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Thoughts on Reform of the U.S. Legal System [1]

['Aspiring Polymath', 'Dan K', 'Ade', 'Greg Dworkin']

Date: 2026-06-03  

I responded to a comment on another of my posts requesting my thoughts on reform of our legal systems. Not comprehensive but it’s a start. A wholesale review and reworking of our systems of laws and justice is needed.

In my years of practice I helped lead the Legal Services to the Poor committees of my local bar association. I also worked extensively on legislative review committees, to reform and simplify state laws. Also worked on simplification of real estate forms throughout the state and forms for self help through the legal process including forms for filing your own divorce.

Those are easy tasks compared to the real lack of access to the courts by the average person . Due to the internet revolution, lawyers now tend to be held to the same standards as the largest firm in the major metropolitan areas. That means we cannot afford to take good cases on a shoestring. If we do not do the investigation, preparation, hiring of expert witnesses and extensive discovery and motion practice at maximum levels, then our own licenses are at risk. Not to mention our financial future when the inevitable malpractice suits are filed.

Somehow I practiced for 48 years without a single malpractice suit or ethics complaint, although there were a few near misses. Later in practice it became impossible to take on the legal cases for the poor for two reasons. First since I was giving away my services, it appeared not to be valued by my clients and they seemed to regard my advice and representation as poor even though the case had been handled precisely as I did my paying clients. Second, the aggressive nature of how law is practiced in prosecutors’ offices and by other trial lawyers means that the time and money spent on “free” cases became prohibitive.

Lawyers and judges have an enormous vested interest in preserving the current system. The police/prosecutor/courts/jail systems is a scandal in our country the most imprisoned in the world, and that is worthy of a huge reform similar to that of Scandinavian countries. Even is we ignore the observed frequency of falsified charges against defendants, even if the charges are legitimate, it is routine to overcharge misdemeanors as felonies, file multiple charges against a minor crime or even to charge a crime for behavior that has no business in the courts. We spend billions maintaining the Criminal Law Complex in our country, again more than any country on earth. It is used as a method to oppress the poor and people of color. They cannot afford to defend against the false, excessive or inappropriate charges against them. Paying a bondsman to get out of jail exhausted their resources, and the totally overloaded public defenders do not have the time to do anything more than plead them out. That is how over 90% of all cases are handled and routinely people go away to jail for matters that in Europe would have never seen anything more than a warning or a fine. The problem is that politicians make hay on being tough on crime. Any attempt to reduce penalties is hit with “He’s soft on crime”. So the politicians tend to avoid that. The criminal law problem is solvable in the legislature. Billions could be saved and we wouldn’t be brutalizing millions of our citizens without need.

How to reform the Civil Law is tough, but for one thing we need the strongest possible anti-SLAPP laws to prevent abuse of the system. We need to increase the legal penalties and professional penalties against bring frivolous and groundless lawsuits. I propose an independent body within the Court system to review each lawsuit filed, with the ability of that group to require the Plaintiff to bring a preliminary offer of evidentiary proof plus a fully briefed memorandum of law showing the legal basis for their claim. This could be required of any plaintiff, when the review agency has cause to believe this is a frivolous or groundless claim, or a suit intended to harass another. The independent agency would have the ability to dismiss the lawsuit before requiring any response from a defendant. Whether that dismissal would be with prejudice would be determined on a case by case basis.

So there in a nutshell is my opinion on criminal and civil justice reform. Much more is needed to make the courts available to everyone. How do we do that?

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