If Lawyers worked like Doctors

Dr. Wes in a column from October 2009 writes a 'parody' on attorney billing. If you read it, you will chuckle....

I have a few other 'regulations' for attorneys.

Pass the Affordable Plaintiff and Defendant Act.

Establish legal preferred practice patterns

Establish evidence based legal decision making

Establish quality review and payment guidelines for outcomes.

Establish "never events" which allow clients to refuse payments to their counsel.

Incentivize attorneys to utilize legal information technology with decision making algorithms.

Encourage further the development of 'managed judicial organizations (MJO) and/or accountable judicial organizations (AJO)

Establish a sustainable growth rate formula (SGR).   This would include a built in 5% a year decrease in reimbursements, subject to a six month hold while waiting for congress to delay the changes.

Establish and publish on the internet a directory of all attorneys and a rating by clients. Call it "Legalgrades" Post uncorroborated complaints from clients about the attorney or the firm.

Establish 100 not for profit foundations and/or study groups to make recomendations to improve efficacy and safety of legal judgments. 

Establish a National Lawyer Database (NLB) to report the win/loss statistics and any disciplinary actions (to be posted on the internet) and other untoward events.

Require a search of the database prior to any legal actions posted by any attorney.

Require attorneys to become credentialled annually at the BAR for individual courts, and charge them annually for this privelege.