Via Professor Bainbridge comes this item about the impact of Katrina on the legal profession:
An email reports something I hadn’t even considered; namely, the devastation Katrina will cause to the legal system.
5,000 - 6,000 lawyers (1/3 of the lawyers in Louisiana) have lost their offices, their libraries, their computers with all information thereon, their client files - possibly their clients, as one attorney who e-mailed me noted. As I mentioned before, they are scattered from Florida to Arizona and have nothing to return to. Their children’s schools are gone and, optimistically, the school systems in 8 parishes/counties won’t be re-opened until after December. They must re-locate their lives.
Relocate their lives — an interesting choice of words. I wonder how many residents of metropolitan New Orleans will not come back
More points from the article:
- Our state supreme court is under some water - with all appellate files and evidence folders/boxes along with it.
- The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals building is under some water - with the same effect
- The city and district courts in as many as 8 parishes/counties are under water, as well as 3 of our circuit courts - with evidence/files at each of them ruined.
- The law enforcement offices in those areas are under water - again, with evidence ruined.
This is only the effect Katrina has had one profession, albeit an important one. Magnified across the whole of society, the effects are going to be enormous.
Technorati Tag: Hurricane Katrina
