*Transcendental *Logic

1. Class Action Law Suits are an absolute necessity in anything resembling a fair society. Reason? With the size of corporations being what it is, a class-action suit is one of very few ways that citizens have of punishing a corporation in any meaningful way. Bad press rarely causes more than superficial change; no single citizen can reasonably be expected to go up against them in a trial; and regulatory fines are rarely enough to even dent a company’s stock value. And lest that seem too harsh, remember the scary fact that the tobacco companies have now been class-action-smacked so much that they’re partially supporting the governments in every state in the Union, and they’re not only NOT out of business — they’re doing fine.

2. Everyone should have the right to a lawyer, period. Not just in criminal cases! Keep in mind that all the RIAA lawsuits are civil, and in cases like that (well, in almost all cases actually), not having an attorney is absolutely crippling to the defense. Even if a defendant is extremely well versed in the law, he won’t get the same quality of attention from the judge as a lawyer would. In this world of unbelievably complicated law (I’m in favor of simpler laws, but let’s face it, that isn’t around the corner anytime soon) and just-as-complicated judicial processes, a lawyer is bottom-line necessary in order to receive a fair trial. We value life and freedom absolutely in this country. We know this means that everyone, regardless of monetary status, should have access to a doctor when they need one, to protect their life. The same is true when it comes to protecting our freedom.

3. And while we’re at it, what about other things we could do to guarantee monetary fairness in court? A small but important step was taken recently, in the Capital v. Foster case, when the judge told the RIAA that there was no good reason to stop a woman they’d been harrassing from countersuing them, even though they’d decided to drop the case. (Having admitted your lack of evidence is hardly grounds for getting out of paying the other party’s already-incurred legal fees!) What about loser-pays legal fees, which seem to make obvious sense? What about, in extremely unequal cases (i.e. Capital Records against Some Guy), forcing the rich party to pay double for all the costs of its experts, etc., and donating half to the other party’s defense? (Why shouldn’t the super-rich and mega-corporations have to pay a bit extra to support justice in this country?) What about rating judges on their level of knowledge in various areas (i.e. Internet technology), and making sure the judges hearing specialized cases can understand what’s going on?

All just ideas. I can’t wait to get further up my elbows in law. I bet I can be a real pain in some very deserving asses. ;)

-PD

This entry was posted 2 years ago on Sunday, November 19th, 2006 at 11:30 pm and is filed under cool thing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.