To fulfill my libertarian rant for the day, why do we even need a bar? It’s just a closed shop. If it’s okay for judges to prefer their feelings to the law, I should be able to argue a case directly to a jury anytime I want.
You can argue your own case to the bar at any time. You just can not argue someone else s case.
Should you be able to perform brain surgery any time you want?
I am pretty libertarian myself but I do believe that professional standards are a good thing and necessary.
When an individual goes looking for professional help they need to know that there is some kind of minimum standard of professionalism that they can expect to get when they hire a lawyer.
Granted that there is no guarantee and due diligence is advised when hiring a lawyer or other professionals but you don’t always have the time to spend sorting through all the names in the yellow pages and calling all of your friends to check them out.
And with out a professional association or regulating body to enforce standards how do you prevent the unprofessional such as this guy from continuing to commit malpractice? With out a Bar how do you disbar this bozo?
Does it really matter? All you've got to do is whisper "Tublecane" to the judge, you'll be set, and the judge will be off somewhere with his paddle. :-/
Why can't you? The bar associations only govern attorneys.
Nothing much stops you from serving as your own attorney and arguing your own case.
I imagine we'll soon be seeing Jack Thompson doing just that, in fact.