I’m not a lawyer. For that matter, I’m not a paralegal either (not yet anyway, on both counts). I work for a lawyer, though. And as I trudge through my 9 to 6 weekdays running through cases with him, analyzing evidence and pouring through his mess of letters, authorities and court forms, I have slowly come to the realization that the legal profession, as highly regarded as it is, does not age well.
The very function of procedural rules is as convoluted as the legal profession itself; strict adherence to the rules without exception is justified as a “must-have” to ensure that “justice must be seen to be done”. To the non-lawyer, these are technicalities which can be twisted into loopholes which allow wrongdoers to avoid paying for their sins. Submit the wrong form to apply for a claim, and your case gets struck out. Sue the wrong representative, and have your case thrown out the court window, or in more formal language, “dismissed with costs”.
