* Non-compete agreements;
* Right to counsel vs. right to remain silent (in criminal cases);
* Legal malpractice;
* Model Rules of Professional Conduct.
Barton shows how each of these areas is manipulated to benefit lawyers. And he explains how it happens:
The creation and maintenance of the unique self-regulatory apparatus of the American legal profession speaks volumes about the relationship of the bench and bar. The first thing to note is that state supreme courts, and not state legislatures, govern the regulation of lawyers in all fifty states. Thus lawyers have the only true claim to professional self-regulation: from top to bottom they are governed by lawyers. Predictably, this control has led to "a degree of self regulation far beyond either the reality or even the expectations of any other professional group."
It's impossible to overemphasize this point: State supreme courts, not state legislatures, regulate lawyers. And that means citizen legislators, many of whom are non-lawyers, have almost no say in governing our courtrooms.
What are we, the public, left with? A dysfunctional justice system--and Barton puts it in blunt terms:
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