'few Understand Their Legal System'
| Publication year | 1987 |
| Pages | 86 |
1987, January, Pg. 86. 'Few understand their legal system'
Staff Writer
The judicial system is designed as a mechanism for resolving conflicts.
However, the legally "correct" solution imposed by a court of law often leaves a filmy residue of ill will on the psyches of both parties, who may not understand what has transpired, says the presidentelect of the Colorado Bar Association.
Even a casual viewing of "The People's Court" provides ample evidence that even in the most trivial cases, a lawsuit can leave both parties---the "winner" as well as the loser---feeling bitter and vengeful. Often the litigants don't leave the courtroom on speaking terms.
Colorado Bar Association Presidentelect Frank Plaut says these ill-feelings are both a cause and a result of the public's misunderstanding the judicial process.
Plaut was among those attending this weekend's meeting in Sterling of the 13th Judicial District Bar Association's annual meeting.
It's hard for most people to understand how the legal process operates, because most poeple are seldom, if ever, involved in it. Take divorce, for instance. In a divorce you have an emotionally charged situation which ultimately has nothing to do with legalities, yet the people involved suddenly find themselves in the middle of the legal system. In that context, it's hard for them to remember that any time people go to court, 50 percent of them will lose."
Plaut said one common misconception among people unfamiliar with the judicial system is that if a case is lost, someone---either one of the lawyers, or the judge, or the jury---must have done something wrong. This assumption is somewhat akin to calling the referees corrupt when the home team loses a football game.
But, as Plaut stresses almost daily in the courtroom, "a lawsuit is a contest, but it is not a game. When you lose a lawsuit it's very easy to find a reason for the loss other than the merits of the case. A lawyer, a judge, or a supposed 'legal technicality,' all of these are handy excuses to rationalize a loss. In reality, though, cases are usually won or lost based on the facts."
Born in Germany in the 1930's when Hitler was coming into power, Plaut migrated to the United States with his family at the age of four, in order to escape the rising tide of Nazi...
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