This is the #1 reason, and the common explanation, but lets examine it further.
You risk your life getting into your car every day. You don't pick the most expensive car? Choosing air travel is commonly an exercise in finding the lowest price, despite the inherent risks/fear of traveling 4 miles up at 500mph. Why are these commodities while preparing a will is not?
There are transactions/disputes that require highly skilled people to direct/settle, but I wonder how many legal systems have been specifically constructed to require guidance. How can we tell when something is costly because it is complex or merely complex to make it costly?
> You risk your life getting into your car every day. You don't pick the most expensive car? Choosing air travel is commonly an exercise in finding the lowest price, despite the inherent risks/fear of traveling 4 miles up at 500mph. Why are these commodities while preparing a will is not?
That's easy. The expense of a car or plane doesn't indicate it's safety, infact it's usually the opposite, the more expensive the car or plane the faster it goes and less safe it can make your trip.
With a doctor or lawyer more often than not the more you pay the better the service/advice you get.
> There are transactions/disputes that require highly skilled people to direct/settle, but I wonder how many legal systems have been specifically constructed to require guidance. How can we tell when something is costly because it is complex or merely complex to make it costly?
> That's easy. The expense of a car or plane doesn't indicate it's safety, infact it's usually the opposite, the more expensive the car or plane the faster it goes and less safe it can make your trip.
> With a doctor or lawyer more often than not the more you pay the better the service/advice you get.
Do you know this, or do you just believe / hope this? I'd argue that the actual quality of service delivered (not just how nice their suits or offices are) is very difficult for customers to assess. At least with cars, there are independent ratings agencies that will tell you that your more expensive car is actually safer. (Doctors actually have stats like mortality and length of hospital stay.)
> Do you know this, or do you just believe / hope this?
Good question, the answer is obviously I can't say its' true for 100% of the cases but do this thought experiment.
You are going to court against someone else, you get a public defender, your opponent brings in a team of 10 lawyers costing $100,000 a week.
If the evidence makes the case look like its 50:50. What is your chance of success? I think almost everyone would agree that its much lower than 50:50 after you factor in the lawyers.
It's easy to do that thought experiment at the extremes, but that's not what the article is about. It's talking primarily about corporate law, and a public company isn't going to hire a public defender.
More realistically, you're a company and you choose a $400/hr law firm instead of a $600/hr law firm. Are you necessarily going to get worse advice? I'd argue that would often just depend on how much experience each firm has in the particular subject you're hiring them for - and neither firm is adjusting their rates based on that.
Just yesterday I came across a situation where a major law firm was working as investor counsel on a type of deal they almost never advise on (because they're the clients usual firm for other types of deals) - I'm sure they didn't offer the client a discount because they have less experience than a lot of cheaper, less prominent law firms.
> It's easy to do that thought experiment at the extremes, but that's not what the article is about. It's talking primarily about corporate law, and a public company isn't going to hire a public defender.
If there exists a system of rating a lawyer's performance (e.g., distill their success rate to a %), then comparisons can be made between lawyers even if the layman don't understand the law.
Yeah, but it's unclear what constitutes "success" in the case of a lawyer.
If you're a litigator, much of that will depend on the facts in a particular case. If you're drafting a contract or financing doc, it may never end up in litigation, so you'll never find out if it was a "good" contract or a "bad" one.
You risk your life getting into your car every day. You don't pick the most expensive car? Choosing air travel is commonly an exercise in finding the lowest price, despite the inherent risks/fear of traveling 4 miles up at 500mph. Why are these commodities while preparing a will is not?
There are transactions/disputes that require highly skilled people to direct/settle, but I wonder how many legal systems have been specifically constructed to require guidance. How can we tell when something is costly because it is complex or merely complex to make it costly?