Dr. Ed Young - A Broken Court
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The law is circular. In our legislature, State Senate, House, Senate House, Washington, all of it that's there, it's circular. The lawyers primarily are elected to public office, right? They make the laws, right? And you go into a court; it's a lawyer who is a judge, right? It is a lawyer who prosecutes, and the lawyers who defend, right? They make the law; they defend the law; they prosecute under the law. All of that is a perfect circle! And for one of us to walk in that circle-wheewww! We'd better have someone who's already in that circle, holding their hands because it's way beyond our understanding! They have a nomenclature and words that the average person like you and me, we just don't get!
So it's a very, very exclusive circle! It's like you go on a basketball court, and the lawyers own the basketball court; they own the basketball, and one of them has to be the umpire, and only lawyers can play in the game! This is our judicial system today, ladies and gentlemen! That's that little circle... That's that little circle. Did you know in the Bible, there's a whole Chapter uttered by Jesus in that He deals with lawyers? Oh yeah! Look at it, if you would, to Matthew, Chapter Number 23. Seven times He says "Woe to scribes. Woe to lawyer". A scribe was a lawyer, someone who wrote the law, interpreted the law, and carried out the law through the Pharisees, who would follow the law, ever so seriously.
So seven times in this one Chapter, Jesus says "Woe..." And the word there could have been translated "Hopeless". It could be translated "look out"! Woe unto the lawyers! Evidently they had some legal problems in the 1st Century as well. And look, I want you to look especially at one Verse in Verse 23. Jesus says "Woe to you lawyers and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, and dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: Justice, and mercy, and faithfulness. These are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!"
Now what's Jesus saying? He is saying simply that "All you lawyers are so careful that if I'm growing some mint, I take ten percent of the mint, and I give it to the Temple. If I have some dill, I take, oh, measure out carefully, ten percent of the dill, and I give it to the Temple. And if I have some cumin, I take ten percent of the cumin, and I give it to the Temple. At the same time, you are totally missing the weightier part of the law which is justice, and mercy, and faithfulness"! And that's happening in our day. Jesus further illustrates this with a piercing example in Mark, Chapter Number 7. He's still dealing with lawyers, ladies and gentlemen! He's talking about the scribes.
Look at Mark 7, Verse number 8. Jesus is speaking: "Neglecting the commandments of God, you hold to the tradition of men". Jesus was also saying to them "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said 'Honor your father and your mother, and he who speaks evil of father or mother is put to death', but you say" Verse 11, "If a man says to his father or his mother, 'Whatever I have that would help you is Corban.'" That is to say "I've dedicated all I have to the Temple; therefore, I can't help you, mom. I can't help you, dad. It's Corban"! Jesus says "You no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother, thus invalidating the Word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down, and you do many things such as that".
Now get this in context. Jesus is saying "Here is one of the Commandments, one of the big ones", right? "Honor thy father and thy mother". And He say "You're getting around honoring your parents by saying 'Some little law...'" Remember the Talmud, the Mishna was where the scribes would take and elaborate, and interpret the law with case law and different illustrations? And they had this little law that you could say "All of my possessions are Corban". The word "Corban" means gift, "And I've given it to God"! Now he still had it in his portfolio! Heh, heh! He still could draw from it; but it was a little minutia there, way out on the edge of the law that kept him from being obedient to honoring and helping his parents. It was costly to help those parents! They were sick. They had problems! They were hungry! They had no place to go! But he couldn't help them, though he had great resources because he had dedicated all of his stuff to God, which rarely happened in that day. He still had it! But he got around being obedient to the law.
This happens all the time in courts of law today! This will blow you away! Here's someone who's holding up a store-bang! He kills a person. Witnesses see the murder. He is taken to trial, and somebody didn't read his Miranda rights; therefore, a murderer goes scot free! Some little minutia of the law out here kept justice from being done. Some little court procedure; someone gets off with a major crime! And see, we are guilty in our courts of law today of taking little bittle, bitty peripheral things and letting them become the standard, when we miss the great principles of justice, and mercy, and faithfulness! And therefore, we look around and discover in the recent survey that only sixteen percent of Americans believe that the legal system is just, and that lawyers are honest! Sixteen percent!
Let me tell you something: If I were in that pos, profession... and by the way, I would have been in that profession in all probability, had not God called me to what I'm doing! I love the law! I respect the law! I honor the law. I believe in a law abiding society. It's very important as to who we are! But by the same token, we, those in that profession need to look carefully as what is going on. Is there really justice, mercy, and faithfulness taking place? Do we have equal justice under the law? Let me tell you what's happened! There is great fear when you talk about the judicial system. And first of all, there is the poor! The poor feel, they have a fear that's based on a judicial system that they cannot access. I call it "judicial access". The poor does not have access to this closed circle! Oh yeah! The disenfranchised, the little person! The one who's left out!
How in the world they gonna access this system? How are they gonna get in? Oh, you say "We have pro-bono lawyers". Sure, we have that. We have help in, sure, but not near enough! There are thousands of people who are inundated by all the problems that they have, and the poor and those who are left out, they can't get in! Equal justice under law, not for the bottom realm of society! No way in our America! It sounds good, but in actual practice, it's unrealistic. Oh, now, it's exception is if you're in an accident! Oh, ho, ho, ho! If there's a tragedy, there'll be lawyers lined up wanting to help the little guy! But normal stuff like wills, and like insurance problems, and Medicare and Medicaid, and you need some counsel, incomes-you've been mistreated, you've been abused, you've been improperly... Things have been... I mean, you try to go get a lawyer there on the bottom rung, and I'll tell you, you can't find one!
That's not the kind of law they practice! That's not what they do! That's not my area! You have to so somewhere else! And in this circle where the lawyers make the law, interpret the law, preside over the law, defend the law, prosecute in the law; they have complete control of everything in this sacred, holy circle. If anybody dare went in there... Illustration! Lake Charles, Louisiana! A man was a CPA. He started helping friends who had problems with their will, and he charged 'em, you know, $25.00. Then he had someone else who wanted to declare bankruptcy, and she went to a law firm. They said "Well, we can do this for $500.00". She said "Look, if I had $500.00, I'd pay my bill and not have to declare bankruptcy"!
So this man helped her for $90.00. Then he went into a rest home. He'd been to help some of the people there that didn't understand Medicare, and Medicaid, and a lot of the medical things, simply interpreting language, filling out forms that's beyond so many of us! And guess what happened? In Louisiana, as in almost every state, they have uncertified practice of law-UPL! "Oh my goodness! You're practicing law without a license"! And this person in Louisiana, seven deputies came to his home where he had his office, and they picked him up and handcuffed him, put him in the squad car. They led him down to the station, finger printed him, put him in a jail cell, and charged him with practicing law without a license, which carries with it a maximum sentence in Louisiana of 2 years, plus a large fine! The problem with him, he was practicing law too cheap for the little person! And this is what we have!
By the way, his sentence was suspended. They fined it, they fined him a large amount of money. They confiscated his computer. At last report, he was having trouble finding something to do to make a living for himself! Access is a problem for the poor! Equal justice under law is a problem for the poor, right here in America! I've been there. Some of you are there; some of you've been there. I understand that, first hand experience! Judicial access! That's the fear. Among the rich, the business people, the corporate world, those who have to... it's judicial excess! In other words, we, we're so afraid that something little and trivial will turn into something gigantic!
What about the person who spilled uh, McDonald's coffee in their lap? Whoa! Wasn't that a beautiful lawsuit? Man, if that works, I'm gonna spill coffee about once every two years! What about the guy in Washington, D.C. who was connected with the courts in some way. He got mad at the Korean couple where he was getting his pants dry cleaned, and they lost a pair of $57.00 dollar, $57.00 dollar pants, and he sued 'em for $52 million dollars, and it got in a court of law! And I read the particulars as how he got to that number; it is unbelievable! What about in the school system in North Carolina where a little first grade boy reached over and kissed a little first grade girl, and the girl's parents got upset, and they had to suspend the boy for a period of time from school!
How silly, and how tragic, and how ridiculous we can get in our culture! And we have those in places of authority; we're afraid at the excess of the judicial system. Like in Minneapolis. Had a situation there where a man who was a member of a Catholic Church, a layman in the Church, not a priest in the Church; he was carrying something for a shut-in, trying to be in a minister through a laity organization. In the process, he ran a red light; there was an accident. An 82 year old man became a quadriplegic, and therefore, the lawyer took the case. He was looking for deep pockets, and finally, he said "Oh, the Arch Diocese of Minneapolis! Whewww! Deep pockets"! And he sued!
And I read his last plea before the jury, I'm sure with tears coming down his eyes, legitimally so for the man who's a quadriplegic! But tears, and tell him all that he couldn't do and couldn't be; and therefore, the judgment was for $17 million dollars against the Church, the Archdiocese of Minneapolis! Excess! You see, you say "Well, a lot of this doesn't get tried"! That's what the attorney's tell you, and that's true because of fear! Only less than 2% go to a court of law, but our insurance companies we pay off because we're afraid there will not be justice, and we're afraid that there will be excess in relation to the process of what's going on.
And by the way, the poor people, they fear they don't have access; the rich fear excess, not in parameters, not in boundaries of the claims that are made. And the rest of us, we just fear the whole process! We don't understand the process of all of this! It's beyond us! The language, the involvement, the technicality of when you go, and how you show, and what wor... I mean it's just beyond us, because we're not in that very, very exclusive club! And if you go in that club, unless you got somebody in the club holding you by a hand, you're way, way out of bounds! The whole process of it! Little League Baseball game! All Star second basemen! Tremendous player! Center fielder didn't show up. The coach tells the All Star second basemen, "Joey, go play center field today! Boy, I need you out there".
Joey goes out there. Third inning, fly ball goes up! He loses it in the sun! The ball comes out, hits him in the eye! Doesn't put his eye out; his eye is hurt. It's black; it's swollen. His parents sue the Little League, and sue the coaches because they didn't offer him sunglasses, and nobody ever taught him how to catch a ball in the sun! And the coaches finally settled for $25,000.00 to the family! Have you ever heard of reasonable risks in life? Every time something happens doesn't mean that "Boy, I've got to go find some way I can sue somebody"! It's the process that gets us!
What about in St. Petersburg, Florida? Maybe you saw this on T.V. a few years back. You got, you got this little 4 year old, kindergarten girl, and she's in a room, pushing desks over. She's throwing paper on the floor! She goes to the wall and pulls down bulletin boards! She's making havoc of her room! At the same time, the Assistant Principle is surrounding her like this, you know teaching somebody to play guard, basketball? Little girl is here, and the Assistant Principle is around her like this, and she's just wrecking everything! Finally, he sort of herds her into the principles office, and she begins to tear everything up in there off the wall!
And finally, the police come. She weighs 40 pounds; she's 4 years old, and they put her in handcuffs! Maybe it was hemophebia! Man, why in the world couldn't... You see, you can't touch! Oh, if you touch, oh, ho, ho, oh man! There's a whole myriad of laws that would come down on ya! We, we live lives of defensiveness, because the absurdity many times of our judicial system! So here's the problem: The structure, our judicial system is cracked because of a lack of access for the poor, and it's cracked because of the fear of excess by those who are in business, and those who are in the "plus" of the community.
And there's the fear of the whole process by the rest of us! What's the answer? This isn't the total answer. I'm not speaking ex-cathedra, and I'm certainly, I'm outside my realm in many, many ways; but I have talked to a dean of a law school. I've talked to lawyers of every side of the practice. I've talked to judges, and I have done my homework, and let me-this is not what they're saying. Let me give you some basic answers. First of all, let's enter into the court of the judge. Let's go in the judges court and talk about the judge! Judges need to set parameters and boundaries. They need to be in charge of the courtroom, and they need to have the courage and the common sense to throw a lot of this junk out!
Now, let me tell you what happens! In a federal court, you almost never have frivolous lawsuits, silly little lawsuits! You know why? Now, they have a way to handle it, federal court. They have rule number eleven. It's about this thick... and it says, a federal judge, when they see that something's coming before him that's not factual, that's not evidential, that's not right, that's not logical, that is silly; the federal judge hammers the person, and hammers the lawyers, and man, he comes down on 'em! You don't have silliness very much in federal courts! That, that rule eleven never has to be applied. In state courts-federal courts, by the way, are appointed. Remember, federal judges are appointed. In state courts, the judges are elected. And they have a rule thirteen by which they can handle this silliness there; but it is very rarely used.
And by the way, the federal rule for handling all this is this thick; the state rule, I've got it on my desk, is about this thick. But the state judges-they do not do this. Why? 'Cause they're elected! And because the lawyer before them may be a member of a firm, or part of a practice that gave him a lot of money for his re-election! "Ooww, I've got to get re-elected"! And therefore, if he says "This is not legitimate", the lawyer presents the case-listen to this carefully! "Well, let this be decided by a..." Their peers, in a court of law, by a jury! That's what the Constitution guarantees! Oh no! The Constitution guarantees if there is a legitimacy of the law, then it goes into the courtroom with their peers, and the judge has to determine that! He has to make that decision! That's his calling, and they're reticent to do it when a lawyer is there; his firm has cont, contributed a lot of money to his re-election.
You know the umpire that you write a check for $5,000.00 for him to be re-elected, remember? He said he's going to be objective? Even though my son's on the mound pitching? Man, we need to make that umpire and make him a saint and put wings on him! This happens with judges. Therefore, state judges rarely throw all this stuff out. They're afraid. Give me more judges like Judge Janis Jack of Corpus Christi. I don't know her. Read the case. Silicosis! Ten thousand people had silicosis! It was coming before her court in Corpus! What is silicosis? You had an incident in 1930, Tennessee Valley Authority, when 600 people died with silicosis, over. It's when you breathe rock, or sand and the fine air, and they hit a, hit a whole string of, of silica, and it got in the air, and 600-goes in your lungs, and it's, it's a horrific death.
But here are ten thousand cases, advertised over television, have silicosis! And Judge Jack did a very unusual thing for a judge. She spent a year looking at these cases. What they do, they try three or four of the cases; then they just settle all the rest of them, because you could spend a life time with ten thousand cases in court! But she looked at the legitimacy of these cases and saw the fraud that was there, presented by the lawyers. She saw for example, one doctor. They'd parade them in little x-ray units that were portable. They would come out, and he'd read the x-ray, and they had all the diagnosis already filled out, and they would sign one doctor in 72 hours, diagnosed silicosis in over twelve hundred cases. Sound suspicious to you? She threw the whole fraudulent thing out of the courts!
We need more Judge Jacks who do their homework and have judicial courage and common sense! Okay! Let's enter the court of the lawyers! Counselors! You are agents of the court! You have a holy, sacred calling in this realm of exclusivity in which you operate, where we can't operate. Respect the law, fear the law, honor the law, protect the people! So I would say to lawyers, you're in that club! You're in that circle! It's a holy calling. Jesus speaks about scribes all the way through the Scripture with great warnings! In that holy calling, you have to police some of this yourself! It, we can't do it on the outside because we can't get inside!
Now to the people! We have to be-well, we have to stop being so "I'm gonna sue ya"! I, We can sue anything about anybody, I think almost any time! We've just got to find somebody and some judge that'll do it! Man, "Oh yeah, we'll..." And you, you've got a lot of junk science over against legitimate science, and Judge Jack looked at the legitimate science and saw the fraudulent part of this case, and she responded to legitimate science when the jurors can be swayed emotionally with junk science! So we the people have to drop back on all this litigation that we like to perpetuate! "Well, we deserve that-it doesn't cost them anything! It's gonna cost the insurance company..." Let me tell you something! Ultimately, everybody will pay! Don't ever forget that! Where do we end up? Jesus would say to us as He said to those in the Scripture: "Justice, mercy, faithfulness".