Life Without Lawyers: Restoring Responsibility in America

by Philip K. Howard

Book Overview

Americans are losing the freedom to make sense of daily choices--teachers can't maintain order in the classroom, managers are trained to avoid candor, schools ban tag, and companies plaster inane warnings on everything: "Remove Baby Before Folding Stroller."

Philip K. Howard's urgent argument is full of examples, often darkly humorous. He describes the historical and cultural forces that led to this mess and lays out the basic shift in approach...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393338037
• ISBN13: 9780393338034
• Release Date: February 2010
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

America's Legal Lethal Injection

Philip K. Howard has done it again. He has compiled another wonderful treatise of what's wrong with the legal system in America, and in the process, leaves the reader wondering if there's really anything "right" with the legal system in this country. I'm hard pressed to find much to be encouraged by; especially lately. Welcome to the "land of lawyers" whose purpose in life amounts to generating billable hours, while distorting any reasonable form of justice to suit their needs. Essentially, Howard has accurately assessed this country as a fear-based culture; afraid to live life to the fullest, for fear of upsetting anyone or getting sued by some wacko looking to make a fast buck. It doesn't matter if a complaint is frivilous; in fact, the more inane the claim of pain, suffering & discrimination, the better. Sadly, the pernicious nature of the American legal system has taken its toll on corporate America; that former bastion of economic progress & prosperity. It has long since slipped into the abyss of bureaucracy & risk avoidance, and in the process has taken the spirit away from its front-line employees. The result has been catastrophic; the world economic meltdown over the past year has much of its roots in the low morale/low productivity cesspool of business; big or small. Perhaps someday, the pendulum will swing in the direction of common sense. For the sake of this country's social & economic health, let's hope that happens sooner, rather than later.

Comprehensive and easy to understand

An easy to understand treatise on tort law, education law, goverment bureaucracy as related to law...a good book for we lay people. An easy but comprehensive read.

Insightful

Philip Howard has written a clear, compelling, and insightful commentary on the impact that we can now associate with the highjacking of the Black Liberation Movement in the U.S. With seventy percent of the U.S. population now members of a protected class, we have devolved into a political community where Ç pluribus Unum (from many one) has been reinterpreted to mean one from many. We don't celebrate what unites us so much as we, with the help of the legal class, use what divides us to extort value from our treasury of social capital. I recommend that you read Howard's "The Death of Common Sense" in order to understand how the U.S. Judicial System has been complicit, if not instrumental in the highjacking. You may conclude with me that tort reform drains energy from a more fundamental reform that should demand judges who judge, arguing that individual responsbility and accountability is more important than class extortion.

Accountability, Responsibility, and Freedom

This book explains the unintended conseqences on our culture of too much law, especially the calcified layers of regulatory directives that have worked against the common good and cleansed our public sevants from accountability. The book also explains the origins of "my rights" and the litigation explosion that followed. What is unique about this book is that the author is able to give common sense solutions to many of the frustrations associated with government and our public schools. JAH

Short but insightful

This excellent book explains how excessive litigation has lead to excessive caution. Frightened individuals and institutions adapt their decisions and actions to avoid potential lawsuits, undermining our economy and our free society. Three especially interesting insights I got from this book were: 1. Sometimes the ability to anticipate and prevent a bad outcome should not be enough to establish liability for that outcome. The social value of an activity in which a risk inherently resides may outweigh the cost of that risk. For example, the few but inevitable accidents on school playgrounds have lead to lawsuits, which have compelled many schools to ban running at recess or eliminate playground equipment altogether. Kids should not be deprived of healthy and developmentally necessary play to prevent accidents that are few and far between. 2. Due process, once used to prevent the coercive power of the state from being abused, has been extended to institutions like schools and businesses, eviscerating the authority that individuals need to run their institutions. Teachers can no longer maintain order in most public schools, as their ability to discipline students is highly restricted and students know they won't be held accountable. 3. Objective rules cannot replace discretion and judgment. Most of human life is just too complex to be reduced to rules and regulation. There must be room for intuition and creativity, and in every institution some individuals must have the authority to make judgments. Out of fear and distrust of authority we have attempted to eliminate all discretion with rules, which instead has lead to stultifying bureaucracy and a decline in personal responsibility. The book is sometimes not as rigorous as I would have liked, often relying on examples and anecdotes where I would have liked to see comprehensive data. Howard often writes that "many studies show", and although there is a bibliography, there are no footnotes to refer the reader to those specific studies. But these issues are minor compared to the strength of the book as a whole.