The Utah electorate has a problem. Voters don’t know much about the law. For example, fifty years ago, every citizen knew injury lawyers to be “ambulance chasers.”

Today, after decades of dumbing down, an injury law firm on TV announces, “If you’re injured, your lawyer will come to you, whether you’re at home or in the hospital.” A befuddled middle-aged, middle class, white Utah male tilts his head quizzically and says, “Really, they do that?”

Yes, Elmer, lawyers are still chasing ambulances in America. And just like fifty years ago, they “don’t get paid until you do.” What they don’t say in the ad is that law firms still snatch one third of your settlement pot like an old lady’s purse, and they want you to feel grateful for it.

In fact, the question must be asked, does the average Utahn know much of anything at all about everyday civil or criminal law? Nope. And constitutional law? Don’t even know how to spell it.

The root problem here is, our school systems don’t teach civics and law-related education anymore. Why? Corporations don’t want the citizenry to know much. Easier to exploit them.

We need to liberate schools from the curriculum clutches of the 1% class and take back our legal brain power.

Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross

Newsletter