Comment by CTDOCodebases
13 hours ago
Human professionals put their reputation and finances at risk when performing their work. This risk functions as a guarantee.
13 hours ago
Human professionals put their reputation and finances at risk when performing their work. This risk functions as a guarantee.
> Human professionals put their reputation and finances at risk when performing their work. This risk functions as a guarantee.
Do you know how difficult and costly it is to sue an attorney for malpractice?
Yes. But this option still exists in addition to reputation which I mentioned.
With AI models this option does not exist. I can't sue OpenAI because the contract that I got ChatGPT to draft carelessly exposes me to some type of financial loss. I can't contact the state bar and have Open AI banned from drafting up contracts or doing any other work that lawyers are licenced to perform. Even if I could it would not compare to a lawyer loosing their license to practice for life. If I tell a friend or acquaintance about my negative experience they will still likely use OpenAI for professional work and chalk up my experience to a skill issue or premature use of the technology.
Also note the use of the word "professionals". I was referring to doctors, engineers, accountants etc too.
You wrote:
> This risk functions as a guarantee.
Except it doesn't, particularly as far as lawyers are concerned. There are almost a million and a half active attorneys in the US. Just 500-600 are disbarred every year, and almost always for money-related violations, not bad advice. Public discipline is also relatively uncommon (about a quarter of 1% of attorneys every year) and usually related to issues like financial impropriety, neglect, undisclosed conflicts of interest and failure to communicate, not disagreement over the quality of advice.
If a lawyer drafts an agreement that causes a loss, a bar complaint will not help you recover your money. You'd need to sue for malpractice. This costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time. Because you're going up against a lawyer, expect the defense to be vigorous, especially, ironically, if you hired an attorney at a good firm. The full weight of the firm will back the attorney and you might find it difficult to find an attorney, as many won't want to be involved in suing a fellow professional in their market.
I don't disagree with your fundamental premise about the value of human responsibility, but these professions have been structured to protect their members and the ABA in particular basically functions like a cartel today.
Do they?
Not being snarky here but I've encountered some really crappy lawyers and they seem to be doing great ($$$).
It really sucks one cannot publish something like "this guy charged me $5k, wrote my name wrong and forgot important paperwork the day we showed up to court" as that could make you liable for damages. There should be a safe harbor for that.
If you don't have the resources to defend yourself then it's probably not wise to publish things like this but you can tell others of your experience.
Also for those things you could sue for damages or lodge a complaint for malpractice.
Assuming you are in the US, there is a safe harbour called "opinion based on disclosed facts" for that. You could also fairly argue that the conduct of a lawyer is a matter of public concern
> It really sucks one cannot publish something like "this guy charged me $5k, wrote my name wrong and forgot important paperwork the day we showed up to court" as that could make you liable for damages.
That's pretty much what bar associations are for, filing a complaint against an attorney at the bar seems like a pretty standard procedure.
>There should be a safe harbor for that.
A safe harbor would be the opposite, it would be immunity for the lawyer.
Even if there were it would just be another court case