Teach Your Children Well

Here is a a sad story to illustrate a piece of advice I often hang my hat on. When anyone in a position of authority--an employer, the police, a school administrator--advises you not to hire an attorney, it's time to hire an attorney. When they advise you not to hire an attorney because it will create a confrontational atmosphere, you should have hired one yesterday; you're being railroaded.

And isn't it especially true in a disciplinary action? Anything other than a confrontational hearing is a process based on the presumption of guilt. The entire idealized system of justice is based on the necessary and desirable nature of confrontation, especially the accused's right to confront his accuser and demand proof. It's a long-since perverted ideal, obviously--just consider the extraordinary power and latitude of prosecutors and police in this country. But the idea is sound enough, and it's an important principle to hang onto. There is a popular complaint that we live in an overly litigious society, but the opposite is true. We are an insufficiently litigious society. We are in particular far too willing to depend on institutions to fairly arbitrate disputes to which they themselves are party, whether through the costumer service department or the school disciplinary board.

So in the linked story, some poor kid, nice quite literally to a fault, gets busted for buying what he thinks is a pot pill, and then his school effectively sets out to ruin and destroy his life. His parents presume--why?--the best intentions on the part of the school until it is far too late. If the school had the slightest interest in mediating the situation reasonably, they'd have made the guy write "I will not buy fake drugs" a hundred times on a blackboard. He'd've felt ruhl bad and never done it again.

If you are a parent and have a kid in school, especially in public school, you should impress on them the imperative never to say anything to anyone until they've spoken to you first. They should politely decline to answer any questions, sign any papers, or make any statements until they've spoken to mom or dad. Remind them that teachers and administrators will try to shake them from this position, as surely as cops will try to convince suspects not to call their lawyers. They will imply that a lack of cooperation with the relevant authorities will harm their case, and they will suggest that they will not be able to be helpful or lenient unless your kids forgo rights and consultations. These are all lies and damned lies.

As a trial lawyer uncle of mine sometimes observes, the system has a word for a guy without a lawyer, and it's guilty.