Why are lawyers hated so much?

Most people do not seek the help of a lawyer unless they are in a stressful situation. On top of that, it costs a fair amount of money to hire one. Between the two, it may not cause hatred, but it can evoke the feeling of having one’s body parts caught in the figurative thumbscrews. Not only are you at their mercy, but even if it works out, there is a noticable chunk of change no longer in the bank account.

Another thought: years ago, when I was in a car accident, a couple of lawyers called me at home within hours of the incident. It felt like being circled by phirana preparing for a feeding frenzy. It didn’t leave a good feeling about lawyers.

It might be because some people think that lawyers will defend a suspect, no matter if they believe or know that the person has indeed done the deed.
And defending a serial child molester/-killer doesn’t make you popular either, because a lot of people will feel that that specific perpetrator deserves nothing less than life in prison (or worse).
But then again, the West Memphis Three are prove that sometimes ‘the people’ are wrong in their beliefs of who-dunnit and so it is a good thing that even the most suspected heinous ‘perps’ get a lawyer to represent them, in my opinion.

Because you seldom see the good lawyers in the news. They usually only make headlines when they screw up.

Lawyers do not judge their clients. This means they will take on either side with equal weight.

Lawyers can be bought, just like politicians. They will take what ever side they are bought to take. You should not need a lawyer to defend yourself unless you are guilty. Take a great look at the O.J. case. Lawyers in my book are scum, along with the politicians.

I just asked a very similar question last week and as best I can tell, it’s mainly because of ambulance chasers and people who file all kinds of frivolous law suits. Then there is the idea of the Philadelphia lawyer. I think the complaint is that the lawyer is so smart they can run circles around you. And things that you thought were common sense turn out to be illegal or something. The lawyer knows the law and the law doesn’t always makes sense. Of course, a lot of times, common sense is wrong, and that’s why lawyers seem like they are smarter than the rest of us and they always seem to have an unfair advantage.

Because 50% of the time they are going to piss someone off.

I tend to think that anybody involved in a law enforcement/legal career gets looked down upon. Politicians get a bad rap obviously but lawyers I think do because unlike those in law enforcement, who are seen as just doing their jobs enforcing the laws, they are seen as clever in trying to get criminals acquitted. Also lawyers are frequently associated with lawsuits.

People by nature tend to notice the bad before they notice the good in something and when it comes to lawyers they are seen as clever, shrewd, devious and as being on the criminals side. People will see these things before noticing all of the times lawyers have done good/great things for many in need.

Most people strive to live lives so as not to need their assistance and only know that their services are extremely costly, results are not guaranteed, and the legal system [not necessarily your lawyer] is not necessarily fair.

Expensive judgements are won or lost on technicalities, order of presentation of the evidence [read A Civil Action ], jury selection, jury moods, random gaffes, and you still need to pay your lawyer.

It may also make you uncomfortable knowing that if your lawyer had been hired by your opponent, he/she would have striven just as hard to make their case.

My BF wants to be a lawyer. But he’s an amazing person and has so much respect for peoples’ rights.

Because they are powered by greed not morality.

@digitalimpression That’s not true. My BF doesn’t even want to be a corporate lawyer. He wants to do legal aid.

@thesparrow

“My BF wants to be a lawyer. But he’s an amazing person and has so much respect for peoples’ rights.”

I’d say that Morris Dees, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, is a lawyer whose motivation might be similar to your BF’s.

That guy looks cool. :D

But you’d be surprised. A lot of lawyers are actually motivated because of a passion for justice. The only thing that worries me is that law is not suited for family life. The long hours make it hard to make time for family.

Some lawyers have stay at home wives simply because this is easier and because they’re loaded enough to afford this, but I certainly don’t want to be a stay at home wife and I’m working toward my MA degree right now.

@thesparrow Obviously it is a generalization and so it is not absolutely true.

@gravity Great Answer.

They make a lot of their money off of other people’s tragedies. 25% of a victim’s settlement is way too generous.

P. S. I don’t hate lawyers, I have always been well served when I had to hire a lawyer.

Lawyers act as equalizers. A poor person wronged by a corporation can afford to hire a lawyer who will work for a contingency. The wealthy hate that. They think that they should be the only ones to be able to be able to hire a lawyer.

Two of my best friends are, they are both incredibly gifted and giving.. I think good legal advice from someone you are comfortable with can do wonders.

Lawyers have been known to guide an obvious criminal out of a hairy legal situation before Justice can be served.

This is my take on this: Most will defend their client knowing that they are guilty. It’s all about the money.

I don’t blame the lawyers. I blame the broken system they work in. There is way too much money involved for some of them not to go unethical and crooked.

I think that the ideal impartiality of lawyers bothers people who have a strong opinion about their clients, and thus accuse them of being untrustworthy or immoral.

But then again we have people like this DA with massive political/personal conflicts of interests who charged a 6 year old with felony sexual assault for playing doctor.

Oh, @sinscriven that is when the worst of lawyers becomes the worst kind of political appointee. EEK.

@digitalimpression So true! I know a woman who is a lawyer and she’s raising a baby with her husband.

Because 70% of the US lawyers don’t provide additional value in the value chain. They make American products and services more expensive compared to countries with a lower lawyer per capita ratio.

Lol.. its a hit or miss with lawyers. My bf tells me the lawyers at the firm he works at are all very nice. Some of them have families and work less, others work like dogs—70–80 hrs a week. The female lawyers with children tend to favor a typical 9–5 work week.

When my wife first started working at one of the bigger firms in town, she did the 60–70 hour a week thing and she was miserable. Eventually she was fired for being a woman (they settled the case out of court) and she went to work for a bank, and had more regular hours after that, although never as few as I had. She’d actually work 8 hours a day, which meant she had a 9 hour day.

I worked 9–5 with an hour for lunch. Seven hour work day. Although, I never worked 7 hours of straight work unless there was a real deadline. I don’t know how people do that.

For many years, she was happy with her job as a Trust Officer. Well, almost happy. She had to do a lot of sales, which she hates. But then she found a job as an internal consultant and she was happy for a couple of years. Then the bank was taken over and her department eliminated. She accepted a job working for an old boss she liked, but things were totally changed. They were assembly line workers—yes, even lawyers can be put on an assembly line. Intellectual labor is now just like ordinary labor. Doctors are on assembly lines and so are lawyers.

She grew more and more miserable and frankly, I was questioning whether I wanted to be with someone who seemed to hate me so much. I encouraged her to quit and finally she “retired.” The change in her personality is the proverbial night and day. Bad wife/good wife. She is being the happy, funny, fun person I fell in love with 25 years ago.

But she’s talking about working again. Not what she used to do. Something more emotionally rewarding. Something that is more helpful to regular people, not the rich ones she used to work for.

I’m still afraid that it’ll make her miserable again. I would hate to lose my wife again.

I once thought of becoming a lawyer. I think I would have made a good one, except I never would have been willing to work hard enough. I think people don’t understand our system well enough and don’t see what lawyers actually contribute. We have to have people who will defend even the most heinous of criminals. If we don’t, then people will be convicted even before they’ve had a trial, and that’s a slippery slope to tyranny. Even the frivolous law suits are beneficial—not individually, but as part of the system. There have to be lawsuits that push the edge of the envelope in order to make sure that there are enough justifiable law suits. And law suits are necessary in order to protect consumers, especially in times when the government won’t.

WTF? Why did they fire her because she was a woman? :[

@thesparrow They fired a number of women at the same time, and there was a suit alleging sex discrimination. The firm settled out of court, I think, but due to the settlement, they had no admission of wrong-doing.

That’s ridiculous. I’m actually somewhat of a bitter feminist. Sometimes women will play the ‘gender’ card but other times its legitimate discrimination