Publishers Weekly
08/10/2020
Attorney and literary agent Goldfarb (editor, After Snowden) delivers a lacerating critique of inequities in America’s criminal and civil justice systems and the role of lawyers in perpetuating them. He laments the lack of serious repercussions for district attorneys who withhold evidence and manipulate witnesses, and explores how wealth and the imbalance of resources between public defenders and prosecutors can distort the outcomes of criminal cases. In civil matters, representation for poor litigants is often not available, Goldfarb argues, and when it is, underfunded legal services programs are at a distinct disadvantage to their corporate adversaries. According to the rules of America’s “adversary system,” lawyers can do almost anything under the rubric of “zealously represent” their clients, Goldfarb writes, and the lack of a moral component means that the system ultimately functions to ensure the preservation of the economic and social status quo. Goldfarb uses anecdotes from his own career to demonstrate how lawyers can infuse morality into their practices, and prescribes remedies such as extending the right to counsel to civil cases and lowering the costs of a legal education by cutting the curriculum from four to two years. Most of Goldfarb’s critiques and solutions are familiar, but he presents them with firm conviction and hard evidence. Legal professionals will want to take note. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
Attorney and literary agent Goldfarb (editor, After Snowden) delivers a lacerating critique of inequities in America’s criminal and civil justice systems and the role of lawyers in perpetuating them… Legal professionals will want to take note.” – Publisher’s Weekly
Library Journal
09/11/2020
The brief volume by attorney Goldfarb opens with a succinct foreword by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and continues to reconsider the justice issues that often overlap and intertwine with the U.S. political system. Using numerous examples, Goldfarb documents the inequities inherent in the current system. After mentioning the student loan debt that many lawyers face upon graduating from law school, the author next details how the legal system has become bureaucratic and in favor of the wealthy. He also provides examples of both conservative and liberal lawyers who publicly taut justice, but privately practice the opposite. Overall, his main argument is that lawyers have the freedom to promote justice and ethics, yet their public personas aren't always consistent with how they practice, uphold, and reinforce the law—and how, as a result, they could be upholding the same inequities they outwardly seek to change. VERDICT Referring to everything from classic literature to recent court cases, this work by Goldfarb makes for compelling reading. It should be required text for law students, as well as general readers interested in the law and justice.—William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport
NOVEMBER 2020 - AudioFile
Narrator Will Damron offers a steady performance of this excellent primer on the flaws that plague the American legal system. Goldfarb does not break much new ground but, nonetheless, offers worthy, compelling summaries of the many issues that too often turn state and federal justice systems into injustice systems, with devastating consequences for individuals and institutions. Goldfarb, citing court decisions, books, and popular movies, writes of “testilying” cops, impoverished legal aid organizations and their well-financed corporate opponents, and underfunded public defenders and resource-rich prosecutors. Damron’s low-key narration is evenly paced and unobtrusive but still manages to hold the listener’s attention. This is a fine audiobook and may be especially valuable to those new to the issue of judicial reform. G.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
