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Lawyer Is Big Winner In Webcamgate Settlement
crimeandpunishment writes "The Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania has agreed to a $610,000 settlement in two lawsuits over secret photos taken on school-issued laptops. Less than a third of that will go to the students. A total of $185,000 will be put in trust for the students. Their lawyer will receive $425,000."
No, it's not that; it's the perception that lawyers are making a bit more than the $48/hr the average person makes. The lawyer worked 6 months, at 40hr/wk that's $340/hr? Of course lawyers work for free: every so often, a lawyer must do volunteer work as a "public defender."
The problem of course is lawyers have to familiarize themselves with law, case law, and everything else relevant to the law. Yes, they're evil underhanded money-sucking bastards; but their work is costly to their lives. I dare say being a lawyer is severely character-damaging and somewhat like being in jail: the lawyer life is brutal and cutthroat, and in the end even a valiant "Defender of the Unfortunate" who actually tries to take on cases with a horrible imbalance of fairness is going to make zero reaching difference in the world. Their lives are a complete waste.
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I worked for contingency lawyers. They don't take cases that have even the slightest chance of losing.
Also, they charge less contingency if they settle, so if this lawyer was truly shrewd, he would have taken this to the court room (to get a higher fee).
Have you ever met a lawyer who wasn't fabulously wealthy, upper middle class at least? Have you ever met a paralegal who not scamming cab receipts to try to make ends meet? I know a lot of people in the business, and paralegals are pretty much white collar slave labor, and lawyers are arrogant pricks. There is the odd pro-bono socially conscious public defender, but they are aberrations.
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.