The following 14 paragraphs address the issue of corruption and dysfunctionality.

All of the analysis is from credible sources-- bar publications, the mainstream press, mainstream organizations on the Web, or in the case of my legal affairs, legal case papers.

You will find the bar publications in paragraphs 3, 5, 10 and 14, alone, go far towards establishing grounds for contending that the legal profession is the most corrupt and dysfunctional. When supplemented by the other sources, one is left with no doubt.

1. Lawyers can just pull off blatantly unethical scams (by any standard including the Florida Bar ethical rules) with no one (so far to my knowledge) in the legal profession doing a thing about it. No doubt others have done such things but not with such impunity.

2. Law students have been learning a stock in trade of intimidation, hypocrisy, sleaze, the good old boy system, sexual harassment and more for at least 15 years at one of Florida's major tax supported law schools, and possibly others, with little or nothing done about it. I challenge anyone to find a school or department at UF or any other major Florida state supported university that comes anywhere close to the decadence of this law school.

3. In this article, the ABA admits that even law schools that want to can't teach ethics. I challenge anyone to name another profession taught at the university level that has made such an admission.

4. Many smokers are becoming sick and dying because money for their treatment has been diverted away into the pockets of greedy lawyers. Two Florida lawyers made off with 950 million each. Hands down; no other profession comes anywhere close to their self serving power and greed.

5. The full majority of Floridians don't even have access to the courts when they have legal problems because of the expense and complexity of the legal system. I challenge anyone to find another university taught profession that should be available to all citizens, such as education or medicine, that even comes close to this dismal figure.

6. The legal profession in at least one major Florida city functions according to the rules of organized crime in many substantial ways. I challenge anyone to find any other university taught profession in any major Florida city that comes anywhere close to it.

7. Some years ago, a law professor in Florida, among many others, wrote that we should get rid of the legalese that made it so difficult to understand our laws. Why hasn't anything been done about it?

8. Now, in 1999, while England, the country that most of our laws originally come from, is finally getting rid of its legalese, little or nothing is being done to get rid of the absurd mass of it plaguing our legal system because it forces Florida citizens to have to hire lawyers to deal with it. I challenge anyone to find another university taught Florida discipline that the public must understand and deal with that comes anywhere close to the legal profession's self serving mumbo jumbo.

9. My own affairs with the Florida legal system are further testimony to its corrupt and self serving ways across a broad spectrum of issues. Certainly no other profession has come anywhere close to it in my lifetime.

10. No other major profession has the incidence of depression that the legal profession has.

11. One of the legal and judicial profession's ethical rules is that if a member of the Bar knows of conduct by another lawyer or judge in violation of the ethical rules, he/she has an ethical responsibility to report it to the appropriate authority. Clearly, this rule is blatantly ignored, otherwise all such issues portrayed above (assuming they were honestly processed) would not exist. For just one example consider Scam by the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers" . I challenge anyone to find another university taught profession that needs to be as honest as the legal profession needs to be while being so blatantly dishonest and ignoring its own ethical rules.

12. This section explores the relationship between some of the social, medical and economic costs of the present legal system; some personal and otherwise. It includes discussions of volunteering with the Recreation Therapy Department of the VA Hospital, the Arts in Medicine program at Shands Hospital, UF Law School funding and other issues.

13. University of Florida President John Lombardi's resignation was influenced by two out of state law school deans the circumstances of which demonstrate many of the profession's excesses-- lawyers getting preferential treatment, meddling in others affairs, influence peddling, etc., -- while his great achievements are apparently ignored; and a vast array of critical education and research related problems regarding Florida's legal system such as presented above, that could be solved, simply go begging.

14. And finally, with all of these and many other problems, its not surprising to find the Florida legal system to be highly disliked and distrusted by the people of Florida. I challenge anyone to find any other major university taught Florida profession so highly disliked and distrusted by our state's citizens.