(the courts)
I have just spent another hour in a courtroom – and with a (much) better than average judge. Better in the sense of being reasonable and seeking to reduce conflict, and settle matters quickly.
I kept expecting her (the judge) to recommend moderation which was the obvious solution, because if I offered it, I was afraid it would be interpreted as a tactic or strategy, and raise resistance in the other parties. But it took forever. And she seemed much more interested in making use of people’s time than in achieving the optimum outcome.
It’s precisely this ‘industrialization’ that makes me so angry whenever I’ve observed courtrooms for any amount of time, and seen our people systematically abused by an irresponsible system when our people are largely just acting reasonably and need assistance in ther esolution of thier issues -first by explanation,a nd second by solution provision.
So, there are so many ‘privileges’ the courts have granted themselves so that they can ignore facts of and causes of a conflict. Every single time I hear “we dont consider that” I see a soviet appartchik abusing the public while demonstrating irresponsibilty over that which they’ve been charterd to be responsible.
For example, for reasons that are irrelevant I didn’t recieve a notice of a hearing by mail (a post office issue), and it was returned – yet while in the past the court has contacted me, this time they didn’t, and a hearing took place without me. Now, I’m trying to think of how I can read minds, and know all this has happen, when the court has email, and telephone, but relies on the postal cervice precisely so that they can avoid the responsibility of ensuring contact. Especially when you become aware of how little these folk do – though, admittedly, we should appreciate how horrible the public under stress can be when these admins interact with them.
No one in public service takes responsibilty for assisting the people any longer other than maybe firemen, the odd policeman, and the even rarer ambulance team. And we need to fix this and soon.
You don’t need to think so hard to understand why I’ve chosen this line of work, reforming our constitution, law, policy, and such. Because I care about our people. And if the goverenment will do to me what it has done to someone competent to handle it, what does the government do to my fellow citiezense that by noblesse oblige I am morally committed to helping. (And by Christian ethic mandated by heaven.)
But I have NEVER been in a courtroom below the appellate level where I felt the lawyers or the judges were terribly bright, were trying to do the right thing, were sufficiently cognizant of the issues, and were doing other than box-fitting, manipulating, posturing, to make it easy for themselves and the questionable understanding of the matter by the court. It’s exasperating.
Now, our courts are not corrupt per say. They are in my experience unequalled in the world. But that does not mean they couldn’t be better.
The courts are however, over-dependent on procedures, under informed, under-specialized, and bound by legislation that is not ‘law’ but a hazard; a constitution with eight gaping holes; excessive litigation that demands more competency in the legal profession than is available per capita in either the judges, clerks, lawyers or their clients in the public. And most of our lawyers are, like any field, increasingly victims of the resulting “Skill Gap Inflation”.
Prior to today I had viewed the court’s dramatic expansion of mediation services (usually by ex judges) as an attempt to take the rigour and liability of the court out of the public eye. The reason is from personal experience – that it’s quite a bit easier for moderators to bully participants than judges in open court.
Now what the population needs, wants, and expects is moderation that helps them solve the problem, and hohpfully by offering a range of creative solutions that the parties can agree upon.
This need of the court is simlar to our want of police that help rather than try to make their lives easier by making you abandon your complaint or submit to their unreasonable expectations.
Yesterday’s video of a female police officer showing up at midnight, responding to a call six hours before, that convinced their eleven yar old daughter to take a revealing photo. Only to have the female officer threaten to arrest the child, the father dismiss the police, and me want to start a class action against that police department, and not settle it, just so we can escalate it to the supreme court and end this abuse of our people.
We do not teach police as they do in europe, (a) de-escalation, (b) problem solving (c) to take responsibilty for creating mindfulnes sand stability in the cmunity when possible. And fof course from my perspective I want them taught naturallaw so that they understand morality that our laws depend upon, rather than a set of abitrary rules that have lost all connection to the moral foundations in that natural law of cooperation – the very thing that made our previously high trust society possible.
Love you all.
Cheers
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Notes:
“Skill Gap Inflation”. This term encapsulates the idea that the market-driven demand has inflated the need for certain skills to a point where it exceeds the available competent talent pool, potentially leading to the hiring of less competent individuals to fill those roles.