When There Is No Justice

October 27, 2003

I received a rather lengthy letter recently from someone who believed he had been frequently wronged in his life. He recounted a host of problems he'd encountered, from the mother who'd abused him to the lover who'd left him. He ended his letter with the plea, I want justice. Unfortunately, I had no answer for him, but it got me to thinking about the relationship between law and justice. It is a fact of life that the law can be a sometimes inadequate substitute for justice.

In some cases, there may be no justice because the law provides no legal rights. For example, there are many gay people who live in places where the law provides no protection for our civil rights. When my partner and I lived in Texas, not only were there no laws protecting our relationship, it was perfectly legal to discriminate against us in areas such as housing and employment. Thus, when I was let go from a job simply because of my sexual orientation, I had no recourse - I had been wronged, but I could not look to the law for justice. The anger I felt was palpable, and was one of the things that led me to become a lawyer.

Sometimes, there is no justice even when the law provides a cause of action or protects a right. For example, several years ago, a dear friend of mine was in an automobile accident. In considerable pain, she was taken to the emergency room where the E.R. doctor examined her and told her that she was bruised but otherwise unhurt. Several days later, she returned to the emergency room, unable to breathe without considerable pain. This time, she was told that she'd suffered several broken ribs in the accident. She called me when she got home, angry at the doctor and ready to sue to fulfill her sense of injustice.

Had the first doctor missed the diagnosis of broken ribs? Absolutely. Had he committed malpractice? Maybe, but even if he had, what would have been the remedy? The first doctor treated my friend by giving her a prescription for painkillers and recommending that she wear a girdle for a few weeks, until the pain subsided. What would he have done if he'd discovered the broken ribs? The same thing - the treatment for bruised ribs and broken ribs was exactly the same. My friend had suffered a legal wrong for which there was no justice because there was no legal damage.

In other cases, the law provides a remedy, but it doesn't come near to bringing us a sense that justice has been obtained. Fifteen years ago, on December 21st, 1988, Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 passengers and crew members, and 11 people on the ground. The families of the dead brought a wrongful death suit against the Libyan government and doggedly pursued this suit until the Libyan government agreed to admit responsibility and to pay billions of dollars as compensation. But no amount of money will outweigh the loss of a loved one and, once again, the scales of justice are unbalanced.

Similarly, the law may limit the forms that justice may take either to balance the rights of two parties with competing interests or to prevent society from deteriorating into brutality. For instance, taking the law into your own hands may appeal to your sense of justice, particularly if you are seriously wronged, but it usually has legal consequences of its own.

Finally, there are times when the law provides a cause of action and damages for a wrong but limits the time in which you can seek justice. These limitations are intended to prevent people from standing on their rights and apply to almost all civil actions and many criminal actions. Sometimes these limits can seem particularly unfair, but they ensure that crucial facts and witnesses are still available, and that the damages be no more than necessary to make a person whole. For example, a number of suits against Catholic priests and diocese have been dismissed because the statute of limitations had run out. The victims are outraged because they have failed to obtain what they believe is a just outcome. However, justice requires that there be closure of some kind for all parties, including the defendants.

President Carter once said, life can be unfair. At the time, it sounded cold and uncaring to me, but as an attorney, I understand his point these days. Life is unfair at times but don't ever let that unfairness blunt your sense of justice or injustice. The boundaries of our society have been expanded over the years by those who have converted their outrage over an injustice into a pursuit of justice.