The Case Against Lawyers: How the Lawyers, Politicians, and Bureaucrats Have Turned the Law into an Instrument of Tyranny--and What We as Citizens Have to Do About It

This is the best book I have ever read. This is what the personal injury attorneys running for political office like Sen John Edwards don't want you to see. This book outlines how personal injury attorneys are sucking the lifeblood out of society. In a very articulate way, Ms Crier a former judge explains how litigation out of control in this country could lead to the same conclusion as what Rome encountered at the height of its empire. She asserts how personal injury attorneys are raping society mostly for personal gain. She explains how every multimillion dollar award is being paid for by you and me. She also explains how unless we have a complete overhaul of our legal system which is a euphemism for major tort reform our country in my opinion is destined to become a third world nation. Our country's competitiveness in the world's business markets is being hurt by the legal surcharges that are added to the cost of every product. The release of her book is very appropriate atatime when corporations like McDonald's are being sued by obese customers and doctors are leaving the practice of medicine because of frivolous lawsuits. I strongly recomend the book to businessmen, medical professionals, scholars and anyone who cares about the future of America!

Oh my gosh, as infuriating to read as it is impossible to put down. Opinionated, short cases strung together in a harsh light. I got a better education into the workings of our legal system here than anywhere else, opening my eyes to a lot of hype that formed my opinions based on smoke and mirrors that Crier exposes. When a piece turns my thinking around, I'm impressed; Crier did it.Lawyers play more games with the truth than we want to know, which helps answer the old question of why no lawyers never drown: they float. So how do we stop it? Call a lawyer?FYI: my boss ordered about tweny copies of this as gifts to people like Chicago Mayor Rich Daley as gifts; Daley sent back a personal note of thanks, but none of the judges who received copies said anything; hmm, imagine that! ;)

This is a book I will definitely recommend to my friends. It is also a book I must re-read. Each chapter pounds you with example after example to the extent you feel you can't wait until your 3 minutes in the ring are over so you can collect your mental breath. I have long believed what she puts forward; have not read another book so concisely organized; and find it difficult to believe most of this has occurred in my lifetime. I am so weary of hearing both sides (Republican/Democrat, Liberal/Conservative) haranguing each other when both sides are equally guilty as pointed out so eloquently by Ms. Crier. Their words are different, but the actions are the same.However, I do not share her belief (hope?) that the actions of our lawyers and politicians can be changed. Several generations have been immersed in this system and have not been taught that "When in the course of human events..." we have the right, no, obligation to change that course. I weep for my country.

Thank you Catherine Crier! Finally someone has brought to public attention the problems with the American court system and Lawyers today! Much of what Ms. Crier has written has been on the minds of many - but finally it has been put into language that both legal and non-legal people can both understand. It is very important to me that the source of information like this be credible. Crier is a well respected journalist - who comes from a legal background (having been both a lawyer and judge). She is knowledgeable and involved in everything she writes about - which to me gives her every authority to discuss this freely. This is definitely a book that could help change the world for the better. Highly recommended.

The mean-spirited personal attacks on Catherine Crier here -- no doubt by lawyers -- are a clear sign that her no nonsense look at how some lawyers (and by extension the system) is taking the American people for a ride, has struck a very raw, deep nerve. The Case Against Lawyers is not about party or politics. It's for anyone -- left, right, center, etc. -- who is fed up with how the potential of this country's legal, educational, political, and moral system has been squandered by litigators and elected officials interested only in a buck and in preserving their careers. Crier's indictment of the legal system is only the beginning. In clear, concise prose she points out again and again the heads-you-lose, tails-you-lose schizophrenia we confont every day. We can't fix things because the fixes are as bad as the problems -- and the people in charge don't really want to change anything. Her examples are anecdotal and drawn from years of collecting news reports and interviewing; but anecdotal does not equal apocryphal or unfounded. In fact, every page is a revelation, from the story about not using an iron on clothes we're still wearing to the sad state of the drug war that doesn't work and never will -- and the incarcerated who pay the price. She also writes with wit and "can you believe it?" candor about the sham of our political system, money in politics, the sorry state of education, and much more. If I have one gripe it's that Crier could have offered more solutions. Maybe in an another book, which I certainly hope is in the offing.How many times have you screamed at the tv set or newspaper, frustrated by the obvious act put on by politicians who only want your vote, and then ignore their promises? Doesn't it drive you crazy that Ken Lay will probably never be brought to justice. Aren't you incensed about frivolous lawsuits that only end up costing us all more money? Crier knows how the system works and where the bodies are buried. She points out the maddening contradictions and evasions that others labor to obscure.This is not the work of someone interested only in parlaying her beauty into a career. (The jealous complaint of the looks-challenged who resent her having a national forum for her well-considered thoughts.) This is the work of someone with a positive outlook on life, someone who wants to unrig the system, who wants to motivate people so we can truly exercise our power to change things, and in so doing has no qualms about revealing how we've been screwed from all sides. Get this book. Learn the truth.