Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans from Too Much Law

by Philip K. Howard

How to restore the can-do spirit that made America great, from the author of the best-selling The Death of Common Sense . Americans are losing the freedom to make sense of daily choices―teachers can't maintain order in the classroom, managers are trained to avoid candor, schools ban the game of tag, and companies plaster inane warnings on everything: "Remove Baby Before Folding Stroller." Philip K. Howard's urgent and elegant argument is full of examples, often darkly humorous. He describes the historical and cultural forces that led to this mess, and he lays out the basic shift in approach needed to fix it. Today we are flooded with rules and legal threats that prevent us from taking responsibility and using our common sense. We must rebuild boundaries of law that affirmatively protect an open field of freedom. The stories here will ring true to every reader. The analysis is powerful, and the solution unavoidable. What's at stake, Howard explains in this seminal book, is the vitality of American culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Law, Politics

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 12, 2009

About the author

Philip K. Howard, a lawyer, advises leaders of both parties on legal and regulatory reform. He is chair of Common Good and a contributor to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Philip K. Howard is a well-known leader of government and legal reform in America. His new book, The Rule of Nobody (W. W. Norton & Company, April 2014), has been praised by Fareed Zakaria as “an utterly compelling and persuasive book that, if followed, could change the way America works.” His TED Talk has has been viewed by almost 500,000 people.

Philip is also the author of the best-seller The Death of Common Sense (Random House, 1995), The Collapse of the Common Good (Ballantine Books, 2002) and Life Without Lawyers (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009).

In 2002, Philip formed Common Good, a nonpartisan national coalition dedicated to restoring common sense to America. Philip writes periodically for The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and The New York Times, and has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, PBS NewsHour, Today, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose, and numerous other programs.

The son of a minister, Philip got his start working summers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner and has been active in public affairs his entire adult life. He is a prominent civic leader in New York City and has advised national political leaders on legal and regulatory reform for fifteen years, including Vice President Al Gore and numerous governors. He is a Partner at the law firm Covington & Burling, LLP. He is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School, and lives in Manhattan with his wife Alexandra. They have four children.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philip K. Howard argues for commonsense legal and bureaucratic reform as a remedy for the paralysis and demoralization that plague all our modern institutions. These problems are caused--in Howard's view-- by fear of lawsuits, an overemphasis on individual rights (as opposed to group or community rights), and an excessive devotion to "due process," particularly as a preemptive strategy.

He argues that the professionals--the teachers, doctors and managers--must be allowed to exercise their individual judgments without continual fear of litigation, and that their supevisors (not the law courts) are the ones who should typically judge the rightness of their actions. Judges should have the authority to dismiss frivolous lawsuits, and the courts themselves should primarily be used to defend the rights of groups, not to rectify the grievances of litigious individuals.

One of the good things about Howard's approach is that he strives for balance between right and left; Both conservatives and liberals will find much to praise here and at least a few things to disagree with too.

[Luke Schaefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this book!!!!
If you're a person who is open-minded and loves to learn about law in the way it works in the legal system this is the book for you. Philip K Howard The author of the book talks about how to improve society for the betterment of citizens and officials to govern.

I love the authors words in this book they were very persuasive to the reader and very impactful what understanding. Now some of the points I think he elaborated on too much but eventually got to a good point.

Go spread the word about this book I recommend it to all no matter what type of person.

[todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karl and Becky may not like the title, but I suspect they would agree with most of the points. Howard has written an important book, but one that could have been more economical in its prose. The main premise is that in trying to fix everything by enacting laws and regulations, the basic virtue of human judgment has been suffocated. The result is a serious decline in the application of common sense and severe damage to our society. He presents convincing examples from tort law, over-regulated public education, and the structure of lawmaking in Washington as specific symptoms of a broader malaise. While he did not use it as a case study, he could have devoted an entire chapter to Sarbanes-Oxley. The inescapable conclusion from the events of the past year is that over prescribed rules of corporate behavior has actually made corporate governance worse by greatly discouraging much needed independent judgment by directors.

The three star rating does not reflect a lack of enthusiasm for the book or the important subject matter. I do recommend it highly, but in almost every chapter I found myself skipping ahead as topics were discussed and then rehashed. I also dropped a star because there is no index. I don't understand a book that has a 12 page bibliography, but omits an index and refers the reader to a web page for footnotes.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Howard discusses how concerns about lawsuits have sacrificed the greater common good for individuals' often petty grievances. More broadly, reliance on and control by laws and rules have removed individual responsibility from much decision-making (for example, teachers are subject to overregulation that prevents them from teaching, while lawmakers and others in positions of power deny responsibility for programs ostensibly under their control). He acknowledges that much of this regulation came from the best of intentions, but that laws can not effectively substitute for common sense even when fairness is their goal.

He has some ideas for making changes to improve the current situation, both general (such as expecting judges to draw boundaries of reasonableness and consider the effects of claims on society at large) and specific (setting up an entirely separate court system for medical malpractice claims). None, unfortunately, seem very likely to happen. He expounds on the importance of personal accountability and the need for leaders who are not paralyzed by laws and politics, but does not effectively address concerns about dealing with corruption in such a system. Perhaps things are bad enough now that we're better off relying mainly on the individual judgments of random-people-of-power, but it would be nice to have some check on them.

[Paul, · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know much about law. But I do know history, and I think I have a pretty good understanding of the way things work. So it's no big news to me, or to anyone else, that our legal system is in big trouble.


This book says a lot of good things about how to make our legal system work. One of the reasons I like it is because it echoes one of the ideas I've been repeating for years: Law needs to be simplified. My heuristic is that if a law is incomprehensible to a 6th grader, it should be rewritten. Life Without Lawyers adds a lot of new insights and knowledge to my common sense appeal. Removing due process from individual v. individual cases is genius. The idea of risk being a part of life that you can't get rid of, no matter how many laws you pass, is INCREDIBLE! Listen up, Washington! Let me take responsibility for my own life! All in all, I really like Howard's take on legal reform. I learned a lot. Unfortunately, I also learned about how hard, and how unlikely, any legal reform will be.


Check out www.commongood.org to get more information.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book makes so much sense, but this author has written about "common sense" before. It is nice to see, laid out in print, the things many of us think every time we hear a story such as the McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit. I was shocked to learn how restrictive the school environment has become. No running on the playground - are they crazy? Kids are supposed to explore their limits and get a few cuts and scrapes along the way. It does get a bit repetitive. He makes an attempt to provide solutions to the problem, but I feel it is futile because most Americans today are not willing to take any responsibility for anything. Why do so many feel entitled to get rich whenever they encounter adversity or an accident?

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Law must work both ways: It must prohibit defined wrongs, and it must affirmatively protect an area of freedom."
"Authority is not the enemy of freedom, but its protector."
With examples taken mostly from the teaching and medical professional, Philip Howard makes his case for law limits and most importantly, responsibility of the individual in society (not society for the individual). I did not agree with everything Philip Howard says (Risk Committees?), but Philip brings the problem home with exaggerated (and sadly real) examples and also brings forth ideas for solutions.
Definitely a read for those interested in politics and organizational behavior as it brings a different angle to a problem we all know exists.

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

For years Phillip Kay Howard has been trying shine a light on the absurdies of our legal and politcial systems. And he's right in almost everything he says. And he lays out a plan for changing things, but I wonder how it will be implemented, and there are places where it seems he contradicts himself. He says we need less government, and then goes on to suggest government mandated service. It seems a little contradictory. But he's right in everything he says.

But in the end, how do we wrest power away from those who are either abusing it, or scared to use it for the public good? This is definitely a book to make you think. But will it be enough to make you take action?

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mostly picked this book up because the title made me tingly all over. Okay, I actually picked it up because I had read a previous book by Mr. Howard called The Death of Common Sense and enjoyed it. In Life Without Lawyers he calls for some bold changes to our overly-regulated and legalistic system in order to return accountability to the people and eliminate the mindless rule-following that has damaged our way of life. Fascinating read. I checked it out from the library and now I'm going to have to buy it because I kept wanting to underline and write notes in it.

[Noah · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a letdown. Howard's heart is in the right place, and I certainly agree with most of his conclusions, but this book is absurdly vague, mealy-mouthed, and wishful. He repeats himself over and over, and when he actually offers specific examples, he focuses too narrowly on the cases of medical practice and schools. There isn't even much in the way of interesting legal history, let alone a roadmap of specific, incremental reforms. This book is a pamphlet in disguise.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Howard is dead-on in his analysis of what's wrong with America today, and I would give the book a higher rating were it not for the fact that it is so similar to his previous two books. What this one adds is information about specific ideas about how to fix things... an “Agenda for Change” championed by his Common Good non-profit group. And that's a welcome addition, as it gives us all a way to become part of the solution.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book about taking back law in the US. This book gives so many ridiculous rules that we have to live by, which ultimately restrict our freedoms. His examples focus on educators, health care, and the judicial system. We can't act on our instincts because of fear of a lawsuit. Teachers have no power in the classroom because of lawsuits. Crazy.

[Mbrief · Rating 4 out of 5]

THis book made me ache for the common sense of years gone by. Indeed, it seems judges only look out for the interest of one individual, instead of the common good. However, it does make me realize how very difficult it will be to change our judicial course.

[Tomomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A somewhat ironic choice for me - but extremely glad I picked it up. The most thoughtful, inspired, intelligent book I've read in a long time. I've even found myself quoting portions of it throughout the day to friends. And a quick read at that. Highly recommended.

[Bick · Rating 5 out of 5]

please read this book. i love this book and the point that drives it. for it to succeed, americans need to take charge of risk and create a grassroots movement to remove the excessive litigation from destroying our society.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting perspective on how our attitudes of trying to control the details of our lives has an inverse result.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like a long essay, with lots of tangents. Gives the need for responsibility and authority in the USA a voice.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Howard's lates opus is both maddening and inspiring. This time, he spells out the steps needed to fix our country. Will anyone actually do it? Sigh.

[Kevin O'connor]

There are some good observations on how failed the legal system is. SOME Ideas on how to solve them.

[Jim O'shaughnessy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip is a friend and is doing great work on discussing how we got into such an awful place with government regulations.