How did lawyers develop their strangle-hold over almost every aspect of making, administering and carrying out our laws? Non-English speaking immigrants, rapid urbanization, new technology, greedy lawyers and business concentration all contributed to eliminate non-lawyer competition.

Consumer reform during the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson laid the foundation for later reforms that have resulted in all sorts of negative results each relating to traditional professional groups such as lawyers and doctors. These "professionals" used the consumer reform movement to sell the nation on the rationale of "professional responsibility" and to justify organizing themselves into publicly-sanctioned monopolies. For example, when it came to training new lawyers, the legal profession now emphasized formal schooling over the traditional apprenticeship method, and pushed required written examinations as an alternative to being admitted to practice on the recommendation of a practitioner or judge.

All of these changes quickly worked to the pecuniary benefit of American lawyers. It was particularly remarkable how quickly lawyers were able to use the new educational and certification requirements to eliminate non-lawyer competition. Legal consumers who were cheated or overcharged by the professional incompetence of individual lawyers, were then, as now, provided with little meaningful recourse.

American Bar Associations adopted a militant campaign to rid the nation of the last vestiges of the self-help law movement that had survived from the nineteenth century. Non-lawyers were prosecuted in ever increasing numbers. Much of the reason for this increase in enforcement was the passage of new unauthorized practice statutes with tougher penalties. New legislation was orchestrated by the newly-organized local and state bar unauthorized practice committees, all of which claimed their activities were designed not to feather the nest of the legal profession but to protect the public from unqualified and incompetent law practitioners. No evidence exists that the public ever asked for, or needs, this "protection."

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) questioned Reno's truthfulness and suggested she be fired. "The attorney general is so inconsistent with her statements that I share with you a concern that the president of the United States ought to relieve her of her responsibility," Domenici said.

Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) shot back that Republicans were obstructing justice through their threats of impeachment. "The criticism [Reno] has received, the threats that have been made against her and the position she holds, are the political equivalent of an obstruction of justice," Torricelli said. "In an ironic sort of way, members of the majority have made it almost impossible for the attorney general to actually name an independent counsel. She's been threatened with impeachment, hearings, she should be immediately replaced. If the woman names an independent counsel, it's going to appear she was intimidated. And if she doesn't, she's defending the president."

Justice Department spokesman Bert Brandenburg, responding to criticism of Reno and the calls for her ouster, said, "It's political rabies. Fortunately when it comes to applying the law, cooler heads will prevail. This is why the law must be interpreted by professionals, not politicians. Political bullying will never work on this attorney general."

Editor's note: Lawyers control Congress and most State Legislatures and protect the world's largest monopoly.

Against this background and continuous rhetoric, it isn't hard for the legal profession to convince most people that "A PERSON WHO REPRESENTS HIMSELF HAS A FOOL FOR A CLIENT.

However, a man who is represented by a fool, is a fool ...

Lawyers say that a man who represents himself has a fool for a client and a fool for a lawyer.

However, if you hire a fool for a lawyer, you have a fool for a lawyer. And most lawyers are fools and all you're doing is paying some idiot a lot of money to destroy your life.

When you are standing in the midst of the lions den
-- Do not count the lions - Count on God.

Related story - Court Perpetuates Legal Monopoly