Now this I found amusing. Tradition must be good for the lawyers to wear those things but wearing one of those things for years? They really must get pretty rancid. :D
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12140537/
Yossarian Lives
04-04-2006, 19:39
I think they get compensated more than adequately for the indignity of wearing itchy wigs. They add a bit of gravity to proceedings, a sense of authority by appealing to the long history of the legal system.
Why must we have to get rid of all our traditions?
Next, we'll have to get rid of the Queen, and the Royal Family!
Norleans
04-04-2006, 20:02
Little said many young lawyers like the wigs because they serve as a "leveler" against those who have much more experience. . . . Lawyers typically buy one wig to last a career; many complain that they yellow and smell bad as the years go by.
According to tradition, the nastier the wig the more experienced the attorney under it. So, once there was a guy charged with a crime who appeared at the Old Baily and the judge asked if he had an attorney yet. The man said no, so the judge told him to look around the courtroom which was full of lawyers and pick one and the judge would appoint him to the case. The guy looked and pointed at the man with the nastiest, rattiest, tattered wig he could see and said "I want him" and the judge said, "sorry, that's the prosecutor, you can't have him." To which the defendant replied "I should like to plead guilty then."