice system and how many of them are rooted in the flawed construction of the ethical rules governing lawyers -- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020029308 (print) | LCCN 2020029309 (ebook) | ISBN 9781684425020 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781684425044 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Legal ethics--United States. | Lawyers--United States. | Justice, Administration of--United States.
Classification: LCC KF306 .G65 2020 (print) | LCC KF306 (ebook) | DDC 174/.3--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029308
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029309
Printed in the United States of America
17 18 19 20 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Foreword by Senator Bernie Sanders
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 : A Tale of Two Myths
Myth One: Finding Lawyers, Choosing Clients
Myth Two: The Adversary System
CHAPTER 2 : The Criminal System
CHAPTER 3 : The Civil System
CHAPTER 4 : Personal Choices
CHAPTER 5 : Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
The rich man and the poor man do not receive equal justice in our country.
-Robert F. Kennedy
From his review of Ransom: A Critique of the American Bail System
DEDICATION
Dedicated to my three special amigos: Harvey Rosenwasser Steve Rosenfeld Hodding Carter
FOREWORD BY SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS
I n the The Price of Justice: The Myths of Lawyer Ethics , veteran Washington lawyer Ronald Goldfarb raises the curtain on the subject of our justice and lawyering systems-an issue that has received increased attention in recent years. In this political season some politicians have discovered criminal justice reform as if it were a new subject. But Ronald has been out front on this issue for a long, long time. Throughout his long career Ronald has written books about bail reform, jail, prison reform and farmworkers abuse, and the blurbs on the back jacket by Robert F. Kennedy, Karl Men-ninger, Tony Lewis, Fred Graham and Harvard scholar Robert Coles attest to Goldfarb s past contributions.
At a time when the United States has more people in jail then any other country on earth, over 2 million, it is shocking to learn how little we spend in making sure that defendants (who are overwhelmingly poor and minorities) get the legal protections that all Americans should be entitled to. In fact, as Ronald points out, the U.S. spends on justice for the poor all of $19 per client. Mind boggling.
In The Price of Justice Goldfarb offers powerful anecdotal stories, references to film and media, as well as his own experiences in the RFK Justice Department and the LBJ Office of Economic Opportunity task force with Sargent Shriver, and as a long time public interest lawyer. He provides analyses of interesting key cases, revealing how both the criminal and civil justice systems fail to serve poor and middle-class citizens. His underlying thesis makes a strong case for the profound systemic reform that we need.
The Price of Justice makes two fundamental points. One is that many of our major institutions, health and justice are prime examples, operate for the benefit of its administrators and not its clientele and users. Whether it is correctional institutions, courts or law schools that indictment often rings true.
Goldfarb s second fundamental point is that the reality of the justice system differs significantly from its rhetorical goals and purposes. The words equal justice under law are etched on the spandrel of the United States Supreme Court building in Washington DC and quoted in flowery speeches and legal opinions. But the reality of the justice system differs from its hortatory words. Goldfarb refers to and describes what one law professor called the manor houses of justice (courts and law schools) and their opposites, the gatehouses (police stations and the streets). Another law professor Goldfarb cites described the due process model of justice for the wealthy who lawyer up (the criminal goes free because the constable has blundered) and the crime control model for the poor (whatever it takes, I can t breathe, get the conviction, the verdict, the civil judgment). We all cheer the tough cops on TV who capture their criminal prey at the same time our children see the noble Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird as their hero.
Lofty principles about equal justice are irrelevant for the poor people who are prejudiced by fines, bail, lack of adequate counsel and the widespread use of capital punishment which, among major industrialized countries, is unique to the United States. The Constitution guarantees the right to counsel in criminal cases; but the fact is that about 95% of all cases do not go to trial before a judge and jury. They regularly are plea-bargained and, in those situations, the prosecutor holds all the cards. In civil cases, the Constitution guarantees the right to trial by jury but not to lawyers, a hollow guarantee as Goldfarb s stories demonstrate. Goldfarb quotes an SEC insider who stated that the agency polices the broken windows on the street level and rarely goes to the penthouse floors. Lawyers make the difference and money gets the legal representation you can afford.
The two myths referred in Goldfarb s subtitle are, first, that lawyers use the adversary system to justify their excessive behavior which is aimed at winning cases rather than finding truth or serving justice. And, second, that they should not be criticized for or even compared with the clients they represent and the causes they espouse that go against public interest (auto safety, bad drugs, dirty air and water, advocating torture, for examples). It is their ethics rules that require they do so, they argue. Not so, says Goldfarb. Lawyers turn away worthy clients regularly simply because they cannot pay their often exorbitant fees, and they represent scoundrels who can. Similarly, it is not uncommon for doctors to turn away patients without proof of insurance.
Despite the advent of legal services legislation, in criminal and civil cases Goldfarb describes a chasmic justice gap. Civil legal aid and criminal public defenders are out-staffed and underfinanced to meet the challenges of well-paid lawyers, in those few cases they are retained. So much for the adversary system. You or I would not last a second in the ring with the heavyweight champ. And while pro bono representation is helpful, it is available in one percent of all the cases, an average of half an hour a week per attorney in the United States.
Legal philosophers like former Supreme Court Justice Harlan Fisk Stone and Louis Brandeis warned, a century ago, that the legal profession was becoming a business, ignoring public interests by offering an expensive menu of advice, litigation and lobbying to which only the wealthy few had access. Goldfarb s book may not make the American Bar Association happy. But if it prompts the public and his profession to pursue the reforms he concludes are necessary, his accomplishments will be very significant. Real civil and criminal justice reform is long overdue, and Goldfarb s book takes us one step closer.
INTRODUCTION
I n the over half century since I became a lawyer in 1957, the profession has changed. Some changes are welcome.
I graduated two law schools, Syracuse University and Yale. There was one woman in my class at Yale Law School, two at Syracuse University Law School. No African Americans in either. Today women make up about half of most law school classes. The impressive dean of Syracuse Law School, Craig M. Boise, is African American, and the dean at Yale, Heather Gerken, is outstanding scholar, a woman. The Washington Post reported on F