POOR PEOPLE HAVE NO ACCESS TO JUSTICE

[martincymru]

Why does Singapore not allow "no win no fee" so poor [and not so poor] people may at least have a chance to obtain justice?

[Barnsley]

Who would this benefit?

There in lies your answer probably.

[martincymru]

Benefits poor people and lawyers. So both ends of the spectrum.

Who would not benefit?

[zzm9980]

Is it actively illegal (as implied by your statement "not allow") or is it just not common?

Sounds to me like it could open a can of worms, such as litigation craze you see in the US.

[x9200]

Yep, agree with zzm. Possible negative side effects may outnumber the benefits. What would probably be a better idea is to allow within a single legal process the legal costs recovery. Also more proactive role of public prosecution in cases of suspected criminal offense would help.

[aster]

Who would not benefit?

Ummm... big corporations, who are otherwise immune to any sort of legal proceedings from the common folk who naturally cannot afford to take them on even when they have a clear case?

Amazing how you cannot enter into a simple agreement whereby someone can take on a legal case for you without charging you a penny should they fail to deliver.

I do agree that the US is a legal circus nowadays, but that is just a single example in the entire western world where things have gotten completely out of hand. Everywhere else things seem to work fine in this regard.

[martincymru]

Ummm... big corporations

,

Perhaps governments also ....?

[nanana]

Who would not benefit?

Ummm... big corporations, who are otherwise immune to any sort of legal proceedings from the common folk who naturally cannot afford to take them on even when they have a clear case?

allow me to share my personal experience... i recently represented myself at the court as i could not afford a lawyer. i waited months and months for my hearing. prepared for it days and nights.
on that day, i walked into the court. i sat down, before i was able to take out all my documents and put it on the table...the judge said he dismissed the case. i thought i was hearing it wrong. i asked him what did he mean by that. he said the case is over. the whole process took less than 5 minutes. i wasn't even allowed a fair hearing. so, talking about justice? what justice?!

[sundaymorningstaple]

Sounds like pretty good justice to me. UNLESS you were not the defendent, that is.

[aster]

Sounds like pretty good justice to me. UNLESS you were not the defendent, that is.

+1 Just what I was thinking.

Nanana, what did the case concern? Any reason a decision wasn't made in your absence since you were not even given the chance to present your case?

[zzm9980]

Yeah, sounds like it could be really good or really bad for nanana, but without a lot more context it is a meaningless anecdote. Sorry nanana.

[nanana]

@aster: it is money related.

u know the whole court process is, u will need to submit all the documents prior to the hearing. and for my case, that was more than 5 submissions with the thickness of yellow pages/encyclopedia. u will need to attend a pre-hearing once, and the court will schedule the date for actual hearing, which was 2 weeks apart for my case. so, i was just wondering if the judge had really gone through all the evidence on all the submissions as i'm sure he will need to attend to other cases with even more submissions to read. i submitted all the concrete proof to show the other party's lies. yet the judge chose to believe the lies. and what stumped me the most, he asked a question before he left the room, and that question was clearly answered in all my submissions with evidence to show to him. it was clearly that he didn;t even read through it!

i could see difference with lawyer and without lawyer. the judge seemed to be friendlier to the lawyer, perhaps he is the regular and they sort-of know each other.

there is no justice in the society. perhaps there is one in the other side of the universe.

[nanana]

oh by the way, the judge didn;t even give me a reason on why my case was dismissed.
He just left the room when i asked him.

I mean, even if i were to lose the case, at the very least, a judge should at least let both parties present their case in front of him?

@zzm9980: meaningless to you...but it was great deal that i had to go through. i was just sharing my experience that the system can be cold and heartless.

[sundaymorningstaple]

I still don't know who was the defendent in this case. Nanana, did you take the other person to court or did the other person take you to court? e.g., did you file a claim against the other person or did the other person file a claim against you?

[nanana]

i was the defendant and appellant.