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Meditation on the Limits of Law*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2016

John E. Simonett
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Extract

The court's opinion arrives in the morning mail. The judgement against your client is affirmed. Well, you win some and you lose some. You call your client on the phone and give him the bad news. “What's the next step?” he says. There is no next step, you tell him, and he must comply with the court's judgment. He says, “What if I don't?” You say, “You must.” He says he won't.

If one works at it, one should be able to give pretty good legal advice. The difficulty, it has always seemed to me, is how to give the legal advice, especially if unpalatable, in such a way that the client does not lose his enthusiasm for your valued services. So—you gingerly explain to your client about a sheriffs levy of execution, about penalties and interest, garnishment and foreclosure; and—when the client remains obstinate, you explain about contempt of court and incarceration.

Type
Address
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , 1984 , pp. 1 - 6
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1984

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Footnotes

*

This address was delivered as the communion meditation for the Red Mass of the Lawyer's Society of St. Thomas More, celebrated in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on September 30, 1984.

References

1. Minneapolis Star and Tribune, 07 9, 1984, at 9AGoogle Scholar. M. Crazier is the author of a new book, The Trouble with America (1984).

2. Time, September 17, 1984, at 28.

3. Murray, J. C., We Hold These Truths 210 (1960)Google Scholar.

4. Minneapolis Star and Tribune, September 26, 1984, at 2D.

5. The celebrant for the Red Mass was Most Reverend John Roach, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who chaired the National Conference of Catholic Bishops during its work on the pastoral letter on war, armaments, and peace.

6. Gilmore, G., The Age of American Law 160 (1976)Google Scholar.

7. Eliot, T. S., Chrousesfrom “The Rock”Complete Poems and Plays 1909-1950 (1958)Google Scholar.