It just suddenly occurred to me as I was thinking about the stuff I’ve been posting recently (about Ferguson, the Texas “affluenza” defense, the Henry Davis case, and the Habersham County, Georgia event) that Self Preservation was involved here. Especially so in the Georgia case. The reason we have to do things to encourage “Whistle Blowers” is the existence of a natural instinct for Self Preservation. No one is perfect and lots of so-called humans are down-right evil. But we are all members of a multitude of groups and when a mistake, misjudgement, just plain stupid decision by a member of a group we are part of occurs the self preservation instinct gets applied to the group. Isn’t our “preservation” inextricably tied to the groups “preservation”? Think about it. Doctors, police, armies, and yes even lawyers, “stick together”. All have to deal with this.
So who writes insurance policies? Who writes laws? Who writes constitutions? Who writes policies and procedures (for every “group”)? LAWYERS. And what is more amenable to self preservation than promoting, insuring, the indispensability of one’s group?
So Naturally in the Habersham County case, the State Constitution, the State Laws, the State agency rules and regulations, the insurance policies of the insurance companies, everything involved in the counties decision were all created with careful consideration of its potential impact on the legal profession.
Would you expect lawyers to write an insurance policy that allows the insured to do or say anything that could later be interpreted as an admission of liability? Of Course not. The preservation of the group is not promoted by such an action. The preservation of the group is best served by ensuring that lawyers must be used. Thus the legal advice to the county was don’t pay the medical bills for this kid. Let the family sue (promotes the self preservation of lawyers.) Let there be long drawn out negotiations between the family’s lawyers and the insurance company’s lawyers (promotes the self preservation of lawyers.)
Since self preservation is a natural instinct, right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice, (which are not natural instincts) don’t stand a chance.