← "Hong Kong: China's political legacy" | Return to Main Page | "Hong Kong's double standards" → | TrackBack (0)

July 10, 2007

You are on the invidual archive page of Legal tender. Click Simon World weblog for the main page.
Legal tender

The question of compensation of lawyers is, if you believe lawyers themselves, a difficult one to deal with. Any hint of a "no win, no pay" system and you'll get cries and protests from the best of them. For example, in today's SCMP:

Lawyers yesterday expressed concern that they would bear the highest financial risks under the conditional legal aid fund proposed by the Law Reform Commission.

Michael Vidler, a solicitor who has handled many legal aid cases, said the "no win, no fee" principle adopted in the proposal was unfair to lawyers. "It's a bit like going along to a doctor and say, `if I get better I will pay you, if I don't get better I won't pay you'," he said.

Actually, that's a damn good idea for the doctors to consider in their current pay negotiations. But the real trick here is the analogy itself: are lawyers really like doctors? Sure losing a civil court case can be bad news, but it doesn't tend to cost you your life.

 posted by Simon on 07.10.07 at 11:02 AM in the Hong Kong category.




Trackbacks:

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://blog.mu.nu/cgi/trackback.cgi/218361

Send a manual trackback ping to this post.


Comments:

Very nice point of view! Respect!

posted by: xno777mouo on 08.05.07 at 09:35 AM [permalink]




Post a Comment:

Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Comments:


Remember your info?







Disclaimer
All content, including comments, on this site operates under a Creative Commons Licence. The content except for quotes reflect my personal opinions and not those of my employer, family, co-workers, fellow Sydney Swans supporters or anyone else. The comments section is open but if you write it, you stand by it. I take no responsibility for comments. I may, at my sole discretion, moderate, alter or remove comments. I reserve the right to unashamedly change the rules as I go along. All emails are publishable unless otherwise marked. If you don't like it, use the little x in the top right of your browser.