For those of you that read this blog, you understand that I am a passionate and dedicated Consumer Justice Attorney. Keep that in mind as you read the rest of this story. But above and beyond that, I am an Officer of The Courts. I took an oath to protect citizens, to defend The Constitution and to Fight For Justice. And I am mindful of that oath every day. The key thing that drives and motivates those of us who fight for consumers is knowing that we are fighting for a larger good. The good Consumer Justice Attorneys out there fight with passion, with intensity, with fire and with fury…and it’s not just because we care about our clients. Caring for individual clients and fighting desperately to protect their individual interests is certainly the sacred responsibility that an attorney accepts when that family walks into an office and puts their life and their family’s future in their hands, but that’s only part of the story for a Consumer Justice Attorney.
A Consumer Justice Attorney recognizes that Every Single Case, Every Single Client is The Most Important Client in the World! In and among the legion of warriors that fight for Consumer Justice, there is a Code we share that holds we will fight for all of our clients, based on the merits of their cases, without regard to the fees, without regard to the personal risks and liabilities we face. In practical terms, this means that when we accept the awesome responsibility to serve a client, we bend and twist and fight to create fair means of compensation that give the client access to the kind of high level legal skill and experience they are entitled to, while at the same time allowing the Consumer Justice Attorney the ability to run a successful business. As a general rule, we cannot represent clients for free (although in some cases this is both possible and very rewarding), but we can and are sensitive to the needs and limitations faced by our clients, and we work to fulfill that key statement from the Oath of Admission to the Florida Bar:
“I will never reject, from any consideration personal to myself, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed, or delay anyone’s cause for lucre or malice. So help me God.”
Isn’t it terribly interesting that of all the statements contained within The Oath, there is only one that contains that express commitment, “So help me God.”? The Oath reminds each attorney who practices in this state to uphold the larger principals of justice and integrity, but the very last one…and clearly one that has particular significance, demands that we swear a special oath to the Supreme Being as a condition of admission to the Florida Bar. This is of course profoundly significant, and conveys a much larger point….and it’s a point that I see manifested and lived by those foreclosure defense attorneys that serve their clients, that serve their communities, that serve their courts every single day by going into the fight and standing up for their clients, fighting the David v. Goliath battle that is the daily struggle of attorneys that Fight The Banks to Serve The People.
All across this state, the lawyers that serve citizens walk into courtrooms proud of the service they perform, and grateful that their clients give them the opportunity to serve. The mark and the character of the Consumer Justice Attorney, is their willingness to share with those who practice with them, to give with enthusiasm to those who fight in the trenches with them….their sisters and their brothers in arms. This commitment to serve was handed down from those towering figures that first inspired us and taught us we can fight. April. Max. Lynn. Jim.
The citizens of this state are well served by the corps of attorneys who gird up for battle every day and say with confidence, “The Banks Will Not Take My Client’s Home Today!” and then walk into courtrooms, often times hostile and dangerous, committed to keeping that promise. It cannot be denied that the Cause of Consumer Justice suffers under withering attacks in this current environment, this time of unprecedented pressure and attacks on our formerly independent judicial branch. It cannot be denied that Florida’s judges, the Keepers of Liberty, Guardians of the Sacred Flame of Justice, are weary from direct and specific attacks from forces both within recognized government and outside. The Legislative and the Executive Branches have chopped at the Judicial Branch for years, and the branch has grown weak, withered and weary.
But our judges, the judges of this state, each of whom swore the very same oath that Florida’s Consumer Justice Attorneys took…..many many decades ago will wake from their ennui. These judges, elected and appointed, but all subject to the awesome power of the vote of The People will awake and they will wrest back the power, the independence, the dignity of the Judicial Branch. The Judicial Branch will not beg, hat in hand, for funding from the Legislative Branch or for favor from the Executive Branch. The Judicial Branch will break free from the corrupting influence of judicial elections and retention battles that are funded with campaign contributions. The business of the Judicial Branch will not be conducted as an auction…the cause of Justice is not for sale to the highest bidder. In chambers and in the quite spaces of a judicial mind, the larger wheels of lasting justice are turning. In contemplative moments, the collective judicial mind recognizes that it alone is the moderating and stabilizing force in this world, this state…gone mad.
Every hearing, every interaction with every judge is an opportunity that cannot be missed to chip away at the granite of a mind shaped by the law, and a heart and a conscience and an awareness that transcends mere mortals. And every single case, every single moment presents that opportunity to fight for that transcendent goal….
Justice.
