All across America paralegals are trying to get a foothold in the legal services arena to perform the most simple, generic transactions for the public at a fraction of the cost that is charged by lawyers. The lawyer monopoly is fighting like a mad snake to prevent anyone from invading their exclusive, lucrative, monopolized territory. This same scenario of monolopy would bring the FTC down on any other business in the free enterprise system in a heartbeat. Numerous cases are a matter of record in most states where paralegals and others have attempted to assist the public in simple legal procedures. This lawyer monopoly of the legal services arena has brought us to the point where a lawyer's hourly fee will normally be fifteen times that of the average client's hourly wage.
Theft occurs in a number of ways.
One lawyer who represented my corporation some years ago collected a sizeable sum of money in the form of a check made payable to the corporation and then forged the check endorsement to gain personal control of the funds. It was only after threatening to file criminal charges that we were able to gain a small portion of the funds. Some states have created victim funds for victims of lawyer theft but in most cases there is little hope for complete recovery. Victims in this category are most common and most overlooked and abused by the judicial system. A lawyer can be guilty of the sin of omission or commission and in either case create malpractice action for his client.