I always hear about rich people hiring expensive lawyers to escape punishments. How do they do that, and what stops more accessible lawyers from achieving the same result?
In: Other
Sifting through millions of case files trying to find a loophole or exception takes big money.
I’m not saying that its good or even just, but it’s better than some judge going on a whim or if they’re having a bad day and want to be sadistic.
Thinking more on it, someone could make a program that does just that: Searching through archives for precedence or exceptions.
the state only has so many resources. This one trial is one of many to the DA/whatever. Likewise defense attorneys (even private ones) have many cases to juggle.
If you are rich enough you can hire an army of defense attorneys who are focused on ONLY your case and they can hire an army of detectives to comb through every single possible alibi and dig through the history of each witness to find any credibility concern, then hire an army of expert witnesses who will argue that the footprint could have been from someone else (or whatever).
Essentially it is the ‘kicking up dirt’ defense to confuse the jury into having reasonable doubt
People get this wrong. I have been on a jury for seven weeks one time but more typically for one or a half of a day. Comparing a good lawyer to an average lawyer is like an Oscar winning performance to a high school play. Legal arguments and technicalities may carry weight with a judge but for a jury, it’s all about getting the jury on your side. This ability intimidates the prosecutor and makes them more likely to agree to reduce charges or sentences rather than take their chance in court. That skill is why most successful politicians are lawyers.
If you’re someone who can’t afford your own lawyer, you would be given a public defender, who would probably have multiple different cases they have to deal with and might only have time to skim through your case file.
Meanwhile if you’re a super wealthy person, you can hire not just one lawyer but a whole team of lawyers to pour through every word of your file and nitpick every single detail. And with your money, you might even be able to afford your own private investigators to help with your case. Like finding witnesses, getting alibis, gathering evidence that the police might not have time to look through. That kind of thing.
And let’s say the rich person is guilty, what their lawyers can do then is stall. Basically find everyway to drag the case on for as long as possible, maybe hoping that witnesses might change their minds, evidence might be lost, or heck, maybe laws might have changed so the crime you commited isn’t classified as serious as it was before. And these lawyers would also find tons of loopholes and the smallest of technicalities they can use to argue away charges.
Also let’s not forget, intimidation and bribery. Like let’s not pretend these kinds of corruption never happen, because they do. If you’re really super wealthy, you might have connections you can use, strings you can pull, favors you can call to try and get away with just a slap on the wrist or maybe probation at worse.
Trump’s lawyers (for instance) delay by filing endless motions and other things that require a lot of paperwork, which needs to be dealt with seriously by the judge and the prosecution (or the other side’s attorneys in a civil suit), which ties up time and resources. One reason ordinary people rarely succeed in civil suits against deep-pocketed corporations unless a well-resourced law firm takes your case.
Yes, you can buy justice.
Expensive lawyers are those who pay with supreme court judges. So their judgements happen outside court. The price tag is for his close need to the judges
I knew a few drug dealers that all kept the same lawyer on retainer that would get them off for stuff that seemed impossible to get away with. That guy’s trick was that he was also the lawyer on retainer for the police union. Turns out the police are willing to overlook felony drug possession with intent to distribute so long as they can get away with murder
To Eli5 it
Suppose you have a math test.
Would you rather the A+ student takes the case for you or the C- lawyer takes the case for you. They both passed the law exam.
Assume as well that they charge per hour so should you pay too little they will balance your test with seven other tests on the day.
Personally, I would much rather pay a successful person to do a good job then and mediocre person to do a mediocre job given money was of no object.
Suppose we had to multiply the money so you can have multiple a+ students to do your test then your case is looking even better.
Isn’t this very much a US thing, where laws seem to be the starting point for negotiations? The richer you are, the more you can afford to negotiate.
Most developed countries follow the letter of their own laws and the lawyer is there to ensure you’re not screwed over by the State.
Instead of 1 person spending a little bit of time, you have potentially dozens of people spending hours/days/weeks/months on your case looking for any little thing that might help.
The expensive lawyer could also potentially lose their job if the client is big enough and loses a case they should win for added incentive.
Latest Answers