I used to believe lawyers were decent people just like any other profession. I love the law and went to law school. My wife decided to surprise me with a divorce and thats where it went all downhill and lost most of my respect for the field. I hope no one has to go through Family Court because you are in for a nasty ride. Spent more than $115,000 for my attorney's fees and his team for 2 years. All I wanted was to have 50/50 custody of my babies that i fed, clothed, bathed more than my ex-wife. If you are a male, you are disadvantaged and there is no secret about it. Family Court Judges know the attorneys and depending who contributed more for their election might have a different judgement. What I despise the most is her attorney pushing my exwife to file charges upon charges against me. It all started nice but 2 weeks into the divorce proceedings, i was hit with 52 accusations, restraining order (thankfully judge denied it), marital house and full custody. In conclusion, I lost the house, cars, more than 115K in fees but at last i got 50/50 legal and parenting rights. That is, until she decides to bring me back to court and reopen the custody battle again.

Essentially our justice system is based on the principle of trial by combat, even in civil suits, although there is a great deal more leeway accorded to the courts in civil matters. Trying to assess degree of guilt is difficult at best. We want out justice system to have clear winners and losers, black and white solutions. Yet human behaviors are anything but black and white, they are a hundred shades of gray. And when it comes to equal treatment before the bar of justice, degrees of guilt are left wanting in equal justice. Well, what's a human to do?

When I started practicing ( about 150 years ago) my hourly rate was $75/hour. I have spent decades in courtrooms trying cases. I got better. I became Board Certified in Marital and Family law over 20 years ago. My hourly rate is now $350/hour. I handle complex divorce cases where assets generally exceed a couple of million (sometimes over 100 million). Incomes to match. The issues I deal with are complex and I have demonstrated many years of successful litigation of these matters. To the people I work with my hourly rate is "lunch money". I also do a good bit of pro bono work (mostly teaching young lawyers) as well as provide support to Legal Aid( free legal aid for the poor). Almost every attorney I know does something similar. Bottom line is no one forces any client to hire an attorney. We get hired because we have worked long and hard to develop into effective advocates.

The system is insane. I support capitalism, but I do think there's a difference between capitalism with social responsibility, and capitalism with runaway greed. I've told IDW I'm not exactly an 'on the right' conservative, and here's one area when you can begin to see that. This isn't our best version of capitalism, in my opinion, and it's a flavor of capitalism that seems to be celebrated by Republicans.

BUT, it's not just lawyers. Plumbers and electricians are charging insane prices--I had a tree trimmer come around yesterday wanting $1000 to TRIM a single tree. We used to spend $120 at the grocery store, and now it's almost always pushing $300. It used to be people talked about 'making a living'. That's changed to 'making a killing'. That tree trimmer bragged that he was a millionaire and didn't need the money, so he was knocking the regular price of $2200 down to $1000. Everyone thinks they deserve to make $110,000 per year. Sorry, Republicans, it's not ALL about money. If a pharmacy company has a medication on their shelf regular people can't afford--I'll make the moral judgment and say that isn't right. Yep, lawyers make too much money, but this mentality has infected a lot more than just the lawyers.