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In the United States and England, the justice system is adversarial based on the belief that two parties arguing for their own side, forcefully and ethically, will lead a judge or jury to the truth, somewhere in between the extremes of the two arguments.

But when Megacorp hires inside and outside counsel for millions of dollars per year, defending convoluted, impenetrable fine print against an unrepresented consumer with no legal education, the adversarial system fails in its objective. The happy medium between the two arguments becomes heavily weighted in favor of the educated, resourceful party.

A system of free legal services to the poor might palliate this problem, but what is needed, as the term "justice" implies, is equal legal services for all parties; not cheap or free services, and the quality that normally accompanies that designation, for poor parties. It is just as important that Megacorp not have the only 42 carrot advocates, as it is that poor individuals not have an attorney earning a low wage, from the bottom of his or her law school class.

A system ensuring evenly-skilled, ethical advocates in each case, with rewards for good attorney performance and ethics ensuring zealous advocacy, is a more complete answer to this problem.

Learn more about this author, Randy Fairchild.
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