Too Many Laws!

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Too Many Laws!

by hardyparkerson1

Jun 24, 2014

"Too Many Laws"

The phone's been a-ringin' Off the wall. People with problems Continue to call. "Too many lawyers," I've heard 'em say; But I say, we don't Have enough today. People got problems And serious ones too; Come see the lawyer To learn what to do. Some of 'em even got A few bucks to pay; And when they do, It makes my day. Law books’ becomin' A thing of the past. Wonder how long This thing's gonna last. Just got a call from the F.B.I.; Wants to talk to my client Who ain't gonna lie. I need a break, Just a brief pause. It's not too many lawyers, But too many laws!

You have heard it said that we have too many lawyers. I say we do not have too many lawyers, but too many laws. Napoleon said that since every man is presumed to know the law and ignorance is no excuse for violating the law, that there should be no more laws than would fit in a one volume code that would fit in a man's hip pocket or a woman's purse. Thus the Code Napoleon, which Louisiana adopted ...See More"Too Many Laws"

The phone's been a-ringin' Off the wall. People with problems Continue to call. "Too many lawyers," I've heard 'em say; But I say, we don't Have enough today. People got problems And serious ones too; Come see the lawyer To learn what to do. Some of 'em even got A few bucks to pay; And when they do, It makes my day. Law books’ becomin' A thing of the past. Wonder how long This thing's gonna last. Just got a call from the F.B.I.; Wants to talk to my client Who ain't gonna lie. I need a break, Just a brief pause. It's not too many lawyers, But too many laws!

You have heard it said that we have too many lawyers. I say we do not have too many lawyers, but too many laws. Napoleon said that since every man is presumed to know the law and ignorance is no excuse for violating the law, that there should be no more laws than would fit in a one volume code that would fit in a man's hip pocket or a woman's purse. Thus the Code Napoleon, which Louisiana adopted as its own and which served us well for over two hundred years, until the Louisiana "Law Explosion" of recent y ears. Now each time the Louisiana legislature meets it passes over a thousand new laws, not like the early years of my legal career when it passed a few laws only every other yearly session. Now instead of our having a code of laws, accessible to every man, now to find the law one must be trained in legal research and delve into literally hundreds of volumes containing literally thousands of black letter statutes. Louisiana's citizens are inundated in an ocean of laws. Law has become a major industry in Louisiana: courthouses, courts, judges, clerks of court, court-reporters, bailiffs, lawyers, district attorneys, thousands of cops, law offices on every corner; and all of them busy as a one-armed paper hanger. There is no need for so many laws, for such a law industry. It is easy to understand why we need many doctors and hospitals, for we all need health-care; but law should not be such a big part of our daily lives. The less laws the better. It's time for Louisiana to return to the idea of codification: the publication of laws in plain and simply understandable principles of law contained in a one-volume code that will serve to guide the citizens and the courts as they interpret and apply the law. It's time to tell our legislators to quit passing so many laws and to vote against those who do, to tell the governor to use her veto more, to vote against them or her if they do not, to elect to office only those public officials who will pledge in advance to quit passing so many laws and to reduce the number of laws already on the books. There is more to it all than this, but this is something to think about.

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