What individual can so well assess the amount of damages which a plaintiff ought to recover for an injury he has received than an intelligent jury?
We have all kinds of government compensation systems that are much more efficient than the lawyers.
If every person charged with a crime was allowed to claim money from the authorities when their case was dropped, our police would end up spending all their time defending claims for compensation.
The BP settlement is a victory for Alabama: not only for the amount of compensation we were able to secure, but also for avoiding many more years of litigation.
The only ones who will see an increase in pay are some of the trial lawyers who bring the cases.
It is extremely hard to bring a claim for compensation against the police or the Crown Prosecution Service, even when a person has been charged with an offence and later cleared.
I wouldn't pretend to tell you we don't pay our lawyers well.
Ten thousand pounds is the legal value of a negligently taken life, of a child or a parent. A cold and somewhat mean-spirited calculation: you would do better if you slipped on a paving-stone and broke a front tooth.
