From: fsars@acad3.alaska.edu (Allen R Sparks)
Newsgroups: misc.legal
Subject: Re: Too many lawyers?
Date: 13 Aug 92 20:31:27 GMT
Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks

In article <1992Aug13.133930.4662@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>, cthorne@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Charles E Thorne) writes:
> It's interesting that Japan (which produces automobiles, steel and textiles
> cheaper than the U.S. does) has far fewer attorneys per capita.

I read a series of articles in _The Economist_, (by process of
elimination, I've got it as their July 18th issue; it's missing from
the library of course) about lawyers, and they addressed the issue of
too many lawyers as a world wide problem.

Of course they concentrated a lot of their scrutiny on the U.S.  They
took issue with Vice President Dan Quayle's figures which he quoted in
a speech before the ABA.  Quayle said that the United States has 70
percent of the world's lawyers.  _The Economist_ said that the United
States does have more lawyers than any other country, but said we had
one-third of the world's lawyers.  I'm going by memory, but it also
said that Britain and (I'm uncertain on the 2nd country) I believe
Germany, had the highest rate of increase of lawyers at the moment.

It mentioned the EEC, and how few lawyers work for that organization,
but also said that there are a lot of lawyers studying EEC law, and
predicts an influx of lawyers in that specialty.

Since much of the article was about the high number of lawyers, and
the accompanying disadvantages, they took a look at Japan, which they
feel has too few.  Most Japanese abhor going to court.  The perception
seems to be that the Japanese are a non-confrontational people, and
extend that to their attitude towards litigation.  As an example, it gave
an incident where a pilot of a JAL passenger jet deliberately crashed
his jet in a populated area of Tokyo (what part of Tokyo isn't
populated) and killed 27 (?) people.  The President of JAL, in abject
apology, kneeled before the families of the people killed.  There was
also a cash settlement, but the matter never went to court.  However,
_The Economist_ feels that their hesitation to be a myth.

They show how their one law school (~23,000 apply; 600 accepted
annually) produces a paucity of people eligable to practice before
their bar.  These people are expensive to hire.  They report that the
Japanese have formed alternative ways of settling disputes, and that
the average Japanese are able to settle civil matters by negotiating
with the big companies.  Nevertheless, the legal system is not on much
of a help to the average Japanese.  To emphasize this, they said that
a Japanese citizen arrested on a criminal charge quite often cannot
find a lawyer to represent him in court by the time of the trial.
Representation during questioning is unheard of (I don't know what
rights a perosn charged with a crime has during questioning) in large
part because a lawyer cannot be found.

So do we, the United States, have too many lawyers?  I think so.  Is
Japan's system a good example, something we should emulate?  Probably
not, if for no other reason that, with all the advantages they enjoy
(the alternative non-litigous ways that Japanese employ seemed, on
average, to bring comparable money settlements to indivdual when
compared to the Western nations), their system also has accompanying
disadvantages that we as society would be loath to put up with.  
                          === Al Sparks
Newsgroups: misc.legal