Alabama Gazette - The people's voice of reason

This will be my final article for the Alabama Gazette. As I compose it, my mind goes back to the hot August day 3 years ago when I first visited with Loretta Grant to propose this series of articles....

Public education was and is the great American dream. Nevertheless, since the 1950s, we have seen a broad-based movement toward the privatization of education. It is against this background that I...

First, let’s focus on ignorance; then we can develop its relationship to evil. Ignorance certainly includes lack of knowledge, but ignorance is not merely absence of knowledge. Ignorance has a...

The cost of access to the legal system presents difficult, perplexing questions. The legal system is the last resort for dispute resolution. But access to the legal system costs money. Lawyers engage...

Lawyer advertising turns most people off. That includes many members of the legal profession itself. Ads that include boxing gloves, horses, tigers and big trucks may be mildly amusing the first time...

It seems like every time I answer the phone these days it is a new opinion poll. The pollsters have even gotten into cell phones. I probably receive at least twelve or fifteen such calls each week. Th...

In September and October, I wrote articles describing the dangers that are inherent in corporate America’s ability to impose arbitration on the consuming public. I pointed out that the power of disp...

Faith is what we really and truly believe. It performs some remarkable functions that do not depend on its ties to religion. All of us believe that we exist in a physical environment on the face of...

I am currently teaching a course about faith in my church. I make the rather obvious point that faith is what we really believe. I’m afraid that sometimes we don’t really believe what we say we...

This column will focus on the privatization of dispute resolution in arbitration. Congress enacted The Federal Arbitration Act that required arbitration in all matters involving interstate commerce wh...

Arbitration amounts to privatization of dispute resolution. Many of the States, including Alabama, had a stated policy specifically excluding the possibility of contracting away the right to go to...

The concept of natural law was the prevailing philosophy of law throughout the formative period of modern nation states. The idea was that law occurs naturally. Nature, of course, includes human...

Individualism in the legal profession, like other walks of life, thrives on legends and myths. The profession cherishes certain images. One of these images is the image of the rugged individual....

For several months this column has focused on various causes of ineffectiveness of the legal system. Most recently we dealt with the extreme ineffectiveness and waste of time that is involved with...

Sometime after William the Conqueror successfully invaded England in 1066, the new line of kings decided they needed help rounding up local criminals to prosecute. Accordingly, they organized groups...

In recent columns I have concentrated on the economics of law practice. We have discussed the economic motives of plaintiff lawyers, the economic motives of defense lawyers, and the fact that the...

Last month we explored the economic motives of defense attorneys. This month we will discuss the economic motives of plaintiffs’ attorneys. Both defense attorneys and plaintiffs’ attorneys must op...

This column continues the discussion of the economics of law practice. It is the fourth in a series. First, we described the strong ties between law and economics. We pointed out that because the...

In last month’s column we pointed out that the economics of law practice can actually impede the ability of the legal system to efficiently resolve disputes. In future columns we will discuss in dep...

In our preceding article we introduced the current series dealing with law, economics and the economics of law practice. Several upcoming articles will deal with the economics of law practice. In...

Everyone is probably aware of the strong ties that exist between law and economics. Both law and economics are social systems. Every member of society necessarily participates in both systems. It...

Several of my recent columns have been devoted to concerns about the impact of cultural differences on law. Those columns have recognized that the legal system, as it existed, particularly in the...

In the last several articles I have dealt with issues of law and race from a different and unique view point. In the background of all of the articles is consideration of cultural systems. I have...

In the past several columns we have discussed problems with the criminal justice system and incarceration. Our exploration of problems concerning the corrections system concluded with a discussion of...

In last month’s column we discussed how cultural differences impact the criminal justice system. Four hundred years of slavery and segregation created a cultural system in our black communities....