The Demand for Attorneys

I had a previous post, or rather, a rant about the legal system. In it, I pointed out a big difference between the jury system and, say, consulting, namely that though both are called in to make decisions about what is going on, the jury is legally required to be far less informed about what is going on about the facts than anyone else in the courtroom. On the other hand, a consultant that kept him or herself ignorant before reaching a conclusion soon go out of business.

I just thought of another very big difference between the legally system and other professions… in some ways, demand for attorneys (at any price) is driven up by the presence of more attorneys. In a town with no attorneys, if nobody needs an attorney, then, well, nobody needs an attorney. But if one person has an attorney and uses the attorney (say, for a lawsuit), then automatically, at least one other person, if not many others, also need an attorney, whether they wanted one or not.

Contrast that with other professions: if you hire one construction worker, one doctor, one cab driver, one whatever – you aren’t imposing a need on anyone else to do the same.