?HALT: Americans for Legal Reform?
Frank Silbermann
Ever since I noticed the American Bar Association vocally supporting
gun control, I've been looking for a way to punish the ABA and its members.
Yesterday, I received an offer of membership in
HALT: Americans for Legal Reform.
I'm considering joining this organization, but first I'd like to know
whether HALT is a real political-action group, or whether they're merely
a business for re-selling information easily obtainable in bookstores.
Their literature says:
1) Americans spend $30,000,000,000 per year on damage lawsuits
-- and collect less than half that amount. (Lawyers and court
costs take the rest.)
2) Because lawyers "police" themselves, _ninety percent_ of the complaints
filed against lawyers are dismissed.
3) In most states, bar associations conduct their complaint hearings
in secret. If you want to know if your lawyer has ever had a complaint
filed against him, the bar association won't tell you. And, in many
states, telling someone else you're bringing a complaint against a
lawyer can make you liable for a fine and imprisonment.
HALT: Americans for Legal Reform say they:
Challenge the lawyers' monopoly over legal services
(e.g. to change laws to allow non-lawyers to help fill out
routine legal forms).
Work to crack the shield of lawyers' self-regulation.
Provide information needed for being an intelligent client.
etc.
Their address is HALT, P.O. Box 96691, Washington, DC 20077-7303
Opinions?
David T. Hardy
f...@cs.tulane.edu (Frank Silbermann) writes:
> Yesterday, I received an offer of membership in
>
> HALT: Americans for Legal Reform.
>
> I'm considering joining this organization, but first I'd like to know
> whether HALT is a real political-action group, or whether they're merely
> a business for re-selling information easily obtainable in bookstores.
> Their literature says:
>
> 1) Americans spend $30,000,000,000 per year on damage lawsuits
> -- and collect less than half that amount. (Lawyers and court
> costs take the rest.)
Could well be true. Problem is how to change that. If there is a
dispute (and who can agree on most of these questions), odds are the
other guy is going to get someone to advocate his situation, and you
may get someone to advocate yours. Industrial compensation, for
instance (workman's comp.)--in theory is almost free of legal actions.
In practice, employers have teams of doctors to minimize payments to
workers, and attorneys to do the same--and if you're injured, you'd
better be prepared to match them.
> 2) Because lawyers "police" themselves, _ninety percent_ of the complaints
> filed against lawyers are dismissed.
Undoubtedly true. 90% may be a bit low, in fact. I have no idea of what
percent are just someone griping--but any attorney will tell you (1)
the number of attorneys who ought to be disbarred for simple
incompetence exceeds the number who *are* disbarred for that by
100-to-1 and (2) it helps if the attorney accused has some clout in the
Bar. Bluntly, no one gets disbarred for being incompetent. Disbarments
are for outright fraud, diddling with the trust account, or getting
convicted of a felony.
> 3) In most states, bar associations conduct their complaint hearings
> in secret. If you want to know if your lawyer has ever had a complaint
> filed against him, the bar association won't tell you.
Probably very true.
> And, in many
> states, telling someone else you're bringing a complaint against a
> lawyer can make you liable for a fine and imprisonment.
Certainly untrue. I *think* we still have first amendment freedom of
speech. The last is hype--the second is a problem, but the cure is
unsure--the rest are correct. That's my view, anyways.
David Golden
I've been a member for at least five years and have read their
literature and watched their progress over that time. They
do exactly what they advertise and they are very, very cost-effective.
HALT is one of my top recommendations for charitable contributions.
In many ways, a $ contribution to HALT may be a better long term
investment than a $ contribution to a gun-rights organization
(and I do contribute to gun-rights organization) in terms of
protecting constitutional freedoms (I realize that I've left
a few steps out of the logical chain of arguments but I trust
the audience can easily fill them in....).
- david
C. D. Tavares
> > Yesterday, I received an offer of membership in
> > HALT: Americans for Legal Reform.
> > I'm considering joining this organization, but first I'd like to know
> > whether HALT is a real political-action group, or whether they're merely
> > a business for re-selling information easily obtainable in bookstores.
I took advantage of their offer something like 20 years ago. They sent
me four or five medium thick booklets that were interesting to read.
They have been on my bookshelf since then, but in all that time, I have
never had occasion to refer to them even once -- including when I was
selling my own house (which I did with the help of a lawyer, and I feel
that everybody was a winner including me).
Maybe I just internalized all the information in them, and maybe the
booklets really did give me a "native" understanding of some things.
Last week, I got the same mailing you did -- first time I've heard from
these people in 20 years -- but I'm just not going to send away this time.
--
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