It takes about 10 years or more and an incredible amount of ability in Science subjects to become a specialist medical practitioner...in addition to which the cost to qualify is enormous...and the responsibility to ensure that patients don't expire on the operating table is a grave one. To get a law degree is a simple three year course...mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology are not required subjects.
Unlike a doctor or a specialist, you can try over and over to qualify in the legal field, but not medicine...after all who would go to a doctor that only qualified on his third try...and to be an SC, you have to have it conferred on you...no exams required.
If therefore, what I read in the press is true, that a senior counsel received $15.5million for his work on the UFF inquiry...I would not recommend that anyone sends his gifted children to medical school...instead, let them study law.A specialist practitioner might take 12-15 years to earn the money made by that attorney in about 18 months.
When an attorney does a case, he is able to go home and study law books, and even bring his reference to court to back up his case. Imagine a doctor operating on a patient as he turns pages on an "operational procedure" book to guide him along...which lawyer or other person would even consent to such an operation under those conditions?
It is for the public to determine if these fees charged are not an affront to the public purse, and really represent corruption similar to The Calder Hart Udecott fiasco.My advice to the Government is not to prosecute anyone in this Udecott matter, unless we wish to spend a few hundred million in legal fees and further the national scandal. A note to parents...send your children to law school instead.
R Farah
Via e-mail