The Power Relationships in Law

Posted by Debbie Rosenbaum

From “Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2” by Negativland (a book my manfriend is reading for his copyright class at Rutgers Law)

“One basic failing of the U.S. legal system is that it treats the plaintiff and the defendant as though they are equally powerful entities, regardless of the actual resources each may have.  Further, it disregards the fact that the cost of preparing a legal defense for a trial is prohibitively high – unthinkable for any entity other than a wealthy individual or a good-sized corporation.  Thus, when a corporation goes after a small business or low-income individuals, the conflict automatically rolls outside of the court system because of the defendant’s inability to pay the costs of mounting a proper defense. The matter is resolved by the more powerful organization threatening to press the suit back into the courts unless the smaller party agrees to their terms unconditionally. The powerful crush the weak. Note that all of this is purely a power relationship, essentially without regard to the legality of the issue, let alone the morality.”

It hit close to home for me.

What do you all think?