Shock & Surprise: Lawyers oppose removal of lawyers' gravy train

Cartoon by Nick Kim

I'd like to say I was astonished to read that 42 KCs (so-called "King's Counsels") signed an open letter opposing David Seymour's Treaty Principles Bill.

But why should anyone be astonished that 40 folk sucking off the Treaty tit would oppose the removal of their teat.

In the film The Castle Darryl Kerrigan describes these legal vultures as "rich folks' lawyers." People who prey upon uncertainty in law, on confusion in contracts, on doubtfulness in legal decisions, turning dubiety into billing hours. Their carrion is the many, many thousands of dollars a day they charge to pore over legal documents and invoice for all that uncertainty.

For them, the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi being undefined by parliament is not just a godsend, it's a meal ticket. A once-in-a-lifetime chance to make bank.

The very last thing they want is for those undefined Principles, placed by Geoffrey Palmer et al at the heart of so much law since the 1980s, to be defined. To be made clear. To leave no room for debate.

The very last thing they want is for that gravy train to be taken away.

To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, "Much of the vagueness and uncertainty in present law is due, in the main, to lawyers, and, in part at least, to good ones. They are responsible for the perversion in law of undefined principles that now clutter the statute-books, and for all the evils and cost that go with ongoing attempts to defined them. Every Waitangi Tribunal judge is a lawyer. So are most politicians. Every invasion of the plain rights of citizens has a lawyer behind it. If all lawyers were hanged tomorrow, and their bones sold to a mah jong factory, we’d be freer and safer, and our taxes would be reduced by almost half.”