1- The legal system, while imperfect, is certainly better than most. Stepping in it, as you say, can be avoided.
2-I get calls every day with similar complaints and it continues to astound me how very few of these callers have any clue what their case number, specific charge, possible punishment or even background record is. They want miracles performed for very little money spent on the case they “caught” this week. Heavens, they cant even ackowledge they were arrested for breaking the law. This charge just suddenly fell out of the sky on their dumb unlucky ass!
3- Legal work, if you can get it, has excellent job security.
This is no excuse for not trying to bring it in line with humaneness.
And why are you lambasting people for not understanding a system that was crafted for lawyers, not for John Q. Doe?
Our legal system is WAY better than most. I know of many countries where when a person goes toe-to-toe with LEO they have to simply leave. Under cover of night.
The US as a whole has a good legal system. For the first thing, you’re innocent until proven guilty. People don’t realize how rare that is on the planet.
The biggest issue is that the poor, who are the major occupiers of the legal system, are hit with fines and deadlines that they simply can’t make. We have to ease up in one way or another.
I mean I no longer make a ton of money. In fact, I make about as much as a Walmart “associate” now. And when my BMW needs brakes I can take a $400 hit. It sucks, but it’s there. But when I get a moving violation it puts me in financial ruin. And if I don’t pay it in a small amount of time, the fines and fees run up very quickly. Ultimately I’m not left with squeaky brakes - I’m left with a short jail sentence. And then work is lost, reputation is shot, I grow my hair and start selling stolen radios out of the back of my truck to feed my family.
It all goes downhill. The court fee system does far more bad than good.
BTW I am a systems analyst with clients in LEO, Courts and Bail. I have designed and built a bail enforcement product that is groundbreaking. I will report to the Magistrate tomorrow with my court / city hall credentials and he’ll say “Hey Steve!” and I’m sure I’ll go scot-free. Then I’ll go to the state representative’s office (Who I also know from the Chamber, civic organizations and municipal projects that I’ve worked on) and he’ll help me out as best he can.
But I always think : What if I was a poor person who didn’t have the gumption to make these sorts of connections ? What if I were a recently divorced single mother with no support team around me ? What if I lost my job, parked my car until I could find another, and needed to not only pay back bills but get my car re-legal with a single or two paychecks ? It’s not possible !