The predictable result? Defendants have a right to a lawyer but no particular level of service. — : 207-209
But courts are poorly equipped to manage tax revenues, other funding sources, and budget tradeoffs in a world of scarcity. — : 812-813
Procedural and substantive complexity also plays a part. Lawyers are trained in complexity for a reason: American law is extraordinarily complex at all levels. Legal forms and in-court checklists will naturally fail to cover every applicable statute, case, or regulation, let alone the various procedures available. Consciously or unconsciously, American law and courts seem to have been designed to require an excellent lawyer to operate. — : 1248-1251
In 1836, the first written statement of an American lawyer’s professional obligations provided: “I shall never close my ear or heart because my client’s means are low. — : 1263-1264
The people who are in court every day are used to a system that funnels every litigant into hiring a lawyer. The rest of us do not have to face the problem because we appear in court pretty rarely. — : 1376-1378
It is partially because justices have busy, full-time jobs they like (hearing and deciding cases), and regulating lawyers is tangential to their primary work. — : 1438-1439