4 minute read
Book Review
A Small Price To Pay
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By Ronald Goldfarb
Foreword by Senator Bernie Sanders Turner Pub. Co., 2020
No system is perfect, and the legal system is no exception. In The Price of Justice: Money, Morals and Ethical Reform in the Law, attorney Ronald Goldfarb takes the legal profession to task for many of its shortcomings, and calls for reform and a stronger commitment to justice for the profession. While not all of his arguments are necessarily persuasive, he nevertheless makes many excellent points, and does a nice job of bringing together many disparate threads and issues affecting the legal profession and the price of justice.
In four succinct, readable chapters, Goldfarb highlights the problems and issues affecting the criminal justice system and civil litigation, as well as questioning aspects of the adversarial system and reminding lawyers that they face choices every day — choice of clients, choice of tactics, choice of area of the law in which to practice — and the choices they make often define who they are.
Many of the problems affecting criminal justice are well known and oft discussed. Cash bail leaves those without the ability to raise even modest bail amounts in jail awaiting trial, meaning that they often lose their jobs, are unable to meaningfully assist in their own defense, and, ultimately plead to charges for “time served.” Defendants with more resources fare better, and Goldfarb begins his book with a quote from Robert F. Kennedy: “The rich man and the poor man do not receive equal justice in this country.”
Beyond the disparity between rich and poor, Goldfarb also decries prosecutorial and police misconduct. He recounts horrific stories regarding the withholding of exculpatory evidence, botched (or sometimes faked) scientific tests, bad science, and bad police, all the while arguing for greater scrutiny, more transparency, and, especially, more consequences for those who break the rules.
On the civil side, Goldfarb is particularly critical of confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, arguing they do more harm than good (although also conceding that without non-disclosure provisions, many more matters would not settle). He is also critical of legislative lobbying. But, his biggest complaint about civil litigation is the lack of resources directed to assisting the poor and those of moderate means.
Throughout all of this, Goldfarb questions whether our slavish devotion and belief in the adversarial system is always appropriate. He notes that there are times, and places, where the adversarial system may not perform well.
The most compelling part of Goldfarb’s book, though, is his appeal to conscience. Lawyers, like all individuals, have choices and make choices every day — and those choices often define us. Goldfarb reminds us that we do not have to take every case and represent every client who seeks representation. As a lawyer who has devoted much of his career to helping the poor, he calls upon all of us to join him in that task.
Ultimately, Goldfarb’s book is one about poverty and how the law leaves those in poverty behind. He never tells the reader what “the price of justice” is, but he begins his conclusion with the following:
Where do we go from here? The next generation, I suspect, is not entering law school to help make a better world. New law students are looking for respectable jobs to make a good living. There is nothing wrong with that, except when it becomes the germ of what else might follow. Once the goal of work is to make a good living, the need to make money can overcome all else and lead to choices of clients, fields of practice, and lifestyles. These priorities compound the initial perspective that being a lawyer is the same as other work where the riches go to the most driven and the rest is charity.
I like to think that Goldfarb is giving the next generation short shrift; but, regardless, his point is ultimately well taken. Those of us fortunate enough to work as lawyers ought to remember that we have the skill and the training to do more than just work a job. We all have the power, each in our own way, to make a contribution to our community. Benjamin Franklin was once asked how he would like to be remembered and responded that “I would rather have it said, ‘He lived usefully,’ than, ‘He died rich.’” We should all so aspire. The price of justice is not something we pay; rather, it is the commitment we make to leave the legal system and our community a better place than we found it.
Richard “Shark” Forsten is a Partner with Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP, where he practices in the areas of commercial real estate, land use, business transactions, and related litigation. He can be reached at Richard.Forsten@saul.com.
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