LITTLETON, Colo., August 5, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Few professions rouse such widespread feelings of contempt as that of attorney. Conversations about lawyers often conjure dark humor or furrowed brows from individuals disheartened by the legal system. In the new book, Lawyers Under Fire: What a Mess Lawyers Have Made of the Law! (now available through AuthorHouse), Al Sampson offers an in-depth explanation of why the legal profession is criticized for lacking ethics and obstructing justice.
Sampson employs the opinions of legal experts and practicing lawyers to provide a clear outline of the troubling state of the legal profession. "Today, the majority of law is practiced on behalf of the wealthy," he writes, "with corporate law, tax law, anti-trust law and divorce law dominating law firm caseloads, while the poor are left with too few lawyers who are willing to forego high hourly rates."
Criminal cases, Sampson contends, are easily swayed and virtually decided by outside factors that include powerful lawyers, perjured testimony, jury consultants, bribery and threats.
"A statement that has been repeated over and over is that 90 percent of the knowledge that is needed in the practice of law is not taught in law schools," says Sampson. "Instead, the prospective lawyers are taught to be aggressive, arrogant, abusive, not given to commitment to one side of an argument and are trained to win at any cost."
Sampson adds that instructions to juries are often vague, and that excessive, unnecessary lawsuits have slowed the already cumbersome bureaucratic system. It is no wonder, he says, that about 30 percent of law school graduates decide to switch careers after passing the bar exam.
"Lawyers Under Fire is intended to make the non-lawyering public conscious of the chaos that has been assembled in the name of the law and to propose a great mass movement that can cause reform," he writes.
While an officer in the U.S. Navy, Sampson worked as a prosecutor during the court martial of a sailor accused of stealing mechanic's tools. Pressure from higher-ranking officers to prosecute on an improper charge, along with other incidents prompted Sampson's career move into engineering and corporate management.
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