[king_midas]

Yes Tom, you are correct-- I was saying we have a great criminal justice system here that attempts to be fair. I also think that Les points out issues that our current government has failed us on.

Using the analogy of a third-world country puts this into perspective, as it's very easy to think that the U.S. has too many lawyers.

If people simply got their hands cut off w/o trials, sure we wouldn't need lawyers-- But I don't think anyone here wants that. There will always be problems with anything, but you probably wouldn't think a good lawyer was overpaid if you were a defendant in need of support. Or, a plaintiff in a vice-versa situation.