Some Slavery Still Exists

For those of you that believed slavery was a thing of the past, it would frighten you to know that it is alive and well in our court system.

Meet Frank, a well polished articulate Italian lawyer with a thriving practice, good clients, and a desire to help the less fortunate.  Frank volunteered to work a pro bono case, which for those of you not up on your Fox legal drama shows means working for free.  No money.  Yes, this does break the mold a bit for us attorneys.

His client, we will call her Sally Dingdong, is a seriously under medicated ward of the state, accused of trying to electrocute her cat in the tub with a toaster in order to “Send Mr. Mittens to a higher state of being.”  As laudable a goal as this was, the state of Colorado decided it was a crime and arrested Sally and confiscated the sodden yet still smoking Mr. Mittens.

Frank entered his appearance in the case as a pro bono matter, and even bought Sally a suit OUT OF HIS OWN POCKET so that she would be presentable to the court.  However halfway through the trial, relationships broke down so badly that Frank was forced to bow out and let Sally represent herself in the action.  It should be stated that Sally actually had “fired” Frank several times during the trial, demanding another attorney who was “competent.”  Frank is one of the best trial attorneys I know, and has over 20 years of experience in criminal matters…this was not Sally’s best decision.  Finally, weary of the verbal abuse and attacks against his character, Frank reluctantly announced to the judge that things had broken down so badly that he should be excused from counsel and permit Sally to represent herself. 

Request denied.

Yup, you heard it.  The client wished to fire the attorney, and the attorney wished to quit, and the judge said no.  We work in a profession that allows the sanctioned forced labor of our services, and we risk contempt charges and jail times if we refuse the decree from the bench.  This is the equivalent of a doctor wrestling an angry patient to the ground to take an x-ray when the patient doesn’t even want the treatment.

I will state that we still have the best system of law in the world, and that I love my country, but I cannot believe I work in a profession that allows this to happen on such a regular basis.  The time and effort required to fire a client is immense, and often draws forth a grievance from the state bar from the angry client.  If there was one facet I could change in my profession, it would be allowing the complete unfettered right to hurl these nightmare clients from our office square into the mess they created for themselves.