The Price of Justice: Money, Morals and Ethical Reform in the Law

by Ronald Goldfarb, Bernie Sanders (Foreword by)

Overview

"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

With foreword by Senator Bernie Sanders

Real civil and criminal justice is long overdue

The Price of Justice: Money, Morals and Ethical Reform in the Law veteran Washington Lawyer Ronald Goldfarb reveals the injustices in our legal system and how money and power have exceeded ethics in the legal profession for far too long.

Justice reform has become an increasingly present topic in the news and media, with movements like "I Can't Breathe" and Black Lives Matter prompting national outcry from the public over the unethical actions of law enforcement, and remains one of the most controversial and highly debated issues for politicians and citizens today. With more than 2 million American's incarcerated, it is beyond apparent that the justice system intrinsically ensures that lower-income people and minorities are shockingly underrepresented and offered little to no legal protection.

In The Price of Justice, Goldfarb uses powerful testimonies, media evidence, and first-hand expertise from working in the Justice Department as a longtime public interest lawyer to reveal how both the criminal and civil justice systems fail to serve lower and middle-class citizens and makes an undeniable case for the profound justice reform that is so desperately needed. Goldfarb asks that we examine closely a legal system that has become largely pay-to-play, benefiting the administrators and those wealthy citizens who can afford to "lawyer up", and shows little mercy for the lower-income citizens who fall victim to an endless cycle of conviction, fines, bail, lack of counsel and capital punishment.

Goldfarb exposes a system that values money over ethics and lawyers who value winning cases over finding truth and serving justice, pointing out that civil aid and public defenders are grossly understaffed and under financed, making it nearly impossible to meet the challenges of well-paid private lawyers. This book begs the legal profession to consider its ethical code when considering cases to represent, not just represent crooks who can pay and turn away worthy clients who cannot afford exorbitant fees and equips the public with the knowledge needed to advocate for real justice reform.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684425037
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	10/05/2021
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Ronald Goldfarb, Washington DC attorney, author and literary agent studied at Syracuse University(A.B., LL. B.) and Yale Law School (LLM, JSD), worked for three years as a trial counsel in the U.S. Air Force JAG Corps, and for Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy for four years in the Justice Department prosecuting organized crime cases and in New York as Kennedy’s speech writer in the 1964 election. His website (www.ronaldgoldfarb.com) lists his many writings and unique role in public affairs to the present.

Table of Contents

Foreword Senator Bernie Sanders ix

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 A Tale of Two Myths 1

Myth 1 Finding Lawyers, Choosing Clients 3

Myth 2 The Adversary System 19

Chapter 2 The Criminal System 27

Chapter 3 The Civil System 87

Chapter 4 Personal Choices 123

Chapter 5 Conclusion 149

Acknowledgments 175

Notes 177

Index 201

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

PRAISE FOR RON GOLDFARB

“...a clear and eloquent presentation of the history of the contempt power... The book will prove to be as interesting to laymen as it is to lawyers”  —Thurman Arnold, The New Republic, The Contempt Power

“no one else has remotely touched what [Goldfarb] has done about the fight against organized crime. So it is important as well as moving.”  —Anthony Lewis, The New York Times (Perfect Villains, Imperfect Heroes)

“...blends scholarship and commitment in pointing the way toward fulfilling the promises of the Constitution... I hope all lawyers, and concerned citizens, will read his book.”  —Robert F. Kennedy, United States Senator

“Goldfarb is one of the most thoughtful and knowledgeable people writing on the criminal justice system today.”  —Tom Wicker

“...magnificent. . .well written. . .authoritative.. It is a sort of book that really hadn’t existed until Ron Goldfarb put it together.”  —Karl Menninger

 “Here is a strongly worded, trenchant, discerning, fair-minded analysis of a major American social problem...[and] what it means to be a compassionate, high-minded lawyer... One concludes the reading of this book wishing ... that those who practice the law could claim more colleagues such as Ronald Goldfarb – a moral example to a profession, to all of us.”  —Robert Coles

“When writers want to make sure they’ve got it absolutely right, Ron Goldfarb is the one they turn to.”   —Nick Kotz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

“A tour de force, a one-stop repository of the history, facts and the law of the matter. I plan to plagiarize from it shamelessly.”  —Fred Graham, Chief Anchor, Managing Editor, Court TV

“[goldfarb is] a creative legal philosopher.”  — James Srodes, The Washington Times

 

Editorial Reviews

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.)

Publishers Weekly

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

From the Publisher

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

Library Journal

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

NOVEMBER 2020 - AudioFile