“The Constitution prohibits attorneys,” said Barrow thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. “Or rather it prohibits anyone accepting payment in money or anything of value for serving as an advocate in a legal case. People charged with crimes can still appoint someone else to defend and speak for them, those advocates just can’t be paid. It will be considered to be a civic duty, like it was in ancient Rome, where some of the most famous statesmen and philosophers started off as advocates in the law courts. We all know what that provision was meant to prevent. Under the old order, lawyers were an unmitigated horror. The entire court system was essentially nothing more than a gigantic fraud to allow millions of parasites in expensive suits and briefcases to live large off the fruits of human misery. It was a machine that pulled people into it as the raw material to be processed and mangled and crushed like grapes in a wine press, drained of every last penny. We cannot and will not allow that here, not ever. But we do need some kind of court system, although the intention of the 2006 drafters was clearly that it should be as bare minimum as possible.”
- excerpt from "Freedom's Sons", one of the H.A. Covington novels about the Northwest Republic...
