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From: fred@varian.UUCP (Fred Klink)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: Lie det.. (The REAL way the courts work)
Message-ID: <555@varian.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Feb-86 17:47:00 EST
Article-I.D.: varian.555
Posted: Mon Feb 24 17:47:00 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 2-Mar-86 18:54:02 EST
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Organization: Varian, Walnut Creek, CA
Lines: 29

> 
> The trial system as practiced in these here United States is nothing more
> than a gladiatorial combat system that uses persuasion in place of swords.
> The plaintiff/prosecutor does _not_ have to prove the defendant guilty beyond
> a shadow, etc, he merely has to _persuade_ the jury that the defendent is
> guilty.
> 
> The more persuasive the lawyer is, the more successful he is, and the more
> money he gets for his services. The range of fees that you find lawyers
> asking is not what you would expect from workers in a service industry 
> (which is what they purport to be), but rather more like that of artists,
> with the extremely highly-paid prima-donnas earning millions, down to the
> (relatively) poor souls that only make $100K or so.

Actually, your facts prove just the opposite point from what you 
set out say.  Who are these high paid prima-donnas of the legal profession?
DEFENSE attornies, that's who.  And why are they so valued?  Because
there job is not to prove anything, simply to put that all important *doubt*
in the minds of the jury.  All juries are carefully instructed that 
the defense need only introduce doubt about the validity of the prosecution's
case.  These high paid guys are good persuders, at least in criminal cases.
Your point about being able to buy an acquital is generally true for this
reason.  Please keep in mind that the prosecutors are for the most part not
very experienced either.  In a perverse sort of way, the usual criminal trial
fought out by a member of the DA's staff and a public defender may be the
*fairest* trial in the US.

There's a tendancy on this net to confuse the criminal and civil legal systems.
Most of the prima donnas make their millions in the civil courts.