Has Legal Representation Become an Upper Class Privilege?
Despite the world advancing its technology and overall intellect, it still lacks an ethical and effective legal system.
Though Canada and the United States have pro bono lawyers representing low-income people for no charge, these services cannot always be said to protect people’s legal rights adequately. Sometimes, the phone lines for access pro bono lawyers are backed up. If the mailbox isn’t so full that you can’t even leave a message, then there’s a good chance you may have to wait a month just to have someone refer you to a lawyer. Even the smart find difficulty navigating the legal system alone and learning the terminology and procedures. The law contains many clauses and rules that could create great ethical outcomes for society, but the system lacks legal equity. In other words, though the courts revere values like inclusion, diversity, and human rights, the system is too complex for newcomers, and legal professionals are not always flexible, open-minded, or wise enough to achieve just outcomes.
One of the key reasons this lack of legal equity has become such a problem to society is that people who are in debt can’t afford to have any further restrictions thrust upon them. There may be pro bono legal services for people who are low income, yet they only cover people who belong to an income bracket that is so low it excludes people who earn more but are in debt. So, it may not seem like a problem to some, yet many people make (or need to make) more money than the income exclusion bracket.
In July 2022, America was going through its hottest inflation in forty years, with three-quarters of middle-income Americans saying their earnings aren't enough to pay for their cost of living, according to a survey by Primerica.
The world has several people making over $300,000 yearly who still live paycheck to paycheck. British Columbia’s pro bono maximum eligibility salary is $27,840. That’s ten times less than what these doctors make, and they are valued so much more than the poor that society seems to treat them like a whole other class of citizen. However, that’s nothing compared to how much corporate CEOs make in a year, even when they bankrupt their companies.
According to a recent survey from PYMNTS and LendingClub, 51% of Americans who earn more than $100,000 reported living paycheck to paycheck in December 2022 – 9 percentage points higher than a year earlier. Yet many people make just over this maximum eligibility amount and can hardly make ends meet. How are their children ever supposed to be expected to get an equal shot at an education? Living in a world without equal opportunity is dreadful. A divine society will never allow people who are so irresponsible with their money even to make six figures. Yet since divine societies could never carelessly let so many fall between the cracks, financial problems would be essentially non-existent.
The wait times in court can even take over a year. Even occupational health and safety verdicts over blatantly prohibited actions can take over a year to conclude.
Check out this video that explains one man who was assaulted and had his case dismissed because the court was backed up. The only witness who could testify had moved several thousand miles away and had flown in twice at their own expense, only to have to fly back because the court kept pushing back the trial.
Is it Time to Publicly Fund All Legal Proceedings?
Considering that money earned or spent without benefitting society could effectively be considered the root of all evil, one could say that courts that are excessively difficult to use have, in some ways, given criminals an advantage that compares to none other.
The legal system is comparable to the nightmarish scenarios in Franz Kafka’s novels. In his novel “The Trial,” a man named K is accused of an unspecified and unknown crime. He has been notified that he has been summoned to the court and given small details about the court’s locations. He walks through all kinds of mazes and dead ends. When he finally finds the place in an obscure corner of the attic, he is late for his court hearing and is scolded for arriving late. K has to undergo trial and defend himself against an incomprehensibly complex and faceless bureaucratic system that has taken complete control over his life and accuses him of charges he does not even know about.
Much like in the novel, our courts are often given such little importance. Their complex procedures, forms, deadlines, and laws seem to bamboozle to such a degree that only more chaos could ensue. Rather than being a system of compassionate retaliators that work to bring justice to innocent people who are being preyed on, it fails to innovate to such a degree that predators and privileged people end up preventing victims from ever escaping.
People with wealth put unrealistic expectations on people to succeed in their society. It’s not that the poor are unfit to provide value; it’s just that the system is unfit to extract it. Upper-class earners experience less cheating, harm, betrayal, subversion, degradation, and oppression. Yet low-income individuals must spend nearly their entire lives around the most gruelling bosses and co-workers. Many construction workers in large cities can’t afford cars and must take long commutes on public transit that can last up to an hour and a half, depending on where their job site is for the day.
According to a 2022 Equifax report, The average Canadian has around $21,183 worth of consumer debt. So many hardly have enough to move anywhere and are forced to file for bankruptcy or put up with subpar living conditions and employers. This causes a cycle of oppression that can last for generations.
As far as I’m concerned, unless each child is given a fair chance to become whatever they want, there is still much work to be done. Privileged people do not provide nearly as much value to the economy as people who work for everything. They may, at times, be more successful in securing opportunities, yet there is always a dark and unsettling price for their actions. Despite exploitation, many third-world factory and sweatshop workers work much faster than workers in developed nations. The only reason a better legal system hasn’t been invented is that the unmerited people at the top are too fragile and cowardly to give up their luxuries, and they don’t want to be bothered to make a new one. The people at the top would lose immensely more than those at the bottom would ever lose in an ethical, legal system.
In cases like wrongful termination, whistleblower retaliation, hostile work environments, wrongful eviction, and intimidation, victims are often forced to leave their places of livelihood without any compensation for the wrongs done. They are often left without references, allies, financial support, safe places to live, or appropriate tools to compete with their fellow man simply because society has carelessly left these issues untended. It typically costs around $2000 to file a small claims lawsuit with a lawyer, and most wrongdoings aren’t even worth $2000 (yet, believe me, they can add up). In BC, defamation cases must be done in the Supreme Court, which costs victims around $10,000 just to reach a settlement, and even then, victories can be difficult. And those who are most affected by defamation are clearly those who are low-income.
As a victim of awful defamation, I will be the first to tell you how stressful and damaging it can be to one’s ability to make a living. Very influential people in the industry were convinced I was a lazy menace despite the many who knew me as a person who notoriously worked harder than anyone else at their job. The union I worked for would shun and avoid me, discriminating against me because of what they had heard about me after I had blown the whistle on several safety infractions and was terminated each time. I had to appeal the decision to deny my employment insurance claim and prohibited action complaints several times before I got them to overturn their decisions.
The other issue is that the court doesn’t have adequate resources to aid in filing lawsuits. Some courts do help out with finishing claims, but some are not so helpful. Sometimes, they say things like, I can’t give legal advice, to questions like, “Which documents need to be filed next?” Rather than being accessible and affordable for everyday citizens, the legal system tends to generalize people who can’t afford lawyers as irresponsible rather than considering their circumstances.
Think of how long it takes to go to court, fill out the paperwork, go to the post office, compile evidence and attend settlement conferences, hearings, and trials only to find out your trial has been dismissed. Single mothers who can’t afford to miss work or school are constantly in the perilous position of losing time and money on a court case that could backfire. One could say expecting victims to pay lawyers upfront has become unreasonable.
Poor people (or people with debt) can’t afford to have their money taken, their legal documents rejected, or their cases dismissed over shady loopholes that even big-shot lawyers can’t see coming. The most tragic part is that when citizens cannot sue, and courts and lawyers cannot reach timely and satisfactory settlements, corrupt businesses are given a very uncalled-for upper hand. In unrestrained market capitalism, corrupt businesses are often only hindered by people who refuse to use their services since the poor often lack the resources or don't know how to defend their rights in court.
If all the paperwork could be filled out online, and the settlement amounts could be primarily estimated based on the facts given rather than considered impossible to estimate, people would save tons of money. It would only be a matter of giving truthful and detailed facts to the lawyer. Though it sounds controversial, even a computer program or artificial intelligence could estimate how much someone could be entitled to and whether they have a case. It could be full of prompts asking relevant questions determining eligibility and possible settlement amounts. If the person lies about the facts, that’s their problem, and they will owe money. Think of how fast a lawyer can fill out legal documents. If everyone specialized in just a few specific roles, there would be no way anyone could save money doing it by themselves.
The other concern is that many people who must be summoned to court often escape trial by hiding. Police have attended crimes such as death threats and assault with no criminal charges laid. Though the suffering and time lost preparing evidence can be regressively restrictive on victims, they are often offered no financial compensation. Though these people can sue in the courts, they are forced to use private skip tracers to locate the perpetrator, which costs $600 with a $2000 deposit. Private companies should never be given a share of essential services. Private skip tracer companies should be consolidated with the government and funded or overseen by taxpayers. Since governments already have such good data on citizens, it would only save everyone money. Regarding crimes like death threats and persistent intimidation, no one should worry about spending so much money just tracking someone down to serve the documents. They shouldn’t even have to file any paperwork at all. That should all be at the expense of the person making the threats or intimidating.
People with lots of money can also afford elite lawyers who often can persuade judges to make regressive judgements with their status and power alone. It’s happened with corporations for years. Oftentimes, in wrongful dismissal lawsuits, the only people who could arguably appear as a witness are employees who could also lose their jobs and miss out on raises and promotions for opposing corruption. In workplaces like these, there can be no chance of freedom. The workers are already miles behind the world’s brightest minds due to the restrictions of their psychopathic bosses, and their kids are no different. When people are forced to put up with the insufficient results of these courts and businesses, a cycle of despair follows that affects generations. Being the child of a financially exploited parent is bad enough, but imagine being the child of a wickedly corrupt parent.
Yet it’s not just people who can’t afford to go after their abusers. Many also can’t afford to defend themselves against false accusations. And many who can avoid conviction are still left with many legal fees. The video below describes a scenario like this where a doctor was wrongfully accused of 15 accounts of sexual abuse and rape. After the trial was dismissed, he was left with $60,000 in legal fees.
The Hidden Costs of Lawsuits
Courts can also be notorious for failing to compensate for lost time and potential. Many believe courts in Canada have been notorious for not paying punitive damages for wrongdoing. For example, suppose someone carelessly evicts you from your rental simply because you don’t fit in with their toxic lifestyle. In that case, the courts may cover your lost rent, moving expenses, hotel, and unreturned damage deposit, but they may never compensate for the valuable time you lost moving your stuff.
Some may also need a place to study and create art or literature to sell. Courts often do not attempt to value this. Imagine if you were an artist who could have finished an album or song that would have made it big, and a wrongful eviction left you without the time to finish right before a deadline or audition. This is also especially true for employers. Some may try to pay out lost wages, but that amount may never come close to what you would have if you had the money to fund the next big thing people needed.
Losing a month off work due to a wrongful dismissal from whistleblowing can break a career. Imagine if you were an apprentice who had to lose months of apprenticeship hours due to false allegations or conflicted interests. In a society where businesses are publicly owned, the corrupt manager would be the one who would lose time, and the whistleblower would reap extra benefits for making ethical decisions.
Without a timely solution to these hardships, corrupt businesses and privileged people get a head start on their competition to weed out those who would have already created a greater good for the general collective had they been given appropriate funding and legal representation. Without proper protections, these businesses prune and shape their employees into narrow-minded psychopaths who produce profits at the expense of the general collective and the broader environment.
Since many businesses have been founded on nepotism, privilege, and crony corruption, society cannot afford to let them hog a share of the market like unethical and entitled tyrants. Yet confusing and outdated legal systems and societal norms have caused corrupt businesses to get the upper hand. Their nepotism creeps into legal counsels as judges dread what could happen if these businesses stop doing business or have to jack up their prices due to their mistakes.
Covert and Corrupt Human Resources
In many workplaces worldwide, human resources employees are guilty of wrongfully terminating employees and breaking the legal terms of their employment contracts and rights. Since HR is hired to serve the company's interests, they are frequently caught bending and breaking rules for company profits in exchange for the spoils of war. For example, many employees are let go from businesses only to find out they were unlawfully terminated or entitled to a severance.
Many companies will trick employees into signing an agreement that pays them a severance if they surrender their rights to ask for more in court. Some victims have signed contracts only to discover they could be entitled to 100’s of thousands more than they received. Also, remember that even if you are terminated without just cause or notice because you are in the “probationary period”, it doesn’t mean you are not entitled to a severance. One employee worked for a grand total of three days before being dismissed and was awarded three months’ severance. The court focused on the employee’s age (70) and the limited availability of similar employment to reach this conclusion. Businesses always cite the labour boards’ probationary period clauses to rip employees out of the most basic and dignifying human rights.
It’s not just businesses that do this either, police forces and even the courts have shorted people of large sums of money on many occasions. Police officers have been known to give special treatment to people with wealth. Big bribes and special respect are one thing, yet it’s not uncommon for officers’ unmanaged frustrations and prejudices against low-income people to result in unjustifiably high crime rates. When pulled over or questioned, always remember your rights and exercise them. When cops violate your rights, there can be big payouts for the trouble they put you through.
If legal proceedings were publicly funded, and life-essential jobs (construction, health care, etc.) were publicly regulated to ensure that profits are not awarded to people born in advantageous circumstances, whistleblowers would have much more safety and protection. Human resources would be less interested in the raise they get for engaging in aggressive, high-handed, malicious dismissals and more interested in the settlement package and added respect they gain for blowing the whistle on their corrupt boss.
When private companies with corrupted shareholders provide necessary services, they erode the rights of innocent citizens. It’s imperative that these rights are protected because these jobs always need to get done. In other words, it should be illegal for governments to build critical infrastructure with companies that mistreat their employees or cheat them or their families of a fair chance to compete. The public should be sued for expecting people to use unethical practices to produce their infrastructure.
When corrupt interests pollute job markets, proving innocence can be difficult, and talented people are often left with nothing. Interests are always corrupted when private companies provide necessary services because the only way to foster maximally motivated and efficient individuals is to give them an equal shot at success. Private companies still provide essential services because society hasn’t gained the bravery or intellect to assert that these profits and advantages should serve the people rather than small groups of investors born in the right place at the right time. When workers have a stake in the means of production, and profits aren’t skimmed in ways that are disproportionate to the effort invested, their work will be much more intrinsically rewarding, and they will be much more willing to stick up for their fellow coworkers when they are wronged, rather than throwing them under the bus.
Many believe these profits and privileges are needed to motivate private companies to produce the best products and attract the most talented employees in the field. However, it seems likely that any improvements in skill that could occur with these bigger payouts would be minimal and detrimental to the rest of society. After a certain point, paying them more would cause them to work less, and people who work less hard for their gains are often much less talented than expected.
Wouldn’t giving people at the bottom incentives to work harder motivate them to perform at a much higher calibre? Take, for instance, baseball player Hank Aaron. In 1974, he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record and was paid $200,000. In 2008, Alex Rodriguez led the league in home runs and was awarded $27.7 million, more than thirty times more than Hank Aaron, even after adjusting for inflation. It’s unlikely that the increased pay makes Rodriguez that much better than Aaron.
One could say that the stress and mental anguish society endures for paying enormous salaries to people who do not provide necessary services to humanity actually makes athletes less talented. Besides, wouldn’t forcing him to make a wage more proportionate to others who are good but not the best only make the league more competitive and improve the skill of all on the field? The economy is already awarding gains that are way too unmerited. The only way to prevent environmental disasters is to ensure that people get gains proportionate to the benefit they add to humanity’s ability to live peacefully and improve.
The Cost of Privileged Justice
The cost of privileged justice is that the justice system lacks the proper funding needed to function. In Vancouver, for instance, violent crime, homelessness, and underfunding have gotten so bad that criminals are often right back on the streets the next day. Even death threats and assaults are often excused with little to no jail time, no criminal charges, and no damages awarded to victims. Victims can spend hours of their day compiling evidence and dealing with police officers only to have their threatening roommates back in the house the following day. Victims must spend large amounts of money on skip tracers, lawyers and court fees to claim damages for the large amounts of time and money lost to these delinquents. This, in turn, forces them to be subject to the same abuse, often worse if the abuser discovers they called the cops on them. The financial hardships of filing a lawsuit to reclaim damages can cause victims to be forced to live in places that are even worse breeding grounds for crime and unruly behaviour.
Crime is much like the task of weeding a garden. Effective law enforcement is like pulling a dandelion before its seeds or roots too deeply into the earth. Anyone who has tried to pull out a dandelion can tell you it’s almost impossible to get the whole root out when it's left too long. And if it isn’t done right, it can grow back and seed worse when you’ve turned your back. Criminal issues and their underlying causes must be properly tended to and evaluated frequently to ensure a lasting transformative change has been instilled in people. People often think they have rehabilitated criminals only to discover they have relapsed even worse. Estimating crime budgets can be one of the most tricky jobs since people constantly underestimate uneducated humans’ propensity for crime.
The other side of the coin is that those who suffer these restrictions and lack of representation are often pushed and coerced to do evil things as all kinds of unjustifiable compromises and devaluations wither away their defences. When courts and police officers are hesitant to press charges and pay appropriate damages to victims, it makes victims resentful and pessimistic. They have already been given compromised security since society has catered to the privileged for so long. Just when they think they can rely on them to keep their cool, they break the last link keeping the whole system from falling apart.
Since society’s norms invite a hoard of toxic social conventions that prevent self-actualization, it’s not uncommon for ethical people to face discrimination and bias from judges. There have been many reports of non-conformists who have faced discrimination from courts over the years. Some examples of these toxic social conventions are the pride flags and allegiances to hereditary monarchy in courts worldwide. Since these symbols are not closely related enough to the interests of the general collective of humanity, it can be said that allowing these cultures to be so involved in legal spaces causes humanity to face restriction.
How could a court that gives special attention to people who engage in perverse behaviour or have special unmerited privileges over the rest of humanity possibly have the purity of intent to have the people’s best interests in mind? Why not put up a flag that says “TAX INHERITANCE AT 100%” or “ABOLISH THE LOTTERY”? The King doesn’t pay taxes on his inheritance while the rest of Britain does, and he was just born with that privilege like he won the birth lottery.
King Charles meets with the goth metal band Lord of the Lost. Earlier, frontman Chris Harms sent The Vatican a butt plug with a picture of his face on it
Some feel the bright side of courts, politicians, and businesses being so seemingly obsessed with these regressive social norms is that oppressed citizens may have the opportunity to rise above them if they can develop a superior awareness. However, when lawmakers and politicians are convinced that there is nothing to miss out on by prolonging constitutional monarchy and convincing others it's unethical to suggest that sexual orientations aren't fixed fates, the average citizen is doomed to think the same.
The most urgent crisis in the world today is arguably that much of humanity cannot compete with the world’s smartest individuals. Picture the world with all of its inequality and corruption. Our planet contains parents who can hardly form coherent sentences and a 9-year-old boy, Yiheng Wang, who broke the Rubik’s cube world record. Society can either form individuals with brilliant and exciting lives or produce legions of dunces who can hardly enjoy their lives at all. It can continue to provide the bare necessities to masses of people who grow up to bite the hand that barely feeds them, or it can help all to unleash their true potential and break the cycle of struggle.
While it may seem alluring to get ahead of the herd and escape with an advantage in this chaotic and confusing world, it’s clear that supporting or prolonging the deception will ruin many people’s chances of ever becoming brilliant. No one wants to live in a world where the opportunity is sapped by people who give their kids an advantage. If all kids were as disciplined and well-tempered as Yiheng Wang, there would be little need for such long lists of court proceedings. People would not be consumed by such insatiable greed. There would be little fear or difficulty in determining truth from falsehood either.
Since governments are unable or refuse to make assertive claims about the profound ethics and principles that made geniuses like Yiheng Wang possible, people are ill-informed about the benefits of doing the right thing. Since lawmakers have legally protected regressive economic ventures, people have struggled to find meaning, while those who have tried to inform others of the life they are missing out on have had to pay the price for their actions. This leads people to believe one must be unethical to succeed and be the best when the most profound parts of our minds could never allow such a fallacious calculation.
Therefore, society must ensure that the citizens behind do not face any unnecessary restrictions. Although these nepotistic people have lost the upper hand in some ways by being drunk on their power, we must act altruistically to solve these issues quickly. Citizens who have not seen how accepting these senseless social norms limits a healthy psyche’s intellectual potential have fallen so far behind that they and their families often can never be fully saved. The purpose of life should be to learn the mysteries of existence and create pleasures and forms of happiness by working cohesively as a whole.
Humanity's ultimate mission, movement, or goal should be to give every child an equal shot at an education. When courts give favourable treatment to corrupt businesses or privileged people, victims are forced to pay unjustifiable prices for their mistakes. The world is already full of people who have had their educations and living arrangements paid for by their parents and businesses with inherited wealth, it can’t afford to exclude poor families from any more funding or opportunities. Imagine how good life would be if everyone were on such an even playing field that people could always find enough time to catch up to the others while they take fun breaks from training.
What should be most clear about the legal system is that it needs an upgrade. For many citizens, it's not that they don't see the problem; they lack the ambition, funding, and support to create a more intuitive one. The irrational aspects of society, like patriarchal faith-based religions, rainbow capitalist corporations, multi-million dollar lotteries, monarchal themes and allegiances, and buildings unfittingly named after psychotically wealthy billionaires, all freeze and impede the efforts and willpower of citizens. Instead of going for a system that can unleash the magnificent hidden powers of our mind and soul, citizens lethargically accept a system that is too unethical for its supporters even to learn the truth.
Since technology has improved so much over the years, citizens often settle for what they have instead of living in ways that are ethical enough to get glimpses of this higher power or taking steps towards awakening the masses and creating an authoritative and pure-minded legal system. However, our species and planet cannot justify the damage that will be done if we wait for these unempathetic and incompetent reformists to decide our fate. The army of ethics and reason urgently needs heroes to bolster its divine cause. Though there is much work to be done, there are sure to be priceless rewards along the way, and the sooner you prepare yourself for the fight against unsustainable living and economic recession, the better. We would love to have you join our cause and look forward to discovering the genius you have to contribute.
