More Fast Times at Hoover High

Today's Birmingham News brings more information about the mounting legal bills at Hoover High School, Alabama's premier football powerhouse.

Former federal judge Sam Pointer is leading an investigation into charges that grades were changed to beneift football players at Hoover, the school famed for the MTV reality series "Two a Days."

After only five days of work, guess how much Pointer and company have billed the Hoover School System? The answer is $16,665.

Yikes. That could make an awfully nice supplement for some of Hoover's underpaid teachers.

And it raises this question: Why do people turn to lawyers when they supposedly want to find out the truth about something? Based on my experience, the last person you should turn to when you want the truth is a lawyer. They are trained to be advocates, not factfinders.

I suspect Hoover is essentially paying big bucks for the public-relations value of having a former federal judge leading the investigation. But that assumes that judges are honest, upstanding people. Mr. Pointer might be--and for Hoover's sake, I hope he is.

But you will learn here on Legal Schnauzer that many of Mr. Pointer's colleagues in the judicial fraternity are anything but honest and trustworthy. And they also have a penchant for spending taxpayer dollars like drunken sailors.

The only honest people I've encountered in the legal profession are law librarians and lower-level clerks (not so sure about the folks who head county clerk's offices). Later in this blog, I will extol the virtues of law librarians.

But for now, remember this: If you really want to know the truth about something, particularly as it pertains to the law, the last person you want to seek out is a lawyer. You might get lucky and find a good one. But I'd say your chances of doing that are not good.

Want my prediction on the Hoover affair? I bet the school system spends a ton of money and gets very little out of it--other than a classy looking coverup.