PUNISHMENT DOESN'T FIT THE CRIME

While it is true the occasional client has what Dan Brodsky calls
"high manipulation skills," ["Lawyer-smuggler gets one-month
suspension," Law Times, July 26, 2004] this comes nowhere near
explaining why some practitioners risk criminal and professional
sanctions smuggling drugs into jails.

The explanation is professional cheating, nothing esoteric or
mysterious about it.

A lawyer who merely conscientiously represents his or her client is at
a competitive disadvantage with lawyers who risk drug smuggling. It
answers the "what is your lawyer doing for you" question of inmate
chatter.

What is really going on is that the inmate client and corrupt lawyer
are on the same moral level. Some accused find this equivalence
reassuring. They get high while winning friends and influencing other
inmates, not to mention trafficking themselves. This is a criminal
twist to everyday client scooping.

Greed is the answer.

George N. Carter

Toronto